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Daily Advice 1.21.21
Jan. 21st, 2021 08:58 am Sun Tzu tells us about the best and worst ways to win a war:
Let's look at the last of Sun Tzu's forms of generalship, and then contrast it with the first.
First, the worst policy of all is to besiege walled cities.
Let's suppose that, for any given goal we might pursue, we have an enemy, whose only objective is to stop us from achieving that goal. All the obstacles that we might face, whether they consist of other people, time or circumstances, are all agents of that one enemy.
If that's the case, then walled cities are those places where the enemy is strongest.
If you're trying to become a writer, this probably looks like starting out by writing an 800-page fantasy novel and sending it off to one of the Big 3 publishers. Sure, there's a small chance you'll get somewhere with it, but-- well, you won't.
If you want to change peoples' minds about politics, this looks like walking into one of the Other Side's internet forums and starting an argument about how they're all wrong about everything.
Actually, if you want to change anyone's mind about something, starting off by telling them they're definitely both evil and stupid for believing as they do is the quickest way to get them to hide behind the mental equivalent of city walls.
With respect to the spiritual war, any place or time where the Enemy is strong can be thought of as a walled city. The internet in general and social media in particular should be thought of as Enemy fortresses. If you spend time on these things, avoid conflict. Even if you win, you will lose.
Now, the very best policy is to baulk the enemy's plans. On this subject our translator, Lionel Giles, appends the following note:
This recalls Sun Tzu's earlier injunction to swiftness. While, as he tells us in Chapter 1, the general who makes many calculations before battle will be victorious, nevertheless, "cleverness has never been associated with long delays" and "there is no instance of a country having benefited by protracted warfare.
All of this suggests the following.
When we begin to undertake any task, we should consider beforehand what the obstacles might be. Of course, that requires, as always, that we define our goals. If you are writing a novel, is your goal simply to tell the story you want to tell? Or is it to publish it and share it with readers? Or do you want to write a best-seller?
Whatever the case, your approach is going to be different, and your opponents will be different.
Most writers struggle with 1. finding time to write and 2. actually writing when they do have the time. You can plan for this beforehand in a few ways. One very good one is to learn how to train your will in general, so that it becomes easy to develop a habit when you need it. John Michael Greer had a series of posts on this a few months back, which I personally found very helpful. If you've developed the capacity for habitual action (call this training and discipline), then you can create a writing habit and make it stick before the enemies forces of Excuses, Distractions, Writer's Block, I Don't Have Time, Let's Make Another Pot of Coffee and so on ever have a chance to get moving against you. You can schedule and see where you can free up an hour every day.
The same lesson can be applied to the spiritual life and spiritual warfare.
If you spend time developing your relationship with the divine, practicing virtue and charity, cultivating your will, and building relationships with others who can help you when you are struggling, you will be in a much better position to withstand the assaults of the Enemy. But really, it's better than that-- The Enemy will flee from you. In China, they used to send Taoist adepts to go and set up hermitages in mountains that were known to be habitations of demons. The mere presence of the hermit calms the restless spirit. You may have encountered a person like this-- the kind that seems to carry an atmosphere of serenity with them. That's the sort of atmosphere we all want to cultivate.
There's another, more direct way to intercept the Enemy before he can make a move.
I once listened to a Tibetan Buddhist monk complain about people who came to him because they were under magical attack. He wasn't complaining that the people were wrong or that curses aren't real or any such thing. No, he was making the point that curses would not impact people if they didn't have bad karma. "Look at the Dalai Lama. Do you think people can do magic to the Dalai Lama? Of course not."
The repentance of sins and the forgiveness of enemies might sound like bland moral platitudes. This isn't true: They are actually powerful, practical acts of magic.
This is why recovery programs like AA emphasize making amends for past wrongs. What happens in that case is this: A number of people hate the addict or alcoholic, and often for good reason. Because we are never psychically separate-- and people who are prone to addiction are typically more psychically sensitive than most-- the addict feels the hatred of their enemies as a curse. Meanwhile, their own ongoing misdeeds create a kind of gap in the aura through which curses can enter and cause them harm. Making amends attacks this in two ways: First, it replaces the bad behavior which creates the gap in the aura. Second, it reduces or eliminates the thoughts of hurt, anger and resentment that regularly come the addict's way, and to which they habitually respond with drug or drunk. Finally, by building up new habits of charity and responsibility, the recovering addict intercepts new curses before they ever happen.
Sun Tzu's other two ways can be seen as intermeidate between baulking the enemy's plans and besieging walled cities-- and, of course, we're really talking about a spectrum, not four discrete possibilities. It's worth reflecting, in all our doings, on what looks like attacking a city, and what looks like taking open ground before the enemy can muster!
The highest form of generalship is to baulk the enemy's plans; the next best is to prevent the junction of the enemy's forces; the next in order is to attack the enemy's army in the field; and the worst policy of all is to besiege walled cities.
Let's look at the last of Sun Tzu's forms of generalship, and then contrast it with the first.
First, the worst policy of all is to besiege walled cities.
Let's suppose that, for any given goal we might pursue, we have an enemy, whose only objective is to stop us from achieving that goal. All the obstacles that we might face, whether they consist of other people, time or circumstances, are all agents of that one enemy.
If that's the case, then walled cities are those places where the enemy is strongest.
If you're trying to become a writer, this probably looks like starting out by writing an 800-page fantasy novel and sending it off to one of the Big 3 publishers. Sure, there's a small chance you'll get somewhere with it, but-- well, you won't.
If you want to change peoples' minds about politics, this looks like walking into one of the Other Side's internet forums and starting an argument about how they're all wrong about everything.
Actually, if you want to change anyone's mind about something, starting off by telling them they're definitely both evil and stupid for believing as they do is the quickest way to get them to hide behind the mental equivalent of city walls.
With respect to the spiritual war, any place or time where the Enemy is strong can be thought of as a walled city. The internet in general and social media in particular should be thought of as Enemy fortresses. If you spend time on these things, avoid conflict. Even if you win, you will lose.
Now, the very best policy is to baulk the enemy's plans. On this subject our translator, Lionel Giles, appends the following note:
Perhaps the word "baulk" falls short of expressing the full force of [Chinese character], which implies not an attitude of defense, whereby one might be content to foil the enemy's stratagems one after another, but an active policy of counter-attack. Ho Shih puts this very clearly in his note: "When the enemy has made a plan of attack against us, we must anticipate him by delivering our own attack first.
This recalls Sun Tzu's earlier injunction to swiftness. While, as he tells us in Chapter 1, the general who makes many calculations before battle will be victorious, nevertheless, "cleverness has never been associated with long delays" and "there is no instance of a country having benefited by protracted warfare.
All of this suggests the following.
When we begin to undertake any task, we should consider beforehand what the obstacles might be. Of course, that requires, as always, that we define our goals. If you are writing a novel, is your goal simply to tell the story you want to tell? Or is it to publish it and share it with readers? Or do you want to write a best-seller?
Whatever the case, your approach is going to be different, and your opponents will be different.
Most writers struggle with 1. finding time to write and 2. actually writing when they do have the time. You can plan for this beforehand in a few ways. One very good one is to learn how to train your will in general, so that it becomes easy to develop a habit when you need it. John Michael Greer had a series of posts on this a few months back, which I personally found very helpful. If you've developed the capacity for habitual action (call this training and discipline), then you can create a writing habit and make it stick before the enemies forces of Excuses, Distractions, Writer's Block, I Don't Have Time, Let's Make Another Pot of Coffee and so on ever have a chance to get moving against you. You can schedule and see where you can free up an hour every day.
The same lesson can be applied to the spiritual life and spiritual warfare.
If you spend time developing your relationship with the divine, practicing virtue and charity, cultivating your will, and building relationships with others who can help you when you are struggling, you will be in a much better position to withstand the assaults of the Enemy. But really, it's better than that-- The Enemy will flee from you. In China, they used to send Taoist adepts to go and set up hermitages in mountains that were known to be habitations of demons. The mere presence of the hermit calms the restless spirit. You may have encountered a person like this-- the kind that seems to carry an atmosphere of serenity with them. That's the sort of atmosphere we all want to cultivate.
There's another, more direct way to intercept the Enemy before he can make a move.
I once listened to a Tibetan Buddhist monk complain about people who came to him because they were under magical attack. He wasn't complaining that the people were wrong or that curses aren't real or any such thing. No, he was making the point that curses would not impact people if they didn't have bad karma. "Look at the Dalai Lama. Do you think people can do magic to the Dalai Lama? Of course not."
The repentance of sins and the forgiveness of enemies might sound like bland moral platitudes. This isn't true: They are actually powerful, practical acts of magic.
This is why recovery programs like AA emphasize making amends for past wrongs. What happens in that case is this: A number of people hate the addict or alcoholic, and often for good reason. Because we are never psychically separate-- and people who are prone to addiction are typically more psychically sensitive than most-- the addict feels the hatred of their enemies as a curse. Meanwhile, their own ongoing misdeeds create a kind of gap in the aura through which curses can enter and cause them harm. Making amends attacks this in two ways: First, it replaces the bad behavior which creates the gap in the aura. Second, it reduces or eliminates the thoughts of hurt, anger and resentment that regularly come the addict's way, and to which they habitually respond with drug or drunk. Finally, by building up new habits of charity and responsibility, the recovering addict intercepts new curses before they ever happen.
Sun Tzu's other two ways can be seen as intermeidate between baulking the enemy's plans and besieging walled cities-- and, of course, we're really talking about a spectrum, not four discrete possibilities. It's worth reflecting, in all our doings, on what looks like attacking a city, and what looks like taking open ground before the enemy can muster!
