Wednesday, July 27, 2011

The Art of War

I've been reading a book called "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu.

I realized something very profound. That people will always be shit without a 'right mind' and 'right practice'. I don't know if those are terms used elsewhere but it's just a term to placehold the concepts of what I"m about to talk about.

A common theme throughout the book is this notion that one cannot rule or make effecient decisions if they are emotional about it. That the person who responds to situations in anger will most likely fail. That it's the cold and calculated that prevail. Those who are impartial can see more clearly. In my own words another idea is that "Those who strive will never be filled".

Master Sun says something about how greed is at the heart of where conflict is born.

The connection that became so evident to me is this:

Without continuous 'sharpening' in objectivity a blunt mind will be the natural result. And even after seeing the big picture... that there is no 'self' if there is no sharpening in objectivity and meditation upon certain matters,  a true lasting humanistic view of life cannot exist.

It can not exist.

Let alone NOT seeing the empirical truth of existence...

There is a kind of DOUBLE darkness that results. The enlightened may discover ways of being and pass on these practices to the unenlightened. However it is literally IMPOSSIBLE for an unenlightened to truly understand the reason behind these practices. They must be enlightened to the mechanics of these teachings.

So now, because they are not enlightened, they create childish concepts around these teachings that are being passed down from the enlightened state. They mentally masturbate with new ideas and trip over themselves, not understanding what's going on.

The enlightened perception is like seeing the 3rd dimension from the 4th dimension. And it's impossible to understand the 3rd dimension the way the 4th dimensional entity does, while always being in the 3rd dimension.

It's literally impossible to have 'right motivation' without being deeply entrenched in the cold unemotional state of enlightenment. This place, this 100% unhumane place is the place that can allow people to be even more humane.

That's because there is close to 0 ego tainting perception. One can then see well beyond the general masses.

It's no wonder Tzu says "A general must see alone and know alone, meaning that he must see what others do not see and know what others do not know"... as I have many times seen.

Now, as I have not been sharpening myself in objectivity, and slipped into further into ego and subjective reality... I've allowed myself to be driven my greed once again. I am moved at the thought of some future pleasure. Instead of sharpening my clarity, removing the mental fat that accumulates within the mind, I've become lazy.

When sharp with clarity, objective perception can guide objective action.

From the author's introduction of "The Art of War":

"In India, Buddhist aspirants used to visit burning grounds and watch the corpses of those whose families couldn't afford a cremation rot away. They did this to terrify the greed and possessiveness out of themselves. After that they turned their minds toward thoughts of ideal individuals and ideal societies.

Similarly, Master Sun has his readers dwell on the ravages of war, from its incipient phases of treacheries and alienation to its extreme forms of incendiary attack and siege, viewed as a sort of mass cannibalism of human and natural resources. With this device he gives the reader and enhanced feeling for the significance of individual and social virtues espoused by the humanitarian pacifists."

This is part of sharpening the mind. While one must continually see objectively, they must turn their thoughts towards those places which need to be eliminated and into what would be ideal.

So this leads me now to assume that the first step is and always will be to be liberated. Once that is achieved it MUST be continued. Like Christ's "first love". The reason it is so hard to get back is because an ego will have been formed and produce the egoic response to sharpening as "I know this already... this is old news to me"....

This has happened to me.

Do I want to change. Honestly, no. I don't. It's much more comfortable allowing the psychological system that's been formed continue... to be congruent with dreams for a more free personal life. This is the selfishness that has been grown in me.

At a point I had realized how incredibly sick First Person Shooters are. How killing other people has become a very entertaining thing to do through a computer screen. With time, with lack of sharpening the mind, I've gone back to my numbness towards the games. To the whole idea behind them.

I've no ending conclusion for this other than the points I tried to make above. It does need some refining, and I may possibly come back and articulate these more clearly as them impress themselves with time.


No comments:

Post a Comment