Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 8.7

Every nature is contented with itself when it goes on its way well; and a rational nature goes on its way well when in its thoughts it assents to nothing false or uncertain, and when it directs its movements to social acts only, and when it confines its desires and aversions to the things which are in its power, and when it is satisfied with everything that is assigned to it by the Common Nature.

For of this Common Nature every particular nature is a part, as the nature of the leaf is a part of the nature of the plant; except that in the plant the nature of the leaf is part of a nature that has not perception or reason, and is subject to be impeded.

But the nature of man is part of a Nature which is not subject to impediments, and is intelligent and just, since it gives to everything in equal portions and according to its worth, times, substance, cause, activity, and incident.

But examine, not to discover that any one thing compared with any other single thing is equal in all respects, but by taking all the parts together of one thing and comparing them with all the parts together of another.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 8 (tr Long)

I can respect the eagerness of others in attempting it, but I cannot find my way to separating a Stoic life from the order of the whole. I cannot remove my own nature from the fullness of all of Nature. I cannot speak of my own freedom, dignity, and worth, without understanding it within the context of the freedom, dignity, and worth of all things.

I cannot wrap my mind around an isolation of myself from all beings, and I cannot recognize my own reason without Universal Reason.

Whatever the depth or breadth of my own understanding, I cannot conceive of a Universe without the immanence of the Divine. It isn’t for any want of trying. I have sometimes thought it easier to focus only upon myself, and to assume that all the rest is nothing but muddled chaos.

But it can’t be muddled chaos, and it has nothing to do with what I might prefer, and everything to do with what sound thinking tells me must be true. I cannot accept rational purpose in my own life outside of the rational purpose in everything.

We argue all about the delineations of what we think is or isn’t God, and all of the time we are forgetting that God, by an odd version of a definition, has absolutely no delineations. That which is perfect, complete, and infinite has no boundaries.

I was at first offended, and then later deeply moved, when someone told me to stop blaming God and religion for my own ignorance and weakness.

“It’s like saying that all food is bad because you messed up the recipe for a good meal.”

Who I am is nothing without the context of what all is. Now while some see the all as an extension of the self, assuming that what seems good for me is the source of everything that is good in itself, I suggest that the Stoic, as any right-thinking person, must see it quite differently.

The per me is in service to the per se, and should exist in harmony with it, and in obedience to it. I cannot think of Stoicism, or the truth of any philosophy or theology, outside of this all-embracing context.

The part mirrors the whole, and the whole fulfills the part. I am also a part that is not merely moved about unknowingly, but I am a part that acts with awareness. That particular awareness reflects the Awareness behind everything. That awareness exists to have its place in the plan of Awareness. That is humility, that is love, and that is piety.

What may be so small, much like myself, is no less significant because it is a piece of the whole. Rather, it is an emanation of the whole. What is small is a copy, in a sense, of what is large. Let us certainly see the whole in different ways, and from different perspectives, but let us never think of ourselves, as thinking beings, as separate from Thinking Being. 

Written in 2/2008