Thus we say, 'He ne'er contends, And therein is his might.' Thus we say, 'Men's wills he bends, That they with him unite.' Thus we say, 'Like Heaven's his ends, No sage of old more bright.'
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peck.wisdom 23,094 posts
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All-pervading is the Great Tao! It may be found on the left hand and on the right.
Numerical weakness comes from having to prepare against possible attacks; numerical strength, from compelling our adversary to make these preparations against us.
Two stamps there are marked on all living men, Divine and Undivine; I spake to thee By what marks thou shouldst know the Heavenly Man, Hear from me now of the Unheavenly!
I do my best, he said. And now that we know what they are like there is no difficulty in tracing out the sort of life which awaits either of them. This I will proceed to describe; but as you may think the description a little too coarse, I ask you to suppose, Socrates, that the words which follow are not mine.—Let me put them into the mouths of the eulogists of injustice: They will tell you that the just man who is thought unjust will be scourged, racked, bound—will have his eyes burnt out; and, at last, after suffering every kind of evil, he will be impaled: Then he will understand that he ought to seem only, and not to be, just; the words of Aeschylus may be more truly spoken of the unjust than of the just. For the unjust is pursuing a reality; he does not live with a view to appearances—he wants to be really unjust and not to seem only:—
Having collected an army and concentrated his forces, he must blend and harmonise the different elements thereof before pitching his camp.
Heaven which by it is bright and pure; Earth rendered thereby firm and sure; Spirits with powers by it supplied; Valleys kept full throughout their void All creatures which through it do live Princes and kings who from it get The model which to all they give. All these are the results of the One (Tao). 2.
But if they abstained from injuring one another, then they might act together better?
How victory may be produced for them out of the enemy’s own tactics—that is what the multitude cannot comprehend.
Rouse him, and learn the principle of his activity or inactivity.
Good is the steadfastness whereby a man Masters his beats of heart, his very breath Of life, the action of his senses; fixed In never-shaken faith and piety: That is of Sattwan, Prince! "soothfast" and fair! Stained is the steadfastness whereby a man Holds to his duty, purpose, effort, end, For life's sake, and the love of goods to gain, Arjuna! 'tis of Rajas, passion-stamped! Sad is the steadfastness wherewith the fool Cleaves to his sloth, his sorrow, and his fears, His folly and despair. This--Pritha's Son!-- Is born of Tamas, "dark" and miserable!
There is, I said, this third class also. But why do you ask?
[An alternative reading offered by Chia Lin is: "Know beforehand all plans conducive to our success and to the enemy’s failure."
And that to which an end is appointed has also an excellence? Need I ask again whether the eye has an end?
After that, comes tactical manœuvering, than which there is nothing more difficult.
The relation of the Tao to all the world is like that of the great rivers and seas to the streams from the valleys.
The Heavenly Birth brings to deliverance, So should'st thou know! The birth with Asuras Brings into bondage. Be thou joyous, Prince! Whose lot is set apart for heavenly Birth.
Whatsoever doth happen in the world, doth happen justly, and so if thou dost well take heed, thou shalt find it. I say not only in right order by a series of inevitable consequences, but according to justice and as it were by way of equal distribution, according to the true worth of everything. Continue then to take notice of it, as thou hast begun, and whatsoever thou dost, do it not without this proviso, that it be a thing of that nature that a good man (as the word good is properly taken) may do it. This observe carefully in every action.
Conceit no such things, as he that wrongeth thee conceiveth, or would have thee to conceive, but look into the matter itself, and see what it is in very truth.
(The Tao) which originated all under the sky is to be considered as the mother of them all.