Work insights from ON WAR

Summary of Some 'Highlighted' Insights (from a project to see Work meaning via metaphor in Carl von Clausewitz' ON WAR)



1. Valuation is a force.

2. Separation equals greater vision.

3. Courage is a necessary work subject not discussed much in the main sources. Courage before the court of your own conscience, and courage in the face of some outside tribunal (the general law).

4. Aim suffuses everything. It needs to be formulated well and remembered and valued.

5. Aim is a force.

6. 'Sense of Locality' is the subject of reading your environment for all the intangible forces and laws and communictions going on, and seeing the perspectives and intents and motivations and self-interests of people, and acting on it all with 'higher composure' (courage and tact and resolution and 'acting from the work') all in the context of what is needed to awaken and stay awake. [Addition: weather, time-of-day, and terrain; these equal moods, the different patterns of thought and behaviour people have at different times of an average day, and general environment you find yourself in. (Add this to the 'sense of locality'.)]

7. Tactics in an engagement involves all the work teaches in terms of practices. The engagement is when in a difficult moment or event or when in an emotional state. Strategy, on the other hand, is about how each engagement relates to each other in terms of the overall aim.

8. 'Fear is concerned with physical survival, and courage with moral survival.'

9. Napoleon on war: "The whole art of war consists in a well-reasoned and extremely circumspect defensive, followed by rapid and audacious attack." [Addition: Napolean was talking about (because I read it in another aphorism along with this one) having a secure base to operate from so that you could have a place to retreat to if need be. That base had to be located just right so that it was close enough to the battleground yet far enough away to be able to act as a retreat. It had to be secure also.] I've been noting that in inner-being warfare false personality plays defense while man-awakening has to take the offense, yet man-awakening requires a defensive base as well, in the sense of what Napoleon is saying above. That defensive base is a stronghold and retreat to fall back on, and it is ******* (I want to write 'honesty'...) It is all good householder traits (which see here).

10. The feeling or sense of belonging to something - esprit de corps - can't be underestimated as a central virtue of an army. (From a work perspective this is an interesting subject. A person making efforts to awaken and increase inner control and increase level of being needs to visualize or intellectualize or realize the higher body of beings and the higher level of reality, or ray of creation, he is in the process of developing towards. The work - Nicoll - talks of the Conscious Circle of Humanity (which he somewhat clarifies by saying they are not necessarily visible or in human form). There are other hints and directions of clues in the work sources to lead a person on to finding a way to conceptualize in a real way this higher body (of beings) and to begin to feel a part of it, by degree, in hope (optimism) and faith, while at the same time staying grounded in the practical and foundational of what is and what needs to be done.

11. Regarding strategy in terms of the lines and connection between individual engagements (like for instance if one were to try to plan a strategy based on the seven notes of the musical octave), that line (or potential line) of development doesn't really matter because real success is just merely having big victories and having many of them (referring to each engagement itself).

12. Work efforts made in states of tension yield much greater results than work efforts made in states of rest. Much can be done when in a state of non-tension (tension meaning being in an emotional state, or in a difficult event), and work efforts can definitely be made in states of rest, yet it is in states of tension where the real battle is, the real inner warfare, and the real potential gains.

13. In a work engagement you have to fight (make real efforts) until your opposition (mechanical features) are beyond the point of coming back at you (of still being alive yet latent and waiting for weakness to backlash back at you). You have to make your efforts until the fires are completely out and no hidden burning cinders are waiting to start a new fire. This will define the end of an engagement (of course this is supposing a victorious engagement on your part).

14. 'The snowball effect' is a very common process of development of a work 'engagement'. Discerning the beginning of a potential snowball rolling down the side of the mountain is mandatory. It can start small. Discern all the small things and be awake to them.

15. To follow through on a victory is important. In the aftermath of a successful battle with false personality you should immediately be aware of moving center and its role in introducing out-of-control phenomena (thoughts, fantasies, negative imagination, etc.) of and into the intellectual center, and introducing these things at a faster speed (H 24) than intellectual center works at (H 48) so that it is able to get swamped before you know what is happening. Man those defenses. Remember positive attitudes, be aware of moods setting in. All that.

16. Since regarding the work and inner development we are lazy, ignorant, and weak, I would say our three main weapons, or the three main parts of our army, are effort, school knowledge, and real will. Maximum strength derives from a combination of all three.

17. Advance guard = conscience (real conscience, work conscience).

18. Marches = accumulating energy. The column of the march = the time-body of the accumulation effort. (von Clausewitz points out that 'column' doesn't just mean one column of soldiers in the same time and place moving down a route, but it can refer to separated divisions of an army moving down the same route even separated by a day or days.) Marches (accumulating energy) lead to engagements (emotional states).

19. A reminder to myself (and others who may be reading this) that learning a language that provides metaphor to understand other things doesn't mean you need to make or see direct, obvious correlations to the other thing you are trying to see inights into with the metaphorical language. You can see them (and I have) yet some aspects of the language of war have not shown me direct correlations or particularly insightful connections, though that doesn't mean none exist. For instance, 'billets' doesn't draw any immediate comparison to anything (other than what I wrote about 'camps' in general), yet still there might be something there after I learn of the subject and it's with me. ('Billets' maybe is not the most poetic example.) Just knowing the metaphorical language (the language of war) and having it in your background is enough to give yourself more to see connections and see inner meanings in the subject (the work) that you are concentrating on and making your central focus, seeing something down the line or in some higher workings of your mind.

20. If you are 'in the presence of the enemy' (if you are currently in an emotional state, or you are carrying some accumulated energy that is potentially flammable) then you can't let your guard down no matter what you are doing or what the state of 'rest' and no-current-engagement seems like. If you've been accumulating energy, and especially if you've been feeling that - what can only be described and known from experience - calm-before-the-storm, then you are 'in the presence of the enemy' and you should be conscious of that fact. If you aren't conscious of the presence of the enemy you will be annihilated.

21. Communications with the homeland are essential (Sun).

22. In work war man-awakening is the attacker and false personality takes a defensive position. That is regarding the internal theatre of operations. Regarding the external theatre of operations man-awakening must play the defensive role as the general law plays the attacker. (Defense, of course, is not just passiveness, and there comes a time when defense become offense, yet regarding the general law man-awakening will have to play defense.) Regarding what is above man-awakening man-awakening must be the attacker. Heaven is taken by force. That that is above you (C Influence, in work terms) will give you resistance and friction, yet ultimately it wants you to succeed. (With all this in mind it is possible now to read the defensive portions of On War without just applying it to false personality's side of the battle line. Defensive strategy and tactics apply to man-awakening regarding the conflict with the General Law.)

23. The idea of a 'fortress' gives some visual and meaningful substance to many of the areas of the work language that can seem less substantive, like roles and moods and attitudes and (to list negative things) self-justifying and lying. It's not an exact science, yet there is something in this aspect of the language of war. Fortresses have to be developed. Parts of our inner being fused of work I's (perhaps). Strong points. In Christian works on spiritual warfare there is much use of terms such a fortress and also strongholds, regarding both positive and negative things within us and in the external world.

24. A big point regarding conflict with the general law and taking a defensive position regarding it (which, again, is not necessarily being passive because defense in war also includes offense at some point and it also assumes the same objective to win as an offensive approach does; yet a defensive position is just smart when confronted with a greater force and the General Law is a greater force than a single human being): "In our opinion, a defensive position approaches the ideal the more its strength is masked, and the more it lends itself to taking the enemy by surprise in the course of the action."

25. "There is an enormous difference between losing a battle on one's own frontier and losing it in the very heart of enemy territory..." One aspect of 'terrain' is realizing that you need to discern where you are regarding your terrain and the terrain of the General Law (which includes being on internal terrain that is associated with the interests and level of false personality). It's OK to be on these different terrains, just don't be surprised if it is used against you or if it puts you in a very vulnerable position when attacked in any way by the General Law (the people who instinctively and mechanically act as the agents of the General Law). For instance, if you are in a house surrounded by family members you are deeply in the territory of the enemy (speaking gently and in work-war terms). It's OK to be there, and you may need to be there and you need to honor your parents and it's OK to enjoy the company of your family, obviously, and all that; just realize you are in enemy territory and don't be suprised if you get mauled (or if they try to maul you (slight you, get you to explode, get you in any way) - continually - forcing you to be constantly awake and living up to your more difficult standards. The standards - work standards - of someone who has a real aim to transcend or escape the general law). You don't want to be a hermit or someone afraid to leave safe territory, but just be aware of the territory you are currently on.

26. A person doing the work needs to remember to judge accurately the intent and the strength of his opposition (false personality, general law, and sometimes C influence). If you underestimate the opponent's desire (or need) to fight you can be overwhelmed. The General Law can become furiously nasty and aggressive quickly. False personality will fight hard because it is fighting for its very existence. This needs to be remembered.

27. Rivers in war cause an army to have to become broken up; to lose unity for the interval of crossing the river. There are many obstacles and intervals like that in life when doing the work and it's necessary to be awake to them and not allow them to make you 'break up' into sleep and scatteredness. (Even just a 'transition' like a walking from one room - or environment - to another can do this.)

28. High altitude mountain passes are a good metaphor for the kind of narrow passage you have to make when you make the climb up to the second conscious shock. False personality can defend a narrow pass effectively. The path you are climbing will be narrow and steep and there will only be one direction, one pass, to go through. Be prepared for this situation and for the resistance you will find at this interval.

29. "Prudence is the true spirit of defense, courage and confidence the true spirit of attack."

30. The Culminating Point of Victory, the last chapter of Book 7, is a great chapter. Extremely insightful regarding what happens when you make work efforts and then get blown away by the backlash. Basically this chapter talks about the inherent weakness in the attack if the attack is overshot. At some point the attacker has to stop and turn his attack into defense. If he keeps attacking he loses energy and everything tips in favor of his opponent, no matter how 'defeated' his opponent may have been. The culminating point of victory in work efforts has to be seen as the point when you still have energy to be awake. Meaning, you are making real work efforts, self-remembering, etc. Then, while still strong in that mode you have to consciously shift to a defensive mode expecting a backlash and not just letting it happen after you've spent all your energy doing the first conscious shock. (This is a very subtle and great chapter from von C., and it applies directly to the interplay between the first and second conscious shocks.) This makes the efforts to fight false personality more artful. Instead of just going all out in one direction and then basically falling asleep waiting for a backlash you have to go all out to a certain point and then consciously stay awake though in a now defensive mode, mainting what you have gained up to that point. (If anything, practically speaking, this chapter highlights the need to know you have to consciously shift to defense (and stay awake) after a point in your victorious attack on false personality. In real war the objective may be total extermination of the enemy or it may be establishing a peace based on the current conditions, or a bargaining based on current conditions, but in work war the objective is control of features of false personality and developing to the degree of having control of them at the level of your 'average' state. You also want to be challenged and in a struggle with those features in work-war, yet you want to approach that struggle with some strength and while still being awake. Usually the pattern is to overshoot the point of victory and give all the advantage to the regathered and reconstituted defense (false personality) so that when you come to that struggle part you get all eaten up easily. This is a common mistake in war and an inherent weakness in all attacks. Understand it, understand how to discern the culminating point of victory and then know that you have to have energy remaining to continue as you consciously switch to a defensive position and wait for the inevitable struggle with false personality when it fights back. This is a brilliant insight for a person who has been in these trenches before and who has fallen victim to this phenomenon von C. elucidates in this chapter. (Great generals make the mistake too. Frederick the Great, with his smaller forces, exploited this phenomenon to defeat armies greater than him. He was an artist at the art of war, though, according to von C. himself, and that is what you have to be when doing the work. You have to be an artist at it.)

31. von C. talks about discerning and attacking the center-of-gravity of the enemy. He talks of center-of-gravity in subtle terms, yet one type of war corresponds well with internal work war: "In countries subject to domestic strife, the center of gravity is generally the capital." The capital of our mechanicalness, or, of false personality, is the mechanical division of moving center. That is the enemy's capital city. That is the enemy's center-of-gravity. That must be taken by force and held and transformed into a work city. (I say the mechanical division of moving center is the capital of false personality, the center-of-gravity of all we make efforts against in our inner being because of its all-pervading role of influencing thought and imagination and habit and unthinking imitation, and all the things that are the springs of becoming negative and wasting energy once the real work efforts begin to be made. Also, it seems to me that to actually locate a 'capital city' within our inner being it would be an actual place in our inner geography rather than simply a mechanical feature (like sleep, for instance), and a 'center', and, specificly, the mechanical division of moving center seems to me to be the place. (The mechanical division of moving center also is a natural - symmetrical - counterpart to the 'capital city' of our awakening self, which would be the intellectual division of emotional center, where magnetic center is developed and becomes the beginning of the fusion of our higher bodies, if that happens.) So, the work aim is the necessity of getting to know the features and role and functions of the mechanical division of moving center and begin to do specific battle against them. Observe them, and make efforts against them.

32. Statesman and soldier must be combined when doing the work.

33. Defeat of the General Law is becoming invisible to it. This requires understanding, skill, and control.

34. When practicing the work in real time you have to throw off concerns and past (and current) trains of thought and worries and etc. Leave them for when the battle is over. Throwing those things (usually useless and ephemeral anyway) overboard and out of mind is difficult to do. Clinging to them is what one usually does. This is a strength of false personality to keep you immersed in its element, so to speak. Or to keep you from separating and attacking 'it' from a position more interior and higher.