Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 5.34

You can pass your life in an equable flow of happiness, if you can go by the right way, and think and act in the right way.

These two things are common both to the soul of God and to the soul of man, and to the soul of every rational being, not to be hindered by another, and to hold good to consist in the disposition to justice and the practice of it, and in this to let your desire find its termination.

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

I very much like the phrase, “to let your desire finds its termination”. Desire is always a want of something, a yearning, and it is fulfilled and completed when its object has been attained. My hunger is satisfied when I have eaten, my curiosity is satisfied when I have understood, or my loneliness is satisfied when I have found a friend.

In the case of my happiness, however, the object of my desire is not something from outside of me at all, but proceeds from the very order of my own thoughts and actions. It is not even a “thing” at all, but a doing, a way of living. Aristotle says, for example, that happiness is not a feeling or a state, not defined by what happens to me, but an activity, defined by the way I live.

The very nature of a rational being is to act through its own judgments, and therefore to live with liberty. The excellence of a rational being is to employ the liberty that comes from judgment in the pursuit of what is true and good, and to always act with a respect for the nature of all other things. A man fulfills his own dignity when he acknowledges the dignity of his fellows, and treats them with justice.

That which completes us, makes us whole, and brings with it serenity and joy in this life is not given to us from without, but flows from within. My own choices are mine alone, and cannot be taken from me. My deeds will only be as noble or base as my thoughts are noble or base.

Happiness will often seem so elusive, something just out of reach. I will only think this, however, if I falsely assume it is something that is acquired through my circumstances. I might think I am happy or sad, content or despondent, depending upon whether I have achieved a certain set of goals out there in the world. Did I get a good job? Do I live in a nice house? Did I marry the right girl? Do my friends respect me? Such things may be preferable to us, but they do not constitute happiness. My happiness follows only from how well I live, with wisdom and with virtue, whatever circumstances may come my way.

I knew many people in college who had a complex plan of life all mapped out, and they were certain that they would be successes or failures by how many of these worldly goals they achieved. These hoops jumped for the best promotions, these contacts made to get ahead, a marriage that supports the best career, strategically placed children, and a home in the best school district to start the cycle all over again.

It was saddening to see so many people defining themselves by what they hoped would come to them, what would somehow happen to them, instead of quite simply saying: “My map of life is to live as a good man, regardless of my conditions.” 

Happiness finds its rest, the termination of its desires, through nothing more than my simple choice to live with virtue. Anything that is of benefit to a man proceeds from this.

Written in 8/2006