Sayings of Ramakrishna 51

The Avatâra or Savior is the messenger of God. He is like the Viceroy of a mighty monarch. 

As when there is some disturbance in a far-off province the king sends his viceroy to quell it; so whenever there is any waning of religion in any part of the world, God sends His Avatâra there.

Epictetus, Discourses 1.1.3

 

But what says Zeus? 
 
“Epictetus, if it were possible I would have made your body and your possessions (those trifles that you prize) free and untrammelled. But as things are—never forget this—this body is not yours, it is but a clever mixture of clay. But since I could not make it free, I gave you a portion in our divinity, this faculty of impulse to act and not to act, of will to get and will to avoid,in a word the faculty which can turn impressions to right use. If you pay heed to this, and put your affairs in its keeping, you will never suffer let nor hindrance, you will not groan, you will blame no man, you will flatter none. What then? Does all this seem but little to you?”
 
Heaven forbid!
 
“Are you content then?”
 
So surely as I hope for the gods’ favor.
 
I always enjoy Epictetus’ no-nonsense style, the way he can cut right down to the bone. Very few writers can manage to pull off a conversation with a god. 
 
Could Providence have made it so that a man might enjoy a power over all of his circumstances? Providence can produce anything possible, but it cannot produce anything impossible, any more than a circle can be square, or love can be effortless. 
 
To be human is not just to be a mind, but to be a mind informing a body, and the weakness of the flesh, its tendency to run its own way, is a necessary part of that humanity. 
 
Divine Wisdom chose, in its own perplexing and astounding way, to produce all sorts of creatures, all grades of being, and thereby, I suspect, to add greater diversity and beauty to Nature. It fell upon me to be made as a man, and not as a rock, or a tree, or a horse. 
 
Having been made in such a way, a tiny spark of divinity crammed into a bit of dirt, I might protest that it is not nearly enough. God sighs, and he smiles. I have been given everything that is me, and yet I still want more. 
 
During a fiery teenage temper tantrum, I once told my father that he was stifling me, that he was not giving me what I deserved. The brief moment of stony silence that followed told me what would soon be coming my way, if I still chose to insist upon my vanity. 
 
For the only time in my life, without a hint of bitterness or sarcasm, I immediately said, “Sorry, sir.” No more was ever said of it, as is right and proper. 
 
God gave me life, and he gave me a mind, and he gave me a will, and he also offered me very clear instructions on how to make use of life, of mind, of will. And yet I blame Him whenever I abuse my gifts, which are quite sufficient for my happiness, and instead I demand completely different entitlements, ones quite unsuited to my nature. 

Written in 8/2000

Musonius Rufus, Fragments 26

One begins to lose his hesitation to do unseemly things when one loses his hesitation to speak of them.

 

The careless use of bad language is not just some offense against prissy manners; the words that come out of our mouths truly reflect what is within our hearts and minds. 

 

The ubiquitous “f-bomb”, for example, is currently a necessary part of many people’s vocabulary, even in increasingly formal circles, and I can only wonder why we feel the need to use it so often. 

 

I do know that whenever I have drawn on it in conversation, it is intended to impress, to intimidate, to shock, or even just to conform. I am shamefully aware that none of those are ever good reasons to speak in a certain way. 

 

My mention of the sex act isn’t a problem, though my referencing it in a crude and animalistic way does indeed say something about my sense of right and wrong, or, more properly, the absence of my sense of right and wrong. There is a very thin line between saying and doing. 

 

The libertarian in me, even the anarchist in me, is not fond of others telling me how to think or to speak. It’s rather my own job to do that for myself. 

 

I know it sounds terribly uncool, but I’m afraid that the person who constantly uses nasty words will almost invariably also have a nasty soul to go along with it.

Stoic Snippets 43

What is evil to you does not subsist in the ruling principle of another; nor yet in any turning and mutation of your corporeal covering. 

Where is it then? It is in that part of you in which subsists the power of forming opinions about evils. 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 4.39

Circle Limit III

 

M.C. Escher, Circle Limit III (1959)

Sayings of Ramakrishna 50

On the tree of Sat-chit-ânanda there are innumerable Râmas, Krishnas, Christs, &c.; one or two of them come down into this world now and then, and produce mighty changes and revolutions.

Epictetus, Discourses 1.1.2

For what else is it that tells us that gold is a goodly thing? For the gold does not tell us. Clearly it is the faculty which can deal with our impressions. What else is it which distinguishes the faculties of music, grammar, and the rest, testing their uses and pointing out the due seasons for their use? It is reason and nothing else.

 
The gods then, as was but right, put in our hands the one blessing that is best of all and master of all, that and nothing else, the power to deal rightly with our impressions, but everything else they did not put in our hands. 
 
Was it that they would not? For my part I think that if they could have entrusted us with those other powers as well they would have done so, but they were quite unable. Prisoners on the earth and in an earthly body and among earthly companions, how was it possible that we should not be hindered from the attainment of these powers by these external fetters?
 
Gold, and silver, and all sorts of precious jewels are apparently wonderful things, and I should surely admire them. Little metal discs and slips of green paper, with gravely serious writing on them, are clearly worth collecting, and I have an imaginary number, given to me by a bank, to prove how much of this essential commodity I have accumulated. 
 
How do I know this? Didn’t these things somehow tell me they were all worth my efforts? 
 
They did nothing of the sort. It was my own judgment that gave them value, and it is my own judgment that can also decide that they are meaningless. It is also not to my credit if I only listened to what other people told me about these trinkets; I should then be ashamed of my weak judgment. 
 
Do I now feel rather useless, having let myself be taken for a ride? I should rather feel quite powerful, finally recognizing that it is the action of my own mind that makes anything desirable or undesirable to me. My own reason, whether I use it well or use it poorly, is the final arbiter. 
 
I may at first believe that I was poorly made, and yet I will only say that if I define myself by everything besides myself. I was actually quite magnificently made, created with the power to be my own master, completely unassailable, if only I so decide. All else can come and go, but my thoughts remain my own. 
 
I still complain, of course, that the gods did not give me a domination over the rest of the world, and I do so because I stubbornly refuse to acknowledge precisely that I am a man, and not a god. What else could be added to my nature, to make me any better as a human being, than being my own man? A dog might as well wish that he was a cat instead of a dog. 
 
I could look at it quite positively, becoming aware that denying me a rule over others is a friendly reminder to do a better job of ruling myself. 

Written in 8/2000

Musonius Rufus, Fragments 25

Musonius said that there was no more shameful inconsistency than to recall the weakness of the body under stress of pain, but to forget it in the enjoyment of pleasure.

 

I like to take credit whenever pleasant things happen to me, and I like to point fingers whenever unpleasant things happen to me. 

 

I am an achiever and a go-getter as long as the world does what I prefer, and I am oppressed and a victim as soon as the world does something I do not prefer. 

 

It is sadly no different when I look at the physical luggage I am carrying around. This bag of bones and flesh and blood is a noble and wonderful thing if it gratifies me, and then it suddenly becomes a terrible burden if it gets in my way. 

 

Providence has a wonderful way of calling out my hypocrisy, giving me the very things I don’t want, but yet also the very things I so desperately need, precisely for the purpose of reminding me that my head is screwed on wrong. 

 

These foolish contradictions only occur when I place my worth in anything other than the content of my own character. 

The Shipwreck

 

J.M.W. Turner, The Shipwreck (c. 1805)

 

The Fighting Temeraire

J.M.W. Turner, The Fighting Temeraire, tugged to her last berth to be broken up (1838)

Sayings of Ramakrishna 49

When Bhagavân Srî Râmachandra came to this world, seven sages only could recognize Him to be the God incarnate. 

So when God descends into this world, few only can recognize His Divine nature.

Hans Holbein, The Dance of Death 23: The Mendicant Friar

Epictetus, Discourses 1.1.1

Book 1

Chapter 1: On things in our power and things not in our power.

 
Of our faculties in general you will find that none can take cognizance of itself; none therefore has the power to approve or disapprove its own action. 
 
Our grammatical faculty for instance: how far can that take cognizance? Only so far as to distinguish expression. 
 
Our musical faculty? Only so far as to distinguish tune. 
 
Does any one of these then take cognizance of itself? By no means. If you are writing to your friend, when you want to know what words to write grammar will tell you; but whether you should write to your friend or should not write grammar will not tell you. 
 
And in the same way music will tell you about tunes, but whether at this precise moment you should sing and play the lyre or should not sing nor play the lyre it will not tell you. What will tell you then? 
 
That faculty which takes cognizance of itself and of all things else. What is this? The reasoning faculty: for this alone of the faculties we have received is created to comprehend even its own nature; that is to say, what it is and what it can do, and with what precious qualities it has come to us, and to comprehend all other faculties as well. 
 
Over the years, I have heard many different accounts as to what defines higher intelligence, what seems to make the human so distinct from the animal or the plant, even as the human has so very much in common with the animal or the plant. 
 
Some will speak of the spark of imagination and creativity, or the gift of abstraction, or the complexity of calculation, or a mastery of language, or an ability to manipulate the environment into tools. I have often seen the simple assumption that the bigger the brain, the better the thinking. 
 
These may all indeed have their roles to play, but Epictetus points to one specific property that rises above all the others, and therefore has a priority over all the others. It is the presence of reflective self-awareness, by means of which the human mind further has the capacity of being its own master. 
 
The power of language judges about how to go about speaking and writing, but it does not judge about why I should go about speaking and writing. 
 
The power of music judges about how to play and listen to music, but it does not judge about why I should go about playing and listening to music. 
 
By being capable of turning back on itself, instead of merely turning outward to something other than itself, reason is empowered with providing ultimate measures of meaning and value. 
 
I may have the ability to paint a picture, or to build a temple, or to reach out my hand, but only an understanding of who I am tells me why it is right and good for me to express beauty, or to pray to the Almighty, or to love my neighbor as myself. 
 
Only this faculty allows me to discover myself at the same time as I go about discovering everything else around me, and as such it is the power that defines me most fully, and the one that is most fully my own. 
 
Throw away the image I have made, or tear down the structure I have built, or slap aside the hand I have offered, but my estimation of my thoughts and actions remains entirely within my possession. 
 
This is how I can slowly but surely begin to appreciate the beauty of Stoic self-reliance. The worth that is found within me is the foundation of the worth in any of my circumstances. 

Written in 8/2000

Musonius Rufus, Fragments 24

If one were to measure what is agreeable by the standard of pleasure, nothing would be more pleasant than self-control; and if one were to measure what is to be avoided by pain, nothing would be more painful than lack of self-control.

 
Stoicism has always stood in sharp contrast to the most prevalent attitudes, in arguing that the highest human good is not to be found in the feeling of pleasure, but in the merit of judgment and action. 
 
To measure life by the power of the passions may at first seem quite sensible, since pleasure and pain are such immediate and forceful modes of experience. What else could be more real, I might insist, than how it relates to my desires and aversions? Everything else seems to revolve around the presence of strong emotions.
 
Even if I choose to follow such a standard, however, it quickly becomes clear that another condition must always come first, itself informing the way I perceive the meaning of benefit and harm. For pleasure to be truly pleasant, it must be moderated, and if the good of pleasure relies on something greater than itself, it is no longer the highest good. 
 
Too much pleasure becomes quite painful, so it wasn’t the best of states to begin with, was it? 
 
Pleasure and pain will only be appreciated within the context of understanding how and why they can become good or bad. Nothing is more satisfying than having my feelings be subject to my judgments, and nothing is more miserable than having my judgments be enslaved to my feelings. 
 
Whenever I have first thought about the most gratification, I have ended up suffering the most. Whenever I have first thought about doing the right thing, I have somehow found the deepest gratification. 
 
Even the glutton can’t help but eventually recognize, like the Epicurean, that his excess will be the death of him. He now sees pleasure and pain as relative things, not as absolute things, and so he is well on the way to becoming a Stoic, if only he continues to listen to his reason and his conscience. 

Ellis Walker, Epictetus in Poetical Paraphrase 7

VII.

Therefore be sure that thy aversion fall

Only on things which thou thy own may'st call,
But for the present all desires suspend,
For if to things not in thy pow'r they tend,
Folly and grief thou'lt find, but lose thy end.
And as for things, ev'n in thy pow'r, what fit,
It may be well presum'd, thou know'st not yet.
What's most to be esteem'd, what most admir'd,
What with most fervency and zeal desir'd.
Be wary then as cautious gen'rals are,
When they for entrance at some breach prepare,
Where ambuscade, or bursting mines they fear.
Do not engage so soon, 'till reason scour,
And first survey the object round about;
Think that dark snares thick in thy paths are laid,
Think that each step may on some danger tread,
Approach with prudent leisure, that with ease
You may withdraw your forces when you please.

Vanitas 34

Pieter van Steenwijck, Vanitas Still Life on the Death of Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp at the Battle of Terheide, 1653

Vanitas 33

 

Pieter van Steenwijck, Emblem of Death (c. 1640)

Vanitas 32

 

Pieter van Steenwijck, Still Life (c. 1650)

Vanitas 31

Pieter van Steenwijck, Ars Longa, Vita Brevis (c. 1650)

Sayings of Ramakrishna 48

The locomotive engine reaches the destination itself, and also draws and takes with it a long train of loaded wagons. 

So likewise act the Saviors. They carry multitudes of men, heavily laden with the cares and sorrows of the world, to the feet of the Almighty.