THE ART OF WAR. Know thy enemy. Know thyself. You win. IS THIS ENOUGH? Plus, is THE ART OF WAR from Jesuits?

One thing that has stayed with me from Sun Tzu’s amazingly famous The Art of War. Know the enemy - you win half the time. Know yourself - you win half the time. Know the enemy and yourself - you always win.

After looking at that, I’ll turn to something I was recently told about The Art of War, that it was written by Jesuits and definitely not to help us.

So, first, it sure helps, to know yourself and know the enemy, if you aim to win.

But is that enough, in order to win?

Quite a challenge, to know oneself and know the enemy. The enemy. Most of us keep learning - like that there is an evil conspiracy against us. And then, just what is this criminal conspiracy? How is it operating around us?

As for knowing ourselves - that’s another huge and often ongoing challenge. We don’t know what we don’t know.

But still, is it ENOUGH, to know oneself and the enemy, in order to win?

My conclusion, no.

I know many people who know quite a bit about themselves, but don’t do anything about, say, their fear of speaking out.

I see we need to do more than know ourselves and the enemy.

At the very least, we need to be committed to dealing with our Achilles’ heels, our blocks, our blind spots.

So it may be vital to us to have “mirrors” we can trust, to reflect us to ourselves, because often how we are feels right, but may leave a lot to be desired. Try changing your posture for the better - standing up straight, for instance. It is likely to feel unnatural. And we’re also likely to slip back quickly into our usual posture.

Relying on ourselves is often not enough, not even with the best of intentions. I remember taking a ballet jazz class. I thought I was doing the movements the way they were being shown by the teacher. That’s what the mirror told me. Then the teacher came to me. She could see I was eager to learn and asked me if I’d like a little extra help. She was ready to come in a bit early, spend a few minutes with me … and I learned there was so much I had not been able to see and do without her help.

On the other hand, it matters enormously, who those mirrors are - many people with their own weaknesses don’t give back an accurate reflection, and in fact may tell us, for instance, what we are seeing isn’t happening.

Clearly there’s more to winning than knowing ourselves and knowing the enemy.

Note: those of you with a much deeper knowledge of The Art of War may have much more to say on this.

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Finally, here’s something from an email I received: The Art of War was written by Jesuits. It’s a document meant to misguide, mislead, limit us.

So I went online. The Art of War was first translated - with many mistranslations - by a Jesuit. But, according to about a dozen sources, it was not written by a Jesuit.

Were the mistranslations deliberate, to misguide, mislead, limit us? I do not know.

I would appreciate further input from this, from people who have looked deeply. For example, how does it mislead and limit us (if thats what it does)?

My general conclusion. Check all sources. Look for further sources. Keep learning. In my case, I was using swisscows, which is better than, say, the bad bad G, but is still often incredibly misleading - as is easy to see if you search for info on Reiner.

Posted April 11, 2024