201127 — What I learned in my studies this morning

From Huang Po: 

What we are looking for is hidden. When we think we see it, it is not. It is behind what we see. It is behind, prior to and fundamentally necessary to, what we (think we) understand. 

(The Chun Chou Record, 19)

From Eric Hoffer: 

To judge the potential success of a mass movement, ignore whether it's doctrine is true or false or its promises feasible. Look, instead, to how well it provides a community in which ineffectual people can find a place to melt away and become an anonymous part of the machine. Unresponsible. Unnoticed. 

(The True Believer, V-34)

From Diogenes of Babylon: 

Contemplation is good — it is natural for the philosopher — but practicality is good as well. 

While we must search for Virtue and wisdom, we must also live in the world. A Republic lead by sages might be the best possible society, but it isn't practical. It's never going to happen. Therefore, we should strive for the ideal and live in the real world of real people as well. 

(Lives of the Stoics, pp. 55-63)