What Is Your Personal Code Of Honor

One of my missions for this blog and my work is to help people embody the “warrior” spirit more in their life.

Among other things, this means being assertive instead of aggressive, being compassionate instead of callous, taking inspired action for a purpose, instead of self-centered desire.

Basically living like a warrior means living by a Code of Honor.

One of the best known Code of Honor is Bushido:

The Bushido code is typified by seven virtues:

Seven Virtues of Bushido

• Rectitude: Rightness of principle or practice; exact conformity to truth, or to the rules prescribed for moral conduct, either by divine or human laws; uprightness of mind; uprightness; integrity; honesty; justice.

• Courage: The ability to do things which one finds frightening.

• Benevolence: Disposition to do good – charitable kindness –  an altruistic gift or act

• Respect: an attitude of consideration or high regard

• Honesty: The act, quality, or condition of being honest; to be truthful

• Honor: Dignity; reputation as a good person.

• Loyalty: unswerving in allegiance

Others that are sometimes added to these:

• Filial piety: a love and respect for one’s parents and ancestors

• Wisdom: having gained knowledge, understanding, experience, discretion, and intuitive understanding, along with a capacity to apply these qualities well.

• Care for the aged

(Translations from: Random House’s Japanese-English, English-Japanese Dictionary)

In many adventure stories or myths such as the Greek myths or the stories of the medieval knights, before one started out on a quest or journey, they were required to answer two essential questions.

These two questions were:

• What do you seek?

• What is your Code of Honor?

These questions still apply today for anyone who set’s out on a personal journey of self-discover.  When one embarks on a journey of self-discovery ultimately this about discovering one’s Soul and exploring one’s own unlimited purpose.

Consciously creating your life with a purpose requires these questions to be answered. If they are not addressed consciously and then followed…society and world will direct you and program you subconscious to live a life IT wants you to live.

A personal Code of Honor gives your life direction.  It helps guide in your “Warriors Quest.”  When you return from this journey this code can be modified to help you express your true self as you walk through life with your new-found purpose.

Whether you realize it or not, you are on a journey into the unknown. As you go through life exploring your path and manifesting your intentions direction is needed.  You purposely creating your life is the journey into the great mystery.

On this journey, you will encounter a variety of people, ways of being and situations to which you are asked to respond. When you respond you will need to know how and why you respond, this is where your Code of Honor comes in.  Your Code of Honor is what you hold sacred.

You will need to know what the intentions behind your desires are. The question you must answer is, “What are the principles to which I adhere to in my response to life?”

This is what your Code of Honor is for. It addresses your ethical or moral principles or particular philosophies that you use when you encounter both old and new situations in your life’s adventure.

These principles are what ensure your integrity of your personal truth in any situation. It is your personal Code of Honor that will prevent you from becoming a victim or a villain.

What Do You Seek?

What do you seek is often not an obvious question to answer. In the typical ‘hero’s journey’ there is simply a ‘calling.’  What this calling is not apparent at the beginning of the journey, but is usually discovered by the end.  This is where The Warriors Quest comes in.  It can help you determine ‘what you seek.’

It critical to have clarity as to what you seek, and understand the intention behind your seeking.

What you seek and the intention behind that search will greatly determine what you discover along the way. Without clarity, you may not recognize personal success when have achieved it.

To say “I seek to be happy no matter what” with the underlying intention to avoid pain will result in a much different journey than “I seek to find and understand what makes me happy” with the underlying intention I will face whatever pain is necessary to find that answer and then create that world that would make me happy.

Before you set out on any personal journey you may want to review and check your intention.

What is Your Code of Honor?

Your personal Code of Honor is the set of principles to which you will adhere to during your journey (through life). Whether or not the Code of Honor includes your social ethical or moral principles become very important.

You personal Code of Honor is what you will not violate. It is what ensures the integrity of your journey, not the journey of society or someone else, but your journey.

You will need to become very clear what is your Code of Honor is.  This is something you create. It is not given to you, or imposed on you, by another no matter who that other may be, or how important they have been, in your life.

We all have been raised with a particular set of ethical and moral principles. Many of us have been taught a set of principles by the culture, society or religion we were raised in. On the other hand, we also have a set of personal values and ethics which we carry with us that may or may not be reflective of the general culture we were exposed to.

We may have been taught a certain set of principles and moral codes that is reflective of the general culture in which we live, but we also have a deeper inner code that fits our preferred way of being and existing in the world.

There are several questions to answer:

• “What IS your individual code of honor?”

• “How effectively are you able to live it in the world in which you live?”

• “How willing are you to live your Code of Honor even if it goes against the society in which you live?”

Whether or not these social ethics and morals violate our personal Code of Honor is another question. Sometimes our personal Code of Honor goes well beyond that of our society; we may actually find the social morals actually violate our Code of Honor.

Your Code of Honor is those principles, beliefs and values you hold sacred that you will NEVER violate. These are not principles that you have been taught or given to you by some tradition, spiritual or otherwise.

Rather, they are the principles that you yourself must follow or you feel you have violated the deepest parts of your being…your Soul.

You need to understand that your Code of Honor will set up boundaries and conditions that will limit the potential of options available to you. I strongly recommended you look to a Code of Honor keeping this in mind.  Remember; by creating a code to live by you automatically create boundaries that keep many people, places and opportunities out of your life.   Creating a personal Code of Honor requires mental strength to know what you want, but also what you don’t.

However, in seeking an experience of the unique expression of your creative life energy, consciously creating a personal Code of Honor will allow you to live a life of power, purpose and passion with perseverance.

Two Points To Consider

Point 1: I recommend that one principle that you included within your Code of Honor is that you do not violate the truth of your being. That is, you live your truth. The reason for this recommendation is quite simple.

You are a unique expression of the creative life energy of the Universe; you must embody that energy without denying it in any way! If you deny it or shut it down because it seems to be taking you away from external social or ethical principle, you will be denying your own being.

Somewhere, sometime, someplace you will need to give yourself permission to follow that unique creative life energy if you wish to truly know who you are. When you do this and fully understand that in doing so, you are also taking full responsibility for what you create and where that energy takes you, you have empowered yourself.

For you to say, “I am not responsible because I was following my unique creative life energy.” is a denial of your truth and in turn is a denial of the energy itself. You are responsible in every way for your life, especially to surrendering and follow the flow of your creative energy.

Point 2: A second principle I recommend you include in your Code of Honor is that you will hold your creativity and the expression of your creative life force sacred and that you will not give your power and ability to any person, place or thing; animate or inanimate, seen or unseen.

To hold your creativity sacred and not give your creative power away may require you to visit any vows, oaths or loyalties that have been instilled in you implicitly or explicitly by another person(s) or organizations.

I strongly recommend that you give yourself ample time to consider your personal Code of Honor and write out it.  Keep in mind that in the beginning this will be dynamic and many changes will take place.

Then the changes will be less and less until finally you have expressed and created your personal Code of Honor. Your Code of Honor will now direct and follow you for the rest of your life.

It will give you support and guidance during though times and solace when things are going well.  Your Code of Honor becomes essential when you face the suffering and pain of the past and any new situations and journey’s in life. It will inspire you and comfort you as you move forward. It will give you direction and provide a mirror in which to gaze.

Sample Code of Honor

• I will love unconditionally. This means everyone gets to be who they are whether I “like” their traits, characteristics, style, personality, or beliefs. It does not mean I will allow them to inflict their way of being on me unless I choose to. It does not mean I have to support those traits, qualities, characteristics or beliefs. I can let them be who they are but not necessarily condone or support those things I cannot.

• I will choose with whom to be close. I will share only the amount of energy I care to with others.

• I will respect others’ energy. I will not siphon energy off of anyone. If I should fail, I will ask forgiveness as soon as I am aware of it.

• I will share my experience, learning, dreams, and visions with others as appropriate. I will not insist someone agree with me nor insist that they change to suit me. They can choose to change or they can move out of my sphere. I will not hold them.

• I will respect other’s beliefs. I will not impose my beliefs on others but I will share them if I choose to. I will not have someone break their Code of Honor to meet my needs, desires, notions, or beliefs.

• I will choose joy. When I cannot feel joy, I will nonetheless affirm it. I will grieve losses as appropriate. I will experience pain and let it move through. I will not deny what I feel, even if it is sadness, anger, guilt or other so-called negative emotion and in that there is joy.

• I will live fully. That looks like me making my decisions, making choices, responding to invitations to, or not to , because I choose to, not because I “should.”

• I will share the energy of time, money, resources as is at my disposal.

• I will obey the laws of the land.

• I will live in harmony and balance with nature.

• I will seek the divine in all things.

As you consider your life and the journey you are on, your personal Code of Honor will be the one thing you can depend on.

If it is created from your heart and soul and is yours and yours alone you will find that your personal Code of Honor is like an old friend that is always there for you, never making any judgments, just providing unconditional love.

In reading the above something has stirred in you and you’d like to explore this further I encourage you join me at The Warriors Quest.  Go HERE and download the brochure, about it…read it, contemplate on it and then contact me so that we can work together in creating your Code of Honor for your personal “Hero’s Journey.”