LEAKED: Classified "On Life" manuscript

2026-10-02 · Ho Chanh Nghia

Originally published on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/leaked-classified-life-manuscript-khanh-pham-o5lbc/

LEAKED: Classified “On Life” manuscript

Life is a war.

What do you mean, this is a war?

War, as both the Western and the Eastern mind define it, is armed conflict between states or nations. That definition is inadequate. I found it inadequate, and I took ten years to design what would be adequate for this life.

War is the ultimate resolution. A dynamic between two or more — humans, systems, forces. The state or nation is one of many arenas where war takes place, not the definition of war.

No one chooses war — not even the bully. He chooses deterrence, not necessarily war as we commonly understand war. The proof is he never wages war against someone that can kill him. And in a sense it is a war, as I defined it — a dynamic between any two things, especially if their existence collides. And there are special cases where the bully puts 335 bullets into a car to kill a six-year-old girl. This is no longer deterrence, but just men having a good time at the expense of a six-year-old girl. That is a position on the continuum. (ICC filing: https://599046384.r.worldcdn.net/Detail/2025/05/04/747346/Hind-Rajab-Foundation-Files-Court-Lawsuit-Against-Israeli-War-Criminals)

War and peace are relative positions on a continuum. The continuum, as people understand it, is a number line, plus and minus. A circle. But reality is not that simple. It is more of a toroid. A toroid holds all the other models inside it — the point, the line, the circle.

And it is a war, not the war. The recurring dynamic. One can also say that this life you and I live is a struggle to see who remains longer in life, who remains stronger longer, who prospers more and longer. But even without humans, there is the process that decides who remains and who goes into extinction. It is not a human invention; it is the fabric of existence itself. Existence fights its way from non-existence into existence, and fights to remain in existence.

My child coming into this world was a fight for life itself. A fight between life and death. A fight against all the medical malpractices that were forced on him and his mother. Against all odds, he lived. That’s not a misunderstanding. That’s a war. A war to remain standing.

Here is the test I put to every definition: the definition of war is only usable if it can apply to the totality of life and your existence itself. Their definition cannot survive this test. Mine does.

Life, as I use it, is the totality. Everything that is. The whole field in which war is waged.

Now the mind. In the Abhidhamma there is the state of mind — and there are 89 possible states, 89 minds. But only one can exist at a time. A jungle has room for 1 king. The Iron Throne only seats 1.

Life is a war. Those who fight for life deserve to live. Those who cannot fight need someone who will fight for them. Those who refuse to fight are reduced to begging or cheating, but a beggar has no choices. King Goujian of Yue proved this when, defeated and enslaved, he tasted King Fuchai’s feces to survive.

Three books. Three minds. One sample each. One single truth.

The first is a Buddhist psychology manual, more than twenty centuries old. It catalogs 89 states of mind — and every one is rooted: in greed, hate, and delusion, or in their opposites. This map of the mind is a map of occupied territory. The war is a free-for-all between 89 minds. May the strongest mind win.

The second is a Roman emperor’s diary. Not his war plans — his private journal. “The art of true living is more like a wrestler’s than a dancer’s practice: train so that whatsoever falls upon you, you may be ready for it.” The emperor rehearsed his life as combat training.

The third is a Bible chapter about adultery and murder. King David wants another man’s wife, so he writes: “Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten, and die.” All is fair in life: sex, money, and war. All of life fits in war. All of life used to win war.

Every US Airman received basic training and a manual for the laws of armed conflict. The book was free to the airman, but it was not free to make; it cost deep blood and money. The work my collaborator and I put into this volume was not free either. Parents spend over $200,000 educating a child for a career, yet no one sells them a manual for the actual war of survival because no one wrote it. Life demands the equivalent of basic training, and a manual for the laws of life.

— Ho Chanh Nghia

#justice