Sayings of Ramakrishna 283

A kite with a fish in its beak was followed by a host of crows and other kites, which were screeching and pecking at it, and were trying to snatch the fish away. 

In whatever direction it went the crowd of kites and crows followed it, screeching and cawing. 

Getting tired of this annoyance, the kite let go the fish, when it was instantly caught by another kite, and at once the crowd of kites and crows transferred their kind attentions to the new owner of the fish. 

The first kite was left unmolested, and sat calmly on the branch of a tree. 

Seeing this quiet and tranquil state of the bird, the Avadhûta, saluting it, said, "You are my Guru, O Kite; for you have taught me that so long as man does not throw off the burden of the worldly desires he carries, he cannot be undisturbed and at peace with himself." 

Cicero, Stoic Paradoxes 3.1

Paradox 3: That All Misdeeds Are in Themselves Equal, and Good Deeds the Same 
 
The matter it may be said is a trifle, but the crime is enormous; for crimes are not to be measured by the issue of events, but from the bad intentions of men. The fact in which the sin consists may be greater in one instance and less in another, but guilt itself, in whatsoever light you behold it, is the same. 
 
A pilot oversets a ship laden with gold or one laden with straw: in value there is some difference, but in the ignorance of the pilot there is none. 
 
Your illicit desire has fallen upon an obscure female. The mortification affects fewer persons than if it had broken out in the case of some high-born and noble virgin; nevertheless it has been guilty, if it be guilty to overstep the mark. 
 
When you have done this, a crime has been committed; nor does it matter in aggravation of the fault how far you run afterward; certainly it is not lawful for anyone to commit sin, and that which is unlawful is limited by this sole condition, that it is shown to be wrong. 
 
If this guilt can neither be made greater nor less (because, if the thing was unlawful, therein sin was committed), then the vicious acts which spring out of that which is ever one and the same must necessarily be equal. 
 
Now if virtues are equal among themselves, it must necessarily follow that vices are so likewise; and it is most easy to be perceived that a man cannot be better than good, more temperate than temperate, braver than brave, nor wiser than wise. 

—from Cicero, Stoic Paradoxes 3 
 
As if it weren’t shocking enough to hear that virtue is the only human good, the Stoics then proceed to claim that all virtues are equally good, and that all vices are equally bad. This is why I am plodding through this section even more slowly than usual. 
 
I would like to think that I am sensitive to subtleties, and yet I also run the danger of piling on so many conditions that I end up erasing the original distinction. Initially, it didn’t sit right with me that good and evil could be so clearly delineated, although I eventually discovered why my confusion arose from my own vacillation, a desire for a convenient escape clause from my own responsibilities. 
 
Even as we should rightly speak of more or less, this can only be gauged by first recognizing a simple state of presence or absence. However great the extent of the degrees, the identity always remains one and the same in kind, just as increasing or decreasing the quantity does not alter the underlying existence of a quality. 
 
Furthermore, as much as the circumstances will vary, the intentions behind our human acts are either in accord with nature or contrary to nature, such that an offense may be viewed as big or small, narrow or broad, but it stands as an offense nonetheless, and it therefore serves to deny us a life of excellence. Fiddle with the accidents as much as you wish, the essence will stay constant. 
 
If that comes across as too abstract, Cicero’s examples are refreshingly grounded in everyday experience. Regardless of the cargo, the captain was still careless at the helm. Regardless of her background, the playboy still treated the woman shamefully. The slacker is a slacker, and the scoundrel is a scoundrel. 
 
I will never forget a nasty little fellow I once knew, who crashed my friend’s car, but refused to take the blame on the grounds that it was already such a wreck. I had to remind myself that beating him senseless could not be justified on the grounds that he was already such a selfish bastard. 
 
A few years later, I watched in horror as a frat boy ridiculed a young lady until she burst into tears. I couldn’t find the words to put him in his place, so I merely stared at him in disbelief. “Chill out, dude,” he said. “It’s not like she’s a hottie or anything.” This is what happens when we grade our behavior on a sliding scale of utility. 
 
Whether it is to save my hide or to avoid an awkward moment, to lie is to lie. Whether it is to win the big contract or to satisfy a whim, to steal is to steal. So too, any integrity is an act of courage, and any gift is an act of kindness, no matter the stakes. The true value of the deed is in the purity of the disposition, not in calculating the most favorable outcomes. 
 
In other words, virtues and vices cannot be tabulated on a business ledger. One person can be richer than another, but all good people are equal to one another, whatever their other assets might be. 

—Reflection written in 5/1999 

IMAGE: Quentin Matsys, Ill-Matched Lovers (c. 1525) 

Destiny

Shigeru Aoki, Destiny (1904) 

Let There Be Light

Shigeru Aoki, Let There Be Light (1906) 

Myth

Shigeru Aoki, Myth (1906) 

Pray at Dawn

Shigeru Aoki, Pray at Dawn (c. 1907) 

Plutarch, The Life of Cato the Younger 29

Metellus himself was still unyielding and bold, but since he saw that his followers were completely terrified before Cato and thought him utterly invincible, he suddenly rushed off into the forum, assembled the people, and made a long and invidious speech against Cato; then, crying out that he was fleeing from Cato's tyranny and the conspiracy against Pompey, for which the city would speedily repent in that it was dishonoring so great a man, he set out at once for Asia, intending to lay these accusations before Pompey. 

Accordingly, Cato was in high repute for having relieved the tribunate of a great burden, and for having in a manner overthrown the power of Pompey in the person of Metellus. 

But he won still more esteem by not allowing the senate to carry out its purpose of degrading Metellus and deposing him from his office, which course Cato opposed, and brought the senate over to his views. 

For the multitude considered it a token of humanity and moderation not to trample on his enemy or insult him after prevailing completely over him, and prudent men thought it right and advantageous not to irritate Pompey. 

After this, Lucullus, having come back from his expedition,⁠ the consummation and glory of which Pompey was thought to have taken away from him, was in danger of losing his triumph, since Gaius Memmius raised a success­ful faction against him among the people and brought legal accusations against him, more to gratify Pompey than out of private enmity. 

But Cato, being related to Lucullus, who had his sister Servilia to wife, and thinking the attempt a shameful one, opposed Memmius, and thereby exposed himself to many slanderous accusations. 

Finally, however, though he was on the point of being ejected from his office on the ground that he exercised tyrannical power, he so far prevailed as to compel Memmius himself to desist from his accusations and shun the contest. 

Lucullus, accordingly, celebrated his triumph, and therefore clung still more closely to the friendship of Cato, finding in him a great bulwark of defense against the power of Pompey. 

Cicero, Stoic Paradoxes 2.2

Do you threaten me with death, which is separating me from mankind? Or with exile, which is removing me from the wicked? 
 
Death is dreadful to the man whose all is extinguished with his life; but not to him whose glory never can die. Exile is terrible to those who have, as it were, a circumscribed habitation; but not to those who look upon the whole globe but as one city. 
 
Troubles and miseries oppress you who think yourself happy and prosperous. Your lusts torment you, day and night you are upon the rack; for whom that which you possess is not sufficient, and who are ever trembling lest even that should not continue; the consciousness of your misdeeds tortures you; the terrors of the laws and the dread of justice appall you; look where you will, your crimes, like so many furies, meet your view and suffer you not to breathe. 
 
Therefore, as no man can be happy if he is wicked, foolish, or indolent, so no man can be wretched  if he is virtuous, brave, and wise. Glorious is the life of that man whose virtues and practice are praiseworthy; nor indeed ought that life to be escaped from which is deserving of praise, though it might well be if it were a wretched one. 
 
We are therefore to look upon whatever is worthy of praise as at once happy, prosperous, and desirable. 

—from Cicero, Stoic Paradoxes 2 
 
As children, we would often loudly protest against whatever tasks we were given, rallying around that mighty battle cry: “It’s no fun!” We stared back in confusion if a teacher suggested that things would only be as fun as we chose to make them. In hindsight, that right there was some brilliant philosophy. 
 
Wherever I have discovered the meaning and the value in the work, there I have also found the satisfaction of a job well done. It only remains for me to decide whether I will seek out the benefit in every possible circumstance, or allow the immediate impressions to make my decisions for me. 
 
This is true for both the mundane chores and the existential challenges. Doing the dishes or mowing the lawn becomes a pleasure when it is a labor of love, just as the threat of exile or of death loses its sting when our very honor is at stake. The more I understand the goodness within it, the more I will find my happiness in its eager pursuit. 
 
If I merely view myself as a creature made to consume, my mortality will haunt me, because dying will mean an end to my shallow amusements. If I define my sense of worth through the fickle opinions of others, the prospect of banishment will terrify me, because I have no other measure for who I am. 
 
If, however, I center my life around the simple practice of the virtues, I will no longer be so troubled by petty questions of duration or location. Such a peace of mind is complete at every moment, and it can be present in any place. 
 
I often observe how a happy man might be rich and famous, but being rich and famous will never make a man happy. What use is there in possessing talent without wisdom? Strength without courage? Luxury without temperance? Prosperity without justice? 
 
I recently read the biography of a legendary rock star, and my mind always came back to a single theme, running throughout the entire story: nothing the world could give him was able to compensate for what he had failed to be within himself. Indeed, as the perks constantly increased, his joys and hopes inevitably decreased. This is sadly a familiar tale for so many of our glitterati. 
 
We become happy when we fulfill our human nature, and not by rearranging the furniture, so we will rise or fall through the content of our character. The only way to avoid being haunted by the Furies is to radically reform our own hearts and minds. 

—Reflection written in 5/1999 

IMAGE: Jacques Francois Ferdinand Lairesse, Orestes and the Furies (c. 1890) 

Stoic Snippets 282

The safety of life is this, to examine everything all through, what it is itself, that is its material, what the formal part; with all your soul to do justice and to say the truth. 

What remains, except to enjoy life by joining one good thing to another, so as not to leave even the smallest intervals between? 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.29 

IMAGE: Nicolas Beatrizet, The Triumph of Marcus Aurelius (1550) 

Dhammapada 417

Him I call indeed a Brahmana who, after leaving all bondage to men, has risen above all bondage to the gods, and is free from all and every bondage. 

IMAGE: Shigeru Aoki, Escape from the Land of the Dead (1903) 

Michiel Sweerts, The Seven Works of Mercy

Michiel Sweerts, The Seven Works of Mercy (c. 1649) 

Feeding the Hungry 

Refreshing the Thirsty 

Clothing the Naked 

Harboring the Stranger 

Visiting the Sick 

Ministering to Prisoners 

Burying the Dead 

Works of Mercy

Master of Alkmaar, The Seven Works of Mercy (c. 1504) 

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Caritas (1559) 

Frans Francken the Younger, The Seven Works of Mercy (1605) 

Caravaggio, The Seven Works of Mercy (1607) 

Pierre Montallier, Works of Mercy (1680) 

Justus Lipsius, On Constancy 1.16

Examples of necessary alteration, or death in the whole world. That heaven and the elements are changed, and shall perish; the like is to be seen in towns, provinces, and kingdoms; finally, that all things here do turn about the wheel, and that nothing is stable or constant.

"It is an eternal decree, pronounced of the world from the beginning, and of all things therein, to be born and to die, to begin and to end. That supreme judge of all things would have nothing firm and stable but himself alone, as says the tragic poet, Sophocles: 

"From age and death God only stands free,
But all things else by time consumed be. 

"All these things which you behold and admire either shall perish in their due time, or at least be altered and changed: See you the sun? He faints. The moon? She labors and languishes. The stars? They fail and fall. 

"And howsoever the wit of man cloaks and excuses these matters, yet there have happened and daily do in the celestial body such things as confound both the rules and wits of the mathematicians. I omit comets strange in form, situation, and motion, which all the universities shall never persuade me to be in the air, or of the air. 

"But behold, our astrologers were sorely troubled of late with strange motions and new stars. This very year there arose a star whose increasing and decreasing was plainly marked, and we saw, a matter hardly to be credited, even in the heaven itself, a thing to have beginning and end. 

"And Varro cries out and affirms that the evening star called of Plautus Versperugo, and of Homer Hersperus, had changed his color, his bigness, his fashion, and his course. 

"Next unto the heaven, behold the air, it is altered daily and passes into winds, clouds, and showers. 

"Go to the waters. Those floods and fountains which we affirm to be perpetual, do sometimes fail altogether, and at other times change their channel and ordinary course. The huge ocean, a great and secret part of nature, is ever tossed and tumbled with tempests. And if you are wanting, yet has it its flowing and ebbing of waters, and that we may perceive it to be subject to decay; it swells and swages daily in its parts.

"Behold also the earth which is taken to be immovable, and to stand steady of its own force: it faints and is stricken with an inward secret blast that makes it to tremble; somewhere it is corrupted by the water, elsewhere by fire. For these same things do strive among themselves.

"Neither grudge you to see war among men, there is likewise between the elements. What great lands have been wasted, yea wholly swallowed up by the sudden deluges, and violent overflowings of the sea? 

"In old time the sea overwhelmed wholly a great island called Atlantis (I think not the story fabulous) and after that the mighty cities Helice and Bura. But to leave ancient examples, here in Belgica two islands with the towns and men in them. And even now in our time this lord of the sea Neptune opens to himself new gaps and sweeps up daily the weak banks of Friesland and other countries. 

"Yet does not the earth sit still like a slothful housewife, but sometimes revenges herself and makes new islands in the midst of the sea, though Neptune marvel and be moved thereby? And if these great bodies which to us seem everlasting are subject to mutability and alteration, why much more should not towns, commonwealths, and kingdoms, which must needs be mortal, as they that do compose them? 

"As each particular man has his youth, his strength, old age, and death, so fares it with those other bodies. They begin, they increase, they stand and flourish, and all to this end, that they may decay. 

"One earthquake under the reign of Tiberius overthrew twelve famous towns of Asia, and as many in Campania in Constantine's time. One war of Attila, a Scythian, prince destroyed a hundred cities. The ancient Thebes of Egypt is scarcely held in remembrance in this day, and a hundred towns of Crete not believed ever to have been. 

"To come to more certainty, our elders saw the ruins of Carthage, Numantia, Corinth, and wondered thereat. And ourselves have beheld the unworthy relics of Athens, Sparta, and many renowned cities, yea even that Lady of all things and countries, falsely termed everlasting Rome, where is she? Overwhelmed, pulled down, burned, overflowed: she is perished with more than one kind of destruction, and at this day she is ambitiously sought for, but not found in her proper soil. 

"See you that noble Byzantium, being proud with the seat of two empires? Venice lifted up with the stableness of a thousand years continuance? Their day shall come at length. And thus also our Antwerp, the beauty of cities, in time shalt come to nothing. For this great master builder pulls down, sets up, and, if I may so lawfully speak, makes a sport of human affairs. And like an image maker, forms and frames to himself sundry sorts of portraitures in his clay.

"I have spoken of towns and cities. Countries likewise and kingdoms run the very same race. Once the East flourished. Assyria, Egypt and Jewry excelled in war and peace. That glory was transferred into Europe, which now like a diseased body seems unto me to be shaken, and to have a feeling of her great confusion nigh at hand. 

"Yea, and that which is more and never enough to be marveled at, this world having now been inhabited these five thousand and five hundred years, is at length come to its dotage. And that we may now approve again the fables of Anaxarchus, in old time hissed at, behold now there arises elsewhere new people, and a new world. 

"O the law of necessity, wonderful, and not to be comprehended! All things run into this fatal whirlpool of ebbing and flowing. And some things in this world are long lasting but not everlasting.

"Lift up your eyes and look about with me, for it grieves me not to stand long upon this point, and behold the alterations of all human affairs, and the swelling and swaging of them as of the sea: arise you; fall you; rule you; obey you; hide you your head; lift you up yours and let this wheel of changeable things run round, so long as this round world remains. 

"Have you Germans in time past been fierce? Be you now milder than most people of Europe. Have you Britons been uncivil heretofore? Now exceed you the Egyptians and people of Sybaris in delights and riches. Has Greece once flourished? Now let her be afflicted. Has Italy swayed the scepter? Now let her be in subjection. 

"You Goths, you Vandals, you vilest of the barbarians, peep you out of your lurking holes, and come rule the nations in your turn. Draw near you rude Scythians, and with a mighty hand hold you a whiles the reins of Asia and Europe; yet you again soon after give place and yield up the scepter to another nation bordering on the ocean. Am I deceived? Or else do I see the sun of another new empire arising in the West?" 

IMAGE by Kirk D. Keyes 

Cicero, Stoic Paradoxes 2.1

Paradox 2: A Man Who Is Virtuous Is Destitute of No Requisite of a Happy Life 

Never, for my part, did I imagine Marcus Regulus to have been distressed, or unhappy, or wretched; because his magnanimity was not tortured by the Carthaginians; nor was the weight of his authority; nor was his honor; nor was his resolution; nor was one of his virtues; nor, in short, did his soul suffer their torments, for a soul with the guard and retinue of so many virtues, never surely could be taken, though his body was made captive. 
 
We have seen Gaius Marius; he, in my opinion, was in prosperity one of the happiest, and in adversity one of the greatest of men than which man can have no happier lot. 
 
You know not, foolish man, you know not what power virtue possesses; you only usurp the name of virtue; you are a stranger to her influence. No man who is wholly consistent within himself, and who reposes all his interests in himself alone, can be otherwise than completely happy. 
 
But the man whose every hope, and scheme, and design depends upon fortune, such a man can have no certainty—can possess nothing assured to him as destined to continue for a single day. If you have any such man in your power, you may terrify him by threats of death or exile; but whatever can happen to me in so ungrateful a country, will find me not only not opposing, but even not refusing it. 
 
To what purpose have I toiled? To what purpose have I acted? Or on what have my cares and meditations been watchfully employed, if I have produced and arrived at no such results, as that neither the outrages of fortune nor the injuries of enemies can shatter me? 

—from Cicero, Stoic Paradoxes 2 
 
We all say that we want to be happy, and yet we rarely reflect on what this might mean. Most of us will assume that happiness is the same thing as pleasure, so we pursue those conditions that can offer us the greatest possible gratification. In such an approach, morality merely becomes a tool for avoiding unnecessary pain: if I play by the rules, then hopefully other people won’t hurt me. 
 
But what if I told you that there are people who measure their appetites by their conscience, and not the other way around? You might not immediately notice them, because they do not feel the need to make demands or to put on a show. They understand why all good things are pleasurable, but not all pleasurable things are good, and so they are satisfied by the dignity of their actions. To be fulfilled in the virtues is the highest end, which also brings with it the fitting consequence of an unsurpassed joy. 
 
Historians tell me that Marcus Regulus couldn’t have offered his life for the sake of his promise, though I wonder if they are just inclined to see everyone as base. Whether the story of his sacrifice is fact or fable, it demonstrates what is most noble within our nature, as creatures gifted with reason and will. For all the harm done to his flesh, his spirit remained intact, and the contentment came from an awareness of that ultimate meaning. 
 
Since I know very little about Gaius Marius, I now have some homework to do. I was under the impression that, for all his courage, he also had a streak of brutality, so I will do some digging about what Cicero may have meant. This will take me some time, but I do not find that burdensome, as I appreciate how the effort can contribute to my own character. As it is with the big things, so it is with the little things. 
 
I am sometimes afraid to even speak about the virtues, given how often people will exploit their appearance in a pursuit of the vices. Yet since they are only playing make-believe, I know how they are fractured by insincerity, and I therefore know why they cannot be at peace with themselves. Don’t let the pretenders ruin it for you. 
 
In my own experience, I have never been happy when I am angry, fearful, grasping, or devious. I have always been happy when I am loving, constant, grateful, and authentic. Where my life revolves around feeble attempts at manipulating fortune, I am constantly anxious. Where my life rests in the integrity of my thoughts, words, and deeds, I am finally liberated. Beyond the arguments from philosophy, these are the facts, plain and simple. 
 
True bliss is about arriving at that point where you no longer allow the circumstances to bring you down. 

—Reflection written in 5/1999 

IMAGE: J.M.W. Turner, Regulus (1828) 

Noble Pigeons

Storm on the Sea 31

John William Waterhouse, Miranda (1916) 

Ruins 21

Leopold Schulz, Gothic Church Ruins on the Mediterranean (1842) 

Memento Mori 14

Ligier Richier, Tomb of René of Chalon (1547) 

Vanitas 99

Michiel Sweerts, Self-portrait with a Skull (c. 1660) 

Sayings of Publilius Syrus 193

When the edifice of our Fortune is but slightly fractured, a chasm opens through the whole.