Musonius Rufus, Lectures 6.4

How, then, and in what manner should they receive such training? Since it so happens that the human being is not soul alone, nor body alone, but a kind of synthesis of the two, the person in training must take care of both, the better part, the soul, more zealously; as is fitting, but also of the other, if he shall not be found lacking in any part that constitutes man.

For obviously the philosopher's body should be well prepared for physical activity, because often the virtues make use of this as a necessary instrument for the affairs of life.

I won’t become a philosopher just by pondering some intriguing ideas, but I will need to change my whole way of living, and this will make real demands of me. Whatever else I may find myself doing in this life, it will now be altered to the core, because it will now be driven by conscience, not by convenience.

Furthermore, I won’t become a philosopher just by acquiring some new skills, but I will need to rid myself of all the old skills, the ones that strengthened those habits of greed and entitlement. It requires tearing everything down so that it can be properly rebuilt, working from a new plan.

Finally, I won’t become a philosopher just by attending to one aspect of myself, but I will need to reform the whole of my person, all parts together within the whole. This involves the mind ruling over and attending to the body, the higher with a mastery over the lower, working as one.

Many people look only to their bodies, and they assume that they will be happy if they are physically strong, or attractive, or gratified. Some people look only to their minds, and they assume that they will be happy if they are mentally sharp, or learned, or clever. In either extreme, one component of humanity is starved at the expense of the other; the whole person suffers when only some pieces are nourished.

The philosopher will recognize that his own nature is perfected in the same manner that all of Nature is perfected: by order, balance, and complementarity. He will not neglect any component of his health, even as he will understand the priority among these components.

He will care for his body, since it is through his body that he senses, and feels, and acts, and he will care for his soul, since it is through his soul that he conceives, and judges, and chooses. He will, however, remain aware that the value of his exterior self is in service to the value of his interior self, and so he measures what must be given, and what must be taken away, through a constant awareness of the means and ends.

Accordingly, if he must choose between them, he will give up his health, his wealth, and his pleasures for the sake of his wisdom, virtue, and character. But he will never ignore what is right and good in any of his powers, and he will never consider them to be unimportant.

The virtues must spread themselves out through the whole person, and so the training required to be virtuous must be spread out through the whole person; a strong body offers the best support to a strong soul.

To have prudence, I will be assisted by the greatest possible acuity of my senses and liveliness of my concentration. A tired body hinders a careful mind.

To have fortitude, I will be assisted by the greatest possible control over my instincts of fear and anger. A quivering or enraged body will not be able to stand up to danger.

To have temperance, I will be assisted by the greatest possible taming of my instincts of longing and desire. A lazy or lustful body will fold in the face of temptation.

To have justice, I will be assisted by the greatest possible strength in my bones, and sinews, and muscles. This is not so that I may do violence to my enemies, but so that I may protect those who are abused however I can, and build for those in need however I can.

A craftsman does his best work with the right tools, and a good man does his best work with a healthy body. However it is within my power, I must train the whole as best I can, from top to bottom.

Written in 7/1999

The Departure and Return

Thomas Cole, The Departure (1837)

Thomas Cole, The Return (1837)

The Past and the Present

Thomas Cole, The Past (1838)

Thomas Cole, The Present (1838)

The Voyage of Life

Thomas Cole, The Voyage of Life (c. 1842)

Childhood

Youth

Manhood

Old Age

The Course of Empire

Thomas Cole, The Course of Empire (c. 1836)

The Savage State

The Arcadian or Pastoral State

The Consummation of Empire

Destruction

Desolation

Stoic Conversations 26

"Is there a way I can use the Stoic idea of the things in my power, but in a more selfish way? I just don't like this constant stress on caring for other people. Can't I just toss that part out, and still be Stoic?"

"Short answer? No."

"What's the longer answer?"

"Absolutely not."

Wisdom from the Early Stoics, Zeno of Citium 8

Once when a young man was talking a good deal, he said, "Your ears have slid down and merged in your tongue." 

To the fair youth, who gave it as his opinion that the wise man would not fall in love, his reply was: "Then who can be more hapless than you fair youths?" 

He used to say that even of philosophers the greater number were in most things unwise, while about small and casual things they were quite ignorant. 

And he used to cite the saying of Caphisius, who, when one of his pupils was endeavoring to blow the flute lustily, gave him a slap and told him that to play well does not depend on loudness, though playing loudly may follow upon playing well. 

And to a youth who was talking somewhat saucily his rejoinder was, "I would rather not tell you what I am thinking, my lad."

—Diogenes Laërtius, 7.21

Stoic Snippets 6

There is a limit to the time assigned you, and if you do not use it to free yourself it will be gone and never return.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 2.4

Seneca, On Peace of Mind 4.1

 Chapter 4

To me, my dearest Serenus, Athenodorus seems to have yielded too completely to the times, to have fled too soon: I will not deny that sometimes one must retire, but one ought to retire slowly, at a foot's pace, without losing one's ensigns or one's honor as a soldier: those who make terms with arms in their hands are more respected by their enemies and more safe in their hands.

I find it interesting how Seneca thought that Athenodorus was a bit too willing to withdraw from the world. I have obviously never met Seneca, but I feel that I have come to know something about him over the many years of reading his works.

He seems a man of great courage, and he seems a man dedicated unconditionally to public service. In this, he was a great Roman, and he was doubly so for following his chosen path with character and integrity.

Still, some modern readers will criticize him, suggesting that he was a failure in his attempts to educate the young Nero, and that his commitment only led him to his own death. He played the game of politics, and he lost.

Yes, he did fail at trying to turn that spoiled brat into an actual man. Yes, he did fail at restoring the values of the Republic in an Imperial age. Yes, he did die, by his own hand, at the order of his twisted Emperor.

And yet I see none of that as a failure at all, because I see a man who did his duty, not to his pride, or to his country, or to his legacy, but to Nature Herself, and to Nature’s God.

He knew who he was, he knew where he was at, and he knew what he had to do. He was a political player, but he was, far more often than not, an honest player.

He saw his worth in the merit of his character, not in the accumulation of his profit or fame. And that will kill you. Socrates proved as much.

I could never be a Seneca, of course. I have no inherited wealth or position, I am awkward and ungainly, I am a poor speaker, and, most importantly, I do not have the gift of playing that game. I suspect I am a bit more like an Athenodorus than I am like a Seneca. In modern terms, Seneca was the total extrovert, while I am the total introvert.

For a man like Seneca, a complete engagement in the political life was what fulfilled his personal calling. Your calling, or my calling, may be somewhat different, but it is still ordered toward the same end.

Live as a senator, or live as a hermit; through it all, above all else, live with love and a sense of service for your fellow man. Respect your own nature. Revere God. Stand your ground, surrendering nothing of yourself, if you really know it to be right. Die with the dignity of your conscience, especially when you have nothing else left.

All the rest is dispensable. Keep your hand tightly on that standard, and hold it high with your last strength.

Written in 7/2011

Sayings of Ramakrishna 21

Says God, "I am the snake that bites and the charmer that heals; I am the judge that condemns and the executioner that whips."

Musonius Rufus, Lectures 6.3

Therefore upon the learning of the lessons appropriate to each and every excellence, practical training must follow invariably, if indeed from the lessons we have learned we hope to derive any benefit.

And moreover such practical exercise is the more important for the student of philosophy than for the student of medicine or any similar art, the more philosophy claims to be a greater and more difficult discipline than any other study. 

The reason for this is that men who enter the other professions have not had their souls corrupted beforehand and have not learned the opposite of what they are going to be taught, but the ones who start out to study philosophy have been born and reared in an environment filled with corruption and evil, and therefore turn to virtue in such a state that they need a longer and more thorough training. 

Like everything else in life, the trends in the world of education will move in cycles. Every few years, a different model of formation will spring forth, and almost everyone will eagerly cling to it, insisting that it is so fresh and progressive. Yet there is nothing new about it at all, though it did have a slightly modified trim the last time I saw it; it has simply come around again.

One such recurring scheme is the love of “hands on” learning. Thank God, there is at least some common sense in it, that the thinking should be applied to the doing. What can so easily happen, however, is that the doing is stressed at the complete expense of the thinking, and then the theoreticians will eventually take over once more. It all comes around again.

Yet this passage suggests something far more radical, perhaps even far more subversive, than any of the reformers could possibly have imagined. If you are studying to be a doctor, or a nurse, or an engineer, or a teacher, or a lawyer, it would do you well to get your feet wet in the field, to apply what you are learning. Then, and only then, will you understand it in all its depth, and be able to make good use of it.

Then why do philosophers, and all other sorts of academic thinkers, never go into the trenches? They read, they write, they study, and they attend many important classes. When they are done doing this, they are given a pretty piece of paper, and they go on to tell other people how to read, write, study, and attend important classes.

In the meantime, they have never been required to practice their art, not for a single moment. They have been asked to talk about it, but never to do it.

And we wonder why philosophy has such a bad reputation! It is because most philosophers do nothing at all, but read, write, study, and attend important classes. Yes, by that standard they are quite useless.

They don’t even teach, once they have made their names. They have their graduate assistants teach for them, while they write articles that a few dozen of their peers may read. Then they bicker with one another, and, if they are very clever, turn their ideas into a profitable brand. It is bought and sold, like so much oil, or gold, or shares in soybean futures.

And it is all because we do not even grasp who the true philosopher is. Any person, in any condition, can be the philosopher. It asks only that he love the truth, and then proceeds to live it. All of us are made for this vocation, not just the few.

What a beautiful world it might be, if philosophers were asked to do all the things they talk about:

Go out in the streets, and have an honest conversation with someone in pain, seeing the life that he must lead. That will apply prudence far better than any advanced degree ever will.

Enlist as a grunt in an army, and earn you way up to fighting in an actual battle. Then you will learn something about courage, at the very moment you are soiling your trousers from crippling fear, begging for your mother’s love.

Spend some time with drunks, or addicts, or sex workers, and you will suddenly have a very different conception of temperance. You will see the actual struggle for human decency, not the bookish posturing.

Become poor, not by circumstance but by your own choice, and feel how it is to be rejected, discarded, and unloved by others. When you can do nothing profitable for another, you will now know what justice entails.

Here’s the clincher: People in any other profession just need to learn their jobs, but philosophers need to unlearn everything else, absolutely everything they have ever been raised in, to even think about doing their jobs.

We have been taught that pleasure, and money, and power are what we need, but we need to unlearn that to be philosophers. We have been taught that sex, and profit, and image make us big, but we need to unlearn that to be philosophers.

It’s actually quite easy to become a good lawyer, because you just need to learn the lawyering. It’s actually quite hard to become a true philosopher, the definition of a good man, because you need to learn about being virtuous. You will have to take very many steps back before you can ever inch your way forward.

Written in 7/1999

Sayings of Socrates 30

We shall see that there is great reason to hope that death is a good, for one of two things: either death is a state of nothingness and utter unconsciousness, or, as men say, there is a change and a migration of the soul from this world to another. 

Now if you suppose there is no consciousness, but a sleep like the sleep of him who is undisturbed even by the sight of dreams, death will be an unspeakable gain. For if a person were to select the night in which his sleep was undisturbed even by dreams, and were to compare with this the other days and nights of his life, and then were to tell us how many days and nights he had passed in the course of his life better and more pleasantly than this one, I think that any man, I will not say a private man, but even the great king, will not find many such days or nights, when compared with the others. Now, if death is like this, I say that to die is gain; for eternity is then only a single night. 

But if death is the journey to another place, and there, as men say, all the dead are, what good, O friends and judges, can be greater than this? . . .Above all, I shall be able to continue my search into true and false knowledge; as in this world, so also in that; I shall find out who is wise, and who pretends to be wise, and is not. . . . What infinite delight would there be in conversing with them and asking them questions! For in that world they would not put a man to death for this; certainly not. For besides being happier in that world than in this, they will be immortal, if what is said is true.

—Plato, Apology 40c–41c

IMAGE: Sebastiaen Vrancx, Aeneas Finding His Father at the Elysian Fields (c. 1607)

Tao Te Ching 55

He who has in himself abundantly the attributes of the Tao is like an infant. Poisonous insects will not sting him; fierce beasts will not seize him; birds of prey will not strike him.

The infant's bones are weak and its sinews soft, but yet its grasp is firm. It knows not yet the union of male and female, and yet its virile member may be excited, showing the perfection of its physical essence. All day long it will cry without its throat becoming hoarse, showing the harmony in its constitution.

To him by whom this harmony is known,
The secret of the unchanging Tao is shown,
And in the knowledge wisdom finds its throne.
All life-increasing arts to evil turn;
Where the mind makes the vital breath to burn,
False is the strength, and o'er it we should mourn.

When things have become strong, they then become old, which may be said to be contrary to the Tao. Whatever is contrary to the Tao soon ends.

Seneca, On Peace of Mind 3.9

“But if we give up all society, turn our backs upon the whole human race, and live communing with ourselves alone, this solitude without any interesting occupation will lead to a want of something to do: we shall begin to build up and to pull down, to dam out the sea, to cause waters to flow through natural obstacles, and generally to make a bad disposal of the time which Nature has given us to spend.

“Some of us use it grudgingly, others wastefully; some of us spend it so that we can show a profit and loss account, others so that they have no assets remaining, than which nothing can be more shameful. Often a man who is very old in years has nothing beyond his age by which he can prove that he has lived a long time."

It should never be a question of being “in” society or “out” of society; this is the excuse of the one in despair, the one who sees only the extremes instead of the mean, a state in which I have often found myself. That mean doesn’t come from nervously balancing my fiery instincts, but rather comes from having the proper aim.

There are times to engage, and there are times to retire. Through it all, philosophy, as a sense of the true and the false, of the right and the wrong, will be my only guide. Through it all, whatever the circumstances may be, I can know why I am here.

What will happen if I only run away from all of it, from the fact that it sometimes hurts, that it sometimes hurts mightily? It isn’t just that I will feel bored by my isolation, as that is a function of my passions. No, what will strike at my being is that I am no longer a creature of action.

I was made to act, and I was made to act in cooperation with my neighbors, who are simply other expressions of the very same nature I possess. They may be right next to me, or they may be a thousand miles away, but I was made for them, and they were made for me.

If I fail to act at all, I fail to be human at all. Life is itself a principle of action, and the life of a man is a principle of action through judgment. I will always be driven to do something, and the trick is in learning what it is that I should do.

I if deprive myself of right action, I will find myself seeking out other things to do, simply for the sake of doing them, only to give myself a sense of purpose, however misguided it may be. I will occupy myself with busywork, not with meaningful work. Here we have the misery of those who slave at their work, but have no idea why they do what they do.

Here we have the lives that are wasted away, constantly occupied, while still achieving nothing at all. People will look to the supposed results on the outside, forgetting that the true rewards are on the inside. They tear this down, and then they build something else in its place, and then what they have built is torn down in turn. It doesn’t seem to end.

Back during my last days living in Boston, the whole city was in turmoil because of what they called the “Big Dig”. I can no longer even remember all the gory details, but it involved rebuilding all the major highways, and bridges, and tunnels that were supposed to keep traffic flowing in the city.

So for many years the traffic got far worse, since thousands of people were busy spending billions of dollars working to make it all better, tearing up everything that was already there.

By the time they were done, it was all obsolete, and it would now take thousands more people, and billions more dollars, to update it again. That, my friends, is the very definition of busywork.

Now imagine if we had spent all that time, and money, and effort in learning to care for one another, instead of yelling at one another while stuck in traffic.

Yes, many politicians, corporations, contractors, and lawyers made it big from the Big Dig. They used their time, as so many fools do, to spend, and to waste, and to borrow when they are broke, and to spend and waste again. When they die, they are thought successful, because of how much they spent, wasted, and borrowed.

I must never confuse doing anything at all with doing something well. If I deprive myself of moral merit, I deprive myself of my own worth.

Written in 6/2011

The Wisdom of Solomon 2:1-5

[1] For they reasoned unsoundly, saying to themselves,
"Short and sorrowful is our life,
and there is no remedy when a man comes to his end,
and no one has been known to return from Hades.
[2] Because we were born by mere chance,
and hereafter we shall be as though we had never been;
because the breath in our nostrils is smoke,
and reason is a spark kindled by the beating of our hearts.
[3] When it is extinguished, the body will turn to ashes,
and the spirit will dissolve like empty air.
[4] Our name will be forgotten in time
and no one will remember our works;
our life will pass away like the traces of a cloud,
and be scattered like mist
that is chased by the rays of the sun
and overcome by its heat.
[5] For our allotted time is the passing of a shadow,
and there is no return from our death,
because it is sealed up and no one turns back."

Vanitas 5

Pieter Claesz, Vanitas Still Life with Self-Portrait (1628)

The Art of Peace 46

Instructors can impart only a fraction of the teaching. It is through your own devoted practice that the mysteries of the Art of Peace are brought to life. 

Musonius Rufus, Lectures 6.2

How, indeed, could a person immediately become temperate if he only knew that one must not be overcome by pleasures, but was quite unpracticed in withstanding pleasures?

How could one become just when he had learned that one must love fairness but had never exercised himself in avoidance of selfishness and greed?

How could we acquire courage if we had merely learned that the things that seem dreadful to the average person are not to be feared, but had no experience in showing courage in the face of such things?

How could we become prudent if we had come to recognize what things are truly good and what evil, but had never had practice in despising things that only seem good?

I become a little wary when I hear people using one of the popular phrases of the moment, that the key to fixing a problem is about “raising awareness”. Yes, we can hardly do anything if we don’t first understand the right and the wrong of it, but being aware alone won’t cut it. It begins with reflection, and it is then only completed in action.

How easily I might be drawn to pondering and pontificating about the big things, precisely because it requires so little effort to do so.  How much more I should commit to practicing the little things, precisely because the effort required is what produces the reward of character. What is merely hypothetical becomes actual once I break a sweat.

Musonius here shares a principle in common with Aristotle, that we become virtuous by doing the good, not by just thinking about the good. As parents like to tell their children, “Wishing won’t make it so!” An act is the exercise of an intention, and the repetition of acts leads to the building of habits. Right habits improve moral strength, and are the true sign of the virtuous man.

My own greatest failings have come when there is something decent in my head, or in my heart, or even on my lips, but I don’t do anything about it with my hands. I have been in possession of things I have not used, and I have then foolishly wondered why a noble ideal or sentiment wasn’t making me any better or happier.

Nor has it helped me when I am impressed by others who do much the same, who tell me much, while not showing me much at all. I have wondered why people are always letting me down, but of course they aren’t doing that all; they are exactly what they appear to be, smoke without fire, and I am only deceiving myself.

Just as the law will only be binding when it is enforced, so a sense of right and wrong will only help me when I bother to live it out.

Temperance? Give me the man who fights fiercely against his own worst desires, not the man who only preaches fine words about moderation from his pulpit.

Justice? I will listen to the politician lecture me on the need for a fair society, but I will only start paying attention when I see him sharing his own winnings.

Courage? How easy it is for the armchair hero to tell others to be strong, when all his entitlements mean that he has never faced hardship, and so he has never had anything to fear.

Prudence? The number of books a scholar may have read, or referenced, or written are hardly as important as his ability to distinguish between decency and chicanery.

Written in 7/1999

Fragments of Parmenides 1

The car that bears me carried me as far as ever my heart desired, when it had brought me and set me on the renowned way of the goddess, which leads the man who knows through all the towns. On that way was I borne along; for on it did the wise steeds carry me, drawing my car, 5and maidens showed the way. 

And the axle, glowing in the socket—for it was urged round by the whirling wheels at each end—gave forth a sound as of a pipe, when the daughters of the Sun, hasting to convey me into the light, threw back their veils from off their faces and left the 10abode of Night.

(All these passages are taken from the John Burnet translation of On Nature)

Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy 4.17

Then I said: “The arguments which we have accepted bring us to that conclusion. But tell me, do you leave no punishment of the soul to follow after the death of the body?”

“Yes,” she answered, “heavy punishments, of which some, I think, are effected by bitter penalties, others by a cleansing mercy. But it is not my intention to discuss these now.

“My object has been to bring you to know that the power of evil men, which seems to you so unworthy, is in truth nothing; and that you may see that those wicked men, of whose impunity you complained, do never miss the reward of their ill-doing; and that you may learn that their passion, which you prayed might soon be cut short, is not long-enduring, and that the longer it lasts, the more unhappiness it brings, and that it would be most unhappy if it endured for ever.

“Further, I have tried to show you that the wicked are more to be pitied if they escape with unjust impunity, than if they are punished by just retribution. And it follows upon this fact that they will be undergoing heavier penalties when they are thought to be unpunished.”

—from Book 4, Prose 4

Will there are also be eternal consequences for the way we choose to live in this life, rewards or punishments in an afterlife, or in a next life? Would knowing that it is so give a greater weight to the power of Providence? Might it offer a finality to things, a certainty that nothing can escape an ultimate justice?

Speaking only for myself, I have found that this can be a misleading line of inquiry for me. Whether the human soul is immortal, and whether our judgments now have very real consequences later, is indeed a critical question, and our answer will shape much of how we view our place in the totality of things. Nevertheless, I must be careful not to ask the question for all the wrong reasons.

Coming to know what my future state might be isn’t a problem, but relying on that future state to make excuses for my life now is a problem. I find it too easy to look to what will happen then, instead of focusing on what is happening now. There is something base and mercenary in me when I expect treats for myself and my friends later, and only tricks for my enemies and opponents later.

My sense of justice can all too easily be replaced by a desire for gratification and vengeance.

So I do not ignore the question, but I put it aside, for the moment, when I consider why I should choose to do good instead of evil. I should follow virtue because it fulfills my very humanity, and expresses itself in happiness simply by itself. I should avoid vice because it cripples my humanity, and expresses itself in misery simply by itself. Do not tell me that there needs to be more, because this is already enough: the good life is good for its own sake, or it is not a good life to begin with.

It seems that Lady Philosophy is trying to guide Boethius in a similar manner, affirming that the effects of our actions are indeed greater than we might think, but also reminding him to see Providence at work right in front of him, here and now. He does not need to wait for his rewards, and those who have treated him unjustly do not need to wait for their punishments. The rewards and punishments cannot be separated form the thoughts and deeds themselves.

Perhaps thinking in this way can also help me to learn pity, not by looking down on others, but by showing genuine compassion for others. When another tries to hurt me, he may attack me on the outside, while he only hurts himself on the inside.

Should I not want what is good for him, instead of stewing with anger? There is something I can do about that immediately, and I don’t need to dwell on his fate down the road. If I offer love, I will surely become better, and there is a chance, just a chance, that he may use that as an opportunity to become better himself. Let me worry about the joy and suffering in front of me at the moment.

I have a rather unpleasant memory of a religious zealot I once knew giving me what he intended as a pep talk, but instead ended up making me far more aware of the malice in my own motives.

“Look, just rest assured that they will be in Hell, and you will be in Heaven. You will have the last laugh! You will have eternal glory, and they will only have eternal pain. God’s power takes care of it that way!”

No, just no. I cannot bring myself to imagine either God or his Saints taking pleasure in laughing last. Love is the law of Nature, and the will of Nature’s God. The evil man deserves to be helped, not to be hated.

Written in 11/2015