Welcome to War Yoga Peace

A Conversation with Barry

I heard you resigned from the VA earlier this year. What have you been doing with yourself?

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about my three favorite topics:  war, yoga, and peace. I am trying to capture the essence of what I mean when I say “War Yoga Peace” so that I can express it at my new website. 

As a nation, we ask a lot of our service members: we ask them to be able and willing to kill and to remain compassionate at the same time. Boot camp prepares them to survive battle. While necessary, this process has long-lasting effects which linger beyond battles. These after-effects can hinder the service member’s experience of peace when they reintegrate temporarily or permanently back into the once-familiar-comforts of home. As citizens of the nation who asked them to hone lethal intent, we have a responsibility to help them cleanse the residue of the mental conditioning that helped them survive. We need to essentially provide a boot-camp-in-reverse when they leave service.

Why yoga?

Yoga provides a science and a method for revealing and cleansing the way we think and see ourselves first and the world consequently. Over the course of our lifelong yogic practices, we naturally evolve from raw bodily survival to eventual mind-body harmony. Yoga allows for each person’s unfolding in a way that accords for each person’s place and role in life, and at a pace that is right for each person. Yoga complements the individual’s philosophies, beliefs, and religions, without dictating change or idolatry. 

Yoga essentially meets each person where they are in the present moment and gently accompanies them along a path toward optimal function and full integration of one’s mind, body, and spirit, all the while affirming that the answers and peace we seek are within us. We already know, and we are already resourced with all we need to live happily and with meaning. Yoga helps gently turn our attention inward so that we recognize that the kingdom is within us. 

What about the Hero’s Journey? The servant’s journey…

Joseph Campbell studied the narratives told within the many cultures of our world and found patterns that cross cultures, which he called mythical. People are wired to seek comfort, adventure, and meaning. We build nests of comfort, while at the same time we yearn to explore new places and venture into unfamiliar situations. All the while we are driven by an inner need to make meaning and purpose of our experiences. 

When we see ourselves as journeyers, we can eventually respond to the calls to depart from the comforts of home, to expand our perspectives, and to grow beyond our familiar limits. We may then return home one day with lessons and stories that we never could have dreamt of before our journeys. Thereby, we can see ourselves with greater awareness and accuracy, and we can see others with greater senses of both diversity and commonality. Campbell calls the journeyer the hero and this journey the Hero’s Journey. 

Campbell’s model gives us a chance to reexamine our relationship with the idea of the ‘hero’. In military-veteran communities, the word is always present, whether spoken or not, whether welcomed or avoided. The Hero’s Journey construct normalizes heroism in a way that strips the selfish ego from the word and empowers each of us to see the banality of heroism in near, everyday acts. 

The construct also overlays nicely onto the odysseys of service members. They leave their familiar homes, going first to basic training. And then, they serve operationally, near and far, learning about themselves and the world. Those who return home may find it less familiar than before, with a recognition that they themselves have changed and are not automatically familiar to their friends and family. Particularly potent is Campbell’s guidance about the phase of reintegration and the value of making meaning of what happened when they were away.

Is there a relationship between Yoga and the Hero’s Journey?

There might be a relationship. It all depends upon what the person is looking for. 

Both Yoga and Campbell’s construct have multiple potential meanings and purposes; each person gets to draw from them what is most appropriate to equip them on the current leg of their journeys. Essentially, both constructs reinforce the innate goodness in all people and the principle that we are each currently standing in the exactly right place for us. Joseph Campbell was a scholar of yoga philosophy, which is clear when you read his epic, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. So, yes, the Hero’s Journey is very yoga-like. 

Many would regard the story of Arjuna and Krishna, as told in the yogic classic, Bhagavad-Gita, to be an episode of Arjuna’s heroic journey. In this context, the soldier Arjuna is the universal hero, who enters the dark wastelands with his trusted chariot driver. Surprisingly, on the eve of battle, the brave and decorated general, Arjuna, falls into despondency. Arjuna later emerges as a clear vessel to resolutely serve his people by performing his duty on the battlefield. When considered from this point of view, the relevance to soldering of both yoga philosophy and the hero’s journey is supremely evident. 

Perhaps at the deepest level, the journeys of both the yogis and the heroes start at a place of comfort and familiarity. Then, heroes and yogis voluntarily endure discomfort and face limitations they have voluntarily encumbered themselves with. Eventually, our hero-yogis realize their innate commonality with all humankind and the limitless potential that all human beings are by birth blessed to have within us. These realizations shed the fears, angers, hatreds and other mental disturbances that previously blocked us from genuine connections with others and genuine love for ourselves. We become our own best friends and thereby bolster our capacities for goodwill, friendship, and amity to all people we see and think about.

Is War Yoga Peace all about only VR and Yoga? 

Not only. Additionally, there is a group of activities located close to the no-tech and high-tech poles. Clustered with yoga at the no-tech pole include meditation and mindfulness practices. Clustered with VR at the high-tech pole are simulation, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and serious games. Each of these technologies are used selectively only when and where they enhance and complement. At WYP, we are vigilant to not create new dependencies on technology. All our no-tech and high-tech modalities are applied with the bedrock principle that any external resource is valuable only to the extent that it cultivates and nurtures the inner resources which are always accessible to each person, when we turn within. 

Moreover, there is a web of activities between the no-tech and high-tech poles. In our WYP curriculum, we read books, listen to podcasts, watch movies, and videos. We facilitate in-person and virtual conversations, where we ask ourselves questions, learn from each other, and share our impressions as we travel our paths. We also support writing and publishing as methods for reflection and articulation of the ideas which are otherwise unexpressed in our minds. Beyond the writing desks and classrooms, we also get out into the community, to seek ways to practice and serve others, growing into servant leaders and noble followers. 

All activities are planned and aligned with awareness of each other, to contribute to a holistic, integrated curriculum which empowers participants to make informed decisions about which elements of their current mindset to retain and which to shed.

What is the relationship between war and peace?

War is part of human nature. So is peace. We tend to look upon one as evil and the other as holy. War and peace are not places but mindsets. Each mindset has a predictable trajectory toward a known destination. When seen in this practical way, there is less emotion and judgement about which is more virtuous.

Peace seems like such a loaded word. What do you think?

First off, I get hesitant to talk about this, because I know I am no expert. I’m learning as I go. The only thing I can offer is that I’ve invested a lot of thought about peace – it has been uppermost in my heart and mind – since 2001. Though I may not be able to consistently walk the talk, I have intensely studied what the walk looks like. And when my heart is quiet, I know the truth that it is a lifelong practice, which we may never actually be able to walk. We can ‘trend’ in that direction and maybe that is as good as it gets?

What does peace even mean? 

In the context of war, peace is typically meant to be the opposite of war or the absence of war. But it’s not that simple or clear. In the WYP context it really means inner peace and contentedness. We tend to settle for mediocre levels of peace; for example, when a hot, shooting war may not be happening, we are truly not at peace, because  we still are on-guard, vigilant.

For some, peace is associated with a connection with a spiritual source. In my personal life, it is a synonym for spiritualism. Truly, I think it means whatever the individual wants it to mean. Are you at peace? If you are, then keep doing whatever you are doing! 

From a military point of view, I think about peace as the noble ideal that motivated the soldier to go to war in the first place. Achieving peace is the reason we go to war; and it is also the reason we do yoga. Peace means safety and happiness. It is the state we all strive to experience more of the time. It is the state we wish and hope for our children.

Is there a reason why is peace the third member of WYP?

Yes. When we consider the chronology of WYP, W > Y > P (from war through yoga toward peace), we see that both war and yoga lead to the ultimate destination of peace. Our society teaches us that the source of our happiness/security/peace is external, which leads to the war-mindset or the Martial-Mindset. Through yoga we teach ourselves that the source of peace is within us. Eventually, we trust that we can ultimately dwell in happiness/security/peace when we turn our attention within. This does not mean we have to retreat to a cave as celibate-renunciate-monks. It means that we stop thrashing about and disturbing our social environments. When we settle into our inner knowing, this calm settling magnetizes the right situations and resources in our lives. We wind up with the resources we need to walk the path we are meant to walk.

The essence of what yoga offers is that the source of peace is within us, not external to us. This is the main distinction between the poles of War and Peace. War is all about controlling externalities. The kind of peace WYP promotes is wholly independent of externalities. 

I think it’s hard to talk about the P without talking about the W. Essentially, P and W are not about whether we are on a battlefield. We are at war anytime we seek peace or happiness outside of ourselves. We are at peace whenever we turn within and attune to the indwelling whisper of peace’s possibility, which is always there. Of course, this mindset eliminates the need to compete or fight for external resources and affirms that we can all experience peace fully without interfering with another’s search for peace.

Why an institute for WYP?

WYP is the concept that describes the path from war through yoga to peace. The Institute for WYP is a venue and community devoted to revealing this path and empowering people to walk it. The WYP way of thinking about and seeing the world is new for many of us and change typically takes time. Building an infrastructure and community can provide valuable support as we collectively, gradually, and individually find our way. The Institute for War Yoga Peace provides this infrastructure and community. 

Also, I think my years in the army lead me to reflexively think about WYP as an institute based at a university. My experience at the U.S. Military Academy ingrained the idea of a geographic place devoted to a mission. The mission of the U.S. Military Academy is to educate, train, and inspire the Corps of Cadets. All cadets live on-campus all four years. All cadets are required to exercise at least five days a week. Every element of the holistic USMA curriculum deliberately supports the mission. The curriculum is not only academic, but includes military training, character building, and leadership development. 

Having parented two young ladies through their own civilian, four-year college curricula, I realize that the USMA experience is unique. While innate for me, most of my friends had a very different experience of college. I cannot imagine the USMA experience as a commuter-college or online education. There is no way to assess the value of physical presence, curricular integration, and mission-alignment. 

Is WYP only for soldiers and military service members?

No. WYP is for anybody and everybody who wants to be here. I almost replaced the word ‘war’ from the title, because it can definitely mis-lead people. The truth is that we are all fighting wars all the time. As the yogis say, the real war to be concerned about is the one that is in the mind. Indeed, we plant the seeds of war in our minds every minute, when we judge others’ or hold grievances against them or their deeds. This may not look like war, but it truly is. The micro-picture of war is in our minds and hearts; the macro-picture of war is when our minds and hearts unite with others to fuel our endeavor to act upon our mutually held grievances. The surest way to end war out there is to cease planting seeds of war in here, within our own hearts and minds.

I have to be careful here, because my heart and mind naturally gravitate to the American soldier, because I was an American soldier. I know first-hand how I fully internalized every drop of the martial mindset, without any hesitation. Looking back from a long distance, I can now see how vital the twin mental habits of attachment and aversion were to that mental conditioning and how deeply I voluntarily ingrained them into my being. I am grateful to the military for giving us that conditioning, because it helps us survive combat. 

Not all Americans have the curse and the blessing of this methodical mental conditioning. Hence, American service members are unique in that they are deliberately trained to cultivate and nurture attachments and aversions. I can quickly see the potential for peace and happiness when our service members are taught how to ease these habits of yogic ignorance. 

However, I know that these mental habits are learned universally. You don’t have to be an American or a soldier. You don’t have to have been deployed or have seen combat. There are plenty of people around the world who have been bystanders or collaterally impacted by battles. There are family members who have been impacted. There are victims and perpetrators and bystanders who have been inflicted by every form of physical and emotional violence that has been conjured. All are welcome, because we all have fought our own battles, and because we all equally deserve forgiveness and peace, no matter how good or bad society or our own minds have painted us to be.

Where is the Institute for War Yoga Peace located and how many employees do you have?

Ha! Currently, I am the only employee, and currently the institute lives only in my mind. I have a couple manuscripts in the works, and I plan to get the word out by also publishing short essays and podcasts on Substack. As much as I would like to build a brick-and-mortar institute, I see an online community as the next step. The pandemic taught us that we can accomplish a lot and support one another quite robustly through discussion boards, virtual meetings, social media, podcasts, and email. 

Maybe one day, the Institute for War Yoga Peace will exist on a windswept hill, in the high deserts of Northern Nevada. Maybe multiple institutes will exist at college campuses across the globe.

My ultimate dream is for the Institute for War Yoga Peace to plant its flag under the Stars and Stripes at the United States Military Academy. Many say that will never happen, because the USMA and IWYP ethos seem to be so contradictory. I am still hopeful, for I see only commonality. Both IWYP and USMA seek to defend our nation through strength and promote peace around the globe through justice and truth. First and foremost, the missions of both academy and institute require honor, courage, and character. Everything that cadets learn at IWYP will make them better combat leaders, with less moral injury and resentment to be healed after their years of service.

Are you hiring?

One day we will be hiring! 

For now, I would love to connect with you. I would love to hear what you think about WYP, good, bad, and ugly? Best way to reach me today is via email through WarYogaPeace.com. I also teach and practice yoga in my hometown of Reno, NV if you’re ever in the neighborhood.