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Daily Reflection 3.15.21
Mar. 15th, 2021 09:29 am For Monday, let's begin a new chapter of The Art of War. Chapter 7: Maneuvering opens with the following verses:
Thinking about this with regard to the soul, we come upon the familiar idea that our wills must be unified. If we struggle within ourselves and against ourselves, we will achieve nothing.
That seems obvious, and yet it's much harder than it sounds.
Have you ever noticed that people have one area of their lives which is totally incongruous with the rest? Very often it's either their political views, or their religious beliefs, or their sexuality, and it's somehow 180 degrees off the rest of their personality. So you get very selfish people who fervently believe that the government ought to confiscate their wealth and redistribute it to the poor, or technology addicts who spend all days indoors but think of themselves as pagans or druids, or very aggressive and dominant people who can only get off by paying someone to tie them up and beat them with a riding crop.
There are also cases where the person seems more or less integrated, but their children are their exact opposites. These are the Pastor's Kids who live like hellions, the effeminate gay sons of hard-nosed police officers, the Wall Street day traders whose parents are hippies.
In each case, what's happening is that the Shadow-- that is, all the repressed parts of the personality-- is coming out either in the person's political or religious beliefs, or their sexuality, or in their children.
Now, we all have a Shadow, and this can't be escaped. It's not a bad thing that a selfish person becomes a socialist, a narcissist becomes a Buddhist, or a CEO pays a dominatrix. It is a bad thing when this is done when this is done unconsciously. In this case, the Shadow can come out in ways that cause serious harm to the personality, ending in self-destruction. Or it can be projected unconsciously-- or telephatically-- onto the children, leading to serious conflict in the family, and to children who have to deal with, not just their own, but their parents' Shadows. In these cases, the various elements of the internal army-- the Psyche-- have not been harmonized.
How do we integrate our Shadows?
Now, that's the work of a lifetime. And it's another way of saying "the conquest of our own faculties and future."
Sun Tzu said: In war, the general receives his commands from the sovereign.
Having collected an army and concentrated his forces, he must blend and harmonize the different elements thereof before pitching his camp.
Having collected an army and concentrated his forces, he must blend and harmonize the different elements thereof before pitching his camp.
Thinking about this with regard to the soul, we come upon the familiar idea that our wills must be unified. If we struggle within ourselves and against ourselves, we will achieve nothing.
That seems obvious, and yet it's much harder than it sounds.
Have you ever noticed that people have one area of their lives which is totally incongruous with the rest? Very often it's either their political views, or their religious beliefs, or their sexuality, and it's somehow 180 degrees off the rest of their personality. So you get very selfish people who fervently believe that the government ought to confiscate their wealth and redistribute it to the poor, or technology addicts who spend all days indoors but think of themselves as pagans or druids, or very aggressive and dominant people who can only get off by paying someone to tie them up and beat them with a riding crop.
There are also cases where the person seems more or less integrated, but their children are their exact opposites. These are the Pastor's Kids who live like hellions, the effeminate gay sons of hard-nosed police officers, the Wall Street day traders whose parents are hippies.
In each case, what's happening is that the Shadow-- that is, all the repressed parts of the personality-- is coming out either in the person's political or religious beliefs, or their sexuality, or in their children.
Now, we all have a Shadow, and this can't be escaped. It's not a bad thing that a selfish person becomes a socialist, a narcissist becomes a Buddhist, or a CEO pays a dominatrix. It is a bad thing when this is done when this is done unconsciously. In this case, the Shadow can come out in ways that cause serious harm to the personality, ending in self-destruction. Or it can be projected unconsciously-- or telephatically-- onto the children, leading to serious conflict in the family, and to children who have to deal with, not just their own, but their parents' Shadows. In these cases, the various elements of the internal army-- the Psyche-- have not been harmonized.
How do we integrate our Shadows?
Now, that's the work of a lifetime. And it's another way of saying "the conquest of our own faculties and future."
