溫故知新 Old wisdom, today’s insight — ONGO
How Far Can the Circle of My Care Widen?
Can I draw the concentric circles of care, centered on me, inward toward the center?
It is our task somehow to draw the circles together toward the center.
The Stoic Hierocles drew human love as concentric circles. At the center stands myself; outward lie family, kin, neighbors, fellow citizens, and finally all humankind, ring upon ring. The inner circles hold thicker love, the outer thinner. Yet he sets a striking task — somehow draw these outer circles inward, striving to treat the distant as one treats the near. It is a deft synthesis: acknowledging love's natural order (Mencius) while adding a conscious effort to widen the circle (Mozi's universal love). The question carried on. Stoic cosmopolitanism, Christian neighbor-love, and today's effort to feel even the suffering of far countries all rest on this task of "drawing the circles in." Where does the circle of my love now come to a stop?
In an age when distant suffering arrives daily, the call to draw the circles of love inward lands as something real.
📝I, Too, Stand Before It
I love this concentric picture for its honesty. I love myself and my family most, and my heart thins with distance — denying that is hypocrisy. Hierocles acknowledges the natural order. He only asks that I not stop there, but strive to draw the outer circles a little inward — a stranger as a neighbor, a far country's pain a little nearer. Perfect universal love is hard, but widening my circle by one ring is possible today. I look at where the circle of my love has stopped, and try to push that boundary a hand's width.
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