Storm on the Sea 33

Andreas Achenbach, Storm at Sea off the Norwegian Coast (1837) 

Ruins 23

Carl Hasenpflug, The Ruins of Walkenried Abbey in Winter (1843) 

Memento Mori 16

René Bull, Dust to Dust (1913) 

Illustration from Edward FitzGerald, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam 

"Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend,
Before we too into the Dust descend;
Dust into Dust, and under Dust, to lie,
Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and—sans End!" 

Vanitas 101

Hendrick Andriessen, Vanitas (c. 1640)

Chuang Tzu 6.13

Î-r Tsze having gone to see Hsü Yû, the latter said to him, "What benefit have you received from Yâo?" 

The reply was, "Yâo says to me, 'You must yourself labor at benevolence and righteousness, and be able to tell clearly which is right and which wrong in conflicting statements.'" 

Hsü Yû rejoined, "Why then have you come to me? Since Yâo has put on you the brand of his benevolence and righteousness, and cut off your nose with his right and wrong, how will you be able to wander in the way of aimless enjoyment, of unregulated contemplation, and the ever-changing forms of dispute?" 

Î-r Tsze said, "That may be; but I should like to skirt along its hedges." 

"But," said the other, "it cannot be. Eyes without pupils can see nothing of the beauty of the eyebrows, eyes, and other features; the blind have nothing to do with the green, yellow, and variegated colors of the sacrificial robes." 

Î-r Tsze rejoined, "Yet, when Wû-kwang lost his beauty, Kü-liang his strength, and Hwang-Tì his wisdom, they all recovered them under the moulding of your system—how do you know that the Maker will not obliterate the marks of my branding, and supply my dismemberment, so that, again perfect in my form, I may follow you as my teacher?" 

Hsü Yû said, "Ah! That cannot yet be known. I will tell you the rudiments. 0 my Master! 0 my Master! He gives to all things their blended qualities, and does not count it any righteousness; His favors reach to all generations, and He does not count it any benevolence; He is more ancient than the highest antiquity, and does not count Himself old; He overspreads heaven and supports the earth; He carves and fashions all bodily forms, and does not consider it any act of skill;- this is He in whom I find my enjoyment." 

IMAGE: M.C. Escher, Eye (1946) 

Epictetus, Discourses 2.13.3

What do I mean by “having no lawyer”? 
 
I mean that he does not know that he is wishing to have what is not given him, and wishing not to have what he cannot avoid, and he does not know what is his own and what is not his own. 
 
If he did know, he would never feel hindrance or constraint or anxiety; how could he? Does anyone fear about things which are not evil? 
 
“No.” 
 
Or again about things which are evil but are in his power to prevent? 
 
“Certainly not.” 
 
If, then, nothing beyond our will's control is either good or evil, and everything within our will's control depends entirely on ourselves, so that no one can take any such thing away from us or win it for us against our will, what room is left for anxiety? 
 
Yet we are anxious for our bit of a body, for our bit of property, for what Caesar will think, but are not anxious at all for what is within us. 
 
Am I anxious about not conceiving a false thought? No, for that depends on myself. 
 
Or about indulging an impulse contrary to nature? No, not about this either. 
 
So, when you see a man pale, just as the physician, judging from his color, says, “This man's spleen is out of order, or that man's liver”, so do you say, “This man is disordered in the will to get and the will to avoid, he is not in the right way, he is feverish”; for nothing else changes the complexion and causes a man to tremble and his teeth to chatter, 
 
“and droop the knee and sink upon his feet." 

—from Epictetus, Discourses 2.13 
 
A few years back, I met a fellow who boldly insisted upon representing himself in a civil trial, and while I did not doubt the righteousness of his cause, I sadly knew that it would not end in his favor. The best of intentions are no substitute for an understanding of what makes it all tick. 
 
If you can stay off their radar, you might avoid a need for the lawyers, but there is no escaping the need to live your life from day to day, in the regular company of your neighbors, while making continual decisions about your desires and aversions. You cannot pay anyone to do this work for you—you will have to suck it up and become a philosopher. 
 
From a sound understanding of the human good, without the distraction of any academic pretensions or professional entanglements, you will discover why there is nothing you should want to get that you don’t already have within your power, and why there is nothing you should want to avoid that is already beyond your power. The crippling anxiety is a result of wishing for all of the wrong things. 
 
Since the fulfillment of any creature is in the excellence of its own nature, it follows that our happiness is from the exercise of our own virtues, to which all other circumstances must be relative. Do not confuse the essence with the accidents. 
 
Or put simply, the quality of my life is in what I choose to do, not merely in what is done to me. Some folks scoff at that old saying about lemons, but that’s probably because they have yet to outgrow a love of complaining.
 
So, if something is outside of my control, why am I permitting it to determine my well-being? And if something is under my control, what is keeping me from changing it for my benefit, right here and now? In either case, the good or the evil are grounded in my estimation: every situation, however imposing, allows me to act with integrity. 
 
Pleasure, riches, and fame are not always blessings, just as pain, poverty, and obscurity are not always curses. Everything hinges upon the presence or absence of character, which explains how a king can be crying while a beggar can be laughing. The distress and the fear turn out to be from a state of mind, never actually from the state of affairs. 
 
Far too often, I catch myself grumbling about various aches and pains, or trembling at the prospects of some wasting disease, when the decay of my body is inevitable, whether it happens sooner or later. Yes, I can take a pill that might give me more time, but what use is the time when the sickness is in my soul? The first task is to get my judgments into shape, so that I do not treat a preference as if it were a necessity. 

—Reflection written in 8/2001 

IMAGE: Titian, Portrait of a Sick Man (1515) 

Conscience

Francois-Nicolas Chifflart, The Conscience (1877) 

Surprise!

Jottings on Marcus 2

Whatever this is that I am, it is a little flesh, and breath, and the ruling part. . . . 

—from Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 2.2 

I am told to care for myself, to improve myself, to make something of myself, and yet all the while they are pointing at everything that isn't myself. 

This body is just like any other, and this life that animates it is just like any other. The one will return to the earth once the other is snuffed out. 

In the meantime, there is the mind that keeps watch, that governs over the rest. For the moment, that is mine, and so it is unlike any other. 

IMAGE: Evelyn De Morgan, The Passing of the Soul at Death (1919) 

Vivekachudamani 148-154

THE FREEING OF THE SELF

The Self, wrapped up in the five vestures beginning with the vesture formed of food, which are brought into being by its own power, does not shine forth, as the water in the pond, covered by a veil of green scum. 

When the green scum is taken away, immediately the water shines forth pure, taking away thirst and heat, straightway becoming a source of great joy to man. 

When the five vestures have been stripped off, the Self shines forth pure, the one essence of eternal bliss, beheld within, supreme, self-luminous. 

Discernment is to be made between the Self and what is not Self by the wise man seeking freedom from bondage; through this he enters into joy, knowing the Self which is being, consciousness, bliss. 

As the reed from the tiger grass, so separating from the congeries of things visible the hidden Self within, which is detached, not involved in actions, and dissolving all in the Self, he who stands thus, has attained liberation. 

Sayings of Ramakrishna 287

When the bird has flown away from it, one cares no longer for the cage. 

So when the bird of life has flown away, no one cares any longer for the carcass. 

IMAGE: Emma Soyer, The Escape (1836) 

Epictetus, Discourses 2.13.2

When I see a man, then, in this state of fear, I cannot say that he is no performer with the lyre, but I can say something else of him, and not one thing but many. 
 
And first of all I call him a stranger and say, “This man does not know where in the world he is; though he has been with us so long, he does not know the laws and customs of the City—what he may do and what he may not do—no, nor has he called in a lawyer at any time to tell him and explain to him what are the requirements of the law.” 
 
Of course he does not draw up a will without knowing how he ought to draw it up, or without calling in one who knows, nor does he lightly put his seal to a guarantee or give a written security; but he calls in no lawyer when he is exercising the will to get and will to avoid, impulse and intention and purpose. 

—from Epictetus, Discourses 2.13 
 
It was a bit easier to impress me when I was younger, so I was often mesmerized by the affected images of certain musicians, actors, or writers. 
 
I did not know anyone who played the lyre, for example, but there were plenty of electric guitarists, especially those in the exaggerated world of heavy metal, prancing about in all sorts of extreme poses, and twisting their faces as if they were passing a kidney stone. I’m not sure I could now explain the appeal of the big hair and the studded leather. 
 
It was a bit disappointing to discover how “shredding” was far more about theatrics than it was about technical ability, and while I still find great fun in it, I no longer define my life by what anyone does on a stage. Why would I assume that a fellow who can play a good show has any qualifications to inspire me to a good life? Do not confuse your entertainment with your metaphysics. 
 
I eventually realized how many people put on an act in order to run away from their anxieties, as if the appearance on the outside can cover for the disturbance on the inside—it turned out I wasn’t the only one playing make-believe. The cure for my doubts and fears is in learning my way around my own nature, not in learning my way around a fretboard. 
 
In the spirit of Gauguin, which reflects the spirit of all Wisdom Traditions, I will be at peace when I have made some sense of where I have come from, what I am, and where I am going. Then I will know something about the lay of the land, about the ways of the human city, of which I was born a citizen. For all that I have received, where is my duty to give? Whatever is done to me, how am I called to respond? When it is time for the curtain to fall, have I contributed more than just a clever performance? 
 
We are quick to turn to the experts for the most mundane of tasks, and yet I rarely see anyone asking for help when it comes to reading our moral compass, the one thing none of us can afford to mess up. If we need a lawyer to navigate the complexities of the human law, then how much greater is our need for a sage to teach about the depths of the natural law? 
 
A trade might assist us with getting what we want, while philosophy allows us to decide whether it was even worth wanting to begin with. The grasping man is restless, precisely because he has never questioned his actual needs. 

—Reflection written in 8/2001 

Jottings on Marcus 1

In addition to the informal reflections, my notebooks were also full of what I called blurbs or jottings, brief reactions to small sections of text. 

While the former involved sitting down at a desk in peace and quiet for a time, the latter were hurried observations, often scribbled down at the most inconvenient moments, out of a fear that I might lose an insight before I got home. 

I do not know if any of them are worthwhile, or if it is still possible to squeeze some meaning out of them. Indeed, many of these notes now seem cryptic to me, since I have long forgotten the peculiar circumstances that inspired them. 

In any case, they are now sorted with a semblance of order, and perhaps they will eventually inspire someone to scratch his head. 

—5/2017 

• • • • • 

Begin the morning by saying to yourself, I shall meet with the busybody, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. 

All these things happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil. . . . 

—from Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 2.1 

Perhaps Bias of Priene was right to say that "most people are bad." 

But why might that be? And how will I then choose to react? 

If only they knew, they would surely do better. So let me begin by working on my own awareness for this day. 

Only understanding can defeat ignorance. And only understanding makes forgiveness possible. 

Wisdom from the Early Cynics, Diogenes 43

After seeing a stupid wrestler practicing as a doctor, Diogenes inquired of him, "What does this mean? Is it that you may now have your revenge on the rivals who formerly beat you?" 

Seeing the child of a courtesan throw stones at a crowd, he cried out, "Take care you don't hit your father." 

A boy having shown him a dagger that he had received from an admirer, Diogenes remarked, "A pretty blade with an ugly handle." 

When some people commended a person who had given him a gratuity, he broke in with "You have no praise for me who was worthy to receive it." 

When someone asked that he might have back his cloak, "If it was a gift," replied Diogenes, "I possess it; while, if it was a loan, I am using it." 

A supposititious son having told him that he had gold in the pocket of his dress, "True," said he, "and therefore you sleep with it under your pillow." 

—Diogenes Laërtius, 6.62 

IMAGE: Bernard Picart, Diogenes (1724) 

Wisdom from the Early Stoics, Zeno of Citium 83

Of the three kinds of life, the contemplative, the practical, and the rational, the Stoics declare that we ought to choose the last, for that a rational being is expressly produced by nature both for contemplation and for action. 

They tell us that the wise man will for reasonable cause make his own exit from life, on his country’s behalf or for the sake of his friends, or if he suffer intolerable pain, mutilation, or incurable disease. 

—Diogenes Laërtius, 7.130 

Songs of Innocence 13

Holy Thursday (1789) 

William Blake (1757-1827) 

Twas on a Holy Thursday their innocent faces clean
The children walking two & two in red & blue & green
Grey-headed beadles walkd before, with wands as white as snow
Till into the high dome of Pauls they like Thames waters flow

O what a multitude they seemd these flowers of London town
Seated in companies they sit with radiance all their own
The hum of multitudes was there but multitudes of lambs
Thousands of little boys & girls raising their innocent hands

Now like a mighty wind they raise to heaven the voice of song
Or like harmonious thunderings the seats of heaven among
Beneath them sit the aged men wise guardians of the poor
Then cherish pity, lest you drive an angel from your door 

Epictetus, Discourses 2.13.1

Chapter 13: Concerning anxiety.  
 
When I see a man in a state of anxiety, I say, “What can this man want?” 
 
If he did not want something which is not in his power, how could he still be anxious? 
 
It is for this reason that one who sings to the lyre is not anxious when he is performing by himself, but when he enters the theater, even if he has a very good voice and plays well: for he not only wants to perform well, but also to win a great name, and that is beyond his own control. 
 
In fact, where he has knowledge, there he has confidence. Bring in any unskilled person you like, and he pays no heed to him. On the other hand, he is anxious whenever he has no knowledge and has made no study of the subject. 
 
What does this mean? He does not know what “the people” is, nor what its praise is worth: he has learnt to strike the bottom note or the top note, but he does not know what the praise of the multitude is, nor what value it has in life; he has made no study of that. So he is bound to tremble and grow pale. 

—from Epictetus, Discourses 2.13 
 
They tell me that our post-modern age is especially cursed with the most crippling anxieties, and so the intellectuals will obsess about which alienating social conditions are the most to blame. I suspect, however, that the source of our worry has nothing to do with any oppressive circumstances, and everything to do with seeking out a meaning and purpose beyond the merit within our own souls. 
 
As Pascal said, “All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone."
 
No, it isn’t a result of the internet, or the culture wars, or the chemicals in the food—do not confuse the cause with the consequence. The Romans felt it just as we feel it, because any creature gifted with reason and will is also tempted by the option of looking for love in all the wrong places. How agitated we become when we gamble our happiness on forces so far beyond our control! 
 
The example of fretting over an audience is spot-on: whenever I sit down to play one of my instruments, or to write down my thoughts, or to whittle away at a piece of wood, there isn’t a smidgeon of dread; there is a joy in the deed for its own sake, and a satisfaction from improving, however slow and tedious the progress. 
 
The doubts only start to creep in when I sense that I am being watched, and then I am suddenly questioning my own worth, as if the value of anything is merely in someone else’s impressions. Can I consider it confidence when I am bowing to your opinion? And if I truly know it to be good, why do I require your approval? The apprehension will pass once I can be certain of my own principles.
 
Behind the mastery of some particular skill, there must also be a mastery of a universal human measure. For all the achievement in hitting the right note, or crafting the perfect phrase, or carving a charming figurine, there is an understanding of how it can serve to increase our virtues, and why the only performance that counts is the one that strengthens our character. 
 
I should look to the fulfillment of my nature, and then allow fortune to unfold as she best sees fit. While a compliment can be gratifying, an insult can be just as beneficial, depending on who has offered it, and on how I have chosen to receive it. As the virtuoso is not troubled by the criticism of the novice, so the sage is not offended by the complaints of a fool. To contemplate the dignity of the act is to rise above the impulses of the mob. The resentment can give way to love. 

—Reflection written in 8/2001 

Cosmos 26

Snippets from the Handbook 1

Of all existing things, some are in our power, and others are not in our power. 

In our power are thought, impulse, will to get and will to avoid, and, in a word, everything which is our own doing. 

Things not in our power include the body, property, reputation, office, and, in a word, everything which is not our own doing. 

—Epictetus, The Handbook 1 

Winter Wren