The Guardian Warrior Foundation, Inc. (“GWF”) is actively involved in redefining the archetypical “volunteer” and the existing paradigm of “charity work”. In America – a country founded on principals of competition and individual rights – the status of the “volunteer” has been emasculated and “charity work” relegated to an activity that is undertaken once the “real work” of making one’s individual fortune has been accomplished. Even the words themselves, “volunteer” and “charity” – invoke a sense of low-priority and weakness. Accordingly, charitable donations and service work are many times viewed as mere niceties or sacrifices and subordinated to “left over” money or time (both of which most people never have). This is a greed-based illusion that robs one of the life-enhancing experiences that are a direct result of helping others.
By re-introducing the age old “Warriorship” concepts of power, strength, courage, discipline and honor, coupled with the responsibility to others inherent in “Guardianship”, the GWF “Guardian Warrior” understands that the most certain path to bringing abundance, purpose and happiness into his or her own life “now” is by helping others. This is an age-old and time-honored law of community that predictably got misplaced in a culture where individual pursuit of wealth, comfort and narcissistic pleasures has become the national religion.
Consequently, the GWF is working to change the way American culture views charity work. We are re-aligning the notion of “service work” to conform to America’s free market capitalism – “What’s in it for me?” Rancho Feliz advocates that it is every person’s “individual” birth-right to enjoy the abundance that results directly from helping others. We call it “enlightened self-interest” and at the GWF we stand on the principal that the most selfish activity an individual can undertake is to help others. Our basic precept is the four-fold logic of:
1) We all want to be Happy.
2) Indulging ourselves ultimately doesn’t make us Happy.
3) Helping others ultimately makes us Happy.
4) It is in our own best interest to help others.
Service work is actually a gateway or portal into a mystical dimension of abundance – for God, Spirit, or Divine Guidance, reveals itself to those with a higher purpose. The GWF seeks to help its participants understand the true nature of the service transaction – understand that it is not our taking, but rather our giving, that results in our receiving. Again, it is in our own best interest to help others. This is the change in consciousness that the GWF is devoted to.
Traditionally a Warrior is a person who – in defense of truth and justice, against seemingly impossible odds, raises his head high and charges straight into the fray. As modern day “Guardian Warriors” this is exactly what we do for the less-fortunate. For most of them, our strength and understanding is their only hope.