210226 What I learned in my studies this morning

Today's Tao:

After a bitter quarrel, some resentment remains.

What can be done about this?

The wise keep their half of the bargain

But do not exact their due.

Virtuous people perform their part,

But those without Virtue require others to fulfill their obligations.

The Tao of heaven is impartial.

It remains with those who are good.

From The Daily Stoic: 

 

“Another has done me wrong? Let him see to it. He has his own tendencies, and his own affairs. What I have now is what the common nature has willed, and what I endeavor to accomplish now is what my nature wills.”—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 5.25

Getting pissed off on occasion is natural. When someone undermines me or my plans, intentionally or accidentally, or hurts my feelings or those of someone I care for, it's the easiest thing in the world to leap from calm to mad. 

What happens next is telling. Do I harangue them, orally or in an email? When I have, I've almost always regretted it later. Act in haste; repent at leisure. 

Better to find a way to vent my ire privately, without audience. Or, better still, to release it, knowing that holding such emotions is folly, full of ill effects on my mind and my behavior. 

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Again, the Tao and the Stoic coincide in wisdom. Fascinating. 

From Eric Hoffer, PART 4 Beginning and End:  

The Fanatics 

The Fanatics are an active danger to the Movement once the fighting is done. Hatred has become habit and continues to look for an outlet, more enemies. If there are no more external enemies, and enemy inside is meet enough. 

(The True Believer, XVI-110)