The Name

Warrior One was named after the legend of the Shambhala Warriors. According to ancient Tibetan teachings, there will come a time of chaos in the world, when powerful forces will rise in the West and East. Each power will expend great wealth to annihilate the other, yet these powers will have much in common: weapons and technologies of destruction, but also their humanity. At this moment in time, when earth’s future hangs in the balance, the Kingdom of Shambhala will emerge.

The Battle

The Kingdom of Shambhala is not a place, but exists only in the minds of the Shambhala Warriors. Nor can anyone recognize a Shambhala Warrior when they see one, for these Warriors wear no uniforms or insignia.

Great courage, both moral and physical, is required of the Shambhala Warriors, for they must go into the very heart of the great powers, into their board rooms, ivory towers, and congresses where their weapons and technologies are devised and kept. They must point to our common humanity, and persuade the great powers to lay down their arms.

The Shambhala Warriors have the courage to do this because they know that the weapons of these powerful factions only appear to be made of metals and explosives. In fact, the weapons arise from the choices, lifestyles, work-styles, and relationships the leaders – and their people – have chosen. In other words, they are made by the human mind. And as such, they can only be dismantled by the human mind.

The Most Powerful Weapons: Wisdom and Compassion

According to legend, and to champion the earth and human and all living beings, the Shambhala Warriors will do battle with the forces of West and East. However, they will do that using only two weapons: wisdom and compassion. These weapons are obviously not conventional. And yet, they are more powerful than any others.

Why?

Compassion enables us to understand our common humanity, to help others see that as well, and to accept that our own wellbeing and the wellbeing of others is connected. It illuminates the necessity of alleviating suffering whenever possible, and commits to causing no harm.

But compassion alone is too soft. By itself, compassion is not powerful enough to create change.

Compassion must be combined with wisdom. Wisdom provides clarity. It enables us to remain open-minded, thoughtful and discerning – to see things as they are, and, in so doing, to realize that the battle is not between West and East, or even between good and evil. The clarity of wisdom reveals that each person is waging their own campaign, each day, between the good and evil that runs through the landscape of their own heart. Plato is said to have written, “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” Wisdom provides the clarity to see that this is true.

Lawyers as Warriors

We believe lawyers are the Shambhala Warriors, or can be…or should be. Our job is to fight our clients’ battles and handle their matters with compassion and wisdom, and to teach our students how to do that, thus helping everyone to learn how to navigate the line between good and evil in their own heart. We know that when we do that, our relationships with adversaries, clients, colleagues, students, and with ourselves, are different, better, transformed.

Our influence is broad and deep. We can no longer afford to adopt anything but the wisest, most compassionate perspective. The great judge and scholar Hillel the Elder was once asked to explain the ancient laws of the Hebrews while standing on one foot. He said, “That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole law; the rest is the explanation. Go and learn.”

And he also said, “If not now, when?”