Daily Reflection 2.24.21
Feb. 24th, 2021 07:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
readoldthings Sun Tzu tells us that:
This simple passage is straightforward enough if we're talking about warfare or combat. Sun Tzu is telling us to divide our army down into the smallest manageable units and to institute perfect discipline among them. Having done that, we can move in any way we want on the battlefield, including simulating disorder and retreat to entice the enemy into attack.
But how can we apply these ideas to our lives outside of a military context? How do they apply to the battle for our own souls?
I can think of two ways. Perhaps you can think of more.
First, there is the issue of deception with regard to what I've previously called the Enemy Without. The Enemy Without are all those people in our lives who stand between us and our goals. Very often, they are friends and family members who don't want us to change in ways that are good or healthy for us, because they're comfortable with us the way we are. Sometimes they're larger outside forces, or people acting on their behalf. That could be an online group trying to suck you into the sort of political argument that accomplishes nothing but the general raising of blood pressure, or a newly mandated political entrainment program at your work.
Now, deception in these cases need not mean outright lying, and in most cases shouldn't. In most cases, Silence is sufficient. Silence, like simulated disorder on the battlefield, requires perfect discipline. Most of us want to blab, and for a lot of us, our favorite thing to blab about is ourselves. If we're taking up meditation, trying a new workout regimen, writing a novel, learning an instrument, or applying for work, the first thing we want to do is to tell everyone in our lives about it. This is very often a mistake. As we've discussed here before, telling people about your projects is often a very good way to take all the energy out of them.
How do you learn to keep silent? One way is to remind yourself of your actual goal. Are you trying to get social status for working out, writing a novel, or getting a job? If so, by all means tell everyone about it. On the other hand, if your goal is just to do these things, the only way to do them is to do them.
The second point is something of an elaboration of the first. I've lately been reading the book Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia by Joseph Pistone. Pistone was an FBI agent who spent 6 years infiltrating the mob in the 1980s. Doing this required him to create a completely different identity, to maintain that identity at all times, and yet to also retain his actual identity as an FBI agent at all times. Writing about what it means to live a life like this, Pistone says:
I read this and immediately identified with it. While I've never gone undercover in the mafia, Pistone's words remind me very much of what it's like to try to live a spiritual life while also making a living in the modern world.
We're all undercover, all the time. We're constantly surrounded by people who may not be bad guys, but are, at minimum, unawakened. And, in this era of vastly heightened spiritual warfare, really can morph into bad guys-- that is, transmitters of demonic ideas and energies-- at any given time. Manly Hall called the life of the initiate "The Way of the Lonely Ones," and many of us discover that it is exactly that. Some of us are fortunate enough to have a romantic partner who is also on the Path; others have to make do with one or two friends, often long distance or internet-based, who are members of the same esoteric order or spiritual society.
Whatever the case may be, Pistone's words apply, and dovetail nicely with Sun Tzu's. We need to be able to build an ego-- that is, a self-concept and vessel for our soul-- that is strong enough to sustain us in every day life. We need to be the kind of people who can remain ourselves when subjected to an internet meme, a political rally, a Super Bowl, a diversity and inclusion seminar, a crowded store full of true Believing Covid fanatics, and very often to do so without giving away our lack of participation. To do this requires, as Sun Tzu tells us, perfect internal discipline.
How do we cultivate this discipline? That's something I want to talk more about, as we go along.
Amid the turmoil and tumult of battle, there may be seeming disorder and yet no real disorder at all; amid confusion and chaos, your array may be without head or tail, yet it will be proof against defeat.
Simulated disorder postulates perfect discipline; simulated fear postulates courage; simulated weakness postulates strength.
Simulated disorder postulates perfect discipline; simulated fear postulates courage; simulated weakness postulates strength.
This simple passage is straightforward enough if we're talking about warfare or combat. Sun Tzu is telling us to divide our army down into the smallest manageable units and to institute perfect discipline among them. Having done that, we can move in any way we want on the battlefield, including simulating disorder and retreat to entice the enemy into attack.
But how can we apply these ideas to our lives outside of a military context? How do they apply to the battle for our own souls?
I can think of two ways. Perhaps you can think of more.
First, there is the issue of deception with regard to what I've previously called the Enemy Without. The Enemy Without are all those people in our lives who stand between us and our goals. Very often, they are friends and family members who don't want us to change in ways that are good or healthy for us, because they're comfortable with us the way we are. Sometimes they're larger outside forces, or people acting on their behalf. That could be an online group trying to suck you into the sort of political argument that accomplishes nothing but the general raising of blood pressure, or a newly mandated political entrainment program at your work.
Now, deception in these cases need not mean outright lying, and in most cases shouldn't. In most cases, Silence is sufficient. Silence, like simulated disorder on the battlefield, requires perfect discipline. Most of us want to blab, and for a lot of us, our favorite thing to blab about is ourselves. If we're taking up meditation, trying a new workout regimen, writing a novel, learning an instrument, or applying for work, the first thing we want to do is to tell everyone in our lives about it. This is very often a mistake. As we've discussed here before, telling people about your projects is often a very good way to take all the energy out of them.
How do you learn to keep silent? One way is to remind yourself of your actual goal. Are you trying to get social status for working out, writing a novel, or getting a job? If so, by all means tell everyone about it. On the other hand, if your goal is just to do these things, the only way to do them is to do them.
The second point is something of an elaboration of the first. I've lately been reading the book Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia by Joseph Pistone. Pistone was an FBI agent who spent 6 years infiltrating the mob in the 1980s. Doing this required him to create a completely different identity, to maintain that identity at all times, and yet to also retain his actual identity as an FBI agent at all times. Writing about what it means to live a life like this, Pistone says:
It means you have an ego strong enough to sustain you from within you, when nobody but you knows what you're really doing and thinking.
It means you don't forget who you are, not for a day, not for a minute...
You have to be an individualist who doesn't mind working alone. really alone, more alone than being by yourself. You're with bad guys continually, pretending to be one of them, cultivating them, laughing at their jokes, keeping feelings and opinions and fears to yourself, just like your true identity. You do this all day, every day.
It means you don't forget who you are, not for a day, not for a minute...
You have to be an individualist who doesn't mind working alone. really alone, more alone than being by yourself. You're with bad guys continually, pretending to be one of them, cultivating them, laughing at their jokes, keeping feelings and opinions and fears to yourself, just like your true identity. You do this all day, every day.
I read this and immediately identified with it. While I've never gone undercover in the mafia, Pistone's words remind me very much of what it's like to try to live a spiritual life while also making a living in the modern world.
We're all undercover, all the time. We're constantly surrounded by people who may not be bad guys, but are, at minimum, unawakened. And, in this era of vastly heightened spiritual warfare, really can morph into bad guys-- that is, transmitters of demonic ideas and energies-- at any given time. Manly Hall called the life of the initiate "The Way of the Lonely Ones," and many of us discover that it is exactly that. Some of us are fortunate enough to have a romantic partner who is also on the Path; others have to make do with one or two friends, often long distance or internet-based, who are members of the same esoteric order or spiritual society.
Whatever the case may be, Pistone's words apply, and dovetail nicely with Sun Tzu's. We need to be able to build an ego-- that is, a self-concept and vessel for our soul-- that is strong enough to sustain us in every day life. We need to be the kind of people who can remain ourselves when subjected to an internet meme, a political rally, a Super Bowl, a diversity and inclusion seminar, a crowded store full of true Believing Covid fanatics, and very often to do so without giving away our lack of participation. To do this requires, as Sun Tzu tells us, perfect internal discipline.
How do we cultivate this discipline? That's something I want to talk more about, as we go along.
