Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 6.32

I consist of a little body and a soul. Now to this little body all things are indifferent, for it is not able to perceive differences.

But to the understanding those things only are indifferent, which are not the works of its own activity. But whatever things are the works of its own activity, all these are in its power.

And of these, however, only those that are done with reference to the present, for as to the future and the past activities of the mind, even these are for the present indifferent.

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

The Stoic concept of indifference is often confused with apathy in our age of “meh” and “What, me worry?” The point is not that we shouldn’t care, or that things do not contain a good according to their own nature, but rather that external things are only good for our nature insofar as they help us in being virtuous, and bad for our nature insofar as they hinder us from being virtuous. The benefit or harm of any circumstances, whatever our preferences may be, is in how we choose to act upon them.

We are so used to defining ourselves by the conditions of our body, yet these do not in themselves determine our moral worth. A body itself is not aware, and a body itself does not choose. Any moral value in my physical state is relative to my mental attitudes.

Being healthy or sick, young or old, in pleasure or in pain, strong or weak, do not make a life worthy or unworthy. How the soul makes use of any and every situation for the sake of character is what will make a life worthy or unworthy.

I must remember, therefore, to focus on what is within my power, on what I can do, not merely upon what can be done to me. My attention must further be directed at what I can do here and now, not at what I have done in the past, which is no longer within my power, or what I might do in the future, which is not yet within my power. I can reflect upon the past and learn from it, or speculate about the future and plan for it, but only doing something in the present is within my grasp.

Now this may seem a terrible hindrance to someone who expects his life to be about conquering the world, even as it is a wonderful liberation for someone who expects his life to be about conquering himself. The world, however, will be as it is, and is largely far beyond my control. To seek to rule it is to become a slave to its circumstances. I will be as I am, completely within my control. To rule myself at this very moment is to find meaning and purpose within all of my circumstances.

Many people will perceive their merit to lie in what they have done, in what they intend to do, or in what convenience they have in their current situation. None of these things are really theirs to possess. The busybodies, the grasping men, the wheeler-dealers are overlooking the one thing that is absolutely and unconditionally their own, the power of acting in the moment, and of choosing in the moment with wisdom and virtue. All else is indifferent.

I have sometimes let myself be determined by the weight of my past, or distracted by the illusion of my future, or have wallowed in the pleasure of externals in the present. Each has made me miserable, precisely because I have not been making myself.

Written in 4/2007