Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 4.46

Everything that happens is as familiar and well known as the rose in spring and the fruit in summer.

For such is disease, and death, and calumny, and treachery, and whatever else delights fools or vexes them.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 4 (tr Long)

I often struggle with how I would wish the world to be, in stark contrast to how I know I should be in the face of the world.

In daily practice, nothing will trip me up more than not getting my way. The only resolution lies in the Stoic Turn, where it’s never about shaping reality to fit my wants, but in shaping my wants to fit reality.

I find this is something like the Taoist concept of wu wei, action within inaction, effortless doing, the proper sense of “going with the flow”. Live with all your might, but live with things, and never against things.

Common sense alone, without any reference to profound philosophy, will surely tell me that things will be as they are. The seasons will always change, other people will always follow their own hearts, and Nature will give to me what I need, but not always what I think I deserve. Surely that can be enough for me?

I once despaired because a woman I loved didn’t love me. I once went into a dark hole because I didn’t get a job I was certain would make everything right. I have sadly spent too many hours praying to a God I thought would give me what I desired, and I hadn’t bothered to ask Him what He desired of me.

The natural world itself, free of the illusion of human dominance, should surely give us a clue. Everything has its time, and everything has its place. Let it be, as it was meant to be, and don’t try to fix the world to suit you. Fix yourself first.

Man was not made to conquer Nature, but to be a part of Nature, in all of its glory.

I may seek only gratification in something that pleases me, and I may find only frustration in something that vexes me. Neither of these responses is the correct response. Only acceptance, and the love that must go with it, are the correct response. A man who responds to life only with his passions is a puppet on a string.

Roses bloom, and fruits become ripe. Then they will whither or rot. In either case, they will return again, in a new form, much alike, but also different. Loss, and death, and betrayal play the same sort of role in the cycle of things.

Finding satisfaction or misery never depends on what happens. Nature has already taken care of that, while I am asked to take care of myself. Mere delight or vexation in circumstances is my greatest weakness. 

Written in 1/2006