If you are a warrior, decency means that you are not cheating anybody at all. You are not even about to cheat anybody. There is a sense of straightforwardness and simplicity . . . Decency is the absence of strategy. It is of utmost importance to realize that the warrior’s approach should be simple-minded sometimes, very simple and straightforward. That makes it very beautiful: you having nothing up your sleeve; therefore a sense of genuineness comes through. That is decency.

Chögyam Trungpa (1939–1987) was a Tibetan Buddhist scholar, author, and meditation master teacher and is recognized as a leading influence in the spread of Buddhist teachings in the West. He established Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, the first Buddhist university in North America, as well as Shambhala International, an organization of more than two hundred meditation centers worldwide. He authored many bestselling books on meditation and spiritual practice, including Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior and Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism.

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