From The Daily Stoic:    Stop looking for an answer elsewhere. You must do it yourself. Be better through your own actions. Make your life meaningful. It's up to you.  From Epictetus: Epictetus, Greek for "acquired one," was born a slave. He knew and studied under Musonius. He walked with a limp, perhaps as a result of his master purposefully breaking his leg. He was not a free man until the age of thirty.  Living as chattel, with no control over what he did or what was done to him, Epictetus learned that most famous of Stoic lessons, the one listed first in his collected sayings: "Learn to distinguish between what is up to us and what is not up to us."  He did not seek wealth or power. He did not seek recognition for his teaching. Instead, he sought to become a better philosopher and teacher. He wanted to be a better man today than he was yesterday.  He knew first hand that the only thing we can truly control is our perception of, ...

Today's Tao:     From The Daily Stoic:  Prepare yourself for trials by approaching them with a calm mind. The greatest people we know are those who can face life's hardest challenges calmly.  From Musonius Rufus: "Philosophy is nothing else than to search out by reason what is right and proper and by deeds to put it into practice." A Cato to rival Cato.   Cato persevered against Caesar.  Musonius Rufus, a friend to Plautus and Thrasea , teacher of Epictetus, maintained his virtue through the reigns of Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian. (And possibly Nerva and Trajan, too.)  He approached his philosophy as one indifferent to who wore the purple.  For this, he was exiled from Rome at least three, perhaps four, times. For Musonius, praise and fame were not proper goals.  The crowd should not be calling your name, but rather be silent because that means they are listening and learning. Like Cleanthes long before ...

Today's Tao:   From The Daily Stoic:  How many people, famous and wealthy, known wide and far in their day, are forgotten now? See that plaque dedicating that library or fountain or memorial or historical marker? Who ever thinks about those people save for the 30 seconds spent reading the plaque itself?  Do not count on leaving a mark in history so that others may know your name.  Count on leaving an unseen mark on history through your actions and how they improved the world.  From Helvidius Priscus: Helvidius opposed Nero. He opposed the next emperor, Galba, too. And the next, Otho, too. The next, Vitellius, too. And Vespasian, too.  He was tireless in his opposition to the evil that rulers do.  If only today's senators were made of such stern material.  (Lives of the Stoics, pp. 229-234) From Eric Hoffer, Part III, Factors Promoting Self-Sacrifice, Make-Believe: Doctrine Doctrine answers all. Nothing is beyond the explana...

Today's Tao: From The Daily Stoic:  Your body will eventually betray you. Age will take its toll, regardless of what you do to preserve yourself and to delay the breakdown of the flesh.  Your mind, your character, your soul need not fail first. Train yourself so that, even as age bends you, your spirit remains strong and your commitment to virtue supports you.  From Thrasea of Padua: Thrasea was contemporary with Seneca and a subject of Nero. As with so many others, he met his end at the order of the mad emperor.  Like Cato, Thrasea refused to bend. His life of virtue was consistent, even when opposing Nero.  The lesson? Stand firm in your beliefs. Like the rock in the stream, refuse to give in, regardless of the forces arrayed against you. Find virtue and find the strength to live it.  From Eric Hoffer, Part III, Factors Promoting Self-Sacrifice, Make-Believe: Doctrine Doctrine is effective only when it is beyond understanding. Once it becomes...

Today's Tao: From The Daily Stoic:  The problem is, we think we have time.  From Gaius Rubellius Plautus: Third cousin to Nero, he was the first Stoic of royal blood. He refused to seek the power that might have been his, living by his code of honor even though Nero banished him to Syria.  He could have afforded to raise the army Nero feared, but chose not to. Even when he learned that Nero sent assassins to kill him, Plautus continued to live his normal, daily life.  He truly  lived his virtue.  From Eric Hoffer, Part III, Factors Promoting Self-Sacrifice, Make-Believe: Doctrine Movements must have tenets which are both unverifiable and unbelievable. Because it is the very outrageousness that makes the belief so intransigent, so impervious to attack.  (The True Believer, XIII-56)

Today's Tao: From Cornutos of Libya: A contemporary of Seneca, Cornutos was widely read and widely admired for his knowledge.  He mostly kept his head down during the reigns of the crazy emperors, until he managed to piss off Nero (as everyone seemed to at one point or another.  For suggesting that 400 volumes might be a bit much for Nero to write in a history of Rome, he was banished. (Lives of the Stoics, pp. 209-211) From The Daily Stoic:  Find a balance between work and life.  A mind constantly struggling with problems is a mind burned out and made weak.  Just as muscles after a hard workout, the mind sometimes needs to relax and recover. From Eric Hoffer, Part III,  Factors Promoting Self-Sacrifice, Make-Believe: Things Which Are Not, cont.  People will die for symbols: a flag, a national myth, a utopian idea. This applies both to followers of the Cause and to its opponents, as well. Hitler's vision of a thousand-year Reich gave his troops somethi...

Today's Tao: From Seneca, Part 2: During his exile to Corsica, he spent time thinking about death.  "Let us postpone nothing. Let us balance life's books each day . . . The one who puts the finishing touches on their life each day is never short of time." We are dying every day and no day, once dead, can be revived.  Then, at 53, he was recalled to Rome by Agrippina, new wife of Claudius and mother of Nero, to be the future emperor's tutor.  His job was to teach politics, rhetoric, law, and all the things the boy would need to know to be emperor. Unlike Cato with Caesar or Cicero with Caesar and Mark Antony, Seneca had no option to directly oppose the empire. Instead, he tried to form Nero into a less loathsome character.  After five years of this, Agrippina had Claudius murdered when Nero was 16. Seneca wrote a book about Clemency for the young emperor, a novel idea in ancient Rome. So novel, there was no Greek word for it.  His counsel fell on rocky groun...

  Today's Tao: This one is going to take some pondering.... From Seneca the Younger, part 1: Seneca was born about the same time as Jesus, circa 3 B.C, near the end of Augustus' reign.  He was the first major Stoic figure never to have known Rome as a Republic, instead spending his whole life maneuvering through the whims of emperors. His teacher, Attalus, taught him to always strive to improve. Be better today than you were yesterday.  Make practical improvements to your life and abilities. Chronicle your life to record this improvement and, if you make a mistake, forgive yourself and do better next time. After several dramatic life events in short order — the death of his father, getting married, his firstborn son dying — he was banished from Rome by Claudius. Despite being in need of consolation himself, he spent the first part of his time in Corsica writing Consolation to Polybius , Consolation to Helvia  (his mother), and On Anger .  (Lives of the Stoics, p...

Today's Tao: From The Daily Stoic:  Pass on what wisdom you have before it disappears forever with you. From Eric Hoffer, Part III,  Factors Promoting Self-Sacrifice, Make-Believe: Deprecation of the Present, cont.  Conservative like the present because it is a culmination of the past. Liberals like the present because is the most recent example of growth toward an improved future. Radicals and reactionaries hate the present because it is wrong, deformed, guilty. Radicals believe humanity is perfectable, if only we had the right people in charge. Change the environment and we can become perfect.  Since we aren't yet, now must be terrible and must be changed. Reactionaries want to restore a glorious, ideal (unreal and imagined) past. For both, if violence is necessary to achieve their goals, then that's just what must be done. (The True Believer, XII-52)

Tao for Today:  From The Daily Stoic:  Fear the fear of death From Eric Hoffer, Part III,  Factors Promoting Self-Sacrifice, Make-Believe: Deprecation of the Present, cont.  The movement depreciates the past to gather unease about the present. Then it generates dissatisfaction with the present in the name of the glorious future. Then it retcons the past into a Golden Age.  Put together, it brings the true believer to understand their role as merely a small part in the parade between Glorious Past and Utopia to come.  (The True Believer, XII-43)

Today's Tao:

Today's Tao: From The Daily Stoic:  Examine your life before it's too late.  "Death lies heavy upon one who, known exceedingly well by all, dies unknown to himself." ~ Seneca  From Eric Hoffer, Part III:  Factors Promoting Self-Sacrifice, Make-Believe: Deprecation of the Present  In the early stages of the movement, the past is established, senile, a drain and stoppage to the pristine opportunity of the present. The past is old. The present is where we must throw of those ancient shackles. Attack the past so as to liberate the present.  As the movement coalesces and assumes a nascent ruling form, this metamorphosizes into a deprecation of the present for the imagined future.  "To lost one's life is but to lose the present and, clearly, to lose a defiled, worthless present is not much to lose."  The present, mean and vile, is untenable. It is not worth living. Therefore, you must give yourself up to the movement, where you can be part of a glo...

Tao for Today: From The Daily Stoic:  Reason is there for you at all times . . . if you choose to use it.  From Eric Hoffer, Part III,  Factors Promoting Self-Sacrifice, Make-Believe: The movement must make dying and killing — death itself — part of a pageant, a story, a theatrical piece bent on deceiving the people into believing that it's all make-believe. "It is one of the main tasks of a real leader to mask the grim reality of dying and killing by evoking in his followers the illusion that they are participating in a grandiose spectacle, a solemn or light-hearted dramatic performance." (The True Believer, XIII-47)

Daily Tao: From The Daily Stoic:  Imagine today is your final day in this life... Can you be a perfect Stoic today?  Achieving perfection of ethos (character) today?  From Eric Hoffer, Part III, Factors Promoting Self-Sacrifice: Hoffer offers an example using the Kremlin and the USSR's Iron Curtain. The restriction on immigration and influx of outsiders was a way to build group cohesiveness.  By eliminating outside influence, they reinforced the belief that "there is nothing worthy and eternal, nothing deserving of admiration and reverence, nothing worth identifying oneself with, outside the confines of holy Russia."  (The True Believer, XIII-45) From Agrippinus: Living in the age of tyrants Claudius and Nero, and having lost his father to the previous tyrant, Tiberius, Agrippinus stood apart from most people who kept their head down and tried not to be noticed by the murderous madmen in charge. Despite the threat of execution for those who refused to live ...

Tao for today: From Eric Hoffer, Identification With A Collective Whole: A mental / psychological / spiritual connection to a group or community  allows for a much more robust resistance to intimidation / torture by others.  Want to break someone? Convince them they are individual first. That they have no strength outside themselves. There is no connection to a continuous, undying whole.  (The True Believer, XII-45)

Tao for Today From The Daily Stoic: Do not go looking for a fight, but do not shirk from one that is necessary. Cowardice robs from us. Be brave. Be dignified.  (p. 367)  From Eric Hoffer, Factors Promoting Self-Sacrifice: To ripen a person for self-sacrifice he must be stripped of his individual identity and distinctiveness. He must cease to be . . . a human atom with an existence bound by birth and death.... When asked who he is, his automatic response is that he is a German, a Russian, a Japanese, a Christian, a Muslim, a member of a certain tribe or family. He has no purpose, worth and destiny apart of the collective body; and as long as the body lives he cannot really die.  (The True Believer: XIII-44, Identification With A Collective Whole) From Arius of Alexandria: Focus on the four: justice, honesty, self-control, and courage. . . . qualities — one he illustrated well in his own life —  philoponia , or industriousness. (Lives of the Stoics, pp. 169-176)

From Athenodorus of Tarsus: I must keep my head in times of trouble. I am in charge of my actions. Let them be just that: actions, not reactions. As important as study and contemplation are, I must allow myself respite at times. To avoid becoming overwhelmed with life, responsibility, problems, and the like, it is perfectly reasonable to temporarily retreat to a time with friends, to a time for play and ease and relaxation. When you find yourself getting angry . . . do not say or do anything until you have repeated the alphabet to yourself. (Lives of the Stoics, pp. 163-167) From The Daily Stoic:  Value time more highly than I do. Remember: is this worth my investment? From Eric Hoffer, starting Part III, United Action and Self-Sacrifice: The vigor of a mass movement stems from the propensity of its followers for united action and self-sacrifice. For those without a gratifying sense of self, without a feeling that they are personally worthy, mass movements offer a replacement re...

From Eric Hoffer:  The Sinners, last of section II, The Potential Converts Sinners and criminals make fallow ground for the movement's gatherers. The movement offers the the sinner a cause by which to atone for past transgressions. Also, criminals often find it easier to employ violence and other immoral tactics in defense, and offense, of the movement.  "It sometimes seems that mass movements are custom-made to fit the needs of the criminal —not only for the catharsis of his soul but also for the exercise of his inclinations and talents."  (The True Believer, XI-42) From Porcia Cato: Porcia (aka Portia in Shakespeare and other literary works) was the daughter of Cato the Younger , wife of Brutus (yes, that Brutus), and a dedicated Stoic in her own right. She suffered mightily through the deaths of her father and first husband, through the flight from Rome of her second husband after the murder of Caesar, and through illness until her death. ...thousands at his bidding s...

From Eric Hoffer: Boredom invites recruitment to mass movement. In the earliest stages of the movement, often, those with fairly comfortable lives, relatively free of hardship and persecution, but without creative outlet who wallow in ennui, they are the earliest supporters. In the joyless marriage, traditional women's roles without jobs outside the home, can lead to a lack of fulfillment. "Embracing a holy cause and dedicating their energies and substance to its advancement, they find a new life of purpose and meaning.... Hitler was financed by the wives of some of the great industrialists long before their husband's had heard of him. Miriam Beard tells of a similar role played by bored wives of businessmen before the French Revolution." (The True Believer, X-41) From Cato the Younger: Called Rome's Iron Man , Cato was, in a way, the opposite of his contemporary, Cicero: Cato was not a writer, but instead  lived Stoic virtues in everything he did. Much like Anti...

From Eric Hoffer:   Any group not part of the majority naturally feels a sense of insecurity. Those bent to preserve their identity feel it's less than those determined to blend in with the majority. They feel the prejudice and discrimination more keenly. This is more true the further you go on to range of success. The most successful and the least successful feel it more strongly than those in the middle. (The True Believer, IX-40)  From Cicero:   While not a Stoic per se , he was intimately familiar with Stoicism.  He once called it "the only true philosophy," but he did not have the moral strength to live up to its principles.  His guiding lights were love of fame, love of honor (i.e. veneration), and love of power. He achieved all three, often by means antithetical to Stoic principles. Later in life, after he had fallen from the heights of political power and financial wealth, he ended up accused by the very powers that be whom he tried to set against o...

From Eric Hoffer:   The Ambitious Facing Unlimited Opportunities  If they see a limitless future in front of them, people may discount the present in favor of what remains to be done.  These people may be more susceptible to a movement than those who focus on the here and now.  (The True Believer, VIII-39) From Diotimus:   Try not to get the epithet "The Vicious."  Learning by negative example, Diotimus shows us that, regardless of what else you do in life, no matter how well you behave in all other circumstances, a single act of iniquity can become your legacy.  "If it's not right, don't do it. If it's not true, don't say it." ~Marcus Aurelius  (Lives of the Stoics, pp. 109-112) From Hop o' My Thumb / Little Poucet:  If you're poor and your parents plan to lose you in the woods, leave a trail of something inedible so you can find your way home.  When an ogre threatens to eat you, switch your headwear with that of his own chi...

From Eric Hoffer:   The Inordinately Selfish . . . Truly selfish people are susceptible to frustration. Their disappointment is more poignant, making them most persuasive champions of selflessness. When they lose faith in themselves, they attach themselves to the Cause.  (The True Believer, VII-38) From Posidonius of Apamea:   Travel and experience form and inform your philosophy.  Do both.  No ivory tower for you. Good habits and lifestyle curb the baser impulses of our nature. Design your life to promote contemplation of truth and virtue.  Promote these among others by your example.  Though others may not pay heed to the lesson, persevere.  (Lives of the Stoics, pp. 99-107)

From Huang Po: There are three types of relinquishment: the first is relinquishing everything, inside out, like in the Void. Nothing remains. Subjectivity and objectivity are forgotten.  The second is performing acts of virtue while relinquishing of merit and any desire for reward.  The third and lowest form of relinquishment is performing virtuous acts in hope of reward by those who have heard the Void and Dharma and are therefore unattached.  (The Chun Chou Record, 22) Note: Relating here what I read in Huang Po seems to be counterproductive to my efforts. I need to work on absorbing his wisdom directly, without thought, and making these notes is distracting my from my learning. I'll still read his works, but I won't be including them here. I apologize if anyone cares and wanted to see more.  If you want to explore this wisdom yourself, the book is THE ZEN TEACHINGS OF HUANG PO on the transmissions of Mind  translated by John Blofeld . (This is not an affil...

From Huang Po: Trying to eliminate environmental distractions in your effort to void thought is to miss the mark. The world and all in it is part of the Mind. Void your thoughts. You will find that the ten thousand things void themselves.  (The Chun Chou Record, 21) From Eric Hoffer: Hoffer terms misfits those who are "restless, dissatisfied, and haunted by the fear that their best years will be wasted before they reach their goal." They may be part of a movement, but not irredeemably so, as they still have hope they could do something with their lives. Veterans, returning from strict military life to more open civilian life, fall into this category.  (The True Believer, VI-36) From Panaetius of Rhodes: Ethics must be applied to personal life, professional life, political life . . . all aspects must include thoughts concerning right action. Our Philosophy must be connected to our daily life. We must be prepared to defend our morality at all times, as Fate ma...