210206 What I learned in my studies this morning

Today's Tao:

We will not hurt one another, 

And the Virtue in each one of us refreshes everyone.

From The Daily Stoic: 

 

Being The Man in the Arena is noble, but only if I am there for the right reasons. Compulsion is not the right reason. 

I must use reason to determine my reasons and make my efforts worthy. 

“I don’t agree with those who plunge headlong into the middle of the flood and who, accepting a turbulent life, struggle daily in great spirit with difficult circumstances. The wise person will endure that, but won’t choose it—choosing to be at peace, rather than at war.”—Seneca, Moral Letters, 28.7

From Eric Hoffer, Part III, Unifying Agents:

Leadership 

Again, it's the drive to escape themselves, the urge to be undifferentiated in a crowd and therefore blameless, that makes the Frustrated such apt followers. 

The frustrated follow a leader less because of their faith that he is leading them to a promised land than because of their immediate feeling that he is leading them away from their unwanted selves. Surrender to a leader is not a means to an end but a fulfillment. Whither they are led is of secondary importance.

(The True Believer, XIV-94)