If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.” Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Although we don’t advocate to a war like life the fact is that we war with ourselves and life in many ways on numerous levels.

So the statement “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting”; is a profound one as this is ultimately what must occur.

We must subdue our minds first in order to subdue the enemy that is not really an enemy.

War is about a struggle between opposing forces or sides.

Life is wrapped in competition from the very beginning of the sperms journey to fertilize the egg.

“It takes about 24 hours for a sperm cell to fertilize an egg. When the sperm penetrates the egg, the surface of the egg changes so that no other sperm can enter.” Grow, by WebMD

Competition is so natural to us that we seldom notice the many ways in which we compete.

Polarizing our perception on life as good, bad, positive or negative all makes sense because it places us in a mind set of competition as we strive to maintain the more collectively favorable position.

We then more easily measure ourselves against the other. Its how we increase our personal value or worth by making these comparisons and hope that the rest of the world sees this version of you.

This is where the disguised wars begin, but they start within us.

So, what are your obstacles

What or who do you view as a threat?

What personal qualities do you feel defeated by?

What collectively endorsed qualities are you aiming to achieve?

What is it that drives you to want to acquire those qualities?

Who or what are your tools of measurement?

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.” In order to know the enemy you must first acknowledge the enemies you’ve created in your mind, be it with your self or external conditions or individuals.

You must understand why this or these conditions or people have been experienced as enemies in the deeper parts of the mind

“If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.” If the enemy is avoided or if we disillusion ourselves and cover over the truth of the matter, we will not know the enemy and so we will war with our movement forward. It becomes a constant battle to achieve long lasting change.

This is the road to inner balance. The polarizing swing then becomes centered not needing to swing to extremes in either direction, not needing to judge the position of the moment.

So the first action to be taken is with the self!

Taking that honesty journey defeats the enemy that never really was!

In love, Sonia
Sonia Barrett

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