Daily reflection 2.10.21

Let's look at Sun Tzu's Fourth Chapter. The following text can be a bit hard to take, but it's important:

Sun Tzu said: The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy.

To secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.

Thus the good fighter is able to secure himself against defeat, but cannot make certain of defeating the enemy.

Hence the saying: One may know how to conquer without being able to do it. 
 

In order to understand this passage in terms of our ongoing discussion, we're going to need to modify our terms a bit. 

Our goals can be divided into two types: those which are confined to our own soul, and those which impact upon the souls of others. Now, for the sake of this discussion, the soul can be divided into two parts, for which we can use the Greek and Latin words which are translated as "soul" in English. The anima is the will, or the sum total of all our actions; the psyche is the mind, which is the sum total of all our representations. 

Within the context of our own soul, our will can be unified, and, indeed, the unification of the whole soul under the divinized will is the goal of the spiritual life. To do this is to place ourselves beyond the possibility of defeat. 

When we begin to act beyond the confines of our own soul and upon the larger world, in which many souls push back against our own, victory is not always possible. We can teach ourselves to become disciplined, follow a schedule, and learn the details of a trade; this is a victory within ourselves. But it doesn't guarantee that we will get this or that specific job; that lies in the hands of others. We can get ourselves in good shape, learn to dress sharp, become charming and charismatic, and this is also a victory within ourselves, but it doesn't guarantee that this or that woman or man will fall in love with us. 

And we can devote our lives to God, spend time in meditation, prayer and charitable works, and obtain the complete mastery of our passions. This is the total victory within-- but it doesn't guarantee that any other human being or any other physical space besides our own will be liberated from the power of the Devil. 

Of course, this calls to mind the constant refrain of the Stoic philosophers: We must come to understand what is under our control, and what is not. 

But it also raises a question. Within each of us is a multitude of sometimes conflicting, sometimes harmonious goals, ideas, thoughts, emotions, passions and memories. So many of these components of our psyche seem to war with one another-- and yet, we know that they can indeed be brought into harmony. We also know that the unity of our bodies is just an illusion-- from a microscopic perspective, we are universes, inhabited by countless billions of living creatures. Our bodies are not unities, and neither are our minds. To what extent, then, are we, in fact, composite beings? To what extent is every living being a composite? And if we are composites, aren't we also cells in larger composites? Families, clans, tribes, towns and cities, nations, ethnic or cultural or religious groups, even high schools and colleges, sports fandoms and music fandoms and countless other collectives that we participate in all seem to have their own wills, just as we do. Those wills will impact us and move us, entirely unconsciously unless we do the work of bringing them to light. And then we have a choice-- for any given collective will, do we go along passively, participate voluntarily, or work to release ourselves, partially or entirely? 

Are there beings within our own psyche that are asking themselves the same question?