If I may: I've thought about this all day, and I think that a major thing that both Sun Tzu and Grant had in common with the inner meaning of the passages that you quote concerns the initiative. In any conflict, whoever has the initiative generally wins. So the person who lands the first punch in a fight will usually win.
If someone only thinks about what the other guy will do they have effectively surrendered the initiative because all of their energy goes into defending against what the other guy will do and they lose the power to take forthright action.
In the sense of the battle for our own souls, I think this might look like focusing more on the good habits than the bad. That is, if we put the energy into fostering good habits we gain initiative over own lives. But if we always fear what the other side will do, than we spread out our energy in focusing on the other side and so lose the force concentration --- to use the military jargon --- to successfully do anything but man the trenches, as is exactly what happened with Lee during the fearful months of the Siege of Petersburg while Grant burrowed closer and closer to the rail lines that brought in supplies, and when Grant finally succeeded in that, practically the next step was Appomattox Courthouse.
So if we have lots of good habits, even little habits simply to strengthen the power of the will, than the bad habits and self-destructive tendencies are what lose the initiative. In terms of say addictions I think it's far more important to develop good habits rather than fight the bad. Fighting the bad gives the bad the initiative, but cultivating the good gives the good within the initiative.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2021-03-10 06:04 am (UTC)If I may: I've thought about this all day, and I think that a major thing that both Sun Tzu and Grant had in common with the inner meaning of the passages that you quote concerns the initiative. In any conflict, whoever has the initiative generally wins. So the person who lands the first punch in a fight will usually win.
If someone only thinks about what the other guy will do they have effectively surrendered the initiative because all of their energy goes into defending against what the other guy will do and they lose the power to take forthright action.
In the sense of the battle for our own souls, I think this might look like focusing more on the good habits than the bad. That is, if we put the energy into fostering good habits we gain initiative over own lives. But if we always fear what the other side will do, than we spread out our energy in focusing on the other side and so lose the force concentration --- to use the military jargon --- to successfully do anything but man the trenches, as is exactly what happened with Lee during the fearful months of the Siege of Petersburg while Grant burrowed closer and closer to the rail lines that brought in supplies, and when Grant finally succeeded in that, practically the next step was Appomattox Courthouse.
So if we have lots of good habits, even little habits simply to strengthen the power of the will, than the bad habits and self-destructive tendencies are what lose the initiative. In terms of say addictions I think it's far more important to develop good habits rather than fight the bad. Fighting the bad gives the bad the initiative, but cultivating the good gives the good within the initiative.