(Note: This article is part of a series explaining the deeper meaning of Sun Tzu’s classic work on strategy one stanza at a time. See this article for the beginning of this analysis.)
The beginning of this Section was about easily advancing positions by knowing what is required. It discussed the first three traits of Command: caring, bravery, and intelligence. These last two stanzas are about positioning ourselves so we are safe from attack, which takes the last two aspects of command: trustworthiness and discipline. The necessary attitude that demonstrates both is happiness. Happiness implies that we expect our potential progress and a glad for those around us.
In the quotations from The Art of War below, we show the Chinese character-to-English word transliteration in less than and greater than < > brackets. This line is followed by my award-winning English translation. This new work often focuses on the original Chinese.
The Happy Foundation
The Chinese character transliterated as <battle> means “meeting.” It often refers to a meeting of rivals where a comparison, that is, a competition, takes place. However, we more often meet with those that are potential allies or those judging us in comparison to others. We want to be seen in a good light by everyone: allies, judges, and potential rivals. This is not a matter of just being respected. We must give others reasons to support us rather than ignore oppose us.
<Make> <good> <battle> <is,>
You must engage only in winning battles.
What is a “good” way to “meet” others? What consistently wins them over? What should our attitude be?
Sun Tzu says a good position for a meeting is one where we cannot be overshadowed or downgraded by others. No matter how weak our positions or how few resources we have, we always have our character. I personally have been fired and fired others for having a poor attitude more than any other reason. Unhappiness is like bad breath. Everyone avoids it.
A happy attitude means you trust others and, in response, they trust us. It says that we expect to succeed. Happiness arises from confidence that, no matter how difficult our shared situation, we can work with each other to fix it. Selfish pleasure doesn’t create this happiness. Happiness requires discipline. Control, especially self-control, gives us happiness. Eating cheesecake gives us pleasure. Facing problems squarely instead of avoiding them makes us happy.
<Stand> <to> <no> <defeat> <of> <ground,>
Position yourself where you cannot lose.
We must not be defeated by the ground we choose. We seek to advance into new positions on better ground where we easily create more happiness around us.
I have made the mistakes of getting jobs in unhappy workplaces and marrying an unhappy spouse. Our first strategy is to make everyone happier. If every move forward fails, however, we must find another strategy. If we cannot improve our positions, we cannot be happy in them. We can only pretend happiness, but pretending, like all lies, eventually fails. We can fall into positions of unhappiness that, not being God, we cannot fix. We often get into these situations because we arrogantly think we can control what is outside of our power. We are unhappy because we made a bad decision.
Others trust happy, optimistic people. We cannot confuse this happiness with “gratified” or “satiated.” Happiness never comes from seeking more and more gratification. I don’t enjoy exercise and controlling my diet, but I cannot be happy being weak and fat.
Building trust in our world starts when we are first socialized as children. As children, we don’t want unhappy parents. As we grow, we don’t keep unhappy friends. Raising a child is not always pleasurable, but having a family is a major part of our happiness. Gratifying a child’s momentary pleasures will not create a happy child. Children are happier when given the trust and responsibility of clear limits. We must expect them to show self-control. When we get older and get a job, we don’t want to work around unhappy coworkers or for unhappy bosses. When we marry, we don’t want our spouses to be unhappy. When we have children, we want to make them trustworthy and disciplines sources of happiness, not seekers of momentary pleasure.
<And> <yet> <no> <lose> <enemy> <’s> <defeat> <also.>
Never waste an opportunity to defeat your enemy.
We live in an age where our true enemy seeks to corrupt everything that makes us happy, confusing happiness with pleasure-seeking. They blame others for their unhappiness. Their evidence is that we, our predecessors, and our societies are flawed. This is true, but those flaws are unavoidable. More importantly, they are also the source of our personal challenges and opportunities. Making progress through them is the source of our happiness, how we demonstrate trustworthiness and discipline. People have been doing this for millennia. The result is that the world is more free, healthier, wealthier, more equal, and more just than it has ever been. The result is also that we can see more and smaller flaws than ever before. These flaws allow us even easier and faster progress.
We fix the world by fixing our lives and improving the lives of those physically around us. The Chinese character <enemy> also means those most like us, our neighbors. The only successful strategies for fixing problems are individual and community, not social.
The Weapon of Happy
The weapon of happiness wins supporters because it demonstrates trustworthiness and discipline.
<Correct> <make> <victory> <war> <first> <victory,>
You win a war by first assuring yourself of victory.
Our first victory is making moves that make those around us happier. This also makes us happy and creates a position that can be defended. This happiness is not a goal. It is a “gut reaction” to our understanding of our progress. Our positions are not a point, but a path. Our progress through the world is too complicated to analyze with our logical left brain. It requires our more artistic right brain, which generates our emotions such as our happiness. This is the progress that our brains are wired to reward.
<And> <yet> <afterward> <strive> <for> <battle,>
Only afterward do you look for a fight.
When we are happy, we can face challenges. We want people to compare us to others. Who chooses a miserable, angry person over a happy, positive one? If we go through the day being unhappy, we are setting up our own defeat. People think we are unhappy with them. If we are unhappy with a challenge in our lives, we make ourselves and others happy by finding a way to fix it. This requires work, but productive work makes us happy.
<Defeat> <war> <first> <battle> <and> <yet> <afterward> <strive> <for> <victory.>
Outmaneuver the enemy before the first battle and then fight to win.
The first battle is overcoming the grim, competitive mindset of hostility, anger, and jealousy. Only then can we easily make progress. We cannot make progress in a rigid, perfect world. Luckily, that is not the world in which we live. We must find weaknesses, needs, and other openings around us that allow us to move.
The mother of happiness is gratitude, starting with gratitude toward the Divine for the gift of such a world.