Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius - Meditations, Book IV
"Men seek retreats for themselves - in the country, by the sea, in the hills - and you yourself are particularly prone to this yearning. But all this is quite unphilosophic, when it is open to you, at any time you want, to retreat into yourself. No retreat offers someone more quiet and relaxation than that into his own mind, especially if he can dip into thoughts there which put him at immediate and complete ease: and by ease I simply mean a well-ordered life. So constantly give yourself this retreat, and renew yourself. The doctrines you will visit there should be few and fundamental, sufficient at one meeting to wash away all your pain and send you back free of resentment at what you must rejoin. And what is it you will resent? Human wickedness? Recall the conclusion that rational creatures are born for each other's sake, that tolerance is a part of justice, that wrongdoing is not deliberate. Consider the number of people who spent their lives in enmity, suspicion, hatred, outright war, and were then laid out for burial or reduced to ashes. Stop, then. Or will you fret at your allocation from the Whole? Revisit the alternatives -providence or atoms - and the many indications that the universe is a kind of community. But will matters of the flesh still have their hold on you? Consider that the mind, once it has abstracted itself and come to know its own defining power, has no contact with the movement of the bodily spirit, be that smooth or troubled: and finally remember all that you have heard and agreed about pain and pleasure. Well then, will a little fame distract you? Look at the speed of universal oblivion, the gulf of immeasurable time both before and after, the vacuity of applause, the indiscriminate fickleness of your apparent supporters, the tiny room in which all this is confined. The whole earth is a mere point in space: what a minute cranny within this is your own habitation, and how many and what sort will sing your praises here! Finally, then, remember this retreat into your own little territory within yourself. Above all, no agonies, no tensions. Be your own master, and look at things as a man, as a human being, as a citizen, as a mortal creature. And here are two of the most immediately useful thoughts you will dip into. First that things cannot touch the mind: they are external and inert; anxieties can only come from your internal judgement. Second, that all these things you see will change almost as you look at them, and then will be no more. Constantly bring to mind all that you yourself have already seen changed. The universe is change: life is judgement. "
SlurpTime 5y ago
"In the morning when thou risest unwillingly, let this thought be present- I am rising to the work of a human being. Why then am I dissatisfied if I am going to do the things for which I exist and for which I was brought into the world? Or have I been made for this, to lie in the bed-clothes and keep myself warm?"
If you haven't read this book, you should.
Bilskee1 5y ago
I think of that everytime I go to hit the snooze and stay in bed. It's in our nature to work, so get to it already.
Wabbajak 5y ago
"Retreating in yourself" is the concept that is hinted at in this very quote is also known as the "Inner Citadel" (Pierre Hadot, The Inner Citadel, Harvard Univ Pr. (1998)), or what the ancient Stoics called ataraxia: tranquility of mind.
Central to ataraxia is the insight that false interpretations (phantasia) of external things cause distress, fear, lust or delight ¹ (Stoic passions, or irrational emotions).
The ancient Stoics devised a whole discipline dedicated towards this line of thinking: the discipline of assent.² It is your job as a rational individual to take a moment and step back, evaluate a situation or an external thing in a rational, objective way and give assent to the automatically created emotional interpretation or outright reject it. The discipline of assent deals with not being blinded by irrational, subjective interpretations, while giving assent to the rational evaluations of your "self".³
We trust our emotions as reliable indicators and interpretations of reality. Hoever, this is not always the case and more often than not, emotions are irrational and cause suffering.
The main idea here is that not things trouble us, but the automatically generated images we create (phantasia) and judgements we make about them. An inner citadel is a sort of "fortification" around your reasoning faculty/self (hegemonikon) which essentially is realizing that external events (things outside of you control) never had power over you. Things cause suffering because you allow them to cause trouble in your mind.
Famously summarized by Marcus Aurelius himself:
A more recent account of this concept was conveyed by Viktor E. Frankl:
Sounds similar to frame and amused mastery, right? Reject other people's interpretations of reality and let them be part of yours. It is your capacity to remain calm and unemotional, no matter the external circumstances. All things that are not under your control are amusing at best.
¹ Note that the modern English words for these emotional states meant something different than the original Greek words. E.g. "delight" does not simply mean joy or contentment, but in a way a hype that cannot be rationally justified.
² The discipline of assent is only one of three disciplines that constitute Stoicism and make it a complex and logical philosophy of life. In short other two disciplines are:
The discipline of desire: being aware of your limits of control and accepting external events as they are, since external events are regarded as indifferent.
The discipline of action: being aware of one's role in the community of mankind and acting in a rational way (acting out the virtues).
³ The concept of the rational "self" that is the master of your fate and captain of your soul is known as the hegemonikon.
_MysticFox 5y ago
Suffering exists when you realize you fucked over your son with baggage and BP conditioning that he'll have for the rest of his life
Psychocist 5y ago
You seem well versed on this material. Any suggestions for diving into things to this degree? I've read Meditations and I've been a big follower of J Krishnamurti (Freedom From The Known) and Terrence Mckenna and a little Emerson and some Buddhism, but that's about it.
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bright-morningstar 5y ago
Epictetus Discourses reported by his pupil Arrian not the short Epictetus Handbook one, you can check Oldfather translation full 1-2, 3-4 book, also I guess it is free available on the net if you search a bit. Said to be the best Stoic material existing to the most.
Psychocist 5y ago
Appreciate it! I'll check it out.
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CharCanDo 5y ago
I’ve experienced moderate psychic success with among other things separating awareness of judgment. The larger the gulf between the two, the greater both one’s compassion and power becomes.
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