.
. . Place before your eyes this facility with which the reason will be carried
through all things, as fire upwards, as a stone downwards, as a cylinder down
an inclined surface, and seek for nothing further. For all other obstacles
either affect the body only, which is a dead thing, or, except through opinion
and the yielding of the reason itself, they do not crush nor do any harm of any
kind; for if they did, he who felt it would immediately become bad.
Now,
in the case of all things which have a certain constitution, whatever harm may
happen to any of them, that which is so affected becomes consequently worse;
but in the like case, a man becomes both better, if one may say so, and more
worthy of praise by making a right use of these accidents.
And
finally remember that nothing harms him who is really a citizen, which does not
harm the state; nor yet does anything harm the state, which does not harm the
order of law; and of these things that are called misfortunes not one harms
law. What then does not harm law does not harm either the state or the citizen.
—Marcus
Aurelius, Meditations, Book 10.33 (tr
Long)
The Stoics would often distinguish
between different degrees of being, the passive and the active, that which is
simply acted upon, and that which is able to act for itself. Some things will
only follow their nature in a necessary way, while other things will have the
power to follow the guidance of their own reason and choice.
When fire burns, the heat must rise
up. When a stone falls, its weight must move it down.
When a living thing acts through
feeling or instinct, however, it begins to do more than be moved about, and it
will increasingly respond and react of its own accord.
When a living thing further gifted
with understanding acts, it determines itself most fully through its own
judgment, and it will become the source of its own motion.
The more complete a creature is in
its own nature, the more self-sufficient it becomes. The more self-sufficient
it becomes, the more it participates in the perfection of pure action, of
Universal Mind.
Throw water upon the flame, and the
flame will be smothered. Apply pressure to the stone, and the stone will break. But
add any force to a mind, and the mind does not need to surrender to that force.
Mind does not merely yield, but is able to direct and transform. The body may
suffer from external causes, but thought must not so suffer. The circumstances
do not become a hindrance to it, and instead become an opportunity for it.
I do not need to become worse when
my body is threatened, or coerced, or restricted. I retain the freedom to use
these means to exercise the greatest freedom. Take this or that from me, and my
estimation allows me to make more from less. Push me about in one way or
another, and there are still no limitations on my ability to know and to love,
to rule myself. I will only fail in the face of events if I choose to fail
myself.
I think of all the obstacles I have
faced, and I may wonder why I fell to some, and why I managed to overcome
others. I think of people far better than me, and I am in awe at how they rose
above their situations with such sterling character. The deciding factor was
always one and the same, the willingness to accept what was beyond our power,
and the commitment to master what was within our power.
The Universe follows an order and a
purpose, the most profound of laws, and this expresses itself in the good for
both the complete whole and for every individual part. Not any single occurrence
exists separately from this law; the wisdom lies in recognizing how each piece
plays its own distinct role.
The stone will rest upon the ground,
and it will roll when it is pushed. I, on the other hand, will come and go in a
way that I decide. My place is not to manage how anything else goes about its
business, but it is to manage how I go about my own business.
Written in 3/2009
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