Thread by @ThyConsigliori

John Minford, #SunTzu 7: 16 "Be rushing as a wind; be stately as a forest."

As a boy, I lived for summer camp. Ours was called, quaintly, Little Grassy Lake. It wasn't. There wasn't much grass. But it was a wonderful lake. Funny thing, in the years I attended, not one time did anyone ever mention to me that I should be the lake.

I wasn't guided to be LIKE the lake, either. Calm and placid. Welcoming. A source of joy and fun to everyone. All those virtues might have extolled my young mind and formed my young identity well. But, in Illinois in the 60s & 70s, we didn't speak or think like that.

I was me, the lake was it, and the two might never be confused. I swam in the lake, canoed on it, but there was no guidance from the lake as to how I was to be, myself. We did not personify the lake. We did not study the lake. We just enjoyed it.

Looking back, I wish we'd had the I Ching, the Tao Te Ching and The Art of War to study when we were there as children and adolescents. I could have learned so much more from our lake. I could have carried it inside myself so much more deeply, and beneficially.

The thing is, we didn't do metaphors or analogies very well. An aside, I can never remember the difference between an analogy and a metaphor, can you? I've tried. I've studied them for years and years. Hey, I'm going to look them up again now!

I surrender. I'll give you a link to check out for yourself, but my eyes glaze over when I try to capture the definitions. Some other time when I'm more dedicated, I'm sure I can figure it. Remembering may still be in question:

copyblogger.com/metaphor-simil…

Let's strike a small grammatical deal. Be it analogy or simile, I'm still going to use the one-word metaphor. If you're inspired to correct me, please do . For now, they're all just metaphors to me. And I wish I'd understood the power of my little lake as such more back then.

Today's verse has two metaphors for us to master, rushing wind and stately forest. We might as well look ahead to the next two verses following the same format. Ravaging fire, still mountains, inscrutable nights, and swift thunder and lightning.

Are you motivated to do any research or extracurricular reading? if so, I've mentioned him before, my far and away most favorite translator of the I Ching is Alfred Huang. Wonderful work. These verses tie directly to the I Ching, and something called Ba Gua theory.

If you've never heard of it before, it will intimidate and overwhelm your mind, I promise. After 10 or 15 years of study you might start to crack the code. Just kidding, it's not that difficult. But it isn't easy, either. You'll get the idea from this lovely diagram.

Time for a little Ba Gua list:

1) Heaven
2) Wind
3) Water (lake is often used, but no one mentions grass
4) Mountain
5) Earth
6) Thunder (also to include lightning)
7) Fire
8) River

When studying the Ba Gua (which is also called Trigram Theory, did you notice the three lines for each, some broken, some solid?), the most powerful meditation is to become, in mind, metaphorically, each of the eight elements, personally.

Today's verse is a perfect point of entry. When discussing wind, the ancient Chinese often connected it to trees, to fluttering leaves, to the sound of the wind rushing through the tops of the trees, to the swaying of the trunk and all the effects of wind upon the woods.

Silly them, they might even say "wind" when they meant "wood" or vice versa, not really caring too much about the obvious complete difference. My own meditation got me there one day when I felt the wind on my face and realized the two can be interchanged as well.

Do not let yourself think the ancient Chinese were silly, even though I may love to call them that. Upon deep meditation you will discover that the wind in the woods is a metaphor for all causes and effects. You can't see the wind. Without trees, how will you hear it?

Okay, you can hear the wind turn the corner down an alley or around your house. Then, alley and/or house are also the wind. It's just the connection backward from effect to their antecedent causes. Causes and effects, effect and their causes, back and forth we go.

As we've discussed, we don't have to be too humble about all this. We were building geometry from our own ancient sources, Egypt and Babylonia, etc., in Greece at the same time as Master Sun. There was Indian science at the time as well. Yet, the Chinese were amazing.

Rush like the wind, be stately as the forest. What a command, eh? Light on your feet, fast in motion, get there silently, tear everything in front of you down like a tornado. Who wouldn't want to fight like the wind?

Touch the heavens with your fingers, root yourself down to the purest water deeply into the earth, sway with all challenges, but know who and what you are, spine as firm yet pliant as wood, living wood, always growing, both up and out. Who wouldn't want to be the stately forest?

Can you hear the sound of the wind in the woods? Can you hear it rise and crescendo, crash and recede like the tide coming in out, the waves on the ocean shore? Each holds within itself the perfect battle plan, or, the perfect peace plan. Can you be the wind, the forest?

Two more points. The wind comes from and goes to somewhere, who knows where in either case? Do you have such mobility, can you get from here to there that smoothly? The forest itself grows. Acorns or pine cones drop, and new younguns sprout up, matching reach to the heavens.

In mighty storms, the wind blows some trees, and many leaves, branches and limbs down, creating the earth below in rich loam. The forest itself grows. Can you do that? Can you drop seeds of inspiration and have followers rise up under your loving branches?

Do let me know how your studies go. We need American heroes who can rush like the wind, while yet live the stately life of the forest, rooted and beautiful, life giving.

169 verses completed, 253 to go.

To return to previous sections in our #WarForAmerica2020 and #SunTzuForMAGA series, don't forget to head over to @WarForAmerica21. You'll find the digital table of contents for this series, there. Please retweet each entry you enjoy.