Ecclesiastes 5:6-10

[6] Let not your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake; why should God be angry at your voice, and destroy the work of your hands?
[7] For when dreams increase, empty words grow many: but do you fear God.
[8] If you see in a province the poor oppressed and justice and right violently taken away, do not be amazed at the matter; for the high official is watched by a higher, and there are yet higher ones over them. 
[9] But in all, a king is an advantage to a land with cultivated fields.
[10] He who loves money will not be satisfied with money; nor he who loves wealth, with gain: this also is vanity.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.35

Loss is nothing else than change.

But the Universal Nature delights in change, and in obedience to her all things are now done well, and from eternity have been in like form, and will be such to time without end.

What, then, do you say—that all things have been and all things always will be bad, and that no power has ever been found in so many gods to rectify these things, but the world has been condemned to be bound in never ceasing evil?

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 9.35 (tr Long)

Well yes, I have sadly said exactly that to myself more times than I can count: the world is a mess, everything dies, and the only necessary thing is to accept misery.

And why did I say that, over and over? Because I wanted to surrender, because it seemed the easier choice to fall down than to stand up, because I preferred blaming others to taking a real responsibility for myself.

The world will only seem bad when we see it backwards, when we confuse what we can give with what has been given, when we replace life as a calling with life as an entitlement. Will things happen to us that hurt? Yes, of course. Will they not, however, always, without a single exception, also give us the opportunity to live with virtue and with love?

Each and every situation I have ever encountered asked me to live well, even when I denied it.

It will only appear to be “bad” or “evil” when the very function of a free and rational animal is reduced to that of a mindless beast, ruled by gratification. It is natural for sheep to be sheep, but not for men to be sheep.

“But people do terrible things!” Yes, now you yourself can do wonderful things.

“But others do not treat me fairly!” Yes, now you yourself have the gift of being fair.

“But there is death, and there is suffering, and there is loss!” Yes, there is change all around us, but you have it within your power to make your own change, for the short time that you live, to be an expression of your own compassion and concern.

Absolutely nothing is taken from us when the world changes around us, since we can consistently maintain an attitude driven by conscience and character while we still live.

This may not be character of the sweeping and epic sort, but it never needs to be; a humble and unassuming variety will do just fine. True heroes don’t necessarily change everything around them, even as they have the power to change themselves to the core.

There are many things I may think I have lost over the years. I may think I lost the dearest friendship, or I may think I lost a child, or I may think I lost the opportunities for being important, rich, and admired. Lately, I tend to worry that I will lose my very life before it’s rightful time. None of that was ever lost, or ever will be, because it was never mine to begin with.

My challenge to myself, which I will often resist with much kicking and screaming, is to recognize that nothing that is good for me can be taken away. I will only comprehend this when I in turn accept myself as a creature of action, not merely one of passion.

I will probably not win by playing the game of circumstances, even as I will always win by following the calling of virtue. That is true for each and every one of us. There is no failure, or evil, we do not choose for ourselves.

Nature works as it does for a very good reason, and it is my task to discover this instead of throwing a tantrum. I choose to trust in Providence.

A change is never an injustice; a change is an expression of growth and of transformation. Of course all these things end, but I decide who I will be in the face of those endings.

Written in 1/2016

The Art of Peace 19

Study the teachings of the pine tree, the bamboo, and the plum blossom. 

The pine is evergreen, firmly rooted, and venerable. 

The bamboo is strong, resilient, unbreakable. 

The plum blossom is hardy, fragrant, and elegant.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.34

What are these men's leading principles, and about what kinds of things are they busy, and for what kind of reasons do they love and honor?

Imagine that you see their poor souls laid bare. When they think that they do harm by their blame, or good by their praise, what an idea!

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 9.34 (tr Long)

Many people in this world will try to make you feel small, and they will usually do so because they themselves want to feel big. As difficult as it may seem, do not measure yourself by their standards, but rather look at who they truly are, as is revealed by the character of what they say and what they do. Compare this to the measure of Nature.

You will find that they are not all they make themselves out to be. When they praise themselves in public, you know that you are dealing with arrogant men. When they speak fine words but act with malice, you know that you are dealing with dishonest men. When they continually take and take without any giving anything at all, you know that you are dealing with greedy men.

This becomes all the more apparent when you discern toward what ends they commit most of their time and effort. The fact that they spend so much time in church or at public events should not mislead you, because they do that in their own service, to be revered. Trust the man who does what is good for others, never expecting to be revered.

See them as they are, not as they would wish us to see them. Observe how they try to hurt others with their words and deeds, or shame their enemies, or insist that it is always someone else’s fault. Observe how they lift up their lackeys, or give favors to their supposed friends, but only as long as it remains convenient.

Indeed, what an idea! Consider the self-conceit, and you need consider no more!

Who have I just described to myself? If I have any part in it, I know exactly where the work needs to be done. Justice starts right here at home. When I in turn see this in others, my challenge is not to twist the call of loving them into even more hatred.

There is a certain nastiness in sounding righteous while at the same time being terribly self-righteous. At one point in my past life I became quite a master of that skill, having followed all the wrong folks, and deciding that I would somehow make myself better by being full of piss and vinegar.

No good ever came from it, and no good will now ever come from it. If I spend my time being resentful, and putting down anyone who rubs me the wrong way, I have already laid bare exactly who I am. What I may have called strength was a pathetic weakness, and what I may have called conviction was the most puerile posturing.

Show me what anyone does in his daily life, regardless of his professional persona. There will be found real humanity, in all its successes and failures, stripped of all the illusions. 

Written in 12/2008 

Dhammapada 44

Who shall overcome this earth, and the world of Yama, the lord of the departed, and the world of the gods?

Who shall find out the plainly shown path of virtue, as a clever man finds out the right flower? 

Sages

Peace of Mind

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.33

All that you see will quickly perish, and those who have been spectators of its dissolution will very soon perish too.

And he who dies at the most extreme old age will be brought into the same condition with him who died prematurely.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 9.33 (tr Long)

There are all sorts of things in life that we are convinced we need, though it usually turns out that we only want them. I find that the distinction is far too often overlooked, and that Stoicism can help us to rightly understand it.

For the Stoic, virtue is the only absolute and unconditional good of human nature, because it is our own thoughts and actions that are distinctly our own. All other things are good for us in a relative and conditional way, in that they are only of benefit to us when they assist us in being virtuous.

Accordingly, it is said that we should be indifferent to anything other than our moral worth, free to prefer certain circumstances if they do not conflict with out character, while also immediately willing to let them go if they do conflict with our character. I may want to be rich or popular, but all of that should be secondary to my need to be good.

As soon as he was old enough to carry on a proper conversation, my son started wondering why so much of the advertising on television was about things we didn’t really need. 

Yes, I am simultaneously proud of him and fearful for him. 

One particular time when we were watching a show together, he said that the ads seemed to be directed at older people. I asked him why he thought that, and he immediately pointed out that they were about selling drugs to help us live longer.

I couldn’t resist throwing out a further question. “Well, is that something we need, or something we just want?”

He thought for a moment, and then offered an observation. “Some nice people don’t live long at all, and some mean people live for a really long time.” I do so wish that were a more common insight.

In the end, the difference between a longer life and a shorter life is not that great at all, but the difference between a virtuous life and a vicious life is quite great. We are made to be here only for a very brief time, but we are made to live well while we are here. It reflects the priority of quality over quantity, and more specifically the quality of what is inside of us over the quality of what is outside of us.

Or put another way, we will all end up in the same state, though what we did before that end will make all of the difference. 

Written in 1/2016

IMAGE: Angelo Caroselli, Allegory of Youth and Old Age (c. 1615)

Epictetus, Golden Sayings 87

The husbandman deals with land; physicians and trainers with the body; the wise man with his own Mind.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.32

You can remove out of the way many useless things among those that disturb you, for they lie entirely in your opinion; and you will then gain for yourself ample space by comprehending the whole Universe in your mind, and by contemplating the eternity of time, and observing the rapid change of every several thing, how short is the time from birth to dissolution, and the illimitable time before birth as well as the equally boundless time after dissolution!

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 9.32 (tr Long)

I have often been falsely convinced that a burden is too much to bear, or that a certain suffering is irredeemable, or that a particular situation has simply become hopeless. Yet I then try to remember that the burden is only as heavy as I allow it to be, that suffering has as much or as little power over me as I choose, and that the situation was never really the problem to begin with. My thinking about the situation was the problem.

Of course it will all seem impossible if I decide that it is impossible; a sense of doom becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. To be liberated from being disturbed only becomes possible when I recognize where to place the most perfect human good.

Yes, there may be forces acting upon me. Yes, it may hurt mightily. Yes, I may not be able to change my conditions. But, as a creature of reason and choice, my own judgments and actions are what define me. As long as I retain that power, I may consider the very core of my humanity to be invincible. It is only when I transfer authority to the things outside of me that I surrender my own happiness.

People will often have very different perspectives on a philosophy, and Stoicism will be no different. For myself, however, I have never been able to bring myself to cherry-pick my Stoicism. I don’t find it possible to fully embrace Stoic ethics without the context of Stoic physics, to understand my own role as a part without the purpose of the whole.

I see something similar here, when Marcus Aurelius explains that learning to overcome being disturbed and frustrated proceeds together with a sense of oneself within the grand scale of things.

As is so often the case, circumstances will become far more manageable in my judgment when I put everything in its rightful place.

My mind can order things by the measure of scale, and thereby discern that what may appear so big and powerful is actually rather small and weak. What will all of our petty squabbles and winnings be in the face of the Infinite?

My mind can also grasp that however little time I may have, and however limited the scope of my influence, I can, if I only so decide, retain complete and absolute over my own character. What will all the actions of others be if I do not permit them to do me any harm?

If I know where I stand, and if I know who and what I am, I do not need to fear, I do not need to be angry, and I do not need to let myself be distressed. I am still the captain of my own ship, and I am familiar with the map of the seas on which I am sailing. 

Written in 12/2008 

Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ 1.16

Of bearing with the faults of others

1. Those things which a man cannot amend in himself or in others, he ought patiently to bear, until God shall otherwise ordain. Bethink you that perhaps it is better for your trial and patience, without which our merits are but little worth. Nevertheless you ought, when you find such impediments, to beseech God that He would vouchsafe to sustain you, that you be able to bear them with a good will.

2. If one who is once or twice admonished refuses to hearken, strive not with him, but commit all to God, that His will may be done and His honor be shown in His servants, for He knows well how to convert the evil unto good. Endeavor to be patient in bearing with other men's faults and infirmities whatsoever they be, for you yourself also have many things which have need to be borne with by others. If you cannot make your own self what you desire, how shall you be able to fashion another to your own liking? We are ready to see others made perfect, and yet we do not amend our own shortcomings.

3. We will that others be immediately corrected, but we will not be corrected ourselves. The freedom of others displeases us, but we are dissatisfied that our own wishes shall be denied us. We desire rules to be made restraining others, but by no means will we suffer ourselves to be restrained. Thus therefore does it plainly appear how seldom we weigh our neighbor in the same balance with ourselves. If all men were perfect, what then should we have to suffer from others for God?

4. But now has God thus ordained, that we may learn to bear one another's burdens, because none is without defect, none without a burden, none sufficient of himself, none wise enough of himself; but it behooves us to bear with one another, to comfort one another, to help, instruct, admonish one another. How much strength each man has is best proved by occasions of adversity: for such occasions do not make a man frail, but show of what temper he is.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.31

Let there be freedom from perturbations with respect to the things that come from the external cause.

 And let there be justice in the things done by virtue of the internal cause, that is, let there be movement and action terminating in this, in social acts, for this is according to your nature.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 9.31 (tr Long)

I will often employ foolish little trinkets, signs, images, or phrases to help me get back on track. To this day, for example, I will deliberately look at a little glass bird someone gave me many years ago. It’s a nice piece of work, but the person who gifted it back then decided I was entirely disposable. It reminds me that people will not always keep their promises.

For me, this is now a good thing, a recognition of what trust is truly meant to be. Like viewing that figurine, I also repeat certain words to myself when I feel that I am about to break. I repeat to myself, often many times a day: “Take the Stoic Turn.”

I don’t believe in any magic to certain expressions, and I don’t think that a word says anything beyond what it signifies. Still, words have power. To “turn” can mean to revolve, to spin, to change direction, to move, to become something different. To make a Stoic Turn, to me, means becoming a completely new person.

It means looking at everything quite backwards from the way it was familiar. And what is most familiar to us? We blame what happens to us, and we excuse what we do. We say that the world is wrong, and that we are right. We define who we are by our circumstances, and we forget our own character.

This, my friends, is where we need that Stoic Turn. No one has done us wrong. The world has never hurt us. The circumstances never make the man.

We only do ourselves wrong. We only fail to love the world. We only make of the circumstances what we will. 

What the world does, is precisely what the world does. I do not determine that, as much as I might like to. What I do is what I do. I do determine that, as much as I might not like to.

Take what comes from the outside, and let it be what it is. Look at what comes from the inside, and that is you, all you are, everything you are. Recognizing that is a Stoic Turn.

Think of it this way: you are not a victim, but you are a small creator.

That little bird once made me angry; it now helps me to love, to be social in all the right ways. 

Written in 12/2008

Tao Te Ching 29

If anyone should wish to get the kingdom for himself, and to effect this by what he does, I see that he will not succeed. 

The kingdom is a spirit-like thing, and cannot be got by active doing. He who would so win it destroys it; he who would hold it in his grasp loses it.

The course and nature of things is such that
What was in front is now behind;
What warmed anon we freezing find.
Strength is of weakness oft the spoil;
The store in ruins mocks our toil.

Hence the sage puts away excessive effort, extravagance, and easy indulgence.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.30

Look down from above on the countless herds of men and their countless solemnities, and the infinitely varied voyagings in storms and calms, and the differences among those who are born, who live together, and die.

And consider, too, the life lived by others in olden times, and the life of those who will live after you, and the life now lived among barbarous nations, and how many know not even your name, and how many will soon forget it, and how they who perhaps now are praising you will very soon blame you, and that neither a posthumous name is of any value, nor reputation, nor anything else.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 9.30 (tr Long)

I often hear people talk about finding a new perspective, or taking a different view, or, as became trendy a while ago in the business world, “thinking outside the box.” I also notice that we usually stay quite close to where we were before, look at things much the same as we always did, and become quite comfortable in that box.

I know that I fail to get out my own rut because it is quite honestly frightening to think differently. There’s so much more to it than just trying a new wardrobe, where I’m still worried about how I appear, or using a new tactic to get a promotion, where I’m still running after money and status, or speaking fancy new words, where I’m still working to impress.

The real challenge is in wondering if appearance, status, or reputation are really things I should be pursuing at all. That would be a real change of outlook, reevaluating the very principles I work from, and that will in turn feel quite uncomfortable, because it might ask me to cast away everything I’m so accustomed to.

I have at the same time discovered that a new visual perspective can assist me in forming a new moral perspective; looking at a person, place, or thing from a physically different distance or angle is helpful in acquiring a new mental attitude.

Though I have been wary of heights for some time, I am still drawn to looking at a city from the top of a tall building, or at a landscape from the window of an airplane. In one sense, the whole world below looks quite grand and glorious, as indeed it is, but in another sense all the individual bits and pieces seem quite small and fragile, even insignificant.

All those things that were so imposing when I stood right in front of them are now just little colored dots and blurs. At night a city can appear dazzling, but from far away all the lights just swirl together. Every single one of those specks of light is a street corner, or a home, or a business, and is right now at the center of someone’s attention. People are down there trying to become rich, obsessed about paying off their debts, or trying to fall in love over a drink.

Yet from higher up, none of it seems so important, so permanent, so heavy. That is the kind of changing of perspective that can be a blessed relief. Seeing the whole puts all the burden of the parts in their proper place.

All the sound and the bustle, all the fame, the fortune, and the fighting, and all the worry that goes along with them, aren’t much of anything at all. Of all the people running around down there, chances are that any one of them has absolutely no idea who any other one might be, and even if they have somehow crossed paths, the influence they may have had fades with distance. People who were once friends are now strangers, and people who were once famous are now forgotten.

Remembering that, I can choose to look away from petty concerns, and commit myself to the only thing that was ever really mine to begin with. For the brief time that I am here, I can order my actions by understanding, seek to practice good where I am able, and rest content with the merit of my own thoughts and deeds. The rest is a distraction from the calling of being human. 

Written in 12/2008

Travel Light

Sayings of Socrates 2

It would be better for me. . . that multitudes of men should disagree with me rather than that I, being one, should be out of harmony with myself. 

—Plato, Gorgias, 482c

Boethius, The Consolation 3.21

“. . . Look upon the expanse of heaven, the strength with which it stands, the rapidity with which it moves, and cease for a while to wonder at base things. This heaven is not more wonderful for those things than for the design that guides it. How sweeping is the brightness of outward form, how swift its movement, yet more fleeting than the passing of the flowers of spring.

“But if, as Aristotle says, many could use the eyes of lynxes to see through that which meets the eye, then if they saw into the organs within, would not that body, though it had the most fair outside of Alcibiades, seem most vile within? Wherefore it is not your own nature, but the weakness of the eyes of them that see you, that makes you seem beautiful.

“But consider how in excess you desire the pleasures of the body, when you know that howsoever you admire it, it can be reduced to nothing by a three-days' fever.

“To put all these points then in a word: these things cannot grant the good that they promise; they are not made perfect by the union of all good things in them; they do not lead to happiness as a path there; they do not make men blessed.”

—from Book 3, Prose 8

I need to remind myself quite regularly that the secret to a good life is hardly a secret at all. Yes, all of us are called to be philosophical, but this isn’t in the sense that we might be used to.

To engage in philosophy is not to sound profound, or to meddle in obscure complexities, or to acquire hidden knowledge available only to the select few. It is not merely an academic exercise to puff up our sense of self-importance.

To be philosophical is to come to understand oneself and one’s world more richly, more deeply, more fundamentally. It is an attitude of looking for what is ultimate over what is immediate, for what is on the inside and not just the outside, for the whole instead of just the part. In this we discover our meaning and purpose.

This isn’t just one of things we can, or even should, do in life; it is the only thing that really matters, because everything else hinges upon our awareness of what is true, good, and beautiful.

Yet what do I so often find myself looking at? A shallow appearance, not the inner reality. A pretty face, not a virtuous character. A passing fancy, not a lasting bond. I am still drawn to such things not because they have any real goodness to them, but because of a weakness in my vision. If I commit to focusing more closely, the proverbial scales will fall from my eyes.

I have long adored the ancient and medieval legend about how the lynx has such powerful vision that it can even see right inside solid objects. This is figuratively what we are also called to do when we examine something beneath the surface.

One doesn’t need to be clever or educated to discern how things that are actually quite weak come to appear so strong. In fact, being clever or educated can sometimes only make the illusion worse. We are distracted by only one charming aspect, magnify it out of proportion, and neglect all the rest. We glorify the outer form of human body, when it is really a bag of blood and bones, subject to disease and death, able to be snuffed out in a moment. We worship wealth, fame, and power, though by doing so we enslave ourselves to lifeless trinkets that go as quickly as they come. If I look with a sharper eye, I know it to be true.

Things sometimes seem to offer rewards they can’t provide, just as people sometimes make promises they have no intention of keeping. We are quite able to see right through this, because something incomplete and imperfect cannot offer anything complete and perfect, just as a dishonest character cannot speak words that are true. They are already showing us what they really are, if we only look behind the mask.

As they say, if it looks to good to be true, it probably is.

So when I find myself tempted by a pleasure of the senses, or longing to acquire more possessions, or scheming to improve my reputation, I am always best served by remembering all the other times when those imposters told me their sweet little lies, and then left me high and dry. A moment of calm reflection will assure me that they are now just as shifty and fleeting as they were every time before. The glittering prizes are nothing but tricks of the light. 

Written in 9/2015 

Ecclesiastes 5:1-5

[1] Guard your steps when you go to the house of God; to draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools; for they do not know that they are doing evil.
[2] Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven, and you upon earth; therefore let your words be few.
[3] For a dream comes with much business, and a fool's voice with many words.
[4] When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it; for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow.
[5] It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.29.2

. . . For who can change men's opinions? And without a change of opinions what else is there than the slavery of men who groan while they pretend to obey?

Come now and tell me of Alexander and Philippus and Demetrius of Phalerum. They themselves shall judge whether they discovered what the Common Nature required, and trained themselves accordingly.

But if they acted like tragic heroes, no one has condemned me to imitate them.

Simple and modest is the work of philosophy. Draw me not aside to insolence and pride.

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

See how they all stand at their podiums and on their pedestals. They have their credentials and their references. They wave their arms around with apparent conviction, they throw out the statistics of their choice to defend themselves, and they try to shame us to conform to their wills. They are charming and clever, not virtuous and wise.

And I wonder if there was ever a time, from those ancient times to the present, when an ideological bully ever actually changed anyone else’s mind.

A reasoned argument, within the context of sincere friendship, might help another man change his own ways. But a big man has never, I suspect, convinced a small man of anything. He may scare him, intimidate him, or coerce him, but he doesn’t convince him. It takes wisdom and charity to move a mind and a heart, not threats and intimidation.

This will sound uncomfortable to all of the important folks, obviously, because if we ever figured it out, they would stop being so important.

There have been philosophers with all sorts of names, members of all sorts of movements and schools. Some practiced true philosophy, working quietly together with Nature, while many others were another bunch of actors playing a game, sophists trying to manipulate our emotions. The tricksters want us to imitate them in their exaggerated drama.

Does that sound too familiar? We have all known them, but we don’t need to be like them.

A statesman is never on who poses for the camera. A philosopher is never one who works on his career. A good man is never one who likes to be recognized. Life is no game of appearances. Life is a duty to character.

Have you done what is right and good, in even the smallest way? Good. You are a far better man than the fellow who wants to be seen as having done right and good, in his own biggest way. 

Written in 11/2008

The Art of Peace 18

Your heart is full of fertile seeds, waiting to sprout. Just as a lotus flower springs from the mire to bloom splendidly, the interaction of the cosmic breath causes the flower of the spirit to bloom and bear fruit in this world.