A Few Passages for August

Here are a few passages that I’ve been thinking about as of late, and I thought I would share them just in case they are also interesting to some of you.

Phaedo, 62b, trans. Brann, Kalkavage, & Salem:

“For it would seem,” said Socrates, “to be unaccountable if put this way. And yet just maybe it does have an account. The account that’s given about these things in the Mysteries—that we humans are in a sort of garrison and one is bound not to release oneself from it nor to run off — appears to me to be a grand one and not easy to make out. And yet this, at any rate, seems to me to be well put, Cebes: The gods care for us, and we humans are one of the gods’ possessions. Or doesn’t it seem so to you?”

Damascius, Commentary on the Phaedo I, §10 commenting on 62b above, bolded emphasis added — a passage I’ve been considering for over a month after it was discussed at length in a conversation:

What is the “kind of custody”? — Viewed as the guarding power, it is Dionysus himself, who loosens the shackle for whom he will, since he is also the cause of individual life. Viewed as the object of the custody, on the other hand, it is the experience itself of being bound in the body, which has befallen us of necessity as an act of justice; for by actualizing her own separate existence the soul has been locked up in a body which, though her own, has also many wants, to make her feel her dependence on the common form and teach her what it is to be an individual.

Katherine Daiki Senshin Griffith, “Peace of Mind: How Do We Find Calm When the World Is Full of Conflict?” Tricycle Magazine, Summer 2024:

When we witness harm, it’s easy to see things in clear-cut categories, or to negate the ingredients you don’t jibe with. Though it can be clear that what you are witnessing is causing great harm, it is often less clear how to dismantle and unravel the causes. The fear aroused by the complexity of the situation can lead to extreme viewpoints on all sides.

Fundamentalism or rigid righteousness is extremely dangerous, with its ideas of purity, exclusion, and uncompromising perfectionism. This does not mean one can’t take a strong stand. But doing that can take many forms when you are freed from rigid thinking. A staunch fanatic might say “always speak out,” or “never speak harshly,” or “stick to your view no matter what.” A freely functioning awake peacemaker is alive and available for whatever is needed. There are many different ways we can say stop it. Solutions come with the ability to look more closely and deeply at all the ingredients and all the causal conditions. We should look inside ourselves for our own rigid thinking.

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