nto his cell and did penance, saying: This one is really a man of God! Merton 1960, 59)Another episode gives the same example of using patience in conflict. Merton relates:3There was an elder who had a well-tried novice living with him, and once, when he was annoyed, he drove the novice out of the cell. But the novice sat down outside and waited for the elder. The elder, opening the door, found him there, and did penance before him, saying: You are my Father, because of your patience and humility have overcome the weakness of my soul. Come back in; you can be the elder and the Father, I will be the youth and the novice: for by your good work you have surpassed my old age. (Merton 1960, 59)In both of these episodes, humility and patience are the tools for resolving conflict. This is much unlike Sun Tzu’s strategies which use force to conquer the opposition. In another sense however, both types of strategies have wisdom in their concepts. By planning, a leader can conquer the enemy and by submission a person can save himself from opposition. Discipline is also a major theme in each of these books. The desert monks were disciplined in their lifestyle just as the war leaders and their soldiers were disciplined in their training. While the monks lived in solitude, the soldiers lived in tightly knitted units. Sun Tzu wrote, “If, in training soldiers, commands are habitually enforced, the army will be well disciplined; if not, its discipline will be bad.” (Clavell 1983, 49) Authority, punishments and rewards all go along with discipline. In another quote Sun Tzu writes:If soldiers are punished before they have grown attached to you, they will not prove submissive; and, unless submissive, they will be practically useless. If when soldiers have become attached to you, punishments are not enforced, they will still be useless. Therefore soldiers must be treated in the first instance with humanity, but kept under...
