Page 29 - sayurusara 46 full

Sayurusara 2022 December 27

of Arab coalition. In this theatre, the Arab party had deployed two hundred fourty thousands
troops while Israel was allotting a hundred thousand of military personnel. It proves the
validity of the Sun Tzu’s thinking in the tactical disposition.

6. Weak Points and Strong Sun Tzu has emphasized that “ So in the war, the way
is to avoid what is strong and to strike at what is weak”. This Chinese military strategist had
tried to teach his subordinates about the how weakness and strength affect to the gaining
opportunities and creating threats. Today, the entrepreneurship in any kind of business field
depends on the SWOT analyze which has referred the concepts of Sun Tzu in the particular
field. The best example is, the content of the book; ‘Sun Tzu and the Art of Business’ by M C
Neilly. It has introduced that the ‘market’ as the ‘terrain’ and the ‘competition’ as the ‘enemy’.
7. The Attack by Fire There are five kind of attacking with fire has been described by
the Sun Tzu. Those are for; to burn soldiers in their camp; to burn stores; to burn baggage trains;
to burns arsenals and magazines; hurl dropping fire amongst the enemy. It has been explained
the different ways of attacking with fire considering the weather conditions, direction and
strength of the winds and humidity. However, it’s better to translate these points to success
of our lives. The burning of our ignorance by the knowledge with the will and determination
is essential. Sun Tzu has briefed that in order to attack with fire, we must equip ourselves in a
war, such like right weapon, right army etc. For our lives, it is needed to equip with ourselves
with :
a. Knowledge
b. Regular practice and study to sharpen our intellect
c. Dynamic work in the world outside.
d. Service to others.
e. Balance and equipoise in our mind through constant training
f. Qualities like gratitude, devotion to the supreme and love

8. Energy As per Sun Tzu, there are no more than two methods of attack: the direct
and indirect; yet these two in combination give rise to an endless series of maneuvers. He
wants to emphasize that combination of energy in own force can lead continuous victories.
The three decades of civil war in Sri Lanka provides many examples for this concept. LTTE
made various kinds of attacks against the Sri Lankan military and the government, by changing
it’s power in various modes. It was one of the reasons to the expansion from an insurgency to
level of civil war. However, at the final stage of the conflict, Sri Lankan military also changed it’s
mode of fighting and used both indirect and direct attacks against LTTE.
9. Therefore, this short discussion elaborates the tendency to apply concepts of the ‘Art
of War’ from Sun Tzu in modern world for the military as well as the common society. It is
obvious that the Art of War has made considerable effects to the world, from the success of the
Napoleon to present business strategies and even for the daily life. Though, Sun Tzu has died,
his teachings have remained for thousands of years. That is the reason for living of Sun Tzu still
in our hearts. It is the truth; he will be living for many more years.

JAGATH THILAKARATHNE, psc
Lieutenant Commander (E)
SLNS Mahasen
NRE 2311

(Referred: ‘ The Art of War’ by Sun Tzu ; Narration by Usha Munshi (2017) and Sources from
Internet)