Differences
That it is suitable to cultivate
July 18th 2016
As well as feeling they have to imitate others, most people also need to affirm their own differences. So they often end up imitating others where they ought to be making an effort to find their own way, and opposing them when on the contrary they should be seeking harmony. Well, it is precisely this attitude of opposition that makes them most like the crowd they wish to stand out from.
If you really want to be different from others, imitate instead the small minority of sages, who work only to find inner peace and harmony and to bring it to those around them. By developing that kind of difference, you will come to understand human suffering, illness and anxieties, whereas all those people who are alike do not understand each other, even if they suffer the same ills. As they are only concerned with their own personal problems, they are incapable of putting themselves in anyone else’s place. For they have imitated them in precisely the wrong areas: in their whims, their egotism and their passions.