Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 8.24

Am I doing anything? I do it with reference to the good of mankind.

Does anything happen to me? I receive it and refer it to the gods, and the source of all things, from which all that happens is derived.

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

If I am acting, let me act in a way that is right, and serves only what is fair and just. If I am acted upon, let me understand it in a way that is right, and discern how it serves the purpose and order of all things.

There are all sorts of terms, from all sorts of traditions, that we may use to describe the state of a soul that is harmonious. Call it peace, serenity, enlightenment, holiness, or tranquility, but from a Stoic perspective I always see it as the balance between my own deeds and the sum of everything that is done to me.

I can rest in the knowledge that anything I do is within my power to be good, and that anything that happens exists, however mysteriously or indirectly, for the sake of the greatest good.

People are not born into conflict; conflict is something we choose from our own misunderstanding about life.

“Will I catch a fish, and gut it, and cook it, and eat it?” Yes, but there is no conflict there. What I have done, and what has happened to the fish, is a part of Nature.

“Will the lion pounce on me, and kill me, and consume me, and leave what is left for the jackals?” Yes, but there is no conflict there. What the lion has done, and what has happened to me, is a part of Nature.

“But it means that things must die!” Yes, it does. The dying isn’t a problem, because death is never an evil. Living poorly, while I am still alive, is an evil. The fish, or the lion, live by their instincts, and I should live by my reason.

I have had the blessing of knowing people who lived in tranquility, whatever their backgrounds, and whether they lived with the world at their feet or were tossed into the gutter. What they all had in common was an awareness of what is true, good, and beautiful. They found joy both in what they did, and in what happened to them.

I have sometimes been jealous and resentful of tranquil people, but that never had anything to do with them. It has had everything to do with me, and with the disorder within my own soul. How foolish, and how arrogant, it is for me to blame another for being happy, if I have chosen to be miserable.

Happy people aren’t merely happy from the situation they find themselves in; they are happy from the dignity of being themselves within the being of all things.

Written in 3/2008