Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.29.1

The Universal Cause is like a winter torrent: it carries everything along with it.

But how worthless are all these poor people who are engaged in matters political, and, as they do, are playing the philosopher! All drivelers.

Well then, man: do what Nature now requires. Set yourself in motion, if it is in your power, and do not look about you to see if any one will observe it; nor yet expect Plato's Republic, but be content if the smallest thing goes on well, and consider such an event to be no small matter. . . .

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 9.29 (tr Long)

If I think I will somehow have it only my own way, I must learn that I never will.

It isn’t just about me, it was never just about me, and it will never be just about me.

Now I understand that this might feel like a horrible put-down, one of the usual sort of insults, minus any of the foul language or clever superiority. It feels a bit like when someone tells me that I’m worthless.

But see, one of these things is not like the other. It is no insult to tell any man that he is not the center of the Universe; one actually does him a favor by reminding him of the fact.

It isn’t that you and I are worthless at all, but rather that we misunderstand our worth.

I consider myself like one single snowflake, a part of a great winter storm. How long will I last? It hardly matters in the bigger scheme of things. God makes the storm. God is the storm. Do I melt away? Yes. But I melt away with a vengeance, because all of it would never have happened without me, or the countless others.

Now look at the fancy folks. They are just snowflakes too, but they think they are the storm. See how they posture and preen. They go about, tossed by the winds, while claiming that they determine the winds.

“I made this. I will fix this. I am better than you. I know what is right. I will tell you what to do.”

Does that sound too familiar? We have all heard it.

Philosophy, according to Nature, is a man seeking to understand himself and his world. Philosophy, according to the sinister players, is a man seeking to elevate himself and to manipulate his world.

Some people want big results, for the least effort. They strut about, and they say big things, but they actually do no good at all. They act for their own glory.

And other people commit their lives to the smallest things, never expecting impressive gains. No one sees what they do, and yet they show unconditional love all the same. They act for the glory of what is right and true.

No, the humble people who get the job of life done are hardly noticed. The humble die, and the vain folks look the other way. The vain folks die, and they expect to be given a parade.

Let them have their parades. Better for us to stick with having a conscience.

None of us are the storm. We are all snowflakes, but that is still no small matter. 

Written in 11/2008 

Dhammapada 43

Not a mother, not a father will do so much, nor any other relative; a well-directed mind will do us greater service.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.28.2

. . . Soon will the earth cover us all.

Then the earth, too, will change, and the things also that result from change will continue to change forever, and these again forever.

For if a man reflects on the changes and transformations that follow one another like wave after wave and their rapidity, he will despise everything that is perishable.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 9.28 (tr Long)

One may leave open, for the moment, the question of exactly why the Universe operates as it does. I could imagine a state of affairs where God orders things either directly or indirectly, or where the forces of different elements play off of one another, or even where things seem to come about for no immediately clear or discernible reason at all.

But what I cannot avoid is recognizing how all creatures are always in action and subject to change. They do so according to constant cycles of generation and destruction, of birth, life, death, and then rebirth once more, of one thing passing into yet another thing. A poetic friend of mine once described it as being in awe that there is no beginning or ending to beginnings or endings.

Now I could be saddened that nothing stays the same, that everything is rebuilt into something else, or I could embrace the fact that the very possibility of living itself is inherently a process, and that wherever there is activity there will be coming and going. Like a good journey, each stop and each moment can be enjoyed fully in their own way, understanding also that tomorrow one will be someplace else, and also someone else.

To know that life is an unfolding, and not a static state, can allow me to fully appreciate each opportunity that is given, to not put off what should be done now, and to accept the many stages of life in a proper perspective. It helps me to distinguish between the part and the whole, and to view each changing aspect as an expression of all of Nature.

At the same time, an awareness of change warns me to not depend upon any one thing too much, knowing that each is nothing at all on its own, and will never provide anything lasting. Any one thing only makes sense within the context of all things, just as I only make sense in relationship to what I came out of, and to what I will return.

Despising may sound like a rather strong word, but yes, I must even take that attitude of never loving any corruptible thing merely for or in itself, precisely because it is nothing for or in itself.

Every particular nature has its role in Universal Nature. My particular nature, as a rational animal, is to freely choose to live with virtue for whatever time I may live, in whatever circumstances I may live. That doesn’t make me everything, and it doesn’t make me permanent, but it gives me far more than I will ever need to be happy. 

Written in 11/2008

Epictetus, Golden Sayings 86

How are we constituted by Nature? To be free, to be noble, to be modest, for what other living thing is capable of blushing, or of feeling the impression of shame? 

And to subordinate pleasure to the ends for which Nature designed us, as a handmaid and a minister, in order to call forth our activity; in order to keep us constant to the path prescribed by Nature.

The Road Less Traveled

Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ 1.15

Of works of charity

1. For no worldly good whatsoever, and for the love of no man, must anything be done which is evil, but for the help of the suffering a good work must sometimes be postponed, or be changed for a better; for herein a good work is not destroyed, but improved. Without charity no work profits, but whatsoever is done in charity, however small and of no reputation it is, brings forth good fruit; for God truly considers what a man is able to do, more than the greatness of what he does.

2. He does much who loves much. He does much who does well. He does well who ministers to the public good rather than to his own. Oftentimes that seems to be charity which is rather carnality, because it springs from natural inclination, self-will, hope of repayment, desire of gain.

3. He who has true and perfect charity, in no way seeks his own good, but desires that God alone be altogether glorified. He envies none, because he longs for no selfish joy; nor does he desire to rejoice in himself, but longs to be blessed in God as the highest good. He ascribes good to none save to God only, the Fountain from which all good proceeds, and the End, the Peace, the joy of all Saints. Oh, he who has but a spark of true charity, has truly learned that all worldly things are full of vanity.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.28.1

The periodic movements of the Universe are the same, up and down from age to age.

And either the Universal Intelligence puts itself in motion for every separate effect, and if this is so, be content with that which is the result of its activity; or it puts itself in motion once, and everything else comes by way of sequence in a manner; or indivisible elements are the origin of all things.

In a word, if there is a God, all is well; and if chance rules, do not you also be governed by it. . . .

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 9.28 (tr Long)

Even the very idea of God, let alone the reality, makes some of us deeply uncomfortable. I understand completely, as there have been times when the thought of what is Absolute has made me cringe. I see so many people use it as an excuse for their own games of power, as an expression of the deepest hypocrisy, or as a way to put themselves in the place of what they claim to revere.

A few decades working for some of the scoundrels running the Catholic Church will certainly do that to any man.

I have found my own manner of coming to terms with this, of recognizing the difference between a holy man and a charlatan. Just as I do not reject the force of law because of an abusive cop, I do not reject God because of those who make a mockery of Him. My reason always reminds me that nothing comes from nothing, and that all purpose and order requires Intelligence.

Is that still not enough? No need for worry. God does not abandon what He has made simply because we question Him. The Divine is not subject to the same weaknesses as men.

Do you wonder if there really is a Universal Intelligence? In one sense, that is quite good. You are thinking for yourself, not being a simpering follower. You are not simply willing to accept some Big Man in the Sky, a greater version of the bullies and bosses we run into every day. If you imagine God that way, you are quite right to see it all as a cheap excuse.

No, I suggest, try to think of it more deeply. Recognize, as most every tradition of wisdom has for all of human time, that the Divine is not a power; the Divine is power, it is being, it is unity, it is goodness, and it is truth. It is everything, and nothing exists separate from it.

Let us imagine, however, for the sake of argument, that there is no God. Would it make any difference in practice about what makes the fulfillment of our own human nature good?

Perhaps God is the direct cause of each and every thing, at each and every moment, and so that tells me that my life is not in vain.

Perhaps God only got it all started, and lets it run itself, but that would still have the same effect.

Perhaps it all just boils down to how the parts of the world behave according to their own natures, but there would still be that very meaning behind it all.

Perhaps, just maybe, it’s all a game of chance. Even then, my own reason would ask me not to be subject to chance, but to rule myself with my mind, though there might be no greater Mind ruling me.

Let us bracket these profound questions if we must, but let us not neglect the immediacy of daily living. Whether or not there is a God, or whether or not there is an ultimate design, does it mean that you and I, as creatures of reason and of will, should cease knowing the truth and loving the good? Should we show any less compassion for our neighbors, however we may conceive of God? Should we reject the calling of our own hearts to live in justice, because we have been burned once too often?

A student of mine was once mistakenly worried that I thought less of her, because she didn’t have the faith she somehow thought I had. I reminded her that faith isn’t unreasonable at all, but rather accords with reason. More importantly, I suggested that we might not always see everything as it is, but we can still strive to be all that we are made to be.

As I always like to say, your mileage will vary. I look forward to a time when we manage to figure it out. 

Written in 11/2008 

Tao Te Ching 28

Who knows his manhood's strength,
Yet still his female feebleness maintains;
As to one channel flow the many drains,
All come to him, yea, all beneath the sky.
Thus he the constant excellence retains;
The simple child again, free from all stains.

Who knows how white attracts,
Yet always keeps himself within black's shade,
The pattern of humility displayed,
Displayed in view of all beneath the sky;
He in the unchanging excellence arrayed,
Endless return to man's first state has made.

Who knows how glory shines,
Yet loves disgrace, nor e'er for it is pale;
Behold his presence in a spacious vale,
To which men come from all beneath the sky.
The unchanging excellence completes its tale;
The simple infant man in him we hail.

The unwrought material, when divided and distributed, forms vessels. The sage, when employed, becomes the Head of all the Officers of government; and in his greatest regulations he employs no violent measures.

Sayings of Socrates 1

I only wish that wisdom were the kind of thing that flowed. . . from the vessel that was full to the one that was empty. 

—Plato, Symposium, 175d

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.27

When another blames you or hates you, or when men say about you anything injurious, approach their poor souls, penetrate within, and see what kind of men they are.

You will discover that there is no reason to take any trouble that these men may have this or that opinion about you.

However, you must be well disposed towards them, for by nature they are friends. And the gods too aid them in all ways, by dreams, by signs, towards the attainment of those things on which they set a value.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 9.27 (tr Long)

I still surprise myself with how easily I am swayed by what others think of me, and especially by the fact that I am most concerned about the opinions of all the worst sorts of people. Old habits die hard, and I will struggle with them all the more when so many folks around me insist that flattery and fawning are the only way to live.

My difficulty is directly addressed by the Stoic mindset, because I am still letting the merit of my thoughts and actions be determined by the thoughts and actions of others. Instead of allowing my own conscience to inform me, I am looking over my shoulder at how I will be judged. I should certainly be listening to others and learning from others, but I shouldn’t let them do my deciding for me.

If I am grappling with resentment at the offenses of others, I have already let my worries take me too far. If I am indeed right to think that gossip, or slander, or actions motivated by malice are reflections of poor character, why am I then giving such weight to the people who practice these things?

If I consider it carefully, I will see that they are revealing their true colors to me. That they seek to condemn, or deceive, or abuse others is already a clear indication that their judgment is grounded in an ignorance of true human nature. I can even be grateful for being allowed to see why I should not trust them.

So as soon as anyone says he hates me, or wishes to do me harm, he has drawn the worth of his own judgments into question.

Yet at the same time I must be careful not to swing to the opposite extreme of being closed to others, and of inadvertently dismissing them as they might dismiss me. If I am also showing contempt, I am no better than what offends me. How ironic it is that in my weaker moments, the more I complain and fret about the injustices committed by others, the more I myself act unjustly toward others.

The rule is simple, if only I remind myself of it, day in and day out: help those who seek to do me harm, and show respect for every man, even if I cannot respect what he thinks, says, or does. 

Written in 11/2008 

Ecclesiastes 4:13-16

[13] Better is a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king, who will no longer take advice,
[14] even though he had gone from prison to the throne or in his own kingdom had been born poor.
[15] I saw all the living who move about under the sun, as well as that youth, who was to stand in his place;
[16] there was no end of all the people; he was over all of them. Yet those who come later will not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and a striving after wind.

Boethius, The Consolation 3.20

“There is then no doubt that these roads to happiness are no roads, and they cannot lead any man to any end where they profess to take him. I would show you shortly with what great evils they are bound up.

“Would you heap up money? You will need to tear it from its owner.

“Would you seem brilliant by the glory of great honors? You must kneel before their dispenser, and in your desire to surpass other men in honor, you must debase yourself by setting aside all pride.

“Do you long for power? You will be subject to the wiles of all over whom you have power, you will be at the mercy of many dangers.

“You seek fame? You will be drawn to and fro among rough paths, and lose all freedom from care.

“Would you spend a life of pleasure? Who would not despise and cast off such servitude to so vile and brittle a thing as your body? How petty are all the aims of those who put before themselves the pleasures of the body, how uncertain is the possession of such? In bodily size will you ever surpass the elephant? In strength will you ever lead the bull, or in speed the tiger? . . .”

—from Book 3, Prose 8

We live in a society deeply driven by the desire for profit, so the image of balancing investment and gain can perhaps help us to understand the sort of life that offers us the greatest benefit. At stake, however, is not merely how rich we may become in money, but how rich we may become in happiness. For what we need to put in, what are we really going to get out?

Only the careless shareholder thinks he will earn anything at all from a company that shows no opportunities for growth, just as only the foolish man thinks he will find peace and contentment in anything incomplete and unreliable.

Sometimes the prize seems so worth the effort, but we discover later that the returns were far outweighed by the costs. We found ourselves tricked by the enticing appearance, only to be disappointed by the bland reality. What is so surprising is how often we see the failures of our choices, but we continue making the same mistakes over and over, somehow thinking it will be different the next time.

What will we really get if we pursue all these false goods that present themselves to us? They make all sorts of promises, while leaving us unfulfilled. It’s much like that one toy a child wants for Christmas, and then he realizes it isn’t that fun to play with at all, that the appeal was only in the advertising and the packaging.

The most honest and simple reflection should show us how anything that leaves more to be desired, that still has us in a state of worry and concern, can never be an end in itself. It asks for more and more, while giving us less and less. Hard experience will prove it to be true.

Money? We will always have to fight to gain it, and then we have to fight even more to keep a hold of it.

Honor? We will have to sell our own integrity to impress others, and we become caught up in seeming good instead of being good.

Power? We assume we will have a control over others, when in fact those we try to dominate end up having a control over us.

Fame? We believe we will never be alone if we are loved by the many, only to find that having so many followers is just another form of solitude.  

Pleasure? We pretend that the body is so strong, while all the effort of gratifying it manages to leave us so weak.

In all of these cases, what looked so liberating ends up being another prison, and it is all because we are confusing what is imperfect with what is perfect, the relative with absolute. To “gain” any of them will be worthless, a wasted investment, without looking for something more constant and stable in our lives. 

Written in 9/2015 

IMAGE: Ah, Sea Monkeys! The bringers of disappointment to so many young hearts!

The Art of Peace 17

Peace originates with the flow of things—its heart is like the movement of the wind and waves. 

The Way is like the veins that circulate blood through our bodies, following the natural flow of the life force. 

If you are separated in the slightest from that divine essence, you are far off the path.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.26

You have endured infinite troubles through not being contented with your ruling faculty, when it does the things that it is constituted by nature to do. But enough of this.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 9.26 (tr Long)

Unlike many of the trendier philosophies and life hacks, Stoicism has no hidden terms or mysterious conditions attached to it. Its effectiveness can quite easily be put to the test, because what is good or bad in life will follow from our own judgments and choices about what we think is worthy.

There is no requirement to wait for anything else to happen, or to set up a certain situation just so, or to hope for a change in the weather. Since our happiness is something under our control, there is never a need to second-guess ourselves.

In other words, if Stoicism doesn’t seem to be working for me, it’s only because I’m not letting it work, and I am still allowing circumstances to make my decisions for me. Can it be difficult to change my thinking and attitude? It most certainly can, but I can be confident that the only obstacles are right there within my own habits. I can change those habits if I only so choose, if I think it is really important enough to me.

I need to be completely honest with myself, of course, even brutally honest, since I can’t just pretend to change, to give the appearance without the actual commitment. If the decision is made, however, there is absolutely no reason I need to be laid low by anything; it may indeed be painful, but the pain doesn’t have to make or break me.

Another aspect of that honesty is asking myself what the causes of my grief in life have really been. I may try to squirm my way out of it, because it seems easier to blame someone or something else, yet I find, time and time again, that my misery has always been of my own making.

It’s not that I necessarily created the circumstances, even as I was certainly the one who decided they were so critical for me. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that when I didn’t get what I told myself I needed, I would then be heartbroken.

The burdens in my life were only heavy because I gave them weight, and the losses were only unbearable because of what I gave value. If I consider my life to be good only when I act with wisdom and virtue, then no way that I am being acted upon will make my life bad. If I am content with myself, with my power to be my own master, I will be satisfied, seeking nothing beyond myself.

If I’ve had enough of the endless longing, and the uncertainties, and the playing of games, then I can stop caring for all the wrong things. That is only my call, and I can decide at any moment that enough is enough. 

Written in 11/2008 

Dhammapada 42

Whatever a hater may do to a hater, or an enemy to an enemy, a wrongly-directed mind will do us greater mischief.

Freedom is Control

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.25

Examine into the quality of the form of an object, and detach it altogether from its material part, and then contemplate it.

Then determine the time, the longest that a thing of this peculiar form is naturally made to endure.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 9.25 (tr Long)

Philosophers like to debate the distinction between form and matter, between what something is, and how it then exists in a particular way.

In theory, one can separate the two; in practice there is no such thing. My failure as an academic was largely due to my stubborn insistence that theory should never be removed from practice.

Consider any form, that of a rock, or of a tree, or of a dog, or of a man. I may think that the form is timeless and unchanging, even as the instances come and go. This leads to the philosophy of any “–ism”, that an idea comes first. This is the way most contemporary philosophy goes, beginning with an idea, and then forcing the idea into the actual world.

Yet Marcus Aurelius cuts it all off at the pass. The very form of the rock, or the tree, or the dog, or even of the man is already a passing thing, because each and every one of them, by their very identity, are things that will die, that will cease.

Yes, even the rock.

The dying is not merely a quality of what they are, it is essential to what they are. No rock, or tree, or dog, or man ever kept going forever. They all stopped, and became something else.

Even when you look at it abstractly, what it is includes the necessity of its cessation.

My body will not last, and I know this because I see it failing day by day. Anything I have done will not last, and I know this because I have seen all forms of heritage fall away. My soul will not even really last, because when my awareness ends, I too will no longer be.

That wont be the end of it, however. It will be rebuilt into something new. It will all be reborn. If you don’t believe me, look into your own garden. If you don’t have a garden, look into that of your neighbor or friend. If your neighbor or friend don’t have a garden, you need new neighbors and friends.

Does it offend you, or make your life inconvenient? Transform it. Make it right, at this very moment. After all, it is only here for a little time. 

Written in 11/2008 

Epictetus, Golden Sayings 85

Does it seem nothing to you, never to accuse, never to blame either God or Man?

To wear ever the same countenance in going forth as in coming in? This was the secret of Socrates: yet he never said that he knew or taught anything. . . . 

Who amongst you makes this his aim? Were it indeed so, you would gladly endure sickness, hunger, yes, death itself.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.24

Quarrels of little children and their sports, and poor spirits carrying about dead bodies, such is everything; and so what is exhibited in the representation of the mansions of the dead strikes our eyes more clearly.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 9.24 (tr Long)

If we learn to turn our attention away from what is lesser, it can surely help us take better notice of what is greater. Things can loom large in the imagination, and unless we choose to look through them and beyond them, we will find ourselves distracted from what is good in life, by nothing more than shadows and illusions.

How important have all the glittering prizes really been? Was the fame worth the flattery? Was the pleasure worth the playing? Were the profits worth the friendships sold? Did the worldly gains outweigh the moral losses?

These are the uncomfortable questions we all eventually have to ask ourselves. If we look at ourselves honestly, we will find the answers disturbing.

A sense of perspective will make all of the difference. Look at the inside, not at the outside. Look to the whole, not to the part. Look for the ultimate, not for the proximate.

Someone once told me not to be afraid of speaking in public, and suggested I imagine my audience in their underwear. That never worked for me, because I only started laughing uncontrollably. Yet perhaps it did work after all.

I honestly don’t know what Marcus Aurelius intends by mentioning the mansions of the dead, but I think of that classical image, of the hero entering the underworld, only to encounter the shades of those passed. They are now nothing at all, and they are still concerned with what goes about in a world completely lost to them.

I am gone, but I’m worried about whether I turned off the stove. Shadows obsessed with shadows.

I think of the Egyptian pharaohs, stacking their tombs with riches. There is nothing there for them to enjoy, because they are no more. 

I think of an old abandoned Victorian house, on the path I would walk home from school. I was horrified by it, certain that it was haunted. That haunting, however, was only in my mind. People had lived there, and people had died there. It was the thought that bothered me, not the reality. What I feared did not exist at all.

They tore that old house down one day, and built a new one for the yuppies.

The supposed problems I see in my life are nothing more than the bickering of children. Growing up isn’t about being more important, but about being better. Understanding the difference is what matters. 

Written in 11/2008 

Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ 1.14

On avoiding rash judgment

1. Look well unto yourself, and beware that you judge not the doings of others. In judging others a man labors in vain; he often errs, and easily falls into sin; but in judging and examining himself he always labors to good purpose. According as a matter touches our fancy, so oftentimes do we judge of it; for easily do we fail of true judgment because of our own personal feeling. If God were always the sole object of our desire, we should the less easily be troubled by the erring judgment of our fancy.

2. But often some secret thought lurking within us, or even some outward circumstance, turns us aside. Many are secretly seeking their own ends in what they do, yet know it not. They seem to live in good peace of mind so long as things go well with them, and according to their desires, but if their desires are frustrated and broken, immediately they are shaken and displeased. Diversity of feelings and opinions very often brings about dissensions between friends, between countrymen, between religious and godly men.

3. Established custom is not easily relinquished, and no man is very easily led to see with the eyes of another. If you rest more upon your own reason or experience than upon the power of Jesus Christ, your light shall come slowly and hardly; for God wills us to be perfectly subject unto Himself, and all our reason to be exalted by abundant love towards Him.