There
is one light of the sun, though it is interrupted by walls, mountains, and
other things infinite. There is one common substance, though it is
distributed among countless bodies that have their several qualities. There is
one soul, though it is distributed among infinite natures and individuals.
There is one intelligent soul, though it seems to be divided.
Now
in the things that have been mentioned, all the other parts, such as those that
are air and matter, are without sensation and have no fellowship: and yet even
these parts the intelligent principle holds together and the gravitation
towards the same. But intellect in a peculiar manner tends to that which is of
the same kin, and combines with it, and the feeling for communion is not
interrupted.
—Marcus
Aurelius, Meditations, Book 12.30 (tr
Long)
We
insist so often on how much things are different, that we forget how much they
are really the same.
Classical
Stoicism stressed the fundamental unity of all things, that the great varieties
of things we see around us are aspects or manifestations of only one being.
Now
there are various philosophical concerns here, about the definition of this or
that -ism, or about the specific distinction between a substance and a
quality, but in practice it really just means that we should think about things
as being joined together, not as being set apart.
There is
nothing that exists in and of itself, separately from what is one. There is no
multiplicity without proceeding from singularity.
This is
all the more true when it comes to mind, where the very identity of
consciousness means that intellect receives and contains within itself the
forms of all that it knows, and that awareness is an openness to binding itself
to other things. When minds meet, they perceive one another as alike, drawn to
their shared nature, each becoming present within the other. My mind, and your
mind, and all the many expressions of mind, participate in the one Mind, the
glue that binds reality together.
In
thinking about myself, I do so through reflecting on other things, and I
thereby reach out to others as others reach out to me. To recognize another
soul like my own is to find myself all over again, to discover what is common.
In those
rare but wonderful times when I have found friendship, fellowship, and sincere
love with others I am touching upon that mutual kinship. Few things can be as
powerful or fulfilling. I am not made only for myself, but to be in community
with others, and to be in harmony with all of Nature.
Yes,
some will laugh at you if you say that. They will dismiss, reject, and exclude,
convinced that who they are has absolutely nothing to do with who you are. They
choose not to see that the limit of one thing is only possible through its
presence to another, or that it is impossible to speak of this independently of its relationship to that.
Written in 10/2009
IMAGE: M.C. Escher, Mosaic I (1951)
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