"But these things remain immovable, and it is we ourselves who produce the judgements about them, and, as we may say, write them in ourselves, it being in our power not to write them, and it being in our power, if perchance these judgements have imperceptibly got admission to our minds, to wipe them out; and if we remember also that such attention will only be for a short time, and then life will be at an end.
"Besides, what trouble is there at all in doing this? For if these things are according to nature, rejoice in them, and they will be easy to you: but if contrary to nature, seek what is conformable to your own nature, and strive towards this, even if it bring no reputation; for every man is allowed to seek his own good.
"Consider from where each thing has come, and of what it consists, and into what it changes, and what kind of a thing it will be when it has changed, and that it will sustain no harm."
--Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 11 (tr Long)
Near the end of the Meditations, Marcus Aurelius, the Emperor-Philosopher, offers a list of ten guiding principles of life. I never confuse these with the Decalogue, because they are coming from two very different places.
The Ten Commandments tell us what to do, with great simplicity and clarity. They are the simplest, and therefore in many ways the best, of rules, summarized by Christ in an even simpler, and even better, way. Love God, and love your neighbor. That we fail to live up to these demands has nothing to do with the commandments being too demanding; it has everything to do with our own vanity.
No. Marcus Aurelius isn't going to give us a set of moral rules. He's going to give us something else. It's a guide not for action alone, but for our thinking about action.
I will begin with a simple fact. Who I am, and what defines me, isn't measured by the world around me. It's measured by my own judgments. I recognize that anything and everything around me is not a burden, but an opportunity. My circumstances are what I will choose to make of them.
Things will be as they will be. That has nothing to do with me, and that is beyond my power. These things must be indifferent to me, not without meaning in themselves, being immovable in themselves, but they are not about me. I make them about me.
I always thought I had all the time in the world. I don't. My clock is ticking. And the ticking of my clock is as nothing compared to the beauty and grandeur of the Universe. I must put myself in perspective.
I was not made to simply live, but to live well. I can only do so when I understand myself within and through all things. They are what they will be, and they are so for a reason. I must understand myself in this light.
To be continued. . .
Written in 11/2002
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