Jottings on Marcus 8

Through not observing what is in the mind of another a man has seldom been seen to be unhappy; but those who do not observe the movements of their own minds must of necessity be unhappy. 

—from Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 2.8 

For so many years, I couldn't get any sleep, because I was always worried about what she might be thinking. 

It only began to get better when I attended to the quality of my own judgments, and I learned a bit about how to discern between the good and the evil within myself. 

The ugly impressions will still present themselves, but now I firmly remind them why they belong to me, and not to her. 

This works far better than drinking whiskey or counting sheep. 

IMAGE: Edvard Munch, Sleepless Night: Self-portrait in Inner Turmoil (1920) 

Jottings on Marcus 7

Do the things external which fall upon you distract you? Give yourself time to learn something new and good, and cease to be whirled around. . . . 

—from Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 2.7 

People are in a frenzy. If their pursuit of money, fame, and gratification makes them so happy, why are they still so anxious? 

The diversions do not offer peace. A soul charged with integrity offers peace. 

Through all of the turmoil on the outside, there can be always be constancy on the inside. 

James Vila Blake, Sonnets from Marcus Aurelius 31

31. 

ἢ τὸ μὲν τοῦ λύχνου φῶς, μέχρι σβεσθῇ, φαίνει καὶ τὴν αὐγὴν οὐκ ἀποβάλλει: ἡ δὲ ἐν σοὶ ἀλήθεια καὶ δικαιοσύνη καὶ σωφροσύνη προαποσβήσεται; 

A lighted lamp continues its glow and remits not its radiance until the flame is quenched; and shall the blaze of truth that is in you, and the light of justice and the beam of temperance be extinguished, while you yet exist here.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.15 

31. 

The night is long, the candle burneth low, 

Yet giveth me its faithfulness of light 

As when ’twas new and tall; ’tis constant so, 

And constant still will be, a golden sight.

Its upright pencil and unlessened shine 

Have been so from its first enkindled beam, 

And so will be until its stock decline 

And all its flesh dissolve as in a dream 

'Twere shame indeed if so the candle shame thee; 

For what, my soul! shall beamy powers that store thee 

With honor, soberness and peace, defame thee 

By smoky ire and going out before thee? 

Our ruling part divine, it is most sure, 

Should rule the while the ruled parts endure. 

* * * * * 

EPODE 

In sum: Doth thy soul lapse in poorer mine, 

Or am I quenched in thee?—that is the query. 

How can I answer, or in what design 

Marshal my hours now ultimate and weary? 

For should I crave thy glory’s rich estate, 

Then were thy better bounties for me crossed; 

Yet if before thy soul my soul abate, 

My freedom is engrossed in thee and lost. 

But we together, and both i' the sun, can walk, 

Commune of friend and foe, of sky and earth, 

Of trees, rains, rivers, birds, with starry talk; 

Yet in my way I have the dearer mirth: 

I hallow can, and chant, thy lofty light, 

As thou canst not my dimmer lowly plight.

IMAGE: Jan Moraczynski, Vanitas (1851) 

Jottings on Marcus 6

Do wrong to yourself, do wrong to yourself, my soul; but you will no longer have the opportunity of honoring yourself.

 Every man's life is sufficient.

But yours is nearly finished, though your soul reverences not itself but places your felicity in the souls of others. 

—from Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 2.6 

I am slowly learning how a profound truth can be inspirational in theory, even as it may then become terrifying in practice. It really hits home once it starts to hurt. 

If you tell me how a man might waste his whole life on trivialities, I will nod my head knowingly. But when I finally confront my own indecision, I am filled with a sense of urgency. 

That panic will pass as soon as I commit to Nature over Fortune. Now. Not tomorrow. 

IMAGE: Anthony van Dyck, The Head of an Old Man (c. 1620) 

Jottings on Marcus 5

Every moment think steadily, as a Roman and a man, to do what you have in hand with perfect and simple dignity, and feeling of affection, and freedom, and justice, and to give yourself relief from all other thoughts. . . . 

—from Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 2.5 

How odd that I fret over the things I can't control, while I neglect the things I can control. My worth is not in the arrangement of  the circumstances, but from the content of my character. 

I need only examine my own constitution to grasp this. No rocket science is required. 

Let the rest be as it must be. Whatever the conditions, can I say that I have acted with a purity of understanding and love? 

There is the excellence within my power. There is my happiness. The rest is just window dressing. 

Jottings on Marcus 4

Remember how long you have been putting off these things, and how often you have received an opportunity from the gods, and yet you do not use it. . . . 

—from Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 2.4 

The fashionable pundits, the gurus of success, are right to tell me how the Universe will always give me exactly what I need, though they are sadly mistaken about what is necessary to my nature. 

I complain when I don't get the job, or I fail to win back her affections, or I receive derision instead of praise. But those things were never needed. 

In each case, I had the chance to practice humility, or to offer love without condition, or to be constant in my convictions. Those things were always needed. 

Be less like Oprah. Be more like Marcus. 

IMAGE: Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, A Hermit Praying (1663) 

James Vila Blake, Sonnets from Marcus Aurelius 30

30. 

Ἡλίκην ἐξουσίαν ἔχει ἄνθρωπος μὴ ποιεῖν ἄλλο ἢ ὅπερ μέλλει ὁ θεὸς ἐπαινεῖν, καὶ δέχεσθαι πᾶν ὃν νέμῃ αὐτῷ ὁ θεός.

What a great power any man has not to do anything else than what God shall approve, and to receive contentedly whatsoever God sets apart for him. 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.11 

30. 

To what endowment rich and eminent 

A man is born, what heraldic renown, 

And what estate, what wealthy brave descent, 

And in all measures what a meed and crown! 

What can compel or mould him from his course 

And place august, what power prevail to move 

His stationed foot, what strength against all force 

He hath to do but what God will approve! 

And it behoves me to remember well 

I lead not, but am led; wherefore for me 

To be a good led-man ’s my citadel, 

Obedient mind my joy and dignity. 

How blest our case, ne’er to be forced to wrong, 

With free feet marching, in our mouth a song! 

IMAGE: Luca Cambiaso, Benediction of God the Father (c. 1565) 

Jottings on Marcus 3

All that is from the gods is full of Providence. 

That which is from fortune is not separated from Nature, or without an interweaving and involution with the things which are ordered by Providence. 

From thence all things flow; and there is besides necessity, and that which is for the advantage of the whole Universe, of which you are a part. . . . 

—from Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 2.3 

I remain under the illusion that there must be order, purpose, and design in the big things, while completely neglecting the order, purpose, and design in the little things. 

Even the smallest part is significant to the whole, and it is never overlooked. What I still call good or back luck really has nothing to do with luck at all. 

Stop expecting it to be impressive for it to be significant. The true, the good, and the beautiful are present at every scale. God is not too busy, I am too lazy. 

IMAGE: Giovanni Lanfranco, Providence (c. 1625) 

Jottings on Marcus 2

Whatever this is that I am, it is a little flesh, and breath, and the ruling part. . . . 

—from Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 2.2 

I am told to care for myself, to improve myself, to make something of myself, and yet all the while they are pointing at everything that isn't myself. 

This body is just like any other, and this life that animates it is just like any other. The one will return to the earth once the other is snuffed out. 

In the meantime, there is the mind that keeps watch, that governs over the rest. For the moment, that is mine, and so it is unlike any other. 

IMAGE: Evelyn De Morgan, The Passing of the Soul at Death (1919) 

Jottings on Marcus 1

In addition to the informal reflections, my notebooks were also full of what I called blurbs or jottings, brief reactions to small sections of text. 

While the former involved sitting down at a desk in peace and quiet for a time, the latter were hurried observations, often scribbled down at the most inconvenient moments, out of a fear that I might lose an insight before I got home. 

I do not know if any of them are worthwhile, or if it is still possible to squeeze some meaning out of them. Indeed, many of these notes now seem cryptic to me, since I have long forgotten the peculiar circumstances that inspired them. 

In any case, they are now sorted with a semblance of order, and perhaps they will eventually inspire someone to scratch his head. 

—5/2017 

• • • • • 

Begin the morning by saying to yourself, I shall meet with the busybody, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. 

All these things happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil. . . . 

—from Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 2.1 

Perhaps Bias of Priene was right to say that "most people are bad." 

But why might that be? And how will I then choose to react? 

If only they knew, they would surely do better. So let me begin by working on my own awareness for this day. 

Only understanding can defeat ignorance. And only understanding makes forgiveness possible. 

Stoic Snippets 285

Man, you have been a citizen in this great state; what difference does it make to you whether for five years or for three? For that which is conformable to the laws is just for all. 

Where is the hardship then, if no tyrant nor yet an unjust judge sends you away from the state, but Nature, who brought you into it? 

The same as if a praetor who has employed an actor dismisses him from the stage. 

"But I have not finished the five acts, but only three of them!"

You say it well, but in life the three acts are the whole drama; for what shall be a complete drama is determined by him who was once the cause of its composition, and now of its dissolution: but you are the cause of neither. 

Depart then satisfied, for he also who releases you is satisfied. 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.36 

IMAGE: Gustave Moreau, The Young Man and Death (1865) 

James Vila Blake, Sonnets from Marcus Aurelius 29

29. 

Οἱ Πυθαγόρειοι: ἕωθεν εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν ἀφορᾶν, ἵν̓ ὑπομιμνῃσκώμεθα τῶν ἀεὶ κατὰ τὰ αὐτὰ καὶ ὡσαύτως τὸ ἑαυτῶν ἔργον διανυόντων καὶ τῆς τάξεως καὶ τῆς καθαρότητος καὶ τῆς γυμνότητος: οὐδὲν γὰρ προκάλυμμα ἄστρου. 

The Pythagoreans bid us look up into the sky in the morning, that we may keep ourselves mindful of those hosts that always are accomplishing their work by the same course and in the same way; and that so we may know their orderly ranks and their purity and their natural openness—for no star wears a veil.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 11.27 

29. 

Pythagoras’ disciples have a creed 

Of morning’s bounden duty unto joy. 

Look up, they say, and to the expanse give heed, 

And let three lustrous thoughts thy soul employ: 

Acclaim the order and the constancy 

Of heavenly beamy bodies, each in place. 

Laud the purgation and equality 

Of matter in those fulgencies of space. 

Relish the artlessness of all those lights, 

That open to our eyes and cry us hail, 

And naught have to conceal, no hidden plights, 

But unreserved; for no star wears a veil. 

If with this homage the daily dawn we meet, 

Our path is plain, and sparkles to our feet. 

IMAGE: Fyodor Bronnikov, Pythagoreans Celebrate the Sunrise (1869) 

Stoic Snippets 284

How does the ruling faculty make use of itself? For all lies in this. 

But everything else, whether it is in the power of your will or not, is only lifeless ashes and smoke. 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.33 

IMAGE: David Roberts, The Siege and Destruction of Jerusalem (1850) 

Stoic Snippets 283

How small a part of the boundless and unfathomable time is assigned to every man, for it is very soon swallowed up in the eternal! 

And how small a part of the whole substance; and how small a part of the Universal Soul; and on what a small clod of the whole earth you creep! 

Reflecting on all this, consider nothing to be great, except to act as your nature leads you, and to endure that which the Common Nature brings. 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.32 

IMAGE: Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis, Eternity (1906) 

James Vila Blake, Sonnets from Marcus Aurelius 28

28. 

Καταφρονήσει μού τις; ὄψεται. ἐγὼ δὲ ὄψομαι ἵνα μή τι καταφρονήσεως ἄξιον πράσσων ἣ λέγωνεὑρίσκωμαι. μισήσει; ὄψεται. ἀλλὰ ἐγὼ εὐμενὴς καὶ εὔνους παντὶ καὶ τούτῳ αὐτῷ ἕτοιμος τὸ παρορώμενον δεῖξαι, οὐκ ὀνειδιστικῶς οὐδὲ ὡς κατεπιδεικνύμενος ὅτι ἀνέχομαι, ἀλλὰ γνησίως καὶ χρηστῶς. 

May it happen that some one disdains or looks down on me? That will be his own business; but J will see to it that I be not found doing or saying anything worthy of disdain. May some one haply hate me? That will be his own affair; but it is my business to show myself moved with kindness and good will toward every one, ready to show even to this very one who has ill used me his mistaken view, not rebukingly, nor as displaying to others that 1 put up with it, but genuinely and simply.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 11.13  

28. 

Doth any one contemn me, let him look to ’t! 

How recks it me to wrangle it at all? 

My part it is to rule me so withal, 

And live so, that no cynic mood can hoot. 

Hath any hated me, let him look to ’t, 

Have, if he will, a sole, ne’er double, brawl; 

My part is to hate not, and know ’twill fall 

That as the tree is trained so is the fruit. 

If one have stripes, fangs, claws and fur, 

As such there be among us human creatures 

In spiritual mark, why, then we see 

A tiger with the tiger manner stir, 

And tiger thrift go with the tiger features. 

But I, who am a man, must man-like be. 

IMAGE: Hu Zaobin, Victory or Defeat (c. 1930) 

Stoic Snippets 282

The safety of life is this, to examine everything all through, what it is itself, that is its material, what the formal part; with all your soul to do justice and to say the truth. 

What remains, except to enjoy life by joining one good thing to another, so as not to leave even the smallest intervals between? 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.29 

IMAGE: Nicolas Beatrizet, The Triumph of Marcus Aurelius (1550) 

Stoic Snippets 281

To those who ask, where have you seen the gods, or how do you comprehend that they exist and so worship them, I answer, in the first place, they may be seen even with the eyes. 

In the second place, neither have I seen even my own soul, and yet I honor it. 

Thus then with respect to the gods, from what I constantly experience of their power, from this I comprehend that they exist, and I venerate them. 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.28 

Stoic Snippets 280

Cast away opinion: you are saved. 

Who then hinders you from casting it away? 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.25 

James Vila Blake, Sonnets from Marcus Aurelius 27

27. 

Κλάδος τοῦ προσεχοῦς κλάδου ἀποκοπεὶς οὐ δύναται μὴ καὶ τοῦ ὅλου φυτοῦ ἀποκεκόφθαι. οὕτω δὴ καὶ ἄνθρωπος ἑνὸς ἀνθρώπου ἀποσχισθεὶς ὅλης τῆς κοινωνίας ἀποπέπτωκε. κλάδον μὲν οὖν ἄλλος ἀποκόπτει: ἄνθρωπος δὲ αὐτὸς ἑαυτὸν τοῦ πλησίον χωρίζει μισήσας καὶ ἀποστραφείς, ἀγνοεῖ δὲ ὅτι καὶ τοῦ ὅλου πολιτεύματος ἅμα ἀποτέτμηκεν ἑαυτόν. 

A branch cut off from the adjoining branch can not but be lopped from the entire plant. In like manner also a man severed from any one man has fallen off from the whole commonalty of men. Now a branch suffers the ill without doing it, because an alien hand severs it, while it is a man’s own doing if he parts himself from his neighbor by hating him and turning away from him; but he little understands that at the same time he has sundered himself from the whole body and citizenship of mankind.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 11.8 

27. 

“What a thought of God when he conceived a tree!” 

The trunk, behold, twice spreads, that one end grips 

The earth, the other playeth wild and free 

On lyric winds with countless finger-tips. 

Rend bough from bough, you part the rended end 

From the tree’s self, and leave it disbodied, void; 

So is a man, if he one man unfriend, 

Cut from mankind, unlodged, unkinned, destroyed. 

O if, I say, one breaks the natural band 

Of all to all, and doth his fellow hate, 

He little dreams nor can not understand 

How he from life is disincorporate. 

All ’s One, One ’s all—this is “the strength of laws” 

From which a tree or man his welfare draws. 

IMAGE by Peggy Marco 

Stoic Snippets 279

Consider that everything is opinion, and opinion is in your power. 

Take away, then, when you choose your opinion, and like a mariner who has doubled the promontory, you will find calm, everything stable, and a waveless bay.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.22 

IMAGE: William Bradford, A Sunset Calm in the Bay of Fundy (1860)