Sayings of Ramakrishna 29

As a boy begins to learn writing by drawing big scrawls, before he can master the small-hand, so we must learn concentration of the mind by fixing it first on forms; and when we have attained success therein, we can easily fix it upon the formless.

Jacob Matham, The Five Senses

School of Jacob Mathan, The Five Senses (c. 1588)

Seneca, On Peace of Mind 11.8

You are wealthy; are you wealthier than Pompeius? Yet when Gaius, his old relative and new host, opened Caesar's house to him in order that he might close his own, he lacked both bread and water.

Though he owned so many rivers which both rose and discharged themselves within his dominions, yet he had to beg for drops of water. He perished of hunger and thirst in the palace of his relative, while his heir was contracting for a public funeral for one who was in want of food.

I have never had a fancy life, though that doesn’t stop me from sometimes thinking that I am special, that the rules of Nature somehow don’t apply to me. Yes, others are subject to the whims of Fortune, but I’m surely different because I have a foolproof plan. Just watch, I say, you’ll see me going through this life with everything at my command.

Now I may manage to get myself in order, but I will have no success in herding my circumstances; like my cats, they will go wherever they please.

Expanding the breadth of my awareness can help me to rid myself of my delusions, and since I have always had a weakness for tales from the past, few things are more humbling for me than a good historical narrative. It will remind me that the more things change, the more they remain the same, and that the lessons learned the hard way by others can make it so much easier for me.

The Pompeius mentioned here is not Pompey the Great, but a later relative, though it is also worth noting that the older Pompey went from being part of the First Triumvirate to being assassinated.

In this case, Sextus Pompeius had been both a senator as well as a rather wealthy man, a combination one can hardly avoid noticing to be quite common in most times and places.

He seems to have successfully served in government under both Augustus and Tiberius, though things went poorly under Gaius Julius Caesar, known as Caligula. I have never found any further details about the story mentioned here, but Caligula relieved Pompeius of all his wealth and power, imprisoned him in the Imperial palace, and starved the poor fellow to death.

It is certainly tragic, and quite grand in its scale, though it is not so different from all the other sorts of greed, betrayal, or violence we will see around us most every day. The context does not need to be so dramatic to know that something similar could happen to any one of us.

People leave this life alone, abandoned, impoverished, or starving all the time, though many of us don’t think such people are important enough to take any notice of.

I suppose that is, in a way, Seneca’s whole point: if I choose to make the whole worth of my life dependent on what others might give to me, then I will also have to accept my worthlessness when they take it away.

Written in 11/2011

Sayings of Socrates 38

Order and discipline are the most important things in an army, and without them it is impossible to have any other service of the troops than of a confused heap of stones, bricks, timber, and tiles; but when everything is in its due place, as in a building, when the foundations and the covering are made of materials that will not grow rotten, and which no wet can damage, such as are stones and tiles, and when the bricks and timber are employed in their due places in the body of the edifice, they altogether make a house, which we value among our most considerable enjoyments. 

—Xenophon, Memorabilia 3.1

Jacob Matham, The Four Elements

School of Jacob Matham, The Four Elements (c. 1588)

Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy 4.38

“If you would diligently behold with unsullied mind

 the laws of the God of thunder upon high,

look to the highest point of heaven above.

There, by a fair and equal compact,

do the stars keep their ancient peace.

The sun is hurried on by its whirl of fire,

but impedes not the moon's cool orb.

The Bear turns its rushing course

around the highest pole of the Universe,

and dips not in the western depths,

and though it sees the other constellations sink,

it never seeks to quench its flames in the ocean stream.

In just divisions of time does the evening star

foretell the coming of the late shadows,

and, as Lucifer, brings back again the warming light of day.

Thus does the interchanging bond of love

bring round their never-failing courses;

and strife is forever an exile from the starry realms.

This unity rules by fair limits the elements,

so that wet yields to dry, its opposite,

and it faithfully joins cold to heat.

Floating fire rises up on high,

and matter by its weight sinks down.

From these same causes in warm spring

the flowering season breathes its scents;

then the hot summer dries the grain;

then with its burden of fruits comes autumn again,

and winter's falling rain gives moisture.

This mingling of seasons nourishes and brings forth

all on earth that has the breath of life;

and again snatches them away and hides them,

whelming in death all that has arisen.

Meanwhile the Creator sits on high, rules all and guides,

king and Lord, fount and source of all,

Law itself and wise judge of justice.

He restrains all that stirs nature to motion,

holds it back, and makes firm all that would stray.

If He were not to recall them to their true paths,

 and set them again upon the circles of their courses,

they would be torn from their source and so would perish.

This is the common bond of love;

all seek thus to be restrained by the limit of the good.

In no other manner can they endure

if this bond of love be not turned round again,

and if the causes, which He has set, return not again.”

—from Book 4, Poem 6

In my younger days, when I still naively assumed that other people would get as excited as I did about learning something new and off the beaten path, I was once passionately explaining to one of my professors how life-changing it was for me to finally read Boethius’ Consolation with care. I could tell he was being patient with me, and that he would surely prefer to be doing something else, but I had him cornered, and in my elation I just didn’t want to admit that he wasn’t seeing what I was seeing.

“Boethius is sort of old and tired, isn’t he? It’s not like he’s on the cutting edge of scholarship. You might be better off studying something more contemporary, something that isn’t so derivative of outdated attitudes.”

I should have nodded and been on my way, but I stubbornly persisted. I suggested that the arguments were timeless, precisely because they spoke to a universal meaning and purpose in Nature we too often overlook. If we think it’s obsolete, could it be that we’ve forgotten something? Wasn’t there a great truth in recognizing that the whole of the world is ruled by love?

I had clearly gone too far, because I got the smirk and the roll of the eyes. “Well, I really can’t help you if you want to follow all that crude physics, and I hardly think anyone in their right mind would say that Boethius has anything to do with love.”

I have come to accept that these are not the most popular views, and yet I still believe there is something crucial to be learned from them. Yes, all the talk about the four elements, and the balance of hot and cold, of wet and dry, and the music of the spheres, may not fit our current scientific jargon. I can go deeper than the differences of symbolism and expression, however, and see a common Universe of causality, balance, and order.

And yes, while Boethius may not speak with the emotional intensity of a romantic poet, or with the social conscience of the flower generation, he does most certainly believe that love makes the world go around, as he again makes very clear in the poem above.

In that every aspect of Nature, to whatever degree of awareness or perfection, moves and act for the sake of the good, all creatures are driven by love, drawn toward their fulfillment as parts within the whole. They all work together, admittedly in often mysterious ways, but they are all charged with direction.

It is, in this sense, a love that binds all things together in a unity.

Nothing happens in vain. Each event balances itself out with every other event. Wherever there seems to be a diversion, that diversion itself becomes a means for a correction. Aristotle, or Boethius, or Aquinas understood this just as well as Kepler, or Newton, or Einstein.

I can speak of such a love not just in a metaphorical sense, since the reality of design necessitates the ultimate presence of mind and will. It may not be fashionable to say that the heavens make music, but the fact that they do not literally produce sounds does not mean that they do not reflect the most beautiful harmony. 

Written in 12/2015 

Jacob Matham, Faith, Hope, and Charity

School of Jacob Matham, Faith, Hope, and Charity (1590)

Tao Te Ching 63

It is the way of the Tao to act without thinking of acting; to conduct affairs without feeling the trouble of them; to taste without discerning any flavor; to consider what is small as great, and a few as many; and to recompense injury with kindness.

The master of it anticipates things that are difficult while they are easy, and does things that would become great while they are small. All difficult things in the world are sure to arise from a previous state in which they were easy, and all great things from one in which they were small. Therefore the sage, while he never does what is great, is able on that account to accomplish the greatest things.

He who lightly promises is sure to keep but little faith; he who is continually thinking things easy is sure to find them difficult. Therefore the sage sees difficulty even in what seems easy, and so never has any difficulties.

Jacob Matham, Seven Vices

School of Jacob Matham, The Seven Deadly Sins (c. 1600)

Pride/Lust/Anger/Envy/Gluttony/Greed/Sloth

Seneca, On Peace of Mind 11.7

Nor are these matters divided by long periods of time, but there is but the space of an hour between sitting on the throne ourselves and clasping the knees of someone else as suppliants.

Know then that every station of life is transitory, and that what has ever happened to anybody may happen to you also.

As a child, I was deeply affected by an old newspaper photograph I came across, showing the bodies of a group of mobsters who had been gunned down by their enemies.

While I was troubled by the violence, the brutality, and the senselessness of it, the bit that stuck with me the most was how immaculately dressed they all were. I kept wondering if they had any idea at all that this day was going to be their last, as they were putting on their tailored suits, silk ties, and shiny shoes.

The image still comes to me many years later, and the thoughts associated with it runs through my mind whenever I remember how suddenly and unexpectedly the circumstances of life can change.

Sometimes it will pop into my head right after some momentous shift has taken place, and I will ask myself if there was any way I could have known this was going to happen when I had gotten up in the morning.

Sometimes it will pop into my head for no apparent reason at all, and I will ask myself what sort of surprises might still await me before I lay down my head.

The setup may be long in the making, and it can take quite some time for all the pieces to fall into place, but we are usually quite oblivious to what is creeping up around the corner, and so the moment of realization for us makes it seem like it arrived out of nowhere.

I remember what I thought would be one the happiest days of my life turning into one of the most miserable days of my life, and what kept me barely sane for that critical moment was the ability to laugh at myself.

“Don’t you look the fool now? To think you even wore your favorite shirt today, all smug and confident! Sure, you can say you saw it coming, but of course you didn’t, because you’re too caught up in the moment. You really need to frame that picture with the Chicago gangsters, and hang it somewhere where you can see it whenever you wake up!”

There’s only one thing for it, to expect anything at any time, however crazy it may seem, and to thereby live in such a way that I can still be at peace with myself, whichever way it turns.

Be prepared to be admired one day and then mocked the next. Be ready to sit on the throne in the morning and then beg at the throne in the evening. Be content to treat this hour as the only one you have, because it could very possible be just that.

Written in 11/2011

The Wisdom of Solomon 4:16-20

[16] The righteous man who had died will condemn
the ungodly who are living,
and youth that is quickly perfected will condemn
the prolonged old age of the unrighteous man.
[17] For they will see the end of the wise man,
and will not understand what the Lord purposed for him,
and for what he kept him safe.
[18] They will see, and will have contempt for him,
but the Lord will laugh them to scorn.
After this they will become dishonored corpses,
and an outrage among the dead for ever;
[19] because he will dash them speechless to the ground,
and shake them from the foundations;
they will be left utterly dry and barren,
and they will suffer anguish,
and the memory of them will perish.
[20] They will come with dread when their sins are reckoned up,
and their lawless deeds will convict them to their face.

Jacob Matham, Seven Virtues

School of Jacob Matham, The Four Cardinal and Three Theological Virtues (c. 1587). 

Prudence/Fortitude/Temperance/Justice/Faith/Hope/Charity

Seneca, On Peace of Mind 11.6

If a man takes this into his inmost heart and looks upon all the misfortunes of other men, of which there is always a great plenty, in this spirit, remembering that there is nothing to prevent their coming upon him also, he will arm himself against them long before they attack him.

It is too late to school the mind to endurance of peril after peril has done. "I did not think this would happen," and "Would you ever have believed that this would have happened?" say you.

But why should it not? Where are the riches after which want, hunger, and beggary do not follow?

What office is there whose purple robe, augur's staff, and patrician reins have not as their accompaniment rags and banishment, the brand of infamy, a thousand disgraces, and utter reprobation?

What kingdom is there for which ruin, trampling under foot, a tyrant, and a butcher are not ready at hand?

Some people think it will never happen to them, because they are part of a certain tribe.

“Other countries will fall, but ours is timeless.”

Some people think it will never happen to them, because they have won their status.

“People are poor because they’re lazy. I earned everything I own.”

Some people think it will never happen to them, because they are so excellent in their appearances.

“Mark my words, you treat a man like he’s a king, and you’ll become a king.”

Some people think it will never happen to them, because they are chosen by Providence.

“God gave us this land.”

I have heard each of those phrases, and while I can respect the convictions, I’m afraid I can’t respect the principles behind them.

All nations fade away. Circumstances are quite arbitrary. Giving never guarantees any other receiving. God loves all of us, not just you.

It takes only the slightest adjustment in life, the tiniest change in our conditions, to teach us that nothing is as certain as we think it is.

We take our fineries and luxuries for granted. It never occurs to us that people in much of the rest of the world take their poverty for granted. We assume that our country, or our hard work, or our impeccable posturing, or the grace of the Almighty gave us our McMansions.

We are sorely mistaken. Fortune gave them to us, and Fortune will just as easily take them away.

We sweep the losers under the carpet, of course, since we say that they are the statistical aberrations. No. No they are not. They are the half that lived just like you, but just so happened to lose their toss in the game. You think you have won the game, but the game isn’t over.

The trick is to stop playing the game, and to start living a human life.

Nothing, absolutely nothing, the rich or famous man depends upon is at all reliable. It will all come and go at any moment. He would be wiser to rely on his own character, and to think nothing about what else it might bring him.

How can I say that I didn’t expect it? It fell upon so many other folks. Was I special?

How can I say that it would never happen to me? Didn’t it just happen to that other fellow?

Julius Caesar surely understood this when he saw his life flashing before his eyes.

It is far too late to accept it after the fact, because I have already chosen the wrong values. I have set myself in my ways, and I will have to bear the bitter consequences. Let me begin by not caring for these vanities at all, and then I couldn’t care less if I lose them.

Written in 11/2011

IMAGE: Vincenzo Camuccini, The Death of Caesar (c. 1805)

The Art of Peace 54

Always practice the Art of Peace in a vibrant and joyful manner. 

Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy 4.37

“But ‘hard is it for me to set forth all these matters as a god,’ nor is it right for a man to try to comprehend with his mind all the means of Divine working, or to explain them in words.

“Let it be enough that we have seen that God, the Creator of all Nature, directs and disposes all things for good. And while He urges all, that He has made manifest, to keep His own likeness, He drives out by the course of Fate all evil from the bounds of His state. Wherefore if you look to the disposition of Providence, you will reckon nothing as bad of all the evils which are held to abound upon earth.

“But I see that now you are weighed down by the burden of the question, and wearied by the length of our reasoning, and waiting for the gentleness of song. Take then your draught, be refreshed thereby and advance further the stronger.”

—from Book 4, Prose 6

Protagoras famously said that “Man is the measure of all things.” Some academics I know primarily attribute such thinking to modernity, though I would argue that it can be found in any time or place, precisely because it is an easy way to avoid coming to terms with anything ultimate beyond ourselves. It is both quite understandable and also quite dangerous.

I begin with my own awareness, and I recognize that my comprehension has it limits. Much passes before it, but not all of it is clear. I feel the effects, though I do not directly see the causes. I engage with the parts, but the whole seems to spread beyond my horizon.

Two ways are now open to me.

I may embrace humility by admitting that I am not everything, or I may embrace pride by insisting that I am everything.

I may accept that the world is only just starting where I stop, or I may believe that it all stops until I say start.

I may only allow it to be true if I fully know it, or I may allow that there are so many truths I do not yet know.

For better or for worse, I eventually committed my life to the former path, that a mystery, as the pithy saying has it, is not something about which we know nothing, but rather something about which we don’t know everything. All that is real is bigger than all that is me, or all that I can wrap my own hands around.

I learned quickly that I could not think as God thought, but this did not mean that God did not think, or that I could not know that my imperfect thinking wasn’t the same as His perfect thinking. I learned quickly that I had a role to play, but this did not mean that I wrote the play, as much as I knew there was an author.

I see through a glass darkly, and yet I still see.

My own reason tells me that all relative degrees of being are only possible through an Absolute, and that what is Absolute can admit of no weakness.

I can grow frustrated, and become angry, and point the finger of blame when I do not understand all the inner workings, and yet I can still understand that there is something bigger at work, something to which I can offer my complete awe, reverence, and trust.

Does it feel so evil to me at the moment? As mysterious as it may seem, I can still know that it is allowed to be there in the service of some more profound good.

Written in 12/2015

Fragments of Parmenides 9

It needs must be that what can be spoken and thought is; for it is possible for it to be, and it is not possible for what is nothing to be. This is what I bid you ponder. 

Learn Something

"The best thing for being sad," replied Merlyn, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake in the middle of the night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world around you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honor trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then—to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting." 

—T.H. White, The Sword in the Stone (1938) 

Sayings of Heraclitus 28

The most esteemed of them knows but fancies, and holds fast to them, yet of a truth justice shall overtake the artificers of lies and the false witnesses.

Seneca, On Peace of Mind 11.5

Ought I to be surprised if the dangers that have always been circling around me at last assail me? How large a part of mankind never think of storms when about to set sail?

I shall never be ashamed to quote a good saying because it comes from a bad author. Publilius, who was a more powerful writer than any of our other playwrights, whether comic or tragic, whenever he chose to rise above farcical absurdities and speeches addressed to the gallery, among many other verses too noble even for tragedy, let alone for comedy, has this one :

“What one hath suffered may befall us all."

I grew up with a certain myth, and though it is far less popular now with the younger generations, there are still many who believe every word of it.

It tells the story of those who were smart, dedicated, and industrious, and how they won security and prosperity for themselves through all their hard work. The dull, timid, and lazy, in contrast, all faded into obscurity and insignificance. All’s well that ends well.

It’s a fine tale on one level, since it encourages so many excellent qualities, and discourages so many harmful ones. Still, I can’t help but think how misleading it might also be, since it not only points to all the wrong goals, but it also makes promises it most certainly can’t keep.

Should becoming rich and popular really be what I want? Am I so sure that my diligence will even provide me with such supposed rewards?

For every case of someone who has found worldly success by keeping his nose to the grindstone, there is another case of someone who has dared to try and lost everything. We will hear the former stories because they make for good copy, but not so much the latter because they burst the bubble. What seemed like a sure investment turned out to be more like playing the lottery.

Quite sadly, this makes people cynical and resentful, as if happiness is quite impossible, when the better path may have been not to seek satisfaction in unreliable things to begin with.

Why, when I look at the misfortune of my neighbor, who has struggled just as much as I have, do I somehow assume that his suffering could never possibly fall on me? Do I actually think that I am more worthy, or am I failing to connect the variability of his circumstances with my own?

I have now seen enough recessions, wars, and natural disasters to recognize the same speeches they give us, that if we only put our minds to it, we will all come out stronger than we ever were. Then I wonder about those who we’ve already lost, and those who will still be lost in the process.

Did they really mean all of us, or just some of us?

Why would I think that Providence will treat me differently from anyone else?

Written in 11/2011

Hans Sebald Beham, Cardinal Virtues