Boethius, The Consolation 3.15

“The man who would true power gain,

must subdue his own wild thoughts;

never must he let his passions triumph

and yoke his neck by their foul bonds.

For though the earth, as far as India's shore,

tremble before the laws you give,

though Thule bow to your service on earth's farthest bounds,

yet if you cannot drive away black cares,

if you cannot put to flight complaints,

then is no true power yours.

—from Book 3, Poem 5

If something is good in and of itself, pursue it without hesitation. But if something is only good by and through another thing, how is it worthy of pursuit for its own sake? Let what is inferior be subject to what is superior.

“But I wish to be rich and powerful!”

Certainly, you may prefer that way of life, but is being rich and powerful always good?

“Well no, but I’d like to be rich and powerful in the right way.”

Then be right first, and only then think about being rich and powerful. Attend to the absolute, and then consider the relative.

Being rich and powerful in the right way? Will that make you happy?

“Yes, that’s exactly what I want.”

But riches can harm you as quickly as they can help you, and worldly power over others can harm you as quickly as it can help you. Can living rightly ever harm you?

I see how many people have sought possessions above all else, and I see how many people have sought influence above all else. I have also seen how miserable it can make them, not because of the wealth and status itself, but because of the love of the wealth and status for itself.

Owning something or ruling something beyond ourselves seems so tempting, perhaps because we see it as a means to an end. But owning nothing or ruling nothing beyond ourselves can just as easily help us to live well.

The means should not be confused with the ends. Everything gives me a chance to do right, and having more out there does not necessarily make me better in here.

An insightful student of mine once pointed out that if we look at photographs of different Presidents of the United States, from the beginning of their terms to the end, we often see men who aged far too quickly, who seemed burdened with more and more, who were overcome with worry. He added that if we look at their writings and speeches, we see men who often began to recognize the inadequacy of their position as their years in power passed.

Compare Lincoln’s first Inaugural Address to his second. You will see a very different man.

Being in charge of a powerful nation and ruling over the greatest wealth makes many folks quite miserable. Living well, however, informed by a sense of right and wrong that measures all things, has never made folks miserable. It gives them meaning and purpose, and so it reveals happiness.

Has worldly power driven away your cares and complaints? I didn’t think so. Keep looking further, keep going deeper. True power will be found elsewhere.

Written in 9/2015

Ecclesiastes 2:22-26

[22] What has a man from all the toil and strain with which he toils beneath the sun?
[23] For all his days are full of pain, and his work is a vexation; even in the night his mind does not rest. This also is vanity.
[24] There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God;
[25] for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?
[26] For to the man who pleases him God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy; but to the sinner he gives the work of gathering and heaping, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.

Kevin Gilbert, "Kashmir"

Shared for no other reason than, you know, just because. . .

Rarely can a cover version add anything at all to the original. I think this manages to pay right homage to Led Zeppelin, as well as to add something new.

Kevin Gilbert was one of my heroes during the worst time of my life. I met him very briefly once, and in only a few words he immediately saw me for who I was.

The video here was apparently made by a fan. Well done!

Kevin Gilbert, "Kashmir", from Thud (1995)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdviI2Ic6PM

and a live version as well, just for kicks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaZ4_tSfRgQ

Oh, let the sun beat down upon my face
With stars to fill my dreams
I am a traveler of both time and space
To be where I have been
To sit with elders of a gentle race
This world has seldom seen
They talk of days for which they sit and wait
When all will be revealed

And my eyes fill with sand
As I scan this wasted land
Tryin' to find, tryin' to find where I've been

Oh, pilot of the storm who leaves no trace
Like thoughts inside a dream
Heed the path that led me to that place
Yellow desert stream
My Shangri-La beneath the summer moon
I will return again
Sure as the dust that floats high in June
When movin' through Kashmir

Oh, father of the four winds, fill my sails
Across the sea of years
With no provision but an open face
Along the straits of fear
Whoa-oh, oh, oh

All I see turns to brown
As the sun burns the ground
And my eyes fill with sand
As I scan this wasted land
Tryin' to find where I've been
Tryin' to find, tryin' to find...

Ooh, yeah-yeah, ooh, yeah-yeah...

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.1.1

He who acts unjustly acts impiously. For since the Universal Nature has made rational animals for the sake of one another, to help one another according to their deserts, but in no way to injure one another, he who transgresses her will is clearly guilty of impiety towards the Highest Divinity. . . .

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 9.1 (tr Long)

A fellow eccentric and lover of all things classical once suggested to me that virtue was the most neglected term and concept of our generation. I understood his point immediately, because the fashion of the day is to define ourselves by the pleasures we feel, and by the convenience of our circumstances.

If you say that the excellence of how well we live is the only complete measure of life, and that all other things, however preferred they may be, are indifferent, you will likely find yourself considered odd, maybe even dangerous.

I added, however, that perhaps a certain type of virtue, the one we call piety, was even lower in our esteem. After all, people do still speak about being fair and just, though they hardly ever speak about being pious. We look to ourselves quite a bit, but to God not so often. That may be a part of our problem.

Trends will come and go, so I try not to give too much weight to such things. I find that the obstacles to happiness described by Marcus Aurelius are much the same as the ones we face here and now.

Yet I do think it interesting that whenever I see us fail at practicing justice, it is often because we are only paying lip service to a word. After all, we can’t be fair and just if we do not have a greater frame of reference to work from, if we lack piety for the very order and purpose of Nature.

I have always understood justice as giving to each his proper due, taking no more than I deserve, and giving no less than others deserve. I have long appreciated Plato’s lovely definition from the Republic, that justice is minding my business.

I have also always understood piety as a reverence for what is greater than myself, for the Divine in particular, though it can also include my elders, my betters, or my community.

Notice how piety and justice are quite closely related, in that each involves the principle of respect, respecting my neighbor as sharing in the same nature, and respecting the Divine as the source of all of Nature. In a sense, one is a horizontal love, between equals, and the other is a vertical love, from an inferior to a superior.

And neither can really exist without the other. I cannot honor both my own reason and that of another without understanding how we all exist within the order of Providence, and I cannot honor the order of Providence without a concern for its creatures. The purpose of the part is meaningless if separated from the purpose of the whole.

He who fails to give his neighbor his due, also fails to give God his due, and so the unjust man is also of necessity an impious man. Act contrary to the nature of the effect, and you act contrary to the Nature of the Cause.

Written in 7/2008

IMAGE: Nicolas-Gabriel Jacquet, Justice and Piety at an Altar (1601) 

The Art of Peace 11

Consider the ebb and flow of the tide. When waves come to strike the shore, they crest and fall, creating a sound. Your breath should follow the same pattern, absorbing the entire universe in your belly with each inhalation. Know that we all have access to four treasures:

The energy of the sun and moon,

The breath of heaven,

The breath of earth,

And the ebb and flow of the tide.

Cleanthes, The Hymn to Zeus

"Most glorious of Immortals, mighty God,
Invoked by many a name, O sovereign King
Of Universal Nature, piloting
This world in harmony with Law,—all hail!

"You it is right that mortals should invoke,
For we are Your offspring, and alone of all
Created things that live and move on earth
Receive from You the image of the One.

"Therefore I praise You, and shall sing of Your power
Unceasingly. You the wide world obeys,
As onward ever in its course it rolls
Wherever You guide, and rejoices still
Beneath Your sway: so strong a minister
Is held by Your unconquerable hands—
That two-edged thunderbolt of living fire
That never fails.

"Under its dreadful blow
All Nature reels; therewith You direct
The Universal Reason which, co-mixed
With all the greater and the lesser lights,
Moves through the Universe.

"How great You are,
The Lord supreme for ever and ever!
No work is wrought apart from You, O God,
Or in the world, or in the heaven above,
Or on the deep, save only what is done
By sinners in their folly.

"No, You can
Make the rough smooth, bring wondrous order forth
From chaos; in Your sight the unlovely
Seems beautiful; for so You have fitted things
Together, good and evil, that there reigns
One everlasting Reason in them all.

"The wicked do not heed this, but suffer it
To slip, to their undoing; these are they
Who, yearning ever to secure the good,
Mark not nor hear the law of God, by wise
Obedience unto which they might attain
A nobler life, with Reason harmonized.

"But now, unbid, they pass on diverse paths
Each his own way, yet knowing not the truth,—
Some in unlovely striving for renown,
Some bent on lawless gains, some on pleasure,
Working their own undoing, self-deceived.

"O You most bounteous God who sits enthroned
In clouds, the Lord of lightning, save mankind
From grievous ignorance!

"Oh, scatter it
Far from their souls, and grant them to achieve
True knowledge, on whose might You do rely
To govern all the world in righteousness;

"That so, being honored, we may requite You
With honor, chanting without pause Your deeds,
As all men should: since greater gain never
Befalls on man or god than evermore
Duly to praise the Universal Law."

--Cleanthes of Assos,  Hymn to Zeus (tr Blakeney)

Dhammapada 36

Let the wise man guard his thoughts, for they are difficult to perceive, very artful, and they rush wherever they list: thoughts well guarded bring happiness.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 8.63

Enter into every man's ruling faculty, and also let every other man enter into yours.

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

In our modern times, or more properly in our post-modern times, each mind can appear so terribly isolated from every other. My thought is my own, and your thought is your own, and the two seem to arise quite independently of one another, if not in direct opposition to one another. How often have I now heard people speaking of “my truth” as distinct from “your truth”?

And so a good many us may feel isolated, estranged, alienated. We may all be walking around in the same world, going through the same automatic motions and assaulted by all the same images, but we perceive each individual inner consciousness as trapped in a separate box. I hear people tell me not only that I don’t understand them, but also that I can’t possibly understand them.

I suspect, of course, that this is hardly a new problem, as human nature is already made in such a way that it confronts obstacles in discovering itself. We have only found new ways of expressing that struggle.

Seeing that shared human nature, as a part within all of Nature, is the key to overcoming the anxiety and despair that come from feeling alone.

I should recognize that for all our accidents, we participate in the same essence. Reason is never something closed in upon itself, but is by definition open and directed toward all that is present to it. Mind does not gaze upon its own emptiness, but is filled by and through other things. Most wonderfully, mind can recognize itself when it engages with another mind.

We all share in the same type of awareness, and live in the same world, and so we are all seeking the same truth. Truth is to be found in the unity of all that is real, not in obsessing about the broken bits and pieces.

In the simplest sense, I can try to express my thoughts to others with clarity, and listen to how others express their thoughts with patience.

On a deeper level, I can try to think with another, instead of only thinking about another. I can ask myself not only what he says, but also how and why he understands it the way he does.

Even more profoundly, I can reflect that every mind is an expression of Universal Mind, just as every being is an expression of Universal Being. The Stoic sees that nothing ever exists in isolation, and that shattering the illusion of estrangement requires only remembering that all things are inherently one.

I may not be recognized or praised for it, but I never need to feel alone when I conceive of myself as necessarily joined to everyone, and everything, else.

Written in 7/2008

Epictetus, Golden Sayings 79

If you have assumed a character beyond your strength, you have both played a poor figure in that, and neglected one that is within your powers.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 8.62

In one way an arrow moves, in another way the mind.

The mind indeed, both when it exercises caution and when it is employed about inquiry, moves straight onward not the less, and to its object.

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

Both the arrow released by the archer, and the thought released by the mind, will always be directed toward the target. Yet while the arrow will always follow a steady and simple arc, the thought will stop and start, divert itself this way or that, and take a winding path, sometimes more quickly or sometimes more slowly. Still, the thought will inevitably go to its mark.

Sometimes I have taken a direct path in life, and sometimes I have taken a winding path. Sometimes my understanding races ahead, and sometimes it is bogged down. Sometimes my awareness runs straight and true, and sometimes it goes in loops. Still, the thought will inevitably go to its mark.

I am interested here not only in the distinction between the physical motion of a projectile and the mental motion of judgment, but also in the fact that however circuitous or tardy my route may be, I will end up exactly where I intend to be. This has both been to my benefit, and also my undoing.

I will go wherever I ultimately decide to go, for better or for worse. Nothing else that might stand in the way, or sway me this way or that, is ever going to change the purpose I have chosen for myself. When I have focused on the true and the good, I find peace and contentment. When I have focused on the false and the seductive, I find conflict and worry.

I end up exactly where I pointed myself from the beginning. I am the one who took the aim; let me blame nothing else. How important it is, therefore, that I orient myself rightly from the start!

Now sometimes I say that the world has tripped me up, or that the situation has made me lose my sight. These were, however, only the circumstances of my error, not the source of my error. I tripped myself up when faced with them, and I became blind by closing my eyes to them.

Every blessing or curse follows from the presence or absence of my attention. The direction of the wind, the tricks of light, and all the petty distractions are only as disruptive as I allow them to be. My own estimation guides me, and nothing else.

A Stoic, like any good man, is accountable for the direction of his life. That direction has nothing to do with the trappings around him, but with the true aim of his own character.

Written in 7/2008

Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ 1.8

Of the danger of too much familiarity

1. Open not your heart to every man, but deal with one who is wise and fears God. Be seldom with the young and with strangers. Be not a flatterer of the rich; nor willingly seek the society of the great. Let your company be the humble and the simple, the devout and the gentle, and let your discourse be concerning things that edify. Be not familiar with any woman, but commend all good women alike unto God. Choose for your companions God and His Angels only, and flee from the notice of men.

2. We must love all men, but not make close companions of all. It sometimes falls out that one who is unknown to us is highly regarded through good report of him, whose actual person is nevertheless unpleasing to those who behold it. We sometimes think to please others by our intimacy, and forthwith displease them the more by the faultiness of character that they perceive in us.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 8.61

Men exist for the sake of one another. Teach them then, or bear with them.

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

I hear much about how we must all work together, about the importance of building community, about sharing both our burdens and our benefits in common.

Some people will mean this from the very bottom of their hearts, and when they prove this through the way they decide to live, they will earn my undying respect.

Some will merely mouth the words, and then dismiss others or manipulate others, and when they reveal this through the way they decide to live, I will find myself tempted to despair and rage.

When I succumb to that temptation, I twist myself into exactly what I claim to oppose. When I see difference, either of principle or of preference, I lash out in rejection and anger. When I see someone who I think has done wrong, I only make myself wrong in response. I should be very careful about what I condemn and cast aside, since the act of condemning and casting aside is itself a denial of unity in purpose.

There came a point, slowly but surely, where I saw that I had done enough evil in an ignorant defense of what was good. It really isn’t that difficult to understand, and then to choose to live, in a way that sees conflict as an opportunity for peace, and hatred as an occasion for love.

I once cared for someone so deeply, beyond any mere words I could express, that when I found only dishonesty and disloyalty, I would be consumed by resentment, and obsessed with blame. There comes a time when that must all be let go, because no act of vice is ever improved by compounding it with any further vice.

Ah, the blame game! You have hurt me, so I will now hurt you. In all of it, whatever anyone else might do, I have dodged my own responsibility. Have you chosen to be my enemy? Let me continue to be your friend, whether you accept it or not. As always with Stoic thinking and practice, I must attend to what I should do, and not what others may do.

Sharing in the same nature, created to know and to love what is true and good, we are all made for the same end. You may deny it, and I may deny it in return, but our stubbornness only reveals our vanity.

We must all pay the price for what we do, and Providence will always make absolutely certain of that. But why must the price to be paid, however great, involve only suffering and loss? Justice, in whatever form it takes, should seek to improve, and never destroy. To do right by and for people is to help them, not to harm them.

However great the struggle, let us help one another to become better. Let us support one another and teach one another about right and wrong; if someone doesn’t want to learn, let our love take on the form of tolerance and compassion.

Written in 6/2008

Tao Te Ching 21

The grandest forms of active force
From Tao come, their only source.
Who can of Tao the nature tell?
Our sight it flies, our touch as well.
Eluding sight, eluding touch,
The forms of things all in it crouch;
Eluding touch, eluding sight,
There are their semblances, all right.
Profound it is, dark and obscure;
Things' essences all there endure.
Those essences the truth enfold
Of what, when seen, shall then be told.
Now it is so; 'twas so of old.
Its name—what passes not away;
So, in their beautiful array,
Things form and never know decay.

How know I that it is so with all the beauties of existing things? By this nature of the Tao.

Good Cheer

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 8.60

He who fears death either fears the loss of sensation, or a different kind of sensation.

But if you shall have no sensation, neither will you feel any harm; and if you shall acquire another kind of sensation, you will be a different kind of living being, and you will not cease to live.

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

Good grief, I do hate it when perfectly sound reasoning gets in the way of my perfectly good moping.

If I am afraid of death because it will be the end, I literally have nothing to fear. If I am afraid of death because it will be something else, then it isn’t really death I’m afraid of at all, just something different.

That is why Socrates suggested that we are only afraid of death because we are afraid of what is unknown to us. If death means that my consciousness will cease, then I can see that as a relief from suffering and worry, a well-earned respite from the burdens of life. If death means going on to some other state of existence, then I can see that as a wonderful opportunity.

I will admit, however, that I have worried about how death may indeed be some sort of transformation, but perhaps a terrible transformation into something far worse, something more painful than I can imagine, something irredeemable. See, all that talk about fire and brimstone gets me into some troubling thoughts.

But this is one of those places where Stoicism is of such great comfort to me, because I can know that no evil will ever befall me that I have not myself invited into my life. I know this not simply out of some article of faith, or out of some desperate hope, but from two of the most basic facts about life.

First, as unclear as it may at times seem, I know that Providence will always act for the sake of what is good. Whatever will happen, will happen for a reason, and that reason is always subject to the purpose of the whole. There can be nothing bad in anything being what it was made to be.

Second, as frustrating as it may at times seem, I know that what is good for me, as a creature of reason and choice, proceeds entirely from my own judgment and action. Whatever may occur, however strange or powerful the conditions, will always exist for me as an occasion to live with character.

That is my happiness, that is my joy, and it can never be taken from me. Providence has made me, and the world I live in, to be that way. Bad things won’t happen to me, because nothing that “happens” is actually bad in and of itself, and everything that “happens” can be ordered to good

This may seem odd or ridiculous to some, but only to those who continue to measure the value of life by the circumstances, and not by what is done with the circumstances.

My Black Dog would like to distract me, by telling me that this hurts too much, or that will never get better, or how I no longer have the power to rule myself. But the Black Dog lies, and his power is only in doubt and confusion.

Socrates expresses all of this beautifully in the Apology:

Wherefore, O judges, be of good cheer about death, and know of a certainty, that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death.  He and his are not neglected by the gods; nor has my own approaching end happened by mere chance. 

Written in 6/2008

Ecclesiastes 2:16-21

[16] For of the wise man as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise man dies just like the fool!
[17] So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me; for all is vanity and a striving after wind.
[18] I hated all my toil in which I had toiled under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me;
[19] and who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity.
[20] So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun,
[21] because sometimes a man who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave all to be enjoyed by a man who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.

Boethius, The Consolation 3.14

. . . “Need I speak of intimacies with kings, when kingship itself is shown to be full of weakness? Not only when kings' powers fall are their friends laid low, but often even when their powers are intact.

“Nero compelled his friend and tutor, Seneca, to choose how he would die. Papinianus, for a long while a powerful courtier, was handed over to the soldiers' swords by the Emperor Antoninus. Yet each of these was willing to surrender all his power. Seneca even tried to give up all his wealth to Nero, and to seek retirement. But the very weight of their wealth and power dragged them down to ruin, and neither could do what he wished.

“What then is that power, whose possessors fear it? In desiring to possess it, you are not safe, and from which you cannot escape, even though you try to lay it down?

“What help are friends, made not by virtue but by fortune? The friend gained by good fortune becomes an enemy in ill fortune. And what plague can more effectually injure than an intimate enemy?”

—from Book 3, Prose 5

Just as possessing power for myself is always deficient, so too depending on others who possess power is always deficient. While I may have thought I could ride on their coattails, receiving all the benefits of power without any of the risks, neither the benefactor nor the recipient can ever truly rely on anything.

Not only will I fall as soon as he falls, but I can just as easily fall while he is still strong. It will depend only on his whim, his preference, or his mood of the hour. It isn’t even my power, after all, but the favor of another’s power.

There are, in the end, the fools who think they can make themselves content by being influential, and then there are the other fools who seek security by becoming their attendants.

Aemilius Papinianus is often considered not only one of the greatest jurists of Ancient Rome, but even of all time. He was a close friend of the Emperor Severus, and so received high office and influence, eventually even being given charge over Severus’ two sons.

This, however, would be his undoing. The elder brother, Caracalla, formally becoming the Emperor Antoninus, resented sharing any power with his younger brother, Geta, or with Papinianus, who still tried to encourage cooperation between his wards. Both Geta and Papinianus were murdered, along with many others whom Antoninus considered a threat.

Papinianus may well have been a truly wise man, a great student of the law, and possessed of character and moderation, but look at what playing with power brought him.

Lucius Annaeus Seneca, or Seneca the Younger, was already born into a family of great ability, wealth, and connections. Those who follow Stoicism know him as one its greatest and prolific writers, though beyond this he was an impressive statesman, orator, and dramatist.

He became the tutor and advisor of the Emperor Nero, and was said to have done his best to teach the young man right from wrong, encourage him to live the the good life, and inspire him to become a just ruler.

Yet political intrigue found him exiled, robbed of both his influence and wealth. This misfortune was not the end, however, and Nero himself, convinced that Seneca had plotted against him, ordered his teacher to commit suicide. Seneca, always the loyal Roman, heeded the request, though apparently his death did not come easy.

Seneca may have been a profound philosopher, a master of words, and a follower of virtue, but look what playing with power brought him.

Some might say Papinianus was just a corrupt lawyer, or that Seneca was just a clever hypocrite. I imagine that Boethius refers to both of them, however, not to condemn what was really good in them, but to warn us away from all the temptations of using our gifts to get involved in all the wrong endeavors.

Should a man who truly loves the law rub shoulders with schemers? Should a man who truly loves the truth make his bed with a tyrant?

Remember Boethius’ own story. Why do those so great in skill and insight repeatedly seem to be seduced by position and status? Why is it never enough to just be good, instead of also wanting to be rewarded for being good in all of the wrong ways?

Written in 9/2015

IMAGE: Seneca tries to inspire the young Nero

IMAGE: Aemilius Papinianus

The Art of Peace 10

All the principles of heaven and earth are living inside you. Life itself is the truth, and this will never change. Everything in heaven and earth breathes. Breath is the thread that ties creation together. When the myriad variations in the universal breath can be sensed, the individual techniques of the Art of Peace are born.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 8.59

The sun appears to be poured down, and in all directions indeed it is diffused, yet it is not effused. For this diffusion is extension. Accordingly its rays are called extensions, because they are extended.

But one may judge what kind of a thing a ray is, if he looks at the sun's light passing through a narrow opening into a darkened room, for it is extended in a right line, and as it were is divided when it meets with any solid body which stands in the way and intercepts the air beyond; but there the light remains fixed, and does not glide or fall off.

Such then ought to be the outpouring and diffusion of the understanding, and it should in no way be an effusion, but an extension, and it should make no violent or impetuous collision with the obstacles which are in its way; nor yet fall down, but be fixed, and enlighten that which receives it.

For a body will deprive itself of the illumination, if it does not admit it.

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

I once met a freshman at M.I.T. who was struggling to tell me how light was both like a wave and a particle, while at the same time being neither. To his credit, he was trying awfully hard, but he ended up falling back on a rather amusing claim. “Well, we’re the scientists, so you’re just going to have to trust us.” I’d heard that from theologians discussing the Holy Trinity all the time, so I understood completely.

The scientists may always be working on explaining exactly why it is happening, though we can all surely describe a little something about how it is happening. Light seems to move straight from its source, far faster than I can follow it, and when it comes up against an object, it will behave in all sorts of interesting ways.

The rays of light may be absorbed, or reflected, or bent, or spread about, but they continue to act upon things, to extend outward, and not simply to fall away or cease to be. The rays are not effused, Marcus Aurelius says, but diffused, in that they do not flow away like a liquid but are cast toward things and at things. Using another analogy, the rays of light stand firm and are always directed, even as they do not force themselves with violence upon things.

This can tell us something about why light is often used as an image of understanding, and why the actions of mind can be fittingly compared to illumination.

Light radiates outward from its source, coming in contact with the objects around it, acting upon them, making them clear and visible as the rays move into them, through them, around them, and off of them.

So too, mind radiates outward from its source, coming in contact with the objects around it, acting upon them, making them clear and intelligible as the thoughts move into them, through them, around them, and off of them.

As the sun is to things as visible, so mind is to things as intelligible. As light remains focused, so thought should remain focused. As a ray casts itself upon things, so understanding casts itself upon things. It acts, reacts, is diffused, and transforms, yet it does not overwhelm what it meets, or just fade into nothingness.

This is all the more fitting for the Stoic, because just as light remains directed yet adaptable to objects, mind remains directed yet adaptable to the circumstances of our lives. For a man to cast his own light is not to blind others, or to burn away what is around him, but for the brightness to show him the clear path for his own choices and actions.

Mind is diffused, not effused.

Written in 6/2008

Dhammapada 35

It is good to tame the mind, which is difficult to hold in and flighty, rushing wherever it leans; a tamed mind brings happiness.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 8.58

To my own free will, the free will of my neighbor is just as indifferent as his poor breath and flesh.

For though we are made especially for the sake of one another, still the ruling power of each of us has its own office, for otherwise my neighbor's wickedness would be my harm, which God has not willed, in order that my unhappiness may not depend on another.

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

Sharing in the same rational nature, we are indeed made to cooperate, to work with and for one another, to participate together in what is good. Yet cooperation should never to be confused with dominance, and I am not made to be the master over someone else’s judgment, just as he is not made to be the master over my judgment.

Think of how often we will insist on trying to violently rule others according to our own wills, and consider also how much suffering and grief we bring onto ourselves by doing so.

If another knows better than I do, and is able to live better than I do, let him assist me, and let him advise me, and let him guide me by his own example. If I were one day to find myself wiser or more virtuous than another, I would be called to do exactly the same. Force and coercion will only hinder a man on the outside, but will not help him to improve himself on the inside.

I must remember, of course, that being indifferent to the choice of another, as with any circumstance beyond myself, isn’t about not caring. It means rather that whatever anything may be in and of itself, it is only good or bad for me according to what I make of it to improve my own character.

I should most certainly want my fellows to live well, and to thereby be happy, as I would hope they would also want for me; I cannot do that for them, and they cannot do that for me.

How often have we heard people say that they can’t be happy without someone else doing this or that, or that they must work ceaselessly to “make” someone else happy?

As disturbing as it may seem, no one else ever makes anyone else better. No one else ever makes anyone else happier. No one else ever saves any other man. We might be an opportunity to be of help to others, but we are never the agents. Only an individual choice, deep within the self, can ever do that.

“But I will make him change!” No, you won’t. Only he can change himself. Walk with him, hold his hand, and encourage him as best you can, but you will not change him. That is up to him.

We propose all sorts of forms of government, suggesting democracy, aristocracy, or monarchy. Let us indeed ask ourselves what sort of circumstances can assist us in life, and let us debate the good and bad in each. What sort of an organization will help all of us, each and every one of us, to exist more fully?

In the end, however, we are all of us, each and every one of us, kings and queens of our own domains. It doesn’t take titles, or lands, or wealth. It requires only rule over oneself.

There are as many monarchs in this Universe as there are creatures of reason and choice. Some will be tyrants, and some will be bringers of peace. That is all up to them.

Behind all of it, there is only one Supreme Monarch, who in infinite wisdom allows us to make our own way, for better or for worse.

Written in 6/2008