Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 10.9

The public plays, war, astonishment, torpor, slavery, will daily wipe out those holy principles of yours. How many things without studying Nature do you imagine, and how many do you neglect?

But it is your duty so to look on and so to do everything, that at the same time the power of dealing with circumstances is perfected, and the contemplative faculty is exercised, and the confidence that comes from the knowledge of each separate thing is maintained without showing it, but yet not concealed.

For when will you enjoy simplicity, when gravity, and when the knowledge of every single thing, both what it is in substance, and what place it has in the Universe, and how long it is formed to exist, and of what things it is compounded, and to whom it can belong, and who are able both to give it and take it away?

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 10.9 (tr Long)

The games of appearance, the conflicts of interest, the failures of character, or the shackles of desire will be more than annoying diversions; they will be great obstacles, seeming to completely block out our view of the good life. We will be mightily tempted to go back to lazy thinking and to careless living.

I come back, time and time again, to the recognition that the Stoic life can never be merely cosmetic, just continuing on in the same ways while under a different banner, but must rather be a fundamental transformation of our hearts and minds. What I truly choose to love and respect will make all of the difference.

It cannot be about performing on a stage, or putting on a show for an audience. The change must be deep within me, indifferent to how impressive or ridiculous it may come across.

It asks for a profound serenity, for careful observation, for keeping circumstances in their rightful place, for patient reflection, and for an awareness of how things must work together. I must be confident and committed in this, but never prideful or ostentatious.

When will I begin to be able to achieve this? It will happen only when I have reordered my priorities to the core. Only then will I be able to resist distractions and challenges, because only then will I not be tempted by imaginary rewards and false promises.

This goes to the basic principles of the Stoic Turn, for it means that I must be first concerned with being someone or something, rather than giving the appearance of someone or something. I should neither hide away on the one hand, nor draw any deliberate attention to myself on the other.

If thinking and doing rightly for their own sake are not enough for me, I can be certain that I am still pursuing quite imperfect ends. When the very guiding principles have changed, then the exercise of living can also change. 

Written in 1/2009