Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 5.16

Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind, for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.

Dye it then with a continuous series of such thoughts as these:

For instance, that where a man can live, there he can also live well. But he must live in a palace? Well then, he can also live well in a palace.

And again, consider that for whatever purpose each thing has been constituted, for this it has been constituted, and towards this it is carried, and its end is in that towards which it is carried. And where the end is, there also is the advantage and the good of each thing.

Now the good for the reasonable animal is society, for that we are made for society has been shown above. Is it not plain that the inferior exists for the sake of the superior? But the things that have life are superior to those that have not life, and of those that have life the superior are those that have reason.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 5 (tr Long)

I would often sneer when people spoke about the power of positive or negative thinking, because I would still practice being dismissive as a misguided means of protection. If I could scoff at it, or roll my eyes, or ignore it entirely, I could make things that felt uncomfortable seem to disappear.

What a funny thing, there I was, proving the very point I was claiming to cast aside. I was managing only the negative side, of course, and it would take the discipline of Stoicism to learn far more about the positive side.

I began to see more and more how deeply thinking shapes living, and how powerful habit is at solidifying such thinking. I saw how harmful my earlier bitterness had been, and I saw how beneficial my later acceptance was starting to be. It sometimes felt like I was transforming the world itself, though I was actually just doing a thorough rebuilding of myself, and how I looked out at that world.

Keeping those thoughts constant throughout the day, and not just as a luxury for times of leisure and reflection, has always been a key element for me. At first I would need to deliberately, sometimes quite forcefully, push certain values into the front of my awareness when I faced a difficulty. As time went on, however, these became more of a second nature, and they could arise spontaneously.

The examples of good thoughts Marcus Aurelius offers are ones I have always needed to remember.

It is always within my grasp to live with excellence, regardless of where, or under what conditions, that might be. Once I brag or complain about my surroundings, I have succumbed to my surroundings. I know I am on the right track when I see how luxury can be just as much of a hindrance as poverty, if only I permit it to do so.

I am able to live with excellence only because I can keep in mind the very purpose for which I exist. If I am acting to acquire, to consume, or to be gratified, I am forgetting that purpose. The right reason for choice and action must always be there in my immediate awareness, and I must not allow anything else to sway me.

Through all of this, while Stoic principles proceed from self-reliance, I must never confuse such an independence of thinking with an isolation or separation from others. Because I am a creature of reason, I can understand how my own purpose is joined with the purpose of my neighbor. We are made for cooperation, not conflict; we are here to assist one another, not to fight one another.

Always discerning the difference between greater and lesser things, in every situation, is necessary if I wish to have right thoughts lead to right action. 

Written in 6/2006

IMAGE: Yes, I suppose I could also struggle to live well in the middle of these distractions.