Can We Violate Just ONE of the “Three Gates”?

Is it possible to violate just ONE of the Three Gates?

PRACTICALLY speaking…yes. Ultimately…perhaps not.

In conversation with my ex-Military Right-wing friend, I realized that I couldn’t trust him to admit he was wrong about core positions, even if it was in black and white right in front of him.

He also attacks verbally. I tested to see what the MEANING of the attempted insult might be, by answering in kind. It stung him. He didn’t like it. Oh, ok, THAT’S the meaning. He was trying to bully me.

At one point the Three Gates came up, and he said that he uses them in his personal life, but not as a soldier. That makes sense, because in war, it is “true” that cruelty is efficient and effective…within a range. Killing but not torture, for instance: no voluntary increase in the amount of suffering necessary to accomplish a goal. Soldiers I’ve known who stepped over that line, who had to do things that violated their sense of honor and decency, that were nonetheless viewed as necessary in a particular pressure situation, seemed more ruined by their experience. Haunted.

Only at war, he said. But even though he has retired, he still defines himself primarily as a soldier, and considers us to be at war, culturally.

It would be foolish not to consider the implications: He will violate Honesty, and Kindness if he considers it Useful.