210101 What I learned in my studies this morning

Today's Tao:

 

The heavy is the root of the light; 

The still is the root of unrest. 

From The Daily Stoic: 

 

The new year begins with Epictetus' first and most important lesson: learn what is up to us and what is not up to us. 

Spend your time, your money, your attention, your efforts on that which is up to you. The rest will take care of itself. 

From Junius Rusticus:

Grandson of the man who Musonius convinced not to defend him, and tutor to Marcus Aurelius, Junius Rusticus succeeded where Seneca failed with Nero: he taught an emperor to be a good man. 

From Rusticus, I learned to become aware of the fact that I needed amendment and training for my character; and not to be led aside into an argumentative sophistry; nor compose treatises on speculative subjects, or deliver little homilies, or pose ostentatiously as the moral athlete or unselfish man; and to eschew rhetoric, poetry, and fine language; and not to go about the house in my robes, nor commit any such breach of good taste; and to write letters without affectation, like his own letter written to my mother from Sinuessa; to show oneself ready to be reconciled to those who have lost their temper and trespassed against one, and ready to meet them halfway as soon as ever they seem to be willing to retrace their steps; to read with minute care and not to be content with a superficial bird’s-eye view; nor to be too quick in agreeing with every voluble talker; and to make the acquaintance of the remembrances of Epictetus, which he supplied me with out of his own library. ~ Marcus Aurelius 

Then came Justin Martyr. As mayor of Rome, Junius sentenced him to death for disrespecting the gods, much as had the Athenian court in Socrates' case so long before. 

Though correct as a matter of law, this act, this denial of the same kind of mercy urged upon Nero by the collaborator Seneca, small as it was in the big picture (war, plague, and unrest leading the news stories of the day), created the legacy of Rusticus for the Christian world: he executed a man solely for his religious beliefs. 

 (Lives of the Stoics, pp. 267-277)

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

Fanaticism 

A fanatic find meaning in the Cause that they don't find at home, in their hearts and minds and souls. Their personal worth is derived from their dedication to the Cause, which dedication they can, and often will, prove through disregarding their own lives to the point of self-sacrifice. 

It's the passion of their attachment to the Cause, not the Grand Scheme of Things itself, which is their meaning.  In fact, the Cause may be interchangeable with other Causes (conversion from one to another rather than compromise of whichever provides meaning at the moment). 

(The True Believer, XIII-61)