詩一首

最近寫的一首詩

人算不如天算

宇宙乾坤運轉

俯仰春夏秋冬

上下我自從容

     庚子年初二

How does a soul travel ?

How does a soul travel

It happens always like this: 

If your love one had gone, then some of the episode will return. A word, a smile or something happened between you and your love one. You will remember it. It kept coming back to you. How many times it will come back? It is not important. Important is that you had kept it in your memory. It meant the soul of your love one was with you. It will dissolve into your mind, and you will say something similar or act something similar to someone else. Then your soul travels. 

And your memory is not limited to your love ones. You read books. You watch movies. You had experienced many things. Episodes and even the whole of a theme will come up from your mind. You had absolved them. When you write something or do something, the soul is not solely yours. You had a complicated soul with the strength of your history and your culture and, more importantly, your universe.  

Life is a traveling procession. It is not isolated. It travels with genes which is external and a soul which is internal. 

When a certain amount of genes and souls met in your body, it is your own life. You are the chief caretaker of your own life. You had received other souls and composed your own soul. When you said to yourself, "I am me。"Your soul is established. It will not stay forever in you. It will travel to faraway places. And you will be decomposed. You will never say, "I am not me", because by the time you are decomposed, you will have no chance to say that. But your soul still travels. 

If you have a faith like this, then you will be very strong and fear of nothing. You are a traveller forever.  You had already sent out your gene and your soul long before the decomposition. 

Art of War（3rd Version, 2020.1.18）

Zhuang Zi   

Art of War（3rd Version）

(To fight your war, you need new insights)

1 Attack

2 Mind and Mind Business

3 Method

4 Basics 1 2 3

5 Level

6 Situation

7 Knowledge and Forms of Wisdom

 

 1   Attack

The beauty in the art of war is in attacking. Life is a continuation of attacks. From infant to death, every process is an attack. Just like a baby bird coming out from the shell, the bird must first attack the shell. It is his first action.

A defender is deemed to be a loser.

Attacking is a basic attitude, it is not a strategic nor technical term. Attacking is a positive action.  A small grass needs to break the soil, it is the same with a volcano. A volcano needs to break the soil too. Both are positive. If there is a choice granted for you, you can always choose to act or not to act.  A grass is an action, while a flower is an attacker. She is fighting to enter your eyeball. The attitude of attacking is the basic design of the Universe. Sometimes, an attacker chooses to wait. He is not giving up his basic attitude, he is only waiting for a chance. Like a buried seed. The seed can wait years for the suitable weather. Then the seed would draw his blade and find a way to grow. A seed will not wait forever. A seed will live peacefully with his friends and brothers. And all plants know, they need to fight for their survival.  Sometimes they are waiting, they are waiting for their chance to grow.

Winners are those who choose a correct attitude.  All winners bear in mind one fact:  That there were enemies, enemies will push you to the other world. This is very old teaching, but many would not believe. They think they can enjoy life with kind-hearted and friendly enemies surrounding. Sometimes you will find it painful that you must live with the enemy for a long time. But deep inside your thought, you must keep yourself intact and strong that you are not surrounding to the enemy but to wait for a future development. 

When you saw very good leaders fell one by one by the comfort of life and many of the younger generation were looking for sex and eating pleasure, it is extremely dangerous situation for the country.  Many of the younger generation are money-oriented and you will definitely know, this could be the result of a deadly enemy policy, not a natural grow of the country. It is very bad to give up the fighting spirit of the country. To choose to live with the sickness of enemies, you must be healthy and strong yourself.

Nobody wants to fight, everyone wants peace. But it is war which push people ahead, and guaranteed the progress of human civilization. Its fine to keep peace in mind, it is wisdom to know there will be war. Only the well prepared will survive.

What is the purpose of wars?  

They kill the weak and purify the strong. 

Should I love my enemy?

Yes, I love them. They are same as you and me. They are given a choice to live peacefully with us. But if they choose war, we are well prepared. We love them. Even though we have to fight with them, but still, we love them, we will never hate them.

Hatred is a kind of human feeling which cannot be denied, however, some people will avoid bad feelings to hinder their thoughts. Treat the people of your enemies well and you will be rewarded. The side-benefit of a loving mind is that you will not go astray with ill feelings blurring your mind. And please be reminded that you are not choosing love for the side-benefit, but because you have the feeling. 

*further reading:

https://leechardasks.blogspot.com/2020/05/philosophy-of-this-game.html

 

2  Mind and

   Mind Business

Mind is extremely important in war. Winners are not winning by their weapons, but with minds. Though this is common sense, but in the material world, people are always losing their battle because of losing their mind. They thought the determine factors of war were only resources. However, that is not necessary so. Resources can change hands easily, and mind is easy to change too, collective hypnosis happens always. Minds are easy to be captured. However, it is your own mind and your own wisdom which is the most important. Mind your mind business always.

It is interesting to see, whenever people are rich, they are very likely shadowed by the curtain of wealth. Wealth is too important to them, when they are busy keeping up with their wealth, they would forget everything about mind. They would put the important business of mind into the hands of unreliable agents. They thought a good agent can take care of the mind business for them. How funny yet it is the reality of tragic failures. Those who failed to keep the minds of people, all their wealth will be lost.  No one can care the mind business on your behalf. Only you and your honored self can use that most sacred machine to handle mind matters. It is your mind. If you are giving up leadership of your mind business, no one can save you. That is why the mind should never be forgotten.  That is why you should study history as well as philosophy, plus some literature and music. Science and Economy, Medicine etc. are also important, but they are your tool and your wallet, not your mind.

Minds are connected with ideologies, theories, religions, and philosophies. Minds are the result of wisdom. There are different minds in the world. Some of the minds carry positive energy, while some negative.  Sometimes a negative mind wins, though people had found it difficult to believe. It is because, winning and losing are not determined by polarity, but by the strength of mind.

A strong mind can unite other minds. When all minds are united together, the war is won. A good leader is the light house of everyone. That is because he is bright, he knows the total situation. He is the energy source of his followers.

There will be different wars on the planet recently.

For example, if Korea is to have a war with the Japanese, should the Korean strengthen their own mind and capture the minds of the Japanese people first? It is vise-versa. Huge conflict happens like the Russian with NATO plus America; the Chinese with America; and the complicated Middle East etc.  They all need to capture the enemy minds, and they all need to build solidarity with their own country people.

For the Chinese part, they have a painful lesson to remember. It was during the war years in the Warring State Period in ancient China. One bigger power of Qin wanted to eliminate the other six smaller powers. Qin swallowed them one by one. There was only one lesson to learn by the famous historian writer Su Xun. He said, "The failure of the six smaller powers was that they all wanted to keep good relation with Qin." All tried to bribe Qin instead of fighting. They sent gifts and lands to please Qin. They wanted to build friendship and mutual trust with Qin. What they had got in return was complete destruction.

What is the problem?

The problem is in their mind. They had lost the war of minds before their destruction.

Same history will present itself again. If Hong Kong is to be swallowed alive, the Chinese will have a good lesson to learn. They will say, oh no, Hong Kong can never be swallowed. Hong Kong problem started from the mind. Had they not lost the mind business in Hong Kong long ago before the turmoil had started? 

Future historians will tell you the fact. If your mind is lost, your land follows. It's a golden law to be respected. It was said China can never be destroyed. But leaders will. Different leaders come and go, and the country is weakened. The golden law of mind is set up for our planet, no one is excluded. If anyone insisted that they will be safe forever, there will be one question for him: Why do you think so? Can you support your country without the support of your people?

    

Now is the main and most important question:

"How do I build my own mind?"

It is a question seldom anyone would care of. Ordinary people would like to sharpen their skills and make more money instead. Leaders would like to buy more weapons and try to be friendlier with their enemy instead.

However, this is the most important issue Zhuang Zi had raised in his writing. We shall make it clear in this small volume for those concerned, wise people will have never missed this chance to win their wars.

If you had successfully built your own mind, you will keep your country survive, no matter what happens in the coming conflict.

You will first have a mind, and then you will have your mind business. You will never have any mind business if your mind is not there. 

What is the most important part in your mind business?

It is not in the minds of your education, not the minds of your media, not the minds of your army, not the minds of your religion. 

The most important part is in your inner team of executives. 

That is the determine factor of your success. And this is the weakest point in many countries. It is of no use to have lots of weapons to protect your country if the inner teams are bribed.  They would become enemies around you. Even though they are not bribed, it is natural for them to try to take over the leadership, if they do not share the mind with the country. That means you must have a one-minded leadership. The leadership must be pure. And you must be pure yourself to have the total support from your team.

This is the thought from a higher level. Things are bound to happen like this. Lower level people will try every means to check out the bad elements in the leadership, yet they cannot see the trend and cannot eliminate them all. 

Upper level is the level of a higher angle, while the lower level people can only see things from a short distance. That is why they have to check every detail of the items. A good leader can make use the both of them. Please refer to the chapter of level in this book. 

If you have built up a strong mind and a strong team sharing the same mind, you will have a healthy leadership. With a healthy leadership, bad elements are not easy to grow. 

With a two-party leadership like the United States, the other party will not share the same mind with you. However, if the leader can build a strong mind around the country, the other party has no choice but to follow.  

With a one-party leadership, the party is bound to split into secret leaderships. Thus the mind system is far more important for them. If a strong mind is absent, the country would fall into deep crisis sooner or later. It is the weakest point of the country and the easiest target for the enemy. That is unavoidable. And you will never know how much the enemy had invested in such weak points to beat you.  Where ever there is a mind, there is a chance for your enemy. It is absolute important for the country. Mind is the real wall to protect the country. Mind is the true power to beat your enemy.   

Yet we seldom know what is mind.

What is mind?

It is very confusing about the mind. And it is not easy for anyone to tell what a mind is. A mind is more than a thinking tool. A good mind can have insights, and it can communicate with another good mind, without using language. A good mind can communicate with the nature. It can predict disasters sometimes. It knows before the earth quakes. And it was believed by many that a good mind can communicate with the unknown. All these features of a mind are so confusing that it is difficult to define what a mind is and what a mind is not. We can believe that the functions of a mind are developing in time. We can expect humans need not a mobile to call one another in future. We can use our mind to do it. We humans are far from perfect in this era as we don't even know what we have in our major ability, though we admit that we do have minds. 

For the meantime, at least we need to know the difference of mind and spirit.  

    

Spirit is the content dwelling in your mind. That means you can select and put in any content in your mind, or the minds of the people in your country, and even the minds in your enemies.

It seems to be an easy job. However, real spirit is grown from inside, not input from outside. You need thousands of years to grow a strong spirit, yet it is easy for a bad school system to put stupid thoughts in children in several years. 

It is worse still for the secret party groups setup by the enemy to mobilize your children to fight against your own country. Talented people will have their own spirit developed through reading. They will search for knowledge and wisdom. However, the most dangerous part is the mediocrity people. They can be hypnotized easily by secret party groups. They do not like to read. They are easily influenced by peers, and when they joint secret groups, they will be the powerful resources for your enemy. A secret army was easily built without your notice in your country. A secret army can overturn governments with stones and petrol bombs.  It is far cheaper for the enemies and very much safer for them. A war is not necessary to be announced, yet it is a real war.

All countries need to have their own strong spirit. It is much more important than an army. If you do not have a strong spirit, you will lose all wars in a short time. 

We need to know what is Chinese Spirit and what is American Spirit. 

Chinese Spirit is not the same with American Spirit. 

A Chinese mind may be more or less the same with an American mind, but they do have different spirits dwelling in their minds.

You cannot tell exactly what a mind is, but you will know a lot about your spirit. The spirits are not in written theories nor proclaimed documents but in actual deeds of the people. The good spirits are in heroes, the negative spirits are in evil personalities.  You need only to search about the heroes from ancient and modern China and you will know what is Chinese Spirit. And there are so many heroic figures in modern China.

The first hero in China was Kua Fu (夸父) He wished to know where would the sun go after dark. He chased the sun and was dead. His stick was left standing on the soil and it has become a growing forest since then. He is the first hero in China to pursue knowledge with wisdom. 

Knowledge pursuit was the basic start of Chinese culture. The later development of feudal oppression and slavery education was only a misfortune of China.

The second hero in China was Nu Wa (女媧). She thought the sky was leaking and tried to mend it with a stone. She burned the stone until the stone melted and used the liquid to seal the sky. She was the first philosopher to know that the Universe was uneven and not perfect. It needs human effort to help. It is totally different with other cultures and is very practical. The basic relation of man and nature was discovered since then. You will be very strong and standup alone even in extreme difficulties with this philosophy in mind.

The third hero in China was a monkey. His name was Sun Wu Kong (孫悟空) .Many mediocrity story tellers deleted the first motion of his deeds. He traveled all over the world to try to find a teacher for his question. His question was the meaning of life. He did find the teacher and the teacher told him everything about life. When he had got the wisdom from the teacher, he found himself was talented and can fight any enemy and fly any distance. It was a complete tragedy in China that the story was re-written by the feudal authorities and the heroic effort was totally deleted and rewritten. He was not a hero anymore. He was only an obedient slave of his master. You need to have a clean mind to read the story and find out the truth yourself. 

The fourth hero was a set of 108 heroes in the book of Shui Wu Chuan (水滸傳) and the book has the same fate being deleted and re-written by secret agents from the feudal authorities. You will find the story line not acceptable as the heroes all surrendered to the feudal authorities and were not heroes anymore. However, when you have noticed the plots were not the original and were not important and you will find the heroes were still alive and were real Chinese characters.  And you will believe it was the only way one should have chosen to live. They were true heroes and your friends. To have a friend like these heroes is the highest pleasure on earth. 

The fifth unforgettable hero in China was Jia Bao Yu(賈寶玉) He was the chief hero in the Dream of a Red Chamber. It is the book for real talented Chinese leaders. If you have not read the book, you cannot be counted as another talented leader in China. The writer kept his name secret and wrote a complete set of Chinese culture in the book. He was the main hero to fight against the feudal oppression with all his might and wisdom. He knew the secrets of Chinese culture. If you can understand the book, you will understand China. If you understood China, you will understand the whole world. 

There were lots of heroes in China. The Sixth and Seventh heroes and more  include hundreds and hundreds of heroes in different fields of science, art and commerce and military services before and after 1949. China was not built in one day. China is a continued progress for thousands of years. We need to look into the real heroes to understand China. Some of the hypnotized youths in Hong Kong did not have good education and was under influences from the Western bias of thoughts. To educate the new generation need the true effort of heroic education pioneers to teach them. 

This is the most important job for the leaders. Mind business is far more important than any other business. If you do not have a strong mind, you will not have a strong army. It's the real wall to protect the country.   

What is charisma?

Charisma is the most important nature of a good leader. A charismatic leader is influential. He leads by mind.

One of the most charismatic leaders in history is Constantine the Great. He was the Emperor of Rome in AD306-337.  He was troubled by enemies by that time. The story said he was suddenly changed in one night. He chose Christianity for the Empire and ordered the soldiers to draw a cross in their shields to fight. And he won all battles and made Rome a huge empire. Many of the religious people believed that was the power of a religion. However, it was not necessary so. It is a certain kind of mind he had mastered. He used the power of mind to unite his people and won the battles. He had an empire lacking the spirit. Now he found the spirit and put that spirit into the empire. That is all the secret about his success. 

He had changed in one night. That is wonderful and exceptional. No one has had such bravery like him. Many would have pondered for years waiting the final failure to come. 

The next charismatic leader is Peter the Great (AD1672-1725) in Russia. He had found the Western Enlightenment very useful and chose that for his empire. The same thing happened for his empire. He had made a huge Russia in his time.

The most important feature in a charismatic leader is that you can explain. You can tell your people what is the nature of everything. You have a total picture in your mind and you can share it with your people. You need not to know all the philosophies about the Universe and the earth. But you must be certain about what you are doing for the moment.  That means you must be certain about the future. That is your road for the country. That means you have a strong spirit in your mind. With the powerful energy of your spirit, you can share it with the whole country. The most successful way for a mind business is the total understanding of the spirit in your own mind.

A little more about charisma is that you must have your own theme. A good novel must have a good theme. To be a good leader must have a good theme. When your theme is accepted and believed by everyone, you are on the road to success. 

　

We need not to mention the famous themes of modern leaders. You are the one to find them and to forget about them. It is because, you are the theme. And you need not to follow, because you are a leader not a follower. You know the future and you are the road.

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Human spirit is in the form of a cycle. We can see how the American spirit woke up from the puritan hardship a few hundred years ago and they announced to have a right to pursue happiness, then the cycle turned completely from a spiritual and puritan past to a money-oriented present. The cycle had been a long history since the American built their country. 

The Chinese had a similar cycle from the Cultural Revolution to the open-market economy now. It is far shorter and in a different scale.  

If the American people can wake up from the bad dream of happiness pursuit to wisdom pursuit, they will find no enemy in the world and will be truly happy forever. President Barack Obama may be the only president who has some aware of this. He did not mention one word of love in his inauguration speech, and when he found someone had a comment on it, he changed. He was an enthusiastic promoter of love in his speeches since. President Donald Trump had never shown any interest about love in his tweets.

It is not easy for the American people to aware that they are in the cycle of spirit. As they had proclaimed that is their most treasured "core value". If the talented leadership can find out the real situation of America, American people will find themselves happier.  

 

*a test for the mind:

https://leechardasks.blogspot.com/2024/06/can-teeth-survive-alone.html

 

3   Method

Zhuang Zi has mentioned two methods only. The two methods are designed according to the basics of the Universe.

Method one:

That you should use your mind to see, not your eyes.

This is a method too simple to understand. The military writer Sun Zi had said similarly. Sun Zi said if you can only see the sun and the moon, you cannot be said to have a good eye-sight. However, Sun Zi might have been neglected that many a time, situations at war are so obvious like the sun and the moon, but still many cannot see it. They are not seeing with their mind, nor their eyes. They are blind-folded. In the cases of a life and death fighting for the country, one has to be very careful and humble. The most important thing is quietness. When you are quiet and silent, you will have a clear mind. When you are always busy, be alerted, a warning has been given you. When you are always talkative, be reminded, failure is near.

Method two:

Use a sword of no thickness to strike into the hollow.

The sword is so sharp, that it seemed to be in no thickness. You will not find out where the blade is with a magnifier. It is only a sword of no thickness could strike into the hollow.

There seemed to have no hollow in the defensive walls most of the time.  How do you strike into their hollow when the hollow doesn't exist? However, from a point of no thickness, there are lots of hollows.  The determining factor is in your own side, if you are in the situation of no-thickness, you will find out the hollow and win.

What does Zhuang Zi mean by this?  It meant everything. Do not enter with a stupid force. Enter with a delicate bladeless sword. It meant you knew it all. It is everything. It is a law of everything, including different studies in many fields.

If you are so sharp, so talented and you are in such lucky situation to know everything, be alerted, you keep yourself not as nothing, but only in a situation of no thickness. You are not to have no ideas, no choices, no dimensions, and no insists, etc. You are not nothingness. But you are no thickness. You need to stand in a higher lever to observe this. Nothingness is not no thickness. Only when suddenly you saw the hollow, then you would become a real sword to enter that point.

The Universe is a complicated combination of levels and layers, it is far more than the so-called multi-dimensional situation. Some people maintained that there are two sides only. It seemed that the Universe are compositions of only me and my enemies. They can never enter into the beauty of levels.

We have finished the methods discussion here. Many would pick up the point quickly and tried to use it to fight their enemies. However, the writer wishes to remind them, these methods are for upper level people, those who do not have the courage and wisdom, can never make use of them. It could turn out as a tool of self-disclosure. You will expose your weakness with a stupid use of the two methods. 

 

4   Basics 1, 2, 3

The art of war is in several principles here.

Basic No.1:  Oneness

It's a must for every leader to know his real situation:

'Me and my Universe are one. We are born together.'

That means you are not only an individual, you can see all the situations from the point of a whole. The picture is clear enough for you to take the right action. However, it is never an easy task to see things as a whole. Too many leaders failed here. Quietness is extremely important when you feel puzzled. People will be too eager to draw pictures for you. But it is you yourself who should draw the picture.   Rely too much on provided materials, is asking to be cheated. Important sources will be omitted by cheaters.

For many short-lived leaders, they have never had the sense of a unity whole, fame and fortune are important for them, they are bound to fall. More serious cases are in the talented leaders. Material influences are not a problem for them; however, they are too busy to remain in a silent stance. And that brings big problem. Working too hard and too concentrated are fatal. Many would exclaimed: "How do I handle the whole world with a single pair of arms?" It's a must to search deeply into the layers, with your mind, not your arms. One single arm can move the globe.

To search the layers, need to have a special instinct and lots of hard work. No one have the luckiness of Alexandra the great. He had Aristotle as his teacher for seven years. When he died after building a super empire over Asia, Africa and Europe, no one could succeed him. It is never a simple thing to have a mind like Alexandra. Those who had grabbed power from the death of Alexandra lost it in a short time.

The question is: Who is the next Alexandra on earth? That is a painful question to quest.

How do I build my whole picture?

A born leader is a man who loves everything in the Universe. Everything is new and interesting under the sun. He is keen on every aspect of life. He would like every subject his hand can reach. He would never be a pure scientist or pure businessman. He is never a dull and single interest person.  He is multi-directional and multi-leveled. He is not a single cell in the plant. He is the plant. And he is more than the plant, he is the soil, he is the globe, he is the Universe. And it is not a dream, yet he is the dream. It is in such a context that one could have the fitness to fit in the picture of the whole. The picture of the whole has been a single image in his brain cell.

Some rely on reports. They kept requesting for reports. Reports came all over the globe for him. He studied the reports every day until midnight. The first Emperor of Qin was like that. His reports were written on bamboo, he had to finish several extra-sized baskets of them every day. People keep praising him a good leader. But he is secondary. Because he is fed more than sucking. First class leaders are suckers. They are interested in everything. They knew the whole. He would know what to neglect and what to insist. He has got the keenest feeling on the planet. Each time, he would sip a little and he knew what is going on and he knew what to do. Avoid fighting with such leaders.

To be in such high level is not easy. Because he is not selfless. If there is not a self, then there won't be a whole either. He is only forgotten about his self. This is a minor difference between the selfless and the self-forgotten. But it is total difference of a real leader who could achieve historical demand, while a selfless guy can only be selfless and cannot move an inch of the globe with his total might.

Its philosophical to discuss about selfless and self-forgotten. But in the fields of war, self-forgotten is far more effective than selfless. Because, a selfless guy doesn't have a part in the whole, if they have become leaders, they would be indirect leaders. But it is only a direct leader can win the war. He is directly involved. He doesn't rely completely on reports, but he will go directly into the place where he can try the taste. It was said with the new mobile technology, that a doctor can treat a patient through phones. However, please note that such treatment can be harmful. A real doctor who presents himself in front of the sick bed can acquire much more information directly. He can use his senses. He can see and he can feel. It was his mind that is busy working on the subject. But through a mobile phone, he can only use indirectly measured figures. The mobile computer is thinking for him.  Good leaders get in touch of the people directly.

If you are to plan a space project, you need not to fly the rockets yourself, but you must be highly interested in the space, you feel it and you touch it before you throw billions into it. What does it mean by direct leaders?

It meant he is one with the whole. He has got a part in it. Therefore, he is not selfless. He is functional.

We had come to our finding here, that being a good leader needs to be whole hearted, and it needs to have two features in his inner mind. One is interested in everything, the other is completely dedicated. We didn't mention about love. Because love is the result of interest and dedication.

Can a self-forgotten guy dedicate himself for the whole? 

Some of the self-forgotten people are only temporary. They can fight fearlessly towards a goal of something for a short time.  However, when the situation changed, they would become selfish as many other mediocre people. 

That means their dedication is groundless. 

You need to know what is life and what is the aim of your own life and are willing to fight for that aim with your whole life without any regret. 

What is a life? Life is a tool you can use to work on something valuable and you cherish that value that much that you are willing to work for it with your might. And such thoughts are the result of your long term thinking and final decision. It is wisdom. 

A true leader is suitable to be a leader with the above build-in features in his noble mind.

More elaboration on the different levels of Oneness later.

Basic No. 2:  Freedom

One of the basic theories of Zhuang Zi is freedom. What he meant was a kind of absolute freedom. It is philosophical; however, we can understand the absolute freedom in a simple way. It is not the same freedom we used to agree with. The ordinary freedom is in a sphere of limitation. And most of the time, the ordinary type of freedom is only a lie to hypnotize people. You have to do according to the limits of your civilization, your law and your many limits, yet you think that is sacred. Actually, you can do nothing and you can move not even a brick from the whole establishment, yet they told you it is freedom. It is a lie for ignorant people.

However, as a human being, we are entitled to a kind of absolute freedom, we can do anything we like, there will not be any limit for you. You can jump from an airplane high on the space to the ground, and you can do anything you wanted to do. It is a free gift from the Creator of human being. Though you may never want to jump in a height like that, because you have been allowed another privilege, that is your wisdom to choose. You can choose to do it or not do it, if you can think. And more importantly, you can choose the way of success or failure. It is your own sacred choice.

What is the point of freedom to do with the art of war? Does it mean I can do any special things at war?

Please remember a war is not any other daily matter you need to handle. A war is a collective action concerning the life and death of your country and your civilization. It needs special talent to handle it. With a brain of absolute freedom, you will have no limit in your thinking and you are free and, you are talented and you are gifted. That means you are entitled to have a power to move the country for the ultimate good for your people.

What is the freedom of thought?

People always comment about certain great leaders in history, they were usually regarded as mad.

Were they really mad or only in a state of total freedom of thoughts? Madness and fearless is more or less the same. They are very similar.

We must remember, absolute freedom is for everyone. Anyone can do anything, only that if he chooses to do it or not. Nothing can prevent anyone to do anything, if he chooses to do anything, it is his freedom. It seems to be very terrible, if anyone chooses to shoot or to kill, he is free to do so. In the general idea about freedom, there is always a law to govern everyone, but there is no human law in absolute freedom, there are only results, and there is only law of the nature. You can do anything if you can accept the result. Even the law of nature cannot stop you. It is only this feature can save human being from final destruction. We have a talented mind and we shall find a way and be saved.

One last question here: How can I be so mad to think without limitation?

It will be more easily in wars to create madness or, talents.

If you are completely dedicated, you shall have no limit in your thoughts. Because you are fearless, you can dedicate your complete life into the cause of the people.

There must be many sources for the state of fearlessness. A stupid person can be fearless also, yet a stupid guy can never think as free as a normal man. And many a time, extremely greedy person can be fearless also. He is mad to grab money, and he is fearless to risk his life. He is creative to think in many ways to make money, and he could be very rich. And it is fair for the creator to create human beings with the same feature in them. The sun shines on good people and bad people together. They shared the same sunshine. The only difference is that he is dedicated to rob your money, and you are dedicated to work for the people. Who will win the war by the end?

Please do not worry about this too much. We have mentioned before, that a real leader is not an individual, his mind is shared with the whole. He has got a much higher position to observe the complete scenario of the world. He would be in a higher level to see everything.

It meant, with a complete whole at your back, your motivation power is limitless, and you are much more powerful than any selfish guy.

It is all about the power of your brain function.

If we say I am free to think, that means, you are moving inside your brain freely. Your thought needs to go from the far East to the far West, what is the important things we need here? You might need a map, or a vehicle to ride on, and you need to have no obstruction, and finally, you need some power to go ahead.

Now we can see how important freedom is. You are free to go anywhere without obstruction. But you need power. Power doesn't come from freedom, but from the basic no.1, you need to be one with the Universe to gain power. And that is not enough. A flower in the garden is one with the Universe. She is happily enjoying her sunshine, and that, cannot be a power of much use for a human leader.

As a leader of something, you need to have a much bigger power. The power to push your brain function and to think.

We had mentioned two kinds of power. One is within yourself, the other is exterior.

It's the inner power that pushes your mind, and then the world, not external power.

How can I be fearless and free to think? IF you are thinking in terms of a whole, then you might be fearless. And if you are thinking with a complete dedication in mind, you will be free. There will be no obstruction in your way and you can go.

Chinese people are very familiar with such thoughts. Because they have a hero in their mind. It is the Monkey King in the old teachings of literature. The magic of the Monkey King is limitless, and he can fly. He can fly instantly from one end of the Universe to the other end. It is a parable of absolute freedom. Anyone can achieve such talent with a whole in their mind and are willing to completely dedicate themselves.  

Absolute freedom is only madness without wisdom. And absolute freedom is real when it is supported by wisdom. 

What is absolute freedom in short?

The answer: "As long as you can pay, you are free.

But the above answer is only second stage of freedom. Many can pay with their own life, and even the life of others, but still they are not free.

The first stage of freedom is wisdom.

You must know what you are going to choose and where you are going to go. You need to have some wisdom to help you do such things. Wisdom is the first priority for free thinking.

Basic No. 3:   Possibilities

Nothing is impossible for a true leader who had a whole in mind and who knows the secret of freedom, and most important of all is that he has got the mind to dedicate completely. With such feature at hand, he would be loved by his own people, and the support of all, that means he would be all powerful and can achieve.

But this is not enough.

Anyone with a faith like this, is just like a blind man walking inside the jungle. It must be solved philosophically to know exactly the point. That means, the talented leader needs to know what is possible and what is not possible.

If you insist to say, anything is possible within the Universe, then you must answer the question why.

From the point of Zhuang Zi, the first question is:

Is it possible to know the Universe?

The answer is yes from Zhuang Zi. And it is straight forward and directly answered:

That we are one, that we are in the same body, that any unit within the body is possible to communicate with another unit, therefore, we can know each other. Like your finger knows your toe, and your toe knows your finger, it is as simple as that.

That means, anything is knowable in the Universe. If you cannot know it today, one day you will know it. All secret will expose itself in a matter of time. It's a common faith in Christian doctrine in the West, and Zhuang Zi believed the same.

If you know each other, then you can work together.

Then you can say, nothing is impossible in the Universe.

Anything can happen, it is a very basic faith in the art of war. It can happen to your counterpart, and it can happen to yourself.

You can win, and you can lose. It is simply possible. Nothing is impossible, from this sense, it is true.

It is simply possible, and it is the reason of humble.

You will be stronger with a humble mind like this.

Finally, please take very good care to see the following points here:

What is the difference with the hot atmosphere many would encounter in the everyday life when people shouted: "I can do anything" or, "Nothing is impossible", or, "Just go ahead"? They are everywhere.  You can observe this kind of words has become cliché and meaningless. And now in the discussion about war and you say the same.

It is all because, your thought is from a very high angle of philosophy and its deep into your blood, not a commercial advertisement. It's the difference of shallow and deep thought. Only a really deep thought coming from within would bring you to victory in wars.

With the possibilities in mind, we would presume the possibilities are not for a single person nor a single generation. We are all blind man without vision and can only feel the elephant with our hands. With thousands and thousands of hands and with the work of many generations, we can finally come closer to see the real image of an elephant. We can work and we could be wrong. And that meant the other guy or even your enemy may be more correct then you are. A humble and loving mind and sometimes forgiving mind is very important. 

Yes, everything is possible for all of us in the terms of time and space. We shall finally reach our goal in the planet.

 

 

5   Level

We shall start from "Level", which is more difficult and not easy to achieve. You need to have some talent and work hard to achieve it. And the second is "Situation", which is much easier but it is always neglected by the leaders, if it is neglected, you are dead. It's not happy to die in shallow waters.

We are living in different levels. It is just like a small tank of goldfish. The goldfish is living in the water, water is her level. She can never go up one level to the air. Now you are fighting with the gold fish. You are in a much higher lever to observe the fish.

What then?

You can observe the fish in a very clear vision. No matter where the goldfish will go, she cannot hide herself from you. Because you are in a higher level.

And suddenly you felt a chill from your back. It's good for you to feel this. You know there must be another level upon you. There must be some people watching you from a higher level like you watch the goldfish. He would understand you more than yourself. You have no way to escape. You will lose the battle if the guy attacks you.

There will be always a higher level upon you. Be humble and be ready to learn new thing. Open your mind. Do not refuse to study. Refusing is the moral for losers, not you.

And luckily the guy is not in an upper level. He is in the same level or even a lower lever from you. He is just watching you from a remote camera and a wired phone. That means he is in the same level with you. Though he has secret connections with your friends and your peers, they will provide information for him.

And you can release yourself now. He is only a spy; he needs not to be a superior.

A spy can never see true picture at wars. Leaders must be very concerned about this. Do not rely on reports. A spy can provide report, but not the real picture. You can use the reports as a second channel, but your own channel is more important.

A spy is not to be afraid of, but a higher level is what you must watch out.

It is all because, if you are in a higher level, even though your enemy can spy on you, but you know him more then he knows you. Because you are seeing him from a level, and he is seeing you from the same field.

"How can I go up one level?"

It's not a university degree that you can spend several years to achieve one. It is the total of your wisdom and your knowledge. One can easily grow up from a child to an adult. A child is outside the level of the adult world. A child is not yet in your level, he cannot know what happens in you. You need to completely involved in a world to get into your present level. That means your total understand of your present situation. And if you are willing to come to such believe that, you are still a child, there must be a level more complicated to your understanding, it is the first step any one needs to raise up himself.

For the upper level people, you are a child only. If you refuse to believe it, you will fail in the coming war.

How can I go up one level?

The answer is in one line only:

"Seek, and you shall have it."

This is the famous answer from Jesus Christ, he is right.

All is in the inner intention of the mind. Many ordinary people never seek in their whole life, and they will not be in the next level to look at the present situation. But a real intention is not easy. You need to find out the breaking point. Many people don't even have a question in their mind. They will not have the answer either.

But from a life threating situation, you need to think for a while.

One last question about level is that there will be lower levels and any one is possible to fall into a lower level without his own knowledge. Because, when people cannot choose wisdom, they choose foolishness instead.

A guy is selling candies for some time, his business is always the same, not too good and not too bad. He thought to himself, how do I earn more? I don't like situation like this. He tried to renew his formula to make candies. He put in false sugar for the new candies. He did have a better business for a short time. And his failure is certain. He is too stupid to do that, yet he cannot avoid his fate. Lots of people had been choosing this way for their final destruction. They are going downwards in their levels. They must had been warned before they did that, however, many people never take warnings seriously. There will always be a lower level waiting for them.

And the point here is for us to ponder: If the guy is to fall into a lower level so easily, can I go up one level like this? And the answer is definitely yes. If I am selling candies like the guy, what shall I do to go up a little? Can I open my mind in his situation?

It seems to be not difficult at all.

*further reading:

https://leechardasks.blogspot.com/2024/06/how-to-beat-upper-level-enemy.html

 

6   Situation

It is like living in a small fish tank. The upper level people are looking at you very clearly, but you feel the small tank a huge jungle. You find it difficult to go from one place to the other, and to search the way is not easy at all. You cannot know what to do and where to go. The tank is too complicated for the common people. They can never understand the sophisticated combination in the tank. They don't feel safe. They choose to live in a smaller space, like the conch. They will never leave their home. It is dangerous out there.  They will stay in the same old place, until one day some other fish come and eat them.

If you are not in the upper level, then you must handle your situation.

You are in the fish tank, but it seems like a jungle. And you cannot see it clearly from an angle outside the fish tank, you need to know your situation within the tank.

First of all is to find out your major threat. That is the first question.

What is a threat? A threat is more than an enemy. The threat can be economy, or weather, or illness, or anything threatens your existence, and it is more than your own life, it is your country and your culture.

It needs a careful mind to detect the threat. When Julius Caesar suddenly found out, his real threat was not the enemies he was fighting but trusted friends inside his inner circle, and they were more than one. All of them were his enemies. It was too late for him to discover the fact. The blade had already been entered into his body. Shakespeare had re-written the scene in his play, Caesar's last words were: "Et tu, Brute? (And you, Brutus?) he simply could not believe it was true.

And it is never an easy task to detect a threat or an enemy. Mother nature will not lie to you, but human enemy will. It is important to study your situation.

Because, a situation will tell the truth, but your enemy will disguise. He will show you how friendly he is. He will give you his sweetest smile. And the most dangerous situation was group liars. You can never know their true intention, until one day all knifes are stabbed into your body together.

But a total situation was there already waiting your study, if you can read them. You will know how things will go, you will know what will surely happen and you will be prepared. Because you are acting on the base of a trend. You know the situation and you know the real intention of your enemy and you need not wait to see his next gesture.

Sometimes, you feel weak and not strong enough to fight your enemy. You choose to smile, its ok for a while. But the basic trend is still not changed. He will attack you as soon as he finds out your weak point.

Don't smile at your enemy. You have never seen a cat smiling at an attacking dog. You will not gain time by smiling, you can gain time through fighting only.

By situation, we meant a total situation. If the internal situation is neglected, now you can never again neglect the external situation. It is your last chance to survive.

For a first-born small fish in the ocean, there are major threats everywhere. Only a handful can escape and grow up healthily.  As for human situation, threats are far more severe. It is like a type of special cells most of the time. It could be everywhere and suddenly you are announced last stage of a development. All your organs were occupied, it seems you can do nothing but surrender. If you look carefully into the cells, they were not only external, but also internal. They were everywhere, and they were linked up to the same brain in your head. To remain healthy, you must re-format or replace your own brain.

In ancient China, Cao Cao had been advised by a physician to do a brain surgery. Few would think it was a parable in the contest of a historical story. What he needs is a new brain, not a new mind. A brain and a mind need not be the same.

It is unacceptable, but the only hope is there always. Cao Cao later killed his physician, but it helped nothing.

It is a must to be alerted. And the funny side is, you need a quiet and relaxed mind to be alerted.

You need to know the situation.

Now we have a new example in the history of situation wars.

Hong Kong was a British colony for more than a century. When the Chinese wanted to have it back, the British did not refuse. As they knew it very clear they cannot win the Chinese in another colonial war. And the Chinese seemed had never read the works of Machiavelli. Some of the officers did not like reading, they thought it was more practical to act then to have theories. And they were satisfied to remain in the old level. How should you handle a newly captured city? Some Chinese officers did not consider Hong Kong was a city, but a commercial organization that they can manager it through agents. They had set up monitor points in Hong Kong, however, the city was allowed to run by foreign agents, who need not be loyal to the Chinese. The   officers trusted them.

And to the amazement of the future historians, the agents were running Hong Kong by a Chinese method. The had setup a big underground party in Hong Kong. It is a secret everyone knows in Hong Kong, but not the leaders in Beijing. The underground party used various method to recruit members. No one can refuse their recruitment. They were using a network to do all the things. It is your business, they can give you convenience to earn money, and it is your career, you can have a better place in the place you like, and it is your marriage, they can give you a spouse if you needed it. And the most important of all, you must be willingly hypnotized in a certain kind of Western democratic theories. And you must believe that the Chinese were a people of evils, the Chinese Government had long been devilized. Yet the Chinese had seldom to take any real action to tell the world how civilized were them. The Chinese are working hard to build a peaceful world and avoiding hard to irritate their Western counterparts. And all the important organizations in the colony were used in this purpose to re-capture Hong Kong, and to beat China. They include almost all the medias, all radios, all TVs, all schools, all churches, all religions, all publication houses and even the other businesses like medicine and daily commercial shops were under the hands of the underground party. And the Hong Kong people are allowed to setup different parties and societies, and the societies had in turn keep the underground party growing. What can a naïve young man do is such situation? You don't have even a religious leader to trust. And you cannot buy books, anything against the rule of the underground party will be disappeared. It is absolute Westernized dictatorship, yet the Chinese people had never realized it. It's a painful question to ask: why.

And sometimes you will win the war not because of anything else but the foolishness of your enemy. Please do not feel happy if such things happen, though it will happen quite often.

And some people would think it is the Chinese-US war in Hong Kong. Yet the US sided leaders still feel weak in such situation. They had not enough faith to win the war. That is why they had used hatred as an element to push masses and crowds. By using hatred, people can be mobilized more quickly and easily. Slogans were everywhere to promote hatred and to irritate the emotions of the youngsters. 

However, hatred is the opposite of reason and love, that is the fatal point of the US led movement in Hong Kong.

It is normal for the huge party to build their branches. From smaller groups of almost all the foreign workers in Hong Kong to other countries.  They are everywhere all over the world, including Macau and Taiwan, Indonesia and lots of the Western countries and the most important of all, mainland China. They have been given lots of resources and conveniences from people with powers. Green lights are turned on for them.  Later developments are expected in the imminent future. This is a situation not to be neglected.

 

7   Knowledge and Forms of Wisdom

What is knowledge? It seems easy, some believed knowledge can be created. Maybe it is wrong. Knowledge is from nature. It is for us to discover.

Knowledge is not knowledge if it is fed and not pursued. The famous US faith is to pursue happiness, however, if knowledge is pursued, a better future is near.

And good American people will know sooner or later, happiness is same with emptiness if it is built upon money.

And wisdom is not wisdom if it is remained in the books of lonely writers. A true wisdom must be the thinking habit of all the people.

With knowledge and wisdom, the country can standup and help others in the whole world. You will win all the wars.

(The End)

    (Copy Right is Free; anyone can keep and circulate this book without charge.)

 

THE BET

(A Short Story)

The rich man told the poor giant, "I will take all your children."

The poor giant didn't believe him. 

The rich man said, let us bet: "If I can take all your children, you give me your country. If I cannot take your children, I will give you my country." 

The poor giant said, "You are going to lose. Because my children will not trust anyone except me."

The rich man said, "Before I take your country, first I need to make your poor country rich, do you agree?"

The poor giant said, "If you are going to make me rich, I have no objection." 

The rich man said, "I will send a genius to help you get rich quickly. Because there are some technological problems you need to learn before you get rich. Will you like to meet him and learn how to get rich?"

The poor giant said, "I will never reject learning. But who is this genius?" 

The rich man said, "He is the king of the rich island near your country. Will you like to visit his rich island and learn some of the know-hows in getting rich?"

The poor giant said, "I agree." 

When the plane of the poor giant touched down in the rich island of the genius, he was amazed to see, it was a rich island indeed. All the highways were straight and wide and bright like golden, and the houses were as clean as diamond. Rich people in the island welcomed the poor giant, they rolled out a red carpet to receive him, they treated him with highest quality food and drink for a king. 

The genius greeted the poor giant and they embraced.

Next day, there was a hot news in the media around the globe: 

"Small Island rolled out red carpet for a Most Honored Guest."

The poor giant said to the genius, "I am amazed to see your country is running very well." 

The genius replied humbly, "Oh no, your country is. Your country can be far better than us. You have so many scholars and learned young men, we have only an island with poor resources."

The poor giant said, "You are really a genius to get rich without resources. We need to learn from you."

The genius said, "To be rich is easy and there is no secret, you only need to……."

The poor giant was suffering from poverty for a long time. He wished to know how to get rich for his children. And he has got the patience to let the genius say more. He only smiled and waited. 

The genius said, "Yes, you need to control everything. That is the first priority."

The poor giant was puzzled, "Control everything?"

The genius said more humbly, "Sir, you are my senior and you know it all. We have a special way to control my children here."

The genius waited a second and say more: "We separate them into two groups, one is for me, and the other is against me. Both of them are under my direct control. "

The poor giant felt interested: "Well?"

"Take media as an example, I have a team of media people who are against me, and the other team for me."

"What? Those who wrote against you are actually your friend? I thought you were in trouble when so many of them wrote to attack you? Were they not your real enemy?"

"Oh never," The genius laughed: "It's only a show. I control everything. I have my secret army like your secret party members."

"Well, "The poor giant felt a bit uneasy, as the genius had mentioned something he didn't like to talk about, "It seems you know everything."

"They are my network of secret members, I let them control everything and push my orders to carry out properly. I depend on them more then my open army."

The poor giant didn't reply. He was reluctant to get into such topics. However, they have a happy evening together. They remained good friends from then on. The poor giant was happy to know secrets from the genius. He felt happy as he knew the genius had trusted him and let him know secrets to run the country. It seemed easy; you just divide your secret army into two opposing groups.

No one on the planet had ever told him, that this secret, was a lie. It must be carried out without the knowledge of his own children. And worse thing would happen in a lying situation. A liar is easily to be cheated. And the poor giant was too excited, he couldn't find out the real nature of the secret. It was a plot to make him become a liar. Any strong person, whenever they had determined to lie, would become weak. That was why the poor giant was cheated in many ways, and he had never realized it. 

And he was confident about himself as usual. He thought it was a good idea, to create a false enemy, was just as easy as presenting a daily drama. It was fun to see them fight each other. He believed it could work. 

The genius had told him many methods in getting rich, which is not important at all. They included economy and finance ideas as well as political ideas. The poor giant showed himself a true learner. 

And he had ordered his people to come to the island to study the method of governing, as well as the art of lying. Groups and groups of people had flied to the island. Planes kept coming and going. The genius treated them like his own secret members. 

And the poor giant never doubted about their loyalty. He knew they will never betray him. He thought everyone was sharing the same ideal with him. All were for the people, even though lying was necessary for the people. 

The poor giant was happy to find out he was getting rich. He decided to try out the control method in one of his small provinces.

The poor giant failed to notice, his secret network of control, had changed hands gradually. Little by little, his secret network was not his secret network anymore. Extra branches were built without his consent. They were under leadership of the rich man. He was not the boss of his own country, but the rich man was. 

Now, he would try the genius method in his selected province. 

The first move of the poor giant, was to buy medias in the province. He knew the importance of medias, he wanted to buy them all. And it was not difficult for him. As he can pay good money. He preferred to save in other places. He wanted to spend important resources in the media. He had brought TVs, Radios, and Newspapers. And he had them divided. Some were for him, some against him. All were under his secret control. He had got secret network members everywhere, like the genius.

However, he had never knew, what he had spent big money to brought in, were only useless shells. The inner cores were tightly on the hands of the rich man. 

The situation was getting worse and worse. And the worst of all was his health. He was old and weak now. 

One day, the rich man came to visit him. He was in his sick bed. 

The rich man said, "You are becoming rich, do you?"

The poor giant said, "We are only picking up a little."

The rich man said, "Do you still want to honor your promise in our bet?"

The poor giant said, "Why not? I am still alive. I still have plenty of time."

"Ha," The rich man laughed, "I must advice you, I have taken lots of your children. You have not much time left."

The poor giant said, "I don't believe it."

The rich man showed him an article from the papers, it was about some of his children. Lots of the schools, universities, churches, even the Government were not necessarily his supporters. They had turned against him. 

The poor giant said, "Have you counted your harvest?"

The rich man hesitated. 

The poor giant was old and weak, but firm. He said, "If you have not counted, I have. You had controlled only 5%. "

The rich man laughed again, "Ha, you said 5% only? Do you know they were all leaders and they occupied all of your key positions in your stupid province?"

The poor giant was silent. He could hardly breathe any more. But he still managed to answer the rich man, "Let us see if your 5% can beat the rest of my good children?"

The poor giant had died shortly after the visit of the rich man. 

And all his children were eager to see, whether the 95% can beat the 5% or not. 

The bet was still going on.

              (The End)

The Death of Soleimani

 

  ((((((    The death of Qasem Soleimani proved the theory of war. He was being aimed at, listened to, his daily life was recorded to a minute detail, his route was mapped, and his every activity was watched, everyone who had met him was duly followed. His fate is certain. It could be an activity happened for years, yet he had done almost nothing to prevent things happen. Your enemy would have pulled the trigger if he has the chance.  ))))))