Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 6.8

The ruling principle is that which rouses and turns itself, and while it makes itself such as it is and such as it wills to be, it also makes everything which happens appear to itself to be such as it wills.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 6 (tr Long)

My thinking and my willing do not change the inherent nature of what is real around me. That is the error of the subjectivist and the solipsist. But my thinking and willing do change how I understand the value of what is around me, and they allow me to actively improve myself, by learning how to make right and proper use of what is around me.

There might, as they say in the old Westerns, be gold in them there hills. It will be there, whether I choose to dig it from the ground or not. A fool ignores the benefit right before him, while the wise man mines every circumstance and every opportunity that come his way. He changes himself by changing how he views his world. He may not become rich by lining his wallet, but he may well become rich by nurturing his very soul. He will decide to become a better man, whatever may happen to present itself.

Some people will try to extract fortune, fame, and pleasure from their conditions. They have decided upon this, because their actions reflect their own estimation of good and evil. Other people will try to extract integrity, character, and compassion from their conditions, because their actions likewise reflect their own estimation of good and evil.

Can’t a man have both? Perhaps, but he can’t serve both equally. One bows to the other. What is indifferent defers to what is necessary.

What will I choose to care about first and foremost? That will be who I am, and it will be all that matters. It will become what I will, not by my having made it as it is, but by my having discovered within it whatever I seek to find.

“I’m going to get what I want!” Good. Now what do I want? Is that truly worthwhile? Am I content to be important, but yet a scoundrel? Or might I be happy to be no one of importance at all, even as I am charged with justice?

I tell myself every day, sometimes every hour: I need to take my pick, and be happy with the consequences.

I appreciate how Marcus Aurelius reminds me that my mind must rouse itself and turn itself. I know the path to take when I see that a life ordered by what is external is a life of allowing myself to be ruled. I become sleepy, and I am being turned. A life ordered by what is internal, however, is a life of ruling myself. I am awake, and I am the one who does the turning.

One man’s riches are another man’s folly.

Written in 9/2006