Resourcefulness

The investigating officer presented the case:

• Tà Kem is very cunning, full of schemes and tricks, appearing and vanishing like a ghost. Two of our scouts had barely approached when he spotted and killed them. The amount of drugs brought into our society increased, causing many consequences. Tà Kem was originally a bandit trained in professional intelligence. After our army smashed and wiped out the bandits from the Central Highlands over to Laos, Tà Kem went deep underground for a time and quietly built an extremely sophisticated and tight drug trafficking ring, codenamed R7. When the R7 ring began to operate we opened a special investigation. We spent a great deal of effort, money and manpower, and also the lives of our soldiers.
  Amid that chaos, we found one lead: Tà Kem had a second wife in Bình Định. Our special forces immediately worked out a plan of approach. Frankly, we had to use a seduction ploy, secretly sending the handsomest scout soldier in the world to win her favour. Women whose husbands have been away for a long time all have a weak point. But Tà Kem had also secretly had people watch and guard this wife. We also found ways to neutralise those men so that our handsome soldier could complete his mission. Because she was so smitten with a handsome man, the wife agreed to help us set a trap for Tà Kem.
  When he was caught, Tà Kem understood the situation at once. He gritted his teeth and looked at his wife with a gaze full of hatred to the skies. We had one slip: although we pretended to arrest the wife too, our way of treating her showed a little kindness, and Tà Kem noticed it immediately.
  The case was completed successfully after six years of special investigation. More than 12 soldiers were disabled and unable to fight, and 2 soldiers gave their lives. We seized a great deal of US dollars, weapons, vehicles, houses and documents connected with political reactionaries. Society was returned to peace as before.
  A scouting officer asked:
• Comrade, could you tell us more clearly how sophisticated Tà Kem's tricks were, that we had such a hard time on the case?
• Tà Kem's cunning tricks we are analysing and compiling to make study material for the service, because they are very interesting. His head was like a computer: scheming, treacherous and cruel, but very intelligent. We also used wit and strategy to struggle against him with great difficulty. 👹

Both we and the enemy use stratagems against each other, but because we have a just cause, our stratagems are called resourcefulness and skill, while the enemy, who is wicked and unjust, has stratagems called tricks. The nature of the stratagem is identical, but the names differ only because they are judged on the factor of ethics.
A stratagem is not at fault; the fault lies in the lack of ethics. Just as money is not at fault, the fault is in our wrong use of it. Technology is not at fault; the fault lies in our putting technology at the service of what is not good.

Bad people spend the whole year scheming to harm others and benefit themselves. That selfish, wicked motive leaves the brain damaged and diseased later. People responsible to the community are forced to think up all manner of ways to deal with bad people in order to protect the people's peace. That just, ethical motive keeps the brain sharp and clear-minded.

Bad people who use tricks damage the brain and can hardly find a moment of peace and ease. Even in their spare time their minds are tense with worries. Those who love their country and their people use their wits to help the world, so their hearts are at peace and joyful, and when they put work down their hearts are light and relaxed.

Intelligent people often think up a hundred schemes and a thousand stratagems, but the key to success and happiness is whether it is for oneself or for others. So before practising devising schemes and stratagems, let us practise building an altruistic ethical inner life, so that whatever we do is only good that benefits the world.
But the most intelligent person is one who lives with extreme ethics, because then the divine above will do the calculating for us.