DXVI. Upon Victory, say nothing. Regain your calm and depart.
DXVII. At the first glance of steel, the boy’s eyes widened. Heart palpitations and a shortness of breath . . . He resists the mother that pulls Him away, etching details of armor in mind.
DXVIII. If cowardice were shamed as much as sexual “immorality,” the world would not be in dire straits.
DXXI. The hurling of one’s self against an ever-changing reality determines one’s boundary; one’s limit.
DXXII. ‘Know thyself!’ So said the inscription above Apollo’s temple. This was not the result of introspection, but rather an exhortation to uncover one’s limit. Thereby, the Spirit is revealed, and the extent to which the body can execute it.
The Will and the Body. They cease and whither into passivity; or they perish at a boundary that they cannot surmount. But for a rare few, that boundary is broken, and they begin to define something new.
DXXIII. Those unable to discard the fear of death are categorically barred from true Being.
DXXVIII. To be untested is worse than defeat.
DXXIX. When Apollo’s dictum appears in other (religious) contexts, it is a foreboding to not even attempt a thing . . . “Know thyself!” Means: “Know thy place.”
DXXXI. Many regard defeat, loss, suffering, hardship and failure as a spite from God and as a command, from thereafter, to live with bowed posture—to never foray again.
DXXXVII. Pray not for the Strength to endure; lest you be made a slave, a servant, a pilgrim, a prisoner, a victim, a martyr or the like. Pray instead for boldness, the audaciousness to attack. Pray instead for Victory . . . the skill needed to overcome.
DLXII. There are children that clench their jaw to spite pain.
DLI. To be Strong, forget much.
DLXV. Weaklings cease at their front door; their sons, one step behind them. Their progeny, seeing this, never leave bed. The outlier does, and is harmed. “Tradition.”
DLXXXVII. The Sun is new, forever.
DXC. Courage is the first of all Virtues, indeed, and the profoundest example of a universal ethic. Be it a warrior, a priestess, a young boy or a girl—the Brave Act has value in itself. It does not matter—at all—if it results in life or death . . . but its meaning is denser in the latter.
DCVIII. The Hero’s excess is a jovial laugh.
Excess—enjoyment of the human condition . . . precisely at those junctures where others weep.
DCXXII. If it does not result in clarity or Virtue—reject it.
DCXXX. In Seneca, God says: You who have chosen righteousness, what complaint can you make of me?
DCXXXII. Adherence to a principle in spite of pain or outcomes; those that look up, those that don’t grovel—
DCXXXIX. There is a mischief in non-reaction.
DCXLIX. The body should be loved, but also understood as a vehicle for expressing the Spirit. As such, it is pushed hard in training, given good rest, but ultimately—there is a readiness to part with it.
DCLVI. Never avert your gaze out of fear; take up space; never minimize your posture; do not boast or seek to rile the Self up; you are immune to the enemy’s provocations; internal disturbances, are in fact foreign; death is a trivial event—
DXVIII. If cowardice were shamed as much as sexual “immorality,” the world would not be in dire straits. ----ah, and now in the perversion, sexual immorality is the perceived overcoming of cowardice.
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These all speak to the remembering, the nourishment which comes from the recognizing that the "Font of Immortality" springs from within- does not come to be known from without; the depths to dig to allow these pure waters to flow forth.....to act without attachment to the fruits of the labor....etc.