Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 8.30

Wipe out your imaginations by often saying to yourself:

Now it is in my power to let no badness be in this soul, nor desire, nor any perturbation at all; but looking at all things I see what is their nature, and I use each according to its value.

Remember this power that you have from Nature.

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

The mind will sometimes become cluttered, or build up a thick residue, the accumulation of too many diversions, a disordered mess of vivid impressions and gripping illusions. Whenever I am beginning to be mastered by my desires and fears more than I am the master of them, it’s time for a good housecleaning.

This hardly needs to be seen as a chore, but can become a profound relief, the lifting of a burden or the clearing of a clouded vision.

What is it that’s getting in the way? All sorts of imaginings, whether dark or alluring, that I am confusing with what is real. I am confronted with a memory, and it may seem too much to bear, or I am grabbed by a passion, and it may appear too strong to resist, or I am worried about what may still come, and it may be telling me that there is no good way out.

This is all quite misleading, because nothing will have power over my own judgment, unless I decide to let it do so. What is so overwhelming about that recollection, or longing, or terror? Something may alter my circumstances, or hinder my body, but my mind has rule over itself, and can determine for itself whether a situation is an obstacle or an opportunity.

The trick behind the housecleaning is actually quite simple, though I will often make it more difficult for myself than it has to be. I can look at what is troubling me, and I can distinguish between what it is within itself, and what it is that I have chosen to make of it. I will usually find that the difference between these two is quite great.

Now I can toss aside what I have imagined, and be left with the reality. It will now not feel so painful, or irresistible, or inevitable. Within Nature, it plays its rightful part, and if I can accept it for what it is, I can come to terms with it. How can I now make this useful for the strength of my own virtue? Each and every state of affairs provides me with that option.

There are all sorts of things well beyond my control, but how I choose to think about something, and therefore to determine what it will mean to me, is not one of those things.

I can remember that whenever I clean the junk out of the old attic, and get rid of the old baggage. 

Written in 4/2008