What we have to seek for, then, is that which does not each day pass more and more under the control of some power which cannot be withstood.
And what is this? It is the soul—but the soul that is upright, good, and great. What else could you call such a soul than a god dwelling as a guest in a human body?
A soul like this may descend into a Roman knight just as well as into a freedman's son or a slave. For what is a Roman knight, or a freedman's son, or a slave? They are mere titles, born of ambition or of wrong. One may leap to heaven from the very slums. Only rise
“And mold thyself to kinship with thy God. “
This molding will not be done in gold or silver; an image that is to be in the likeness of God cannot be fashioned of such materials; remember that the gods, when they were kind unto men, were molded in clay. Farewell.
And what is this? It is the soul—but the soul that is upright, good, and great. What else could you call such a soul than a god dwelling as a guest in a human body?
A soul like this may descend into a Roman knight just as well as into a freedman's son or a slave. For what is a Roman knight, or a freedman's son, or a slave? They are mere titles, born of ambition or of wrong. One may leap to heaven from the very slums. Only rise
“And mold thyself to kinship with thy God. “
This molding will not be done in gold or silver; an image that is to be in the likeness of God cannot be fashioned of such materials; remember that the gods, when they were kind unto men, were molded in clay. Farewell.
—from Seneca, Moral Letters 31
I have come to a point where I am simply baffled when people employ reason and will to subject themselves to objects so far beneath their dignity. Here is the capacity to understand occupied with what is thoughtless, and the freedom to choose enslaved by gratification.
Yet it won’t do to grumble about how far we have fallen, if the only cure is to discover how far we can truly rise.
We may not always be much to look at, but within each and every one of us is the remarkable power to rule ourselves, to take what happens to us and to form something new from it. While matter has no say in how it must behave, mind is itself an agent of meaning and purpose.
Does my flesh fail me, and do my circumstances seem to stand against me? This need not hinder me, for who I am is measured by the excellence of my own thoughts, words, and deeds, not by the actions of anyone or anything else. I will be as happy or as miserable as I decide to be. Such a moral liberty is at the heart of the Stoic Turn.
I foolishly cast blame outwards, even as the responsibility should be focused inwards; the soul marches to its own drum, let the body protest as it may. It would be a shame if I permitted that divine spark to go to waste.
The great soul can be found under any conditions, so it will have nothing to do with coming from an established family or attending the proper schools—it is no accident that two of the most inspiring Stoic thinkers, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, were a slave and an emperor respectively. Wherever you find prudence, fortitude, temperance and justice, there you have a person of quality.
If I am using my leverage to accumulate glittering prizes, I am using the wrong tools for the wrong ends. I come closest to God when I nurture the mind and heart within.
I have come to a point where I am simply baffled when people employ reason and will to subject themselves to objects so far beneath their dignity. Here is the capacity to understand occupied with what is thoughtless, and the freedom to choose enslaved by gratification.
Yet it won’t do to grumble about how far we have fallen, if the only cure is to discover how far we can truly rise.
We may not always be much to look at, but within each and every one of us is the remarkable power to rule ourselves, to take what happens to us and to form something new from it. While matter has no say in how it must behave, mind is itself an agent of meaning and purpose.
Does my flesh fail me, and do my circumstances seem to stand against me? This need not hinder me, for who I am is measured by the excellence of my own thoughts, words, and deeds, not by the actions of anyone or anything else. I will be as happy or as miserable as I decide to be. Such a moral liberty is at the heart of the Stoic Turn.
I foolishly cast blame outwards, even as the responsibility should be focused inwards; the soul marches to its own drum, let the body protest as it may. It would be a shame if I permitted that divine spark to go to waste.
The great soul can be found under any conditions, so it will have nothing to do with coming from an established family or attending the proper schools—it is no accident that two of the most inspiring Stoic thinkers, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, were a slave and an emperor respectively. Wherever you find prudence, fortitude, temperance and justice, there you have a person of quality.
If I am using my leverage to accumulate glittering prizes, I am using the wrong tools for the wrong ends. I come closest to God when I nurture the mind and heart within.
—Reflection written in 12/2012
IMAGE: Gustave Doré, The Highest Heaven (from Dante's Paradiso) (1868)
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