Wisdom from the Bhagavad Gita 10

10. The Prajâpati (Lord of Creatures), having in the beginning created mankind together with Yajna, said—"By this shall you multiply: this shall be the milch cow of your desires.

11. “Cherish the Devas with this, and may those Devas cherish you: thus cherishing one another, you shall gain the highest good.

12. "The Devas, cherished by Yajna, will give you desired-for objects.” So, he who enjoys objects given by the Devas, without offering in return to them, is verily a thief. 

13. The good, eating the remnants of Yajna, are freed from all sins: but who cook food only for themselves, those sinful ones eat sin.
 
14. From food come forth beings; from rain food is produced; from Yajna arises rain and Yajna is born of Karma.

15. Know Karma to have risen from the Veda, and the Veda from the Imperishable. Therefore the all-pervading Veda is ever centred in Yajna.

16. He, who here follows not the wheel thus set revolving, living in sin, and satisfied in the senses, O son of Prithâ—he lives in vain. 

17. But the man who is devoted to the Self, and is satisfied with the Self, and content in the Self alone, he has no obligatory duty. 

18. He has no object in this world to gain by doing an action, nor does he incur any loss by non-performance of action—nor has he need of depending on any being for any object. 

19. Therefore, do you always perform actions which are obligatory, without attachment—by performing action without attachment, one attains to the highest. 

20. Verily by action alone, Janaka (the King of Videha) and others attained perfection—also, simply with the view for the guidance of men, you should perform action.

21. Whatsoever the superior person does, that is followed by others. What he demonstrates by action, that people follow. 

—Bhagavad Gita, 3:10-21

Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy 4.23

“It is no wonder,” she answered, ”if one who knows not the order and reasons of Nature, should think it is all at random and confused.

“But doubt not, though you know not the cause of such a great matter of the world's government, doubt not, I say, that all is rightly done, because a good Governor rules the Universe.”

—from Book 4, Prose 5

I will tie myself up in knots of skepticism and relativism if I fail to distinguish between a sound judgment about things and the force of my moods. My passions and inclinations will tell me how something feels to me at that time, but it is my reason that will tell me what something is for its own sake.

Just because my emotions say it is pleasant does not mean it is necessarily good; just because my emotions say it is painful does not mean it is necessarily bad. Wisdom can peel away the immediate appearance to uncover a deeper meaning, and it is that deeper meaning that can allow me to find some peace with my world and myself.

I am hardly living with any understanding or purpose when I try to consider my own nature apart from the whole of Nature, creature divorced from Creator, effects without causes, or my desires without reference to the goods they were made to serve. I should not be surprised when I say that the world makes no sense, if I have failed to actually look beyond my own confusion to the order of the world.

When have I found life to be pointless and chaotic? Whenever it has not satisfied my appetites on my own narrow terms. Nature is not then to blame; my thinking about Nature is to blame. Has it occurred to me that the Universe doesn’t need fixing, but that I need to work on fixing myself? All things will happen for their rightly appointed reasons, even when I am too stubborn to recognize it.

What at first appears wrong may well be right, if I work from the proper measures and standards of right. What seems to be a failure may well be a success, if I reconsider my judgment of success. If it feels pointless or unfair, might I find a way to grasp the point, or to do something to make it fair? It is my unwillingness and my ignorance that are getting in the way.

How often have I grown frustrated when I hear people say there is no truth because they have not bothered to look, or that a problem in unsolvable because it requires some time and effort to solve? Then my petty anger is no better than their closed minds, and I need to do some work on my own attitude before I point fingers.

There are reasons we are tempted to insist that there are no reasons. There is always some pain behind our complaints that life is unfair. If I can think it through patiently and carefully, I might discover something of those reasons, and I might make some sense of all those feelings.

Written in 11/2015

Stoic Snippets 15

Waste not the remnant of your life in those imaginations touching other folk, whereby you contribute nothing to the common good. 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 3.4

Wisdom from the Early Stoics, Zeno of Citium 10

Again he would say that if we want to master the sciences there is nothing so fatal as conceit, and again there is nothing we stand so much in need of as time. 

To the question "Who is a friend?" his answer was, "A second self."

We are told that he was once chastising a slave for stealing, and when the latter pleaded that it was his fate to steal, "Yes, and to be beaten too," said Zeno. 

Beauty he called the flower of chastity, while according to others it was chastity which he called the flower of beauty.

 Once when he saw the slave of one of his acquaintance marked with welts, "I see," said he, "the imprints of your anger." 

To one who had been drenched with unguent, "Who is this," said he, "who smells of woman?" 

When Dionysius the Renegade asked, "Why am I the only pupil you do not correct?" the reply was, "Because I mistrust you." 

To a youth who was talking nonsense his words were, "The reason why we have two ears and only one mouth is that we may listen the more and talk the less."

—Diogenes Laërtius, 7.23

Musonius Rufus, Lectures 8.2

But to distinguish between good and bad, advantageous and disadvantageous, helpful and harmful is the part of none other than the philosopher, who constantly occupies himself with this very question, how not to be ignorant of any of these things, and has made it his art to understand what conduces to a man's happiness or unhappiness.

Therefore it appears that the king should study philosophy.

I often notice how the things we should attend to the most are precisely the things we end up thinking about the least.

If I ask a real professional, whether he be a welder or a neurosurgeon, to tell me something about his trade, I will be amazed at the depth and complexity of what he knows. He should rightly be proud, and I should rightly be impressed. He is not a trained animal, but rather a mind willing and able to understand the meaning of what he does, how he does it, and why he does it.

I can only ask myself how much of that commitment, and all the years of hard work that go along with it, I might be willing to put into the greatest calling of all, of being human first and foremost, of doing the job I was made for, not just the job that pays the bills.

The accountant is the master of his figures, and the carpenter can craft any sort of wood. The lawyer will argue the minutiae of any case, and the gardener will make most anything grow. Now why am I not the man who can properly form himself into a decent man?

To do this, to turn myself into something worthy, I would need to know something about my own nature within the order of all of Nature. This would require dedicating my entire body and soul, all of who I am, to learning about what is true and good in this life. I would need to plunge into the depth and complexity of what it means to be happy.

Well, this is what the philosopher does, whether or not they pay him for it. It is the ultimate profession, the only one that matters.

“Yeah, I was a philosophy major in college, and I learned so much!”

“Ah, What did you learn?”

“I read about Plato, and Nietzsche, and Kant . . .”

“Sorry, I didn’t ask what you read. What did you learn?”

“See, it really helped me to focus on the things that matter in my career . . . “

“Of course! What are those things?”

Rarely will the conversation progress beyond this point. I am then usually introduced to some acquaintance standing around, or asked to try a tasty hors d’oeuvre. 

The practice of philosophy, and notice I do not merely say the academic study of philosophy, is the very core of life, for the simple reason that it allows us to charge everything we do with meaning and value. Whatever the skills we may use to buy nice things, we need the art of living well to inform it all.

I still wait for the day when I ask that pesky question, and that Very Important Person looks me straight in the eye, with absolutely no dissimulation or hidden agenda, and says something like this:

“I learned that I should know right from wrong before I do anything else. I learned that I should stick to my guns if I am following my conscience. I learned that my feelings shouldn’t rule me, but that I should rule my feelings. I learned that I should love my neighbor as myself, because we’re all in this together.”

I have heard words similar to these from many fine people, but never have I heard them, to this very day, from someone who brags about having “studied” philosophy.

If you ask the people you meet what they care for the most, they will tell you that they wish to be happy. What does that entail?

They may say they want good things in their lives. They may tell you about the comfort of wealth, or the security of power, or the ecstasy of pleasure. They will likely give you a list of things, and things are all they are, that they must be given in order to be happy.

“Will being happy always be something good?”

“Of course!”

“Are wealth, or power, or pleasure always good for you?”

“No, I guess they could be bad.”

“Then they aren’t the essence of happiness, are they?”

I have found that kind of questioning annoying, and you have also found it annoying, not because it is just some clever Jedi mind trick, but because it gets to our weakest spot. It makes us recognize that we are quite clueless about why we are alive.

What will guide us to happiness instead of misery? What will help us rather than harm us? Have we thought it through, or are we just living on empty assumptions? That is the human vocation, the most important job there ever was.

If all of us should take up the challenge, shouldn’t our leaders be doing so with bells on? 

Written in 9/1999

Human Fragility

Salvator Rosa, Human Fragility (c. 1650)

Sayings of Ramakrishna 23

 How does the Lord dwell in the body? He dwells in the body like the plug of a syringe, in the body, and yet apart from it.

Seneca, On Peace of Mind 6.1

Chapter 6

We ought, however, first to examine our own selves, next the business that we propose to transact, next those for whose sake or in whose company we transact it.

This would seem to be such a perfectly healthy way to proceed with any endeavor in life, laying out the proper order of concerns before undertaking any task. I ought to be working from the inside out, with my own judgments discovering meaning in my circumstances.

Let me begin by reflecting upon myself, coming to know who I am, why I am here, and what is properly within my power.

Let me then consider what it is I might do, and whether this action will increase my character or diminish it.

Let me finally examine the people I intend to do it with, and whether by our association we will help each other to become better or worse.

Then why is it that I so often do the exact opposite? I work instead from the outside in, letting the circumstances determine my judgments. I allow what other people do and say to rule over my thoughts and deeds, and so I become a slave instead of a free man. I perversely end up reversing the natural order, turning myself into an object instead of a subject.

The cart is leading the horse. It is the impression that has become dominant, and quite regularly my actions are impulsive and immediate, following from the influence of this or that passion.

I may do what other people tell me to do when I am afraid. I may try to flatter them when I am greedy. I may lash out at them when I am angry. I may run away from them when I am sad.

What I am doing is being dragged about by how I feel, and my mind, my awareness of the true and the good, has not even entered into the fray. It sits back and waits until it is too late, and then it no longer reasons but rationalizes, making excuses after the fact instead of leading the way.

A perfect example of this is when I have insisted that I love someone, but what I have called love is my own response to the perception that this person loves me. If I suspect I am no longer loved, then I am drawn to resentment. Love actually doesn’t come into it, because I am only reacting to the conditions I receive instead of giving from my own free choice. It twists something absolute into something relative.

I do this whenever I forget who I am, when I lose sight of my purpose in this life, when I confuse lesser things with greater things. 

Written in 8/2011

Sayings of Socrates 32

When my sons are grown up, I would ask you, my friends, to punish them; and I would have you to trouble them, as I have troubled you, if they seem to care about riches, or anything, more than about virtue.

Or if they pretend to be something when they are really nothing, then reprove them, as I have reproved you, for not caring about that for which they ought to care, and thinking that they are something when they are really nothing. 

And if you do this, I and my sons will have received justice at your hands.

—Plato, Apology 41e–42a

Musonius Rufus, Lectures 8.1

Lecture 8: That kings should also study philosophy.

When one of the kings from Syria once came to him (for at that time there were still kings in Syria, vassals of the Romans), amongst many other things he had to say to the man were the following words in particular. Do not imagine, he said, that it is more appropriate for anyone to study philosophy than for you, nor for any other reason than because you are a king.

For the first duty of a king is to be able to protect and benefit his people, and a protector and benefactor must know what is good for a man and what is bad, what is helpful and what harmful, what advantageous and what disadvantageous, inasmuch as it is plain that those who ally themselves with evil come to harm, while those who cleave to good enjoy protection, and those who are deemed worthy of help and advantage enjoy benefits, while those who involve themselves in things disadvantageous and harmful suffer punishment.

When I listen to people describing the qualities they admire in their political leaders, I will often hear them praise a determined will, the ability to negotiate a deal, experience in the workings of government, or a commitment to this or that popular ideology.

There is much talk about finally getting the job done, about pursuing a glorious vision, about helping people find better jobs to make more money, or about defending the country from vicious aggressors, whether foreign or domestic.

We are assured that our dreams will be fulfilled, that there will be a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage, and that whatever we need to be comfortable and safe will be provided for us.

Yet how often will I hear our leaders considered by a far more fundamental standard, whether they actually know the difference between right and wrong?

No, I do not mean simply repeating certain catchphrases, or appealing to vague sentiments. If you tell me that you support decency, I will ask how you define virtue. If you insist that you are committed to honesty, I will question what you mean by the truth. If you praise democracy, I will wonder if you think a majority can become a mob. If you proclaim that you pray to God, I will enquire about what worldly glory you would surrender for your love of Him.

Most importantly, I will only believe what you say when you prove it through your actions, not with photo opportunities, but when I see you break a sweat and take some punches, day after day. Then I will begin to pay attention to you.

There are skills and attributes, such as intelligence, eloquence, or charm, that will surely be of great assistance to any leader, but none of them will be of any benefit at all without being informed by a conscience. I am quite wary when someone promises comfort ahead of justice, or sells a prosperity of the body at the expense of a prosperity of the soul. Please explain to me what you mean by making my life “better”.

I am not cynical about politics at all, because man is by nature social animal. I am, however, quite dubious of those who play with shared human needs to feed their own wealth, power, and vanity.

“Oh, don’t be so silly! Most people can’t be bothered to ask, let alone answer, questions like that, and politicians certainly can’t be expected to become philosophers!”

Thank you, I’m glad we’ve come to the meat of the matter. These questions are not obscure academic exercises, but concern the most immediate sense of meaning and purpose. If I don’t know what I am living for, what is the point of living? If a man can learn to file his taxes, he can surely be bothered to reflect on the difference between good and evil.

And no, I would certainly not expect politicians to become philosophers. I would rather hope that they already were philosophers, well before they decided to guide the rest of us in how we should live.

I will not fight with you over which brand of party you support, or which “—ism” you embrace, but I will ask you to explain why you think it is best, right down to your measure of right and wrong.

To do this, you will need to argue carefully and soundly from first principles about human nature; you will need to be a philosopher before anything else. A degree is hardly necessary, but an open and critical mind is a prerequisite.
 

Written in 8/1999
 

Stoic Snippets 14

Of human life the time is a point, and the substance is in a flux, and the perception dull, and the composition of the whole body subject to putrefaction, and the soul a whirl, and fortune hard to divine, and fame a thing devoid of judgment. 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 2.17

Tao Te Ching 57

A state may be ruled by measures of correction; weapons of war may be used with crafty dexterity; but the kingdom is made one's own only by freedom from action and purpose.

How do I know that it is so? By these facts: In the kingdom the multiplication of prohibitive enactments increases the poverty of the people; the more implements to add to their profit that the people have, the greater disorder is there in the state and clan; the more acts of crafty dexterity that men possess, the more do strange contrivances appear; the more display there is of legislation, the more thieves and robbers there are.

Therefore a sage has said, "I will do nothing of purpose, and the people will be transformed of themselves; I will be fond of keeping still, and the people will of themselves become correct; I will take no trouble about it, and the people will of themselves become rich; I will manifest no ambition, and the people will of themselves attain to the primitive simplicity."

Seneca, On Peace of Mind 5.5

I think that Curius Dentatus spoke truly when he said that he would rather be dead than alive: the worst evil of all is to leave the ranks of the living before one dies.

Yet it is your duty, if you happen to live in an age when it is not easy to serve the state, to devote more time to leisure and to literature.

Thus, just as though you were making a perilous voyage, you may from time to time put into harbor, and set yourself free from public business without waiting for it to do so.

I have a special fondness for the tales about Manius Curius Dentatus, a consul from the old Roman Republic. The man even had the nerve to be a plebeian, and not a patrician.

He apparently lived a simple life, preferring, as he said, to rule over those who possessed gold to possessing any gold for himself. It would be as if we now somehow elected a congressman who wasn’t already a wealthy lawyer, or doctor, or business mogul.

A story has it that some foreign ambassadors came to visit him, offering elaborate gifts to win his favor. Dentatus, it is said, would have none of it, and sat by the fire, roasting some turnips instead.

“Report and remember,” he told them, “that I can neither be defeated in battle, nor be corrupted with money.”

Now that’s my kind of man. Turnips over gold! What possible point could there be to remaining alive in the body, while already being dead in the soul?

Sometimes Fortune will permit a man like Dentatus to hold high office, but far more often she will deny him such a position. If it must be this way, it is still no obstacle to a good life. Will they not let you follow your calling, or pay you for what you have done, or give you any respect? No matter. Your dignity remains your own.

I have worked in the trenches of education for quite a few years, and in that time I have come across many directors, headmasters, deans, provosts, and presidents. I have known only one who truly maintained his character while in such a position. What was his secret?

There was no secret at all. He was still a teacher at heart, and he was interested only in helping other people learn, one student at a time. He kept roasting his turnips, and he did it very well. When they finally ousted him from office, it seemed so unfair, but he was quite content.

“I’ve spent twenty years dodging the bureaucrats, and the whole time they completely missed what I was doing. All I did was read dusty old books with people, but it was a good run.”

Leisure is not laziness, but rather taking the time to reflect. Literature is not a waste of life, but rather a magnification of all the meaning that can be found in life.

Written in 8/2011

IMAGE: Jacopo Amigoni, Manius Curius Dentatus Refuses the Gifts of the Samnites (c. 1736)

The Wisdom of Solomon 2:12-20

[12] "Let us lie in wait for the righteous man,
because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions;
he reproaches us for sins against the law,
and accuses us of sins against our training.
[13] He professes to have knowledge of God,
and calls himself a child of the Lord.
[14] He became to us a reproof of our thoughts;
[15] the very sight of him is a burden to us,
because his manner of life is unlike that of others,
and his ways are strange.
[16] We are considered by him as something base,
and he avoids our ways as unclean;
he calls the last end of the righteous happy,
and boasts that God is his father.
[17] Let us see if his words are true,
and let us test what will happen at the end of his life;
[18] for if the righteous man is God's son, he will help him,
and will deliver him from the hand of his adversaries.
[19] Let us test him with insult and torture,
that we may find out how gentle he is,
and make trial of his forbearance.
[20] Let us condemn him to a shameful death,
for, according to what he says, he will be protected."

Marillion, "A Few Words for the Dead"

As a reference for Seneca, On Peace of Mind 5.4:

This songs takes its time to build up, but then again, so can life. . .

 Marillion, "A Few Words for the Dead", from Radiation (1998, remixed 2013)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m1HbjAMu60

Can you make it on your own
Can you take it by the throat
Make your own luck, learn the skills
Get in early for the kill

It carries on

Pick up the weapon
Marry it, give it your name
Define yourself by it
Take it down 'the disco

Trigger happy, pulling power
Lady killer, take 'em out
See the weirdos on the hill
Come to get you if you stand still

It carries on

Somewhere in history you were wronged
Teach your children to bang the drum
Tell all the family, tell all your friends
Teach your brothers to avenge

It carries on

Or you could love
You could love

Lie down in the flowers
In the blue of the air
Open your eyes
Why use up your life for anything else?
No need to fight for what everyone has
What do you need?
It's already there
It's already there

You could love

So he carried the stars in his pocket
Drank the sunrise till he was drunk
He embraced the angels
They swam like little minnows in his blood
Ghosts in his eyes
Out walking beside him
Laughing like children in his mind
They chanted his mantra together

You could love

They were happy

Seneca, On Peace of Mind 5.4

We ought therefore, to expand or contract ourselves according as the state presents itself to us, or as Fortune offers us opportunities: but in any case we ought to move and not to become frozen still by fear.

No, he is the best man who, though peril menaces him on every side and arms and chains beset his path, nevertheless neither impairs nor conceals his virtue: for to keep oneself safe does not mean to bury oneself.

There will always be opportunities to live well, even as the particular content of these opportunities will change as the world around us changes. It will not always be within our power to modify the circumstances outside of us, but it will always be within our power to modify our own thought and actions in response to these circumstances.

If I don’t like what I see, I am tempted to thrash about desperately, trying to fix all the situations I dislike, or working to make other people behave in a manner that I prefer.

Like some bull in a china shop, I trample and smash mindlessly, even as I somehow convince myself I am being so very productive. It does not occur to me that I should stick to mastering what is my own, and learn to gladly accept that certain things will be as they will be.

Others have made their choices; what will my choices now be? This is one of the most immediate and practical aspects of the Stoic Turn.

I don’t need to run away and hide if I feel discouraged. I don’t need to give up all hope, just because I am not fond of the scenery. I can always possess myself, and no one can ever take that away from me, even in suffering, exile, or death. There will be no gain from smashing up all the dishes.

“He treated me unfairly! He lied, and cheated, and stole from me!” Yes, indeed he did, and that is on him. Will my own rage make me any better, or will it make him any better?

“She doesn’t love me!” No, she doesn’t, and there is something very important I can learn from that. I will decide how I will love, but it is never up to me to decide that for anyone else.

“They never gave me a chance!” Was it their job to serve at my convenience? They may not have intended it, but whatever they may have done still ended up being a chance for me, though it may not have been what I expected.

I can adapt myself to whatever may happen, and still remain thoughtful and compassionate. Perhaps it will make me richer or poorer, bring me pleasure or pain, let me live a little longer or kill me right now. It makes no difference to virtue.

Love gives of itself and asks for nothing else, in any time or place. There is the simple beauty, quite unconquerable, of the Stoic Turn.

Written in 8/2011

The Art of Peace 48

A true warrior is always armed with the three things: the radiant sword of pacification; the mirror of bravery, wisdom, and friendship; and the precious jewel of enlightenment. 

Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy 4.22

Then I said, “I see how happiness and misery lie inseparably in the deserts of good and bad men, but I am sure that there is some good and some bad in the general fortune of men. For no wise man even would wish to be exiled, impoverished, and disgraced rather than full of wealth, power, veneration, and strength, and flourishing securely in his own city.

“The operation of wisdom is shown in this way more nobly and clearly, when the happiness of rulers is in a manner transmitted to the people who come into contact with their rule; and especially when prisons, bonds, and other penalties of the law become the lot of the evil citizens for whom they were designed.

“I am struck with great wonder why these dues are interchanged; why punishments for crimes fall upon the good, while the bad citizens seize the rewards of virtue; and I long to learn from you what reason can be put forward for such unjust confusion.

“I should wonder less if I could believe that everything was the confusion of accident and chance. But now the thought of God's guidance increases my amazement. He often grants happiness to good men and bitterness to the bad, and then, on the other hand, sends hardships to the good and grants the desires of the wicked. Can we lay our hands on any cause? If not, what can make this state different in any way from accidental chance?”

—from Book 4, Prose 5

Like most of us when we are trying to work through a problem, Boethius will jump from one place to another, working something out on this side, only to find that it has revealed a different difficulty on the other side. It will involve all the frustration that comes from trying to herd cats.

At this point in the text, Boethius feels more comfortable with the small picture, and yet he once again becomes more confused about the big picture. He is making more sense of how his own life is working out, while he is increasingly troubled that the Universe as a whole isn’t working out.

Recall, of course, that we began with his deepest despair about his personal situation, that he has been treated unjustly, that his enemies have triumphed over him, and that his happiness has been stolen from him.

He now begins to see that his act of living well is its own reward, that his enemies’ act of living poorly is its own punishment, and that his happiness is his to determine, only through the content of his character.

Still, why is Providence, the very order behind the unfolding of the world, not doing more to encourage and support the good life? If a man chooses to pursue wisdom, would it not be best if he were given the best means to do so? If a man commits to living with virtue, would it not be best if he were offered the best opportunities to practice it?

Surely God should cease allowing the just to be cast aside, the workers to be denied prosperity, or the loving to be shown disrespect? After all, if God really loved us, he would give us benevolent rulers, to assist us in our own benevolence. If He cared enough, he would do enough to show us how much He cares.

Does this mean that a man can do right, but he will never be treated right? It hardly seems fair.

The answer, however, is already to be found in everything Lady Philosophy has taught. It is because we are still mixing standards that we are confused about our human worth. Boethius only sees an inconsistency at this point because he is not applying one and the same measure of the human good. He accepts that he is made to do well, and yet he still expects others to do well for him.

Will being offered wealth, power, veneration, and strength necessarily make a person better? They could just as easily make him worse, depending on what he makes of them.

Will being burdened with poverty, exile, disgrace, and weakness necessarily make a person worse?  They could just as easily make him better, depending on what he makes of them.

It may indeed seem that the way circumstances are distributed is random and arbitrary. That seeming comes only from failing to understand the part and whole as working together.

Written in 11/2015

Stoic Snippets 13

If you were destined to live three thousand years and as many myriads besides, remember that no man loses other life than that which he lives, nor lives other than that which he loses. 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 2.14

Fragments of Parmenides 3

Welcome, O youth, that comes to my abode on the car that bears you tended by immortal charioteers! It is no ill chance, but right and justice that has sent you forth to travel on this way. 

Far, indeed, does it lie from the beaten track of men! Fitting it is that you should learn all things, as well the unshaken heart of well-rounded truth, as the opinions of mortals in which is no true belief at all.  

Yet nonetheless shall you learn these things also—how passing right through all things one should judge the things that seem to be. 

Seneca, On Peace of Mind 5.3

However, Athens herself put him to death in prison, and Freedom herself could not endure the freedom of one who had treated a whole band of tyrants with scorn.

You may know, therefore, that even in an oppressed state a wise man can find an opportunity for bringing himself to the front, and that in a prosperous and flourishing one wanton insolence, jealousy, and a thousand other cowardly vices bear sway.

I am deeply wary of deifying any man, and I have no interest in turning my heroes into saints. I will leave it to God to decide who the real saints are.

I have no illusions that Socrates was somehow perfect, and I am sure he had as many weaknesses as the rest of us. I imagine that he could be an annoying man; in the language of our day and age, he was probably quite offensive and inappropriate. I know that feeling, when someone has asked me to think for myself, to move beyond popular assumptions and shallow platitudes, and how deeply that can damage my vanity and the illusion of my power. There was a reason Socrates was like a gadfly.

The frustrations ran so deep that the Athenians put him to death. This ends the discussion for most, because death is perceived as one the greatest evils. So we neglect one of the most important lessons Socrates tried to teach, the necessity of thinking critically about what we really mean by “good” and “bad”. Show me what you will sacrifice anything else for, and I will see what you truly love, and who you really are.

When I look at Socrates, I see a man who not only understood that living well required thinking well, but also a man who was brave enough to then put into practice all he had learned about wisdom and virtue as the highest goods. In this, he is more than just some imposing historical figure, and becomes rather a model for anyone, anyone at all, who wishes to become genuinely human.

And yes, I do really mean for any of us, regardless of whatever fortune may have thrown our way. It requires only the humility and honesty to reflect upon our own nature, and then the courage and commitment to follow an informed conscience. What Socrates did, all people can do. No special powers are required, only a love of character. Any person who does this has now been of service.

So what can the life of Socrates ultimately teach Serenus? First, that a good man, under all circumstances, can always find the opportunity to live well. Second, by extension, don’t be fooled by the false idols of status and wealth, because the love of such things will so easily turn us into charlatans and hypocrites. Adding anything glorious on the outside can never cover up a rot on the inside.

I don’t know if Socrates had to die the way he did, but I do know that he had to live the way he did, and that he was willing to face misfortune and death for the sake of a good life.

“Oh, if only I could live like a Socrates!”

“What’s stopping you?” 

Written in 8/2011

IMAGE: Luca Giordano, Socrates (c.  1660)

Bond of Union

M.C. Escher, Bond of Union (1956)

Sayings of Heraclitus 22

Those who seek for gold dig up much earth and find a little.

Saint Francis in Prayer

Caravaggio, Saint Francis in Prayer (1610)
 

Musonius Rufus, Lectures 7.5

How much more fitting, then, it is that we stand firm and endure, when we know that we are suffering for some good purpose, either to help our friends or to benefit our city, or to defend our wives and children, or, best and most imperative, to become good and just and self-controlled, a state which no man achieves without hardships.

And so it remains for me to say that the man who is unwilling to exert himself almost always convicts himself as unworthy of good, since "we gain every good by toil." These words and others like them he then spoke, exhorting and urging his listeners to look upon hardship with disdain.

It has nothing to do with being the strongest fellow on the block, or showing how tough I am, or proving that pain won’t make me cry.

In order to be as strong as Nature intended me to be, I must master no one but myself. My character improves not by fighting against ever-bigger opponents, but by making something good out of any opposition I might face. I do indeed cry, even when it is only on the inside, and I know that there is no shame in crying; there is only shame in no longer caring.

I suppose Stoicism gets some of its bad reputation when people see talk like this, involving hardship, and struggle, and endurance, and then they assume it must all be about a cold and heartless fight to the death, where the first man to wince or grimace must necessarily lose. This will only happen, however, if I misunderstand the nature of circumstances on the one hand, and the nature of courage on the other.

I always remind myself that Stoic indifference does not mean that I shouldn’t care, but it rather means that I should learn what is most important to care for, and how to then go about caring for it.

Things will happen to me in life, many of them totally unexpected, most of them quite beyond my power to control. They have come to pass for a reason, under the order of Providence, even when that order is not immediately apparent to me.

Sometimes they will bring me pleasure, and sometimes they will bring me pain, yet behind all of my preferences, I must ask only one thing: how should these circumstances be put to the best use? They will only become good or bad for me by how I respond to them, whether with virtue or with vice. That is the standard by which all human actions must be judged.

An obstacle, therefore, is not something I am fighting against, but actually something I should be working with. The effort is not in conquering the world, or hating anyone or anything, but is only in bringing myself into harmony with the world. I will venture to say that courage is actually about transforming suffering into joy, not just begrudgingly putting up with suffering.

So I train myself to understand that only a loving man can be brave, and that every brave man must first be consumed by his love. It is precisely because he knows what to care for the most, both in himself and in others, and because he sees what is noble and good in every human spirit, that he is willing to dedicate all his actions, however difficult they may seem, toward this highest human good.

Hardship stops feeling so unbearable when I think of it in this way, just as any work can become a blessing when I recognize the worth of what I am working for. Suffering is now an opportunity, just as work is now deeply satisfying. I will gladly give my best for the best, and I will not need to complain; I can show gratitude for the chance to do something right.

“But I have lost so much!” No, I have lost nothing at all, if I know what is properly mine. I have only been given the possibility to improve what is mine.

“But the effort is more than I can bear!” No, the degree of my effort is in proportion to the degree of my commitment. Let me change what I love, and then I will change how much I am willing to give for love.

“We gain every good by toil.” I believe Musonius is here quoting Epicharmus of Kos. These words may seem discouraging, since toil sounds like such a terrible thing. Let me reconsider what it means to toil, and it will not seem so harsh. I can then only be encouraged.

All life is action, and the value of life is found in the end toward which that action is directed. Some actions feel easier, and some action feel harder, and I will tie myself in knots if I focus on the degree of work required. I could, rather, focus on the dignity of the goal, and then the work is a privilege.

Written in 8/1999

IMAGE: Epicharmus of Kos