Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 10.7

The parts of the whole, everything, I mean, that is naturally comprehended in the Universe, must of necessity perish; but let this be understood in this sense, that they must undergo change.

But if this is naturally both an evil and a necessity for the parts, the whole would not continue to exist in a good condition, the parts being subject to change and constituted so as to perish in various ways.

For whether Nature herself did design to do evil to the things which are parts of herself, and to make them subject to evil and of necessity fall into evil, or have such results happened without her knowing it? Both these suppositions, indeed, are incredible.

But if a man should even drop the term Nature as an efficient power, and should speak of these things as natural, even then it would be ridiculous to affirm at the same time that the parts of the whole are in their nature subject to change, and at the same time to be surprised or vexed as if something were happening contrary to Nature, particularly as the dissolution of things is into those things of which each thing is composed.

For there is either a dispersion of the elements out of which everything has been compounded, or a change from the solid to the earthy and from the airy to the aerial, so that these parts are taken back into the Universal Reason, whether this at certain periods is consumed by fire or renewed by eternal changes.

And do not imagine that the solid and the airy part belong to you from the time of generation. For all this received its accretion only yesterday and the day before, as one may say, from the food and the air which is inspired.

This, then, which has received the accretion, changes, not that which your mother brought forth. But suppose that this, which your mother brought forth, implicates you very much with that other part, which has the peculiar quality of change, this is nothing in fact in the way of objection to what is said.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 10.7 (tr Long)

The fact that things must come to be and must pass way is a necessary aspect of Nature, for wherever there is change in those things that are particular and incomplete expressions of the whole, there will be the process of generation and destruction.

Yet we somehow remain convinced that this is a bad thing, some sort of evil that pervades our world, that it is like something slowly but surely eating away at all of us. It is hardly that. Nature is herself the whole of creation, and she does not admit of any corruption from outside of herself, and she does not suffer any ignorance of her workings. Providence knows what it is about.

If you wish to remove Divine Mind from the equation, it would still not change the way it works. One may decide to question the mover behind what is moved, but one cannot ignore the order within the motion.

Whatever comes into being does not arise from nothing, and whatever falls out of being does not decay into nothing. Any change is always from what was, and into what becomes. The underlying substance remains one and the same, only altering its qualities, its appearances, and its location in time and in space. As the change is constant, what underlies the change has always been there, and always will be. There is the coming and going of many beings, all of them joined and divided in various ways, beings as modifications of Being.

When I was born into this world from my mother, I was not created as something completely new, but as a different combination of the elements that already were. When I die to this world, I will not blink out of existence, but merely become a different combination of the elements that already were.

There is no spontaneous beginning to any of it, and there is no spontaneous end to any of it. It admits only of a transformation, for what is still remains what it is. My own life and death are a reflection of the deeper life and death, and then once again new life, of what has always been. This is not an evil, but rather a good, the fulfillment of rebirth.

A newborn child is not a complete beginning, and a dying man is not a complete end. I must look more broadly at the world to understand this.

As I have grown older, it is easy to assume, as they say, that things fall apart, that the center cannot hold. Still, I should look not just to the falling apart, but also to the rebuilding that follows that falling apart. The center is precisely what holds the entirety of it together.

As I have grown older, I have seen more and more people I love turn away, move away, or pass away.

As I have grown older, I have seen more and more things I care for rust away, crumble away, or fade away.

And as I have grown older, I have also seen more and more people and things come to be, grow to fullness, and prosper with a great glory.

There is no beginning without an ending, and no ending without a beginning. Earth, and water, and air, and fire shift from one to the other, in a constant dance. 

Written in 1/2009