Ok, now with the space of a day and two spare moments to rub together, I see that yes what I wrote made internal coherent sense but it probably gave an unintended message by sin of omission. I’m afraid I might have given you the impression that I was pitting Violet’s POV against yours. I wasn’t— that would be strawmanning you, as I actually suspect you more or less agree with everything Violet wrote (though certainly that’s your call to make). I actually didn’t have a full conscious grasp yet of why I shared that post of Violet’s, but it wasn’t about stirring the pot, which I fear was how it came off. Thinking through it more, I think it was this:
You’ve been reading Sun Tzu’s Art of War as also being metaphor for personal and spiritual matters, under the hypothesis that it may have been written with this in mind, and even if it wasn’t, that it is still applicable on those levels. Certainly this was a useful hypothesis, as you’ve discovered a lot of gold. The thing I believe I was aiming for was this. Now that this round of meditations on it is coming to a close, soon it might be time to look back over the strategies Sun Tzu advises for war, and think about whether and in what circumstances they are and aren’t the best tools for the job of Spiritual Emancipation, to use Levi’s formulation. It has been a useful exercise to try, but just because you have given it its fair due doesn’t mean you need adopt it wholesale.
Pertinent questions that come to mind: Who or what do you cast as: The sovereign? The general? The troops? Your countrymen? The enemy forces? The weapons? The resources? The terrain? And what are you fighting for: Peaceable relations with your neighbors? Strong borders? Secure trade routes with friendly nations? Colonial expansion? Vengeance for past wrongs?
Different answers to these questions, when fitted as a metaphor to the questions of how to interface one’s own soul with the world at large via the medium of the physically manifest body, seem to me to determine the difference between a life of meaningful inner growth and healthy relations with the world, versus losses and frustration in all of these arenas. It was in that sense that I shared Violet’s post, in that she pointed to what seems to me an easy trap to fall into with a warfare metaphor. I am *not* suggesting you’ve fallen into such a trap— I’m suggesting that this is a natural time to re-examine your approach and assumptions and double check their hardiness and integrity.
I’m personally going through a period of introspection and, hopefully, change. It doesn’t sound as though I’m going through anything near as difficult as you, but I want to let you know that I’m planning to do the same— think about the ways that The Art of War might (and might not) be a healthy approach to my own problems— and attempt to apply them where they seem appropriate and effective.
no subject
You’ve been reading Sun Tzu’s Art of War as also being metaphor for personal and spiritual matters, under the hypothesis that it may have been written with this in mind, and even if it wasn’t, that it is still applicable on those levels. Certainly this was a useful hypothesis, as you’ve discovered a lot of gold. The thing I believe I was aiming for was this. Now that this round of meditations on it is coming to a close, soon it might be time to look back over the strategies Sun Tzu advises for war, and think about whether and in what circumstances they are and aren’t the best tools for the job of Spiritual Emancipation, to use Levi’s formulation. It has been a useful exercise to try, but just because you have given it its fair due doesn’t mean you need adopt it wholesale.
Pertinent questions that come to mind: Who or what do you cast as: The sovereign? The general? The troops? Your countrymen? The enemy forces? The weapons? The resources? The terrain? And what are you fighting for: Peaceable relations with your neighbors? Strong borders? Secure trade routes with friendly nations? Colonial expansion? Vengeance for past wrongs?
Different answers to these questions, when fitted as a metaphor to the questions of how to interface one’s own soul with the world at large via the medium of the physically manifest body, seem to me to determine the difference between a life of meaningful inner growth and healthy relations with the world, versus losses and frustration in all of these arenas. It was in that sense that I shared Violet’s post, in that she pointed to what seems to me an easy trap to fall into with a warfare metaphor. I am *not* suggesting you’ve fallen into such a trap— I’m suggesting that this is a natural time to re-examine your approach and assumptions and double check their hardiness and integrity.
I’m personally going through a period of introspection and, hopefully, change. It doesn’t sound as though I’m going through anything near as difficult as you, but I want to let you know that I’m planning to do the same— think about the ways that The Art of War might (and might not) be a healthy approach to my own problems— and attempt to apply them where they seem appropriate and effective.