Planning for Battle:

As the adept must plan his devotions, as the warrior must plan his fight, the disciple of Master Yung Young must plan his battle against his enemies, in whatever sphere he chooses.

Having given due consideration to the fact that a goodly number of my more focused disciples chose to demonstrate their skills on the river, it behoves the me to lay down some edicts so that his athletes may lay down a world of pain on those less worthy than themselves. I have been immersing myself in this strange, backwards facing sport, and find it to have appropriate parallels with my teachings.

So what does Master Yung Young recommend? No less a master than Sun Tzu, in his Art of War, suggests that the warrior should know their enemy.

Master Yung Young begs the forgiveness of another philosopher and sage, but this is utter bullshit.

I note that in the visions of competition that Mr. Ginn has presented to me, that there is no possibility of interference from another warrior. There is no need to know another is in the same arena. There is only the commencement, and the end.

There is nothing else.

The warrior must win his war, and that can only be done by reaching the end more quickly than his opponent. The Master gives you this thought. The Master has further reviewed the visions of Mr. Ginn, and has added these to the tenets of his own philosophy. My philosophy is one of pain. The one who can endure the most pain is the one whose soul will be the most purified. Whilst I do not suggest corporeal harm – the adept must learn to respect his body – I state categorically that to achieve enlightenment, to defeat one’s enemies, the adept must learn to defeat the weakness in their own body. One of Mr. Ginn’s visions revealed a man whose example in a race impressed even myself. Although not an adept of the YYSG, a man named Andre Willms demonstrated the spirit of the warrior that I espouse. From the first strike of the oar into the water, this man demonstrated pain and achieved redemption through it.

He used his body as effectively as could be done, using the strength of his legs to drive himself to the finish. The foaming from the mouth started within 5 percent of the start, and increased. Truly, here we have a man who achieved enlightenment in his art.

“But”, the less adept might ask the master, “what of your most well known disciple? Has Mr. Ginn ever been seen in such agony during a session of proof.” This has formerly been a matter between Mr. Ginn and myself, but his spiritual development is now such that we can release some information. When Mr. Ginn talks about the spiritual development that he has undergone under my teachings, he has undergone many sessions of agony that have caused him to question his whole being.

The world does not see these.

Because by the time it is time for Mr. Ginn’s war, he has already won. He did not need to purify yet further to defeat his opponents. But he will to succeed in Beijing. But what of the untutored adept? My heart weeps for Mr. Willms, for truly if he had studied with Master Yung Young, he would be known as one of the greatest, if not the greatest ever, river warriors ever to have been seen on this earth. He would have purified his soul before the war, and achieved even greater success. To achieve a mastery of performance, it is not enough to be purified in the event.

Master Yung Young states that the true warrior fights a battle, even against odds thought unassailable by other men, that he has already won.