Discovery of the day
Aug. 26th, 2008 03:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
darren_strangerFrom the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius:
(as translated by Gregory Hays)
When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: the people I meet today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest and surly. They are like this because they can't tell good from evil. But I have seen the beauty of good and the ugliness of evil, and have recognized that the wrongdoer has a nature related to my own - not of the same blood or birth but the same mind, and possessing a share of the divine. And so none of them can hurt me. No one can implicate me in ugliness. Nor can I feel angry at my relative, or hate him. We were born to work together, like feet, hands, and eyes, or the two rows of teeth, upper and lower. To obstruct each other is unnatural. To feel anger at someone, to turn your back on him: these are obstructions.
...
Your ability to control your thoughts - treat it with respect. It's all that protects your mind from false perceptions - false to your nature and that of all rational beings. It's what makes thoughtfulness possible, and affection for other people, and submission to the divine.
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Forget everything else, keep hold of this alone and remember it: each of us lives only now, in this brief instant. The rest has been lived already, or is impossible to see.
...
If you do the job in a principled way, with diligence, energy and patience, and keep the spirit inside you undamaged, as if you may have to give it back any moment - if you can embrace this without fear or expectation - can find fulfillment in what you're doing now, as Nature intended, and in superhuman truthfulness (every word, every utterance) - then your life will be happy. No one can prevent that.
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No random actions, none not based on underlying principles.
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People try to get away from it all - to the country, to the beach, to the mountains. You always wish you could get away too. Which is idiotic, because you can get away from it any time you like - by going within. Nowhere you can go is more peaceful - and more free of interruptions - than your own soul.
...
Choose not to be harmed, and you won't feel harmed. Don't feel harmed - and you haven't been.
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It can ruin your life only if it ruins your character. Otherwise it cannot harm you - inside or out.
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Anywhere you can lead your life, you can lead a good one. Lives are led at court - then good ones can be.
...
If you had a stepmother and a real mother, you'd pay your respects to your stepmother, yes, but it's your real mother that you'd go home to. The court ... and philosophy. Keep returning to it, to rest in its embrace. It's what makes the court - and you - endurable.
...
If anyone can refute me - show me I'm mistaken or looking at things from the wrong perspective - I'll gladly change. It's the truth I'm after, and the truth never harmed anyone. What harms us is to persist in self-deceit and ignorance.
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I do what is mine to do; the rest doesn't disturb me. The rest is inanimate, or has no logos, or it wanders at random and has lost the road
...
Forget the future. If and when it comes, you'll have the same resources to draw on - the same logos.
...
No matter what anyone says or does, my task is to be good. Like gold or emerald or purple repeating to itself, "No matter what anyone says or does, my task is to be emerald, my colour undiminished".
...
But what are you doing here, perceptions? Get back to where you came from, and good riddance. I don't need you. Yes, I know it is force of habit that brought you. No, I'm not angry with you, just go away.
...
Everywhere, at each moment, you have the option
- To accept this event with humility
- To treat this person as he should be treated.
- To approach this thought with care, so that nothing irrational creeps in.
...
Your ability to control your thoughts - treat it with respect. It's all that protects your mind from false perceptions - false to your nature and that of all rational beings. It's what makes thoughtfulness possible, and affection for other people, and submission to the divine.
...
Forget everything else, keep hold of this alone and remember it: each of us lives only now, in this brief instant. The rest has been lived already, or is impossible to see.
...
If you do the job in a principled way, with diligence, energy and patience, and keep the spirit inside you undamaged, as if you may have to give it back any moment - if you can embrace this without fear or expectation - can find fulfillment in what you're doing now, as Nature intended, and in superhuman truthfulness (every word, every utterance) - then your life will be happy. No one can prevent that.
...
No random actions, none not based on underlying principles.
...
People try to get away from it all - to the country, to the beach, to the mountains. You always wish you could get away too. Which is idiotic, because you can get away from it any time you like - by going within. Nowhere you can go is more peaceful - and more free of interruptions - than your own soul.
...
Choose not to be harmed, and you won't feel harmed. Don't feel harmed - and you haven't been.
...
It can ruin your life only if it ruins your character. Otherwise it cannot harm you - inside or out.
...
Anywhere you can lead your life, you can lead a good one. Lives are led at court - then good ones can be.
...
If you had a stepmother and a real mother, you'd pay your respects to your stepmother, yes, but it's your real mother that you'd go home to. The court ... and philosophy. Keep returning to it, to rest in its embrace. It's what makes the court - and you - endurable.
...
If anyone can refute me - show me I'm mistaken or looking at things from the wrong perspective - I'll gladly change. It's the truth I'm after, and the truth never harmed anyone. What harms us is to persist in self-deceit and ignorance.
...
I do what is mine to do; the rest doesn't disturb me. The rest is inanimate, or has no logos, or it wanders at random and has lost the road
...
Forget the future. If and when it comes, you'll have the same resources to draw on - the same logos.
...
No matter what anyone says or does, my task is to be good. Like gold or emerald or purple repeating to itself, "No matter what anyone says or does, my task is to be emerald, my colour undiminished".
...
But what are you doing here, perceptions? Get back to where you came from, and good riddance. I don't need you. Yes, I know it is force of habit that brought you. No, I'm not angry with you, just go away.
...
Everywhere, at each moment, you have the option
- To accept this event with humility
- To treat this person as he should be treated.
- To approach this thought with care, so that nothing irrational creeps in.
...
Think of yourself as dead, you have lived your life. Now take what is left of it and live it properly.
...
You want praise from people who kick themselves every fifteen minutes, the approval of people who despise themselves.
...
Objective judgment, now, at this very moment.
Unselfish action, now, at this very moment.
Willing acceptance - now, at this very moment - of external events.
That is all you need.
...
Today I escaped from anxiety. No, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions - not outside.
...
Do what nature demands, get a move on, and don't worry if anyone will give you credit for it. And don't go on expecting Plato's Republic. Be satisfied with the smallest progress, and treat the outcome of it all as unimportant.
...
Epithets for yourself. Upright. Modest. Straightforward. Co-operative. Sane. Disinterested. Try not to exchange them for others. A nd if you should happen to forfeit them, work on getting them back.
If you maintain your claim to these epithets - without caring if others apply them to you or not - you'll become a new person, living a new life.
...
As you move forward in the logos, people will stand in the way. They can't keep you from doing what's healthy; don't let them stop you from putting up with them either. Take care on both counts. Not just sound judgment, solid actions, but tolerance as well - for those who try to obstruct us or give us trouble in other ways.
...
There's nothing manly about rage. It's courtesy and kindness that define a human being - and a man.
...
...
Today I escaped from anxiety. No, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions - not outside.
...
Do what nature demands, get a move on, and don't worry if anyone will give you credit for it. And don't go on expecting Plato's Republic. Be satisfied with the smallest progress, and treat the outcome of it all as unimportant.
...
Epithets for yourself. Upright. Modest. Straightforward. Co-operative. Sane. Disinterested. Try not to exchange them for others. A nd if you should happen to forfeit them, work on getting them back.
If you maintain your claim to these epithets - without caring if others apply them to you or not - you'll become a new person, living a new life.
...
As you move forward in the logos, people will stand in the way. They can't keep you from doing what's healthy; don't let them stop you from putting up with them either. Take care on both counts. Not just sound judgment, solid actions, but tolerance as well - for those who try to obstruct us or give us trouble in other ways.
...
There's nothing manly about rage. It's courtesy and kindness that define a human being - and a man.
...
Note to self - Must read up more on the Stoics.
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Date: 2008-08-26 11:12 am (UTC)