201230 What I learned in my studies this morning

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 him, he was a strong believer that women should be educated as were men (a controversial stand at the time).

He taught that hard work, diligence, perseverance, and endurance were proper pursuits. Use these challenges to further your own virtue. If you must suffer, you might as well make it mean something.

"If one accomplishes some good though with toil, the toil passes, but the good remains.  If one domes something dishonorable with pleasure, the pleasure passes, but the dishonor remains."

 (Lives of the Stoics, pp. 237-249)

From Eric Hoffer, Part III, Factors Promoting Self-Sacrifice, Make-Believe:

Doctrine

 

There seems to be a connection between self-doubt and credulity. If you are unsatisfied with yourself, you may be more susceptible to doctrine which absolves you from personal responsibility and the need to be in charge of your own fate. 

"There is no hope for the frustrated in the actual and the possible. Salvation can come to them only from the miraculous....They ask to be deceived." 

(The True Believer, XIII-59)