--''Dienekes speaks : 'He observed that often those who seek to overcome the fear of death preach that the souls doesn't expire with the body.' ~ ''To my mind this is foolishness. Wishful thinking. Others, barbarians primarily, say that when we die we pass on into paradise. I ask them all : If you really believe this, why not make away with yourself at once and speed the trip?
--'Achilles, Homer tells us, possessed true-andreia. But did he? Scion of an immortal mother, dipped as a babe in the waters of the Styx, knowing himself to be, save his heel invulnerable? Cowards would be rarer than feathers on fish if we all knew that.
(-his opinion asked, do any of the city possess true-andreia -.)
--'Of all in Lakedaemons, our friend Polynikes comes closest. But even his valour I find unsatisfactory. He fights not out of fear of dishonour, but for greed of glory. This may be noble, or at least unbase, but is it true-andreia?
(-asked if it in fact existed.) 'It is no phantom. I have seen it. My brother Iatrokles possessed it in moments. When I beheld it's grace upon him, I stood in awe. It radiated, sublime. In those hours he fought not like a man but as a god. 'Leonidas has it on occasion. Olympieus doesn't. I don't. None of us here does. Do you know who owns it, this pure form of courage, more than any other I've known? 'My wife, - he turned to Alexandria, 'And your mother, the lady Paraleia. 'There is a clue here. The words themselves for courage, andreia and aphobia, are female, whereas - phobos - and - tromos -, terror are masculine. Perhaps the god we seek is not a god at all, but a goddess. I don't know.
--The Spartans have no patience for such inquiries of the salon. I remember asking my brother once, on campaign, a day when he had fought like an immortal. I was mad to know what he had felt in those moments, what was the essence experienced within? He looked at me as if I had taken leave of sanity, ''Less philosophy, Dienekes, and more virtue.''
--After six days on the front line - 'The opposite of fear, Dienekes said, 'is love.'
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--Dianekes speaks :- 'Brothers, I'm not a king or a general. I've never held rank beyond that of a platoon commander. So I say to you now only what I would say to my own men, knowing that fear that stands unspoken in each heart - not of death, but worse, of faltering or failing, or somehow proving unworthy in this, the ultimate hour.
--'Here is what you do, friends. Forget country. Forget king. Forget wife and children and freedom. Forget every concept, however noble, that you imagine you fight for here today. Act for this alone : for the man who stands at your shoulder. He is everything, and everything is contained within him. That's all I know. That's all I can tell you.'
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--Oxien angellien Lajedaemononiois hoti tede keimetha tois keinon rhemasi peithemenois -
--Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here, obedient to their laws, we lie.
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< excerts from : The Gates of Fire, by Steven Pressfield. >
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--(Review!)
--[review :- /Spartiate living - review phobologia - review E=MC2 - review Schrodinger's cat - review Minkowski's eight-dimensiobal hyper-space. 'Seperatikn may just be an illusion. When we feel love in any form, it has the effect of beginning to shatter that illusion. - review RN (rules aboard - colony Law -{review RHS} - review Red Kangaroo.) - Without consciousness acting as an observer and interpreter, everything would exist only as pure potential. That pure potential is the virtual domain, the third level of existence. It is non-local and cannot be depleted, it is unending and all-encompassing. Tapping into that potential is what allows us to make miracles. - review Einstein - Podolsky - Rosen paradox.]
--'In synchrodestiny, we consciously participate in the creation of our lives by understanding the world that is beyond our senses, the world of soul.' < Deepak Chopra. >
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--There is little that I can add to these excerts, as I feel they speak to the heart, of fear, of love, of duty. The speech beginning : Here is what you do friends - I have given on two occasions, and not one of the company to whom I spoke ever let down his companions in those nexus of stress. The review notes are repeated reviews that I study every so often and apply the contemplations there-of in the uplifting talk of preparations for danger. Be well. Keep on keeping on. May the blessings be.
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''The Noble Mind Has No Resentments.''