Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.25

Examine into the quality of the form of an object, and detach it altogether from its material part, and then contemplate it.

Then determine the time, the longest that a thing of this peculiar form is naturally made to endure.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 9.25 (tr Long)

Philosophers like to debate the distinction between form and matter, between what something is, and how it then exists in a particular way.

In theory, one can separate the two; in practice there is no such thing. My failure as an academic was largely due to my stubborn insistence that theory should never be removed from practice.

Consider any form, that of a rock, or of a tree, or of a dog, or of a man. I may think that the form is timeless and unchanging, even as the instances come and go. This leads to the philosophy of any “–ism”, that an idea comes first. This is the way most contemporary philosophy goes, beginning with an idea, and then forcing the idea into the actual world.

Yet Marcus Aurelius cuts it all off at the pass. The very form of the rock, or the tree, or the dog, or even of the man is already a passing thing, because each and every one of them, by their very identity, are things that will die, that will cease.

Yes, even the rock.

The dying is not merely a quality of what they are, it is essential to what they are. No rock, or tree, or dog, or man ever kept going forever. They all stopped, and became something else.

Even when you look at it abstractly, what it is includes the necessity of its cessation.

My body will not last, and I know this because I see it failing day by day. Anything I have done will not last, and I know this because I have seen all forms of heritage fall away. My soul will not even really last, because when my awareness ends, I too will no longer be.

That wont be the end of it, however. It will be rebuilt into something new. It will all be reborn. If you don’t believe me, look into your own garden. If you don’t have a garden, look into that of your neighbor or friend. If your neighbor or friend don’t have a garden, you need new neighbors and friends.

Does it offend you, or make your life inconvenient? Transform it. Make it right, at this very moment. After all, it is only here for a little time. 

Written in 11/2008