Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.55

Do not look around you to discover other men's ruling principles, but look straight to this, to what Nature leads you, both the Universal Nature through the things that happen to you, and your own nature through the acts that must be done by you.

But every being ought to do that which is according to its constitution. And all other things have been constituted for the sake of rational beings, just as among irrational things the inferior for the sake of the superior, but the rational for the sake of one another.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 7 (tr Long)

I would have given up long ago on seeking the truth, if I only had the example of the academics around me. I would have given up long ago on finding God, if I had only the example of the churchmen around me. I would have given up long ago on trying to be a good man, if I had only the example of those who brag that they serve what is good.

If I were to model my own life only on parroting and mimicking what most others say and do, I’d find myself in quite a mess. I would easily make wisdom a means for promotion. I would gladly sell piety for profit. I would define decency by convenience. It isn’t necessarily a good idea to just do what the Romans do.

I notice how easily we look around to test the popular mood whenever we are faced with a decision of any importance. By all means, I can observe what others think, learn from what others think, and relate to what others think, but I should never determine my own thinking by theirs.

The measure of what is true and good requires only asking, with all sincerity and humility, what it is that I am, and how what I am fits within the order of the whole of what is. I am creature made to know and to love, within a Universe given purpose and meaning through the expression of knowledge and love. My own nature, as an aspect of all of Nature.

Let me focus on what I am here for, and then I can be certain I am doing my part. Let me rightly be myself, and the rest will take care of itself. I do not need to play the part of, or let myself be ruled by, anyone or anything else. Nature will decide under what circumstances I will live, and I will then decide what I am going to make of those circumstances. What is done to me, and what I will choose to do.

There is a beautiful pattern here. Things that lack awareness, with the power to be acted upon, are given direction by things that possess awareness, with the power to act for themselves. In turn, things that possess awareness will naturally be of service to one another, just by fulfilling themselves.

No man must live the life of another, or allow his life to be lived by another. When he masters himself through the exercise of his own wisdom and virtue, it is then that he can assist others in mastering themselves through the exercise of their own wisdom and virtue. 

Written in 12/2007