ARKCODEX
Meditations
1At dawn, when you struggle to get out of bed, have this thought ready: I am rising to do the work of a human being. Why then do I resent it, if I am going to do what I was born for? What I was brought into the world to accomplish? Or was I made for this—to lie under the blankets and keep myself warm? "But this is more pleasant." So you were born for pleasure? Not for action and effort? Do you not see the plants, the sparrows, the ants, the spiders, the bees—each doing its own work? Each playing its part in the order of the world? And yet you refuse to do the work of a human being. You do not rush toward what your nature demands. "But rest is necessary too." I agree. Yet nature has set limits on rest. Just as it has set limits on eating and drinking. Still, you exceed those limits. You go beyond what is enough. But in your actions, you fall short. You stay well within what you could do. You do not truly love yourself. If you did, you would love your nature and its purpose. Those who love their craft wear themselves out in its service. They forget to bathe. They forget to eat. Yet you honor your own nature less than the engraver honors his engraving. Less than the dancer honors the dance. Less than the miser honors his money. Less than the fame-seeker honors his little scrap of glory. When these people are seized by passion, they would rather skip food and sleep than stop advancing what they care about. But to you, acts of service to others seem cheaper. Less worthy of effort.
2How easy it is to push away and wipe clean every troubling or unwelcome thought. And find yourself instantly at peace.
3Consider yourself worthy of every word and action that accords with nature. Do not let the blame or criticism that follows from others distract you. If something was good to do or say, do not count yourself unworthy of it. Those people have their own ruling mind. They follow their own impulses. Do not look around at them. Walk straight ahead, following both your own nature and the nature we all share. The path of both is one.
4I journey through what nature brings until I fall and find my rest. I will breathe out my last into the air from which I draw breath each day. I will fall upon the earth from which my father gathered his seed. From which my mother drew her blood. From which my nurse drew her milk. From which I have been fed and watered all these years. Which bears my weight as I walk upon it. Which I use for so many purposes.
5They cannot admire your brilliance. So be it. But there are many other qualities where you cannot say, "I lack the natural gift." So display those things that are entirely within your power. Integrity. Dignity. Endurance. Freedom from pleasure-seeking. Contentment with your lot. Needing little. Kindness. Freedom. Simplicity. Seriousness. Greatness of soul. Do you not see how many qualities you could display right now? Qualities where you have no excuse of lacking talent or natural ability. And yet you willingly remain beneath your potential. Are you compelled by nature to grumble? To be stingy? To flatter? To blame your poor body? To seek approval? To show off? To have your soul tossed about by all these things? No, by the gods. You could have freed yourself from these long ago. If anything, you might only be judged as slower and harder to teach. But even this you must work on. Do not ignore it. Do not take secret pleasure in your dullness.
6One person does a favor for someone and is quick to count it as a debt owed back. Another does not demand repayment openly. But in his own mind he still thinks of the other as a debtor. He knows what he has done. A third person somehow does not even know what he has done. He is like a vine that has borne its grapes and seeks nothing more after yielding its fruit. A horse runs. A hound tracks. A bee makes honey. And a person who does good does not call attention to it. He moves on to the next act. Like a vine that will bear grapes again in its season. So we should be among those who act almost without awareness of their own doing. "But wait," someone objects. "We must be aware of what we do. It is the nature of a social being to recognize that he acts for the common good. And yes, to want others to recognize it too." What you say is true. But you misunderstand my point. And so you will become like those I mentioned before. They too are led astray by clever reasoning. But if you are willing to understand what I am really saying, do not fear. You will not neglect any act that serves the common good.
7A prayer of the Athenians: Rain, rain, dear Zeus, upon the fields of the Athenians and upon the plains. We should either not pray at all. Or we should pray simply and freely, just like this.
8When a doctor prescribes horseback riding or cold baths or going barefoot, we accept it. In the same way, universal nature prescribes illness or disability or loss or other such things. In the first case, "prescribes" means this: the doctor ordered it as fitting for health. In the second case, what happens to each person is ordered as fitting for their destiny. We say these things "fit" us the way builders say squared stones "fit" in walls or pyramids. They join together through their particular arrangement. There is one harmony in all things. Just as the cosmos is completed as a single body from all bodies, so destiny is completed as a single cause from all causes. Even the simplest people understand what I mean. They say: "This was brought to him." So this was brought to this person. This was prescribed for him. Let us accept such things as we accept what the doctor prescribes. Many of those treatments are harsh. Yet we welcome them in hope of health. Think of the fulfillment of universal nature's designs the same way you think of your own health. Welcome everything that happens. Even if it seems cruel. It leads you toward the health of the cosmos and the prosperous course of Zeus. Nature would not bring this to anyone unless it served the whole. No nature brings anything unfitting to what it governs. You should embrace what happens to you for two reasons. First, it was made for you. It was prescribed for you. It was woven for you from the beginning by the most ancient causes. Second, what comes to each person serves the ruler of the whole. It serves his prosperous course. It serves his completion. It serves even the continuance of all things. The whole is maimed if you cut any link in its connection and continuity. This is true of causes just as it is of parts. When you complain, you cut that link as far as it depends on you. In a sense, you destroy it.
9Do not grow disgusted with yourself. Do not give up. Do not lose heart when you fail to act from right principles at every moment. Instead, when you are knocked off course, return again. Be glad if most of your actions are worthy of your humanity. Love the thing you return to. Do not come back to philosophy like a child sent to a tutor. Come back like someone with sore eyes reaches for the sponge and salve. Like someone with a wound reaches for the poultice and bandage. In this way you will show that obeying reason is no burden. You will find rest in it. Remember that philosophy wants only what your nature wants. You have been chasing other things contrary to your nature. What could be more appealing than this? Consider how pleasure deceives through its very charm. But look whether these are not more appealing: greatness of soul, freedom, simplicity, kindness, reverence. And what is more appealing than wisdom itself? Think of the steadiness and smooth flow that come when understanding and knowledge guide everything you do.
10Reality is wrapped in a kind of veil. Many serious philosophers have concluded that nothing can be grasped at all. Even the Stoics admit that grasping is difficult. Every judgment we make can shift. Where is the person whose mind never changes? Turn now to the things themselves. They are short-lived and cheap. A pervert or a prostitute or a thief could own them just as easily. After this, consider the character of those around you. Even the most pleasant person is barely tolerable. Not to mention that each of us can barely stand ourselves. In such darkness and filth, in this endless flow of matter and time and motion and moving things, I cannot even imagine what deserves to be valued. I cannot imagine what deserves any effort at all. The opposite is needed. Comfort yourself. Wait for your natural end. Do not resent the delay. Rest only in these two things. First: nothing will happen to me that is not in accord with universal nature. Second: no one can force me to act against the god within me. No one can make me betray that.
11What am I actually using my soul for right now? Ask yourself this at every moment. Examine what is happening in that part of you they call the ruling mind. Whose soul do I have right now? A child's? A teenager's? A weak woman's? A tyrant's? A beast of burden's? A wild animal's?
12Consider what most people call good things. Here is one way to test them. Imagine someone thinking of things that are truly good: wisdom, self-control, justice, courage. With these in mind, he could not then hear the phrase "overwhelmed by good things." It simply would not fit. But imagine someone thinking of what most people consider good. He will hear that phrase and accept it easily as perfectly apt. This is the comic poet's joke. And even ordinary people sense the difference. Otherwise we would reject the joke about wealth and the trappings of luxury and fame. Instead we accept it as clever and well-aimed. So go further and ask yourself: Should we honor and call good those things whose owner can be described as having so much he does not know where to relieve himself?
13I am composed of a causal element and a material element. Neither of these will perish into nonexistence. Just as neither arose from nonexistence. Therefore every part of me will be reassigned through change into some part of the cosmos. And that part will change again into another part of the cosmos. And so on to infinity. Through such change I came into being. And those who brought me forth. And so backward into another infinity. Nothing prevents us from speaking this way. Even if the cosmos is governed in finite cycles.
14Reason and the art of reasoning are powers that are complete in themselves and in their own proper work. They begin from their own starting point. They travel toward their appointed end. This is why such actions are called "right actions." They signify that the path is straight.
15None of these things should be called essential to a person. They do not belong to a human being as a human being. They are not requirements of human nature. Human nature does not promise them. They are not what perfect human nature. Therefore the goal of human life does not lie in them. Nor does the good lie in them. The good is what completes that goal. For if any of these things truly belonged to us, then scorning them and rising above them would not be admirable. The person who shows no need for them would not be praised. The person who accepts less of them would not be good. Not if these things were truly good. But as it is, the more a person strips away such things from himself, or endures having them stripped away, the more he becomes good.
16Your mind becomes what you repeatedly imagine. The soul is dyed by its thoughts. So dye it with a steady stream of thoughts like these. Wherever life is possible, the good life is possible. Life is possible in a palace. Therefore the good life is possible in a palace. Everything is made for a purpose. It moves toward that purpose. Its fulfillment lies in reaching it. Where fulfillment lies, there also lies benefit and good. Therefore the good of a rational being is community with others. That we are made for community has long been proven. Is it not obvious that lesser things exist for the sake of greater? And that greater things exist for one another? Living things are greater than lifeless things. Rational beings are greatest of all.
17Chasing the impossible is madness. And it is impossible for fools not to act like fools.
18Nothing happens to anyone that they are not naturally able to bear. The same things happen to another person. Yet whether through ignorance of what has occurred or through a display of greatness of spirit, he remains steady and unharmed. It is a terrible thing that ignorance and vanity should be stronger than wisdom.
19External things cannot touch the soul in any way. They have no entrance to it. They cannot turn it or move it. The soul alone turns and moves itself. Whatever judgments it sees fit to make, those shape how it experiences what lies before it.
20In one sense, other people are closest to us. We must treat them well and bear with them. But when they obstruct my proper work, they become indifferent to me. No different from the sun or the wind or a wild animal. These may block a particular action. But they cannot obstruct my impulse or my disposition. Because of reservation and reversal. The mind converts every obstacle to action into something primary. What blocks the work advances the work. What stands in the path becomes the path.
21Honor the highest power in the universe. This is what uses all things and governs all things. In the same way, honor the highest power in yourself. This is of the same nature as that cosmic power. For in you too, this is what uses everything else. Your life is directed by it.
22What does not harm the city does not harm the citizen either. Whenever you feel you have been wronged, apply this test. If the city is not harmed by this, then neither am I. But if the city is harmed, anger is not the answer. Show the one causing harm what they have failed to see.
23Reflect often on how swiftly all things pass away and are swept from sight. Reality flows like a river in endless motion. Actions shift without ceasing. Causes turn in countless directions. Almost nothing stands firm. Not even what lies close at hand. The infinite gulf of past and future yawns wide. All things vanish into it. How foolish then is the one who puffs himself up in the midst of this. Or strains after things. Or complains as though troubles could last long.
24Remember the whole of existence, of which you share only the smallest part. Remember the whole of time, of which you have been given only a brief and fleeting moment. Remember fate itself, of which you are how small a portion.
25Someone wrongs me? That is his concern. He has his own disposition. His own actions. I have what universal nature wills me to have right now. And I do what my own nature wills me to do.
26Let the ruling and sovereign part of your soul remain unmoved by smooth or rough sensations in the flesh. Let it not mingle with them. Let it draw a boundary around itself and confine those disturbances to the body's parts. When they spread upward to the mind through the body's natural unity, do not try to resist the sensation itself. It is natural. But the ruling mind must not add its own judgment that this is good or evil.
27"To live with the gods." A person lives with the gods by constantly showing them a soul that is content with what is given. And by doing whatever the divine spirit wills. Zeus gave this spirit to each person as guardian and guide. It is a fragment of himself. This spirit is each person's mind and reason.
28You don't get angry at someone with bad body odor. You don't get angry at someone with foul breath. What can they do about it? That's the mouth they have. Those are the armpits they have. Such smells must come from such sources. "But a person has reason," you say. "He can reflect and realize what he's doing wrong." Good for you. Then you also have reason. Use your rational nature to stir his rational nature. Show him. Remind him. If he listens, you will cure him. And anger will be unnecessary. No need for theatrics. No need for outrage.
29You can live here the same way you would if you had gone away. But if they will not allow it, then leave life itself. Do so as though you suffer no harm. Smoke rises and I depart. Why make it a great matter? Until something like that drives me out, I remain free. No one will stop me from doing what I choose. And what I choose is to live according to the nature of a rational and social being.
30The mind that governs the whole is social by nature. It made lesser things for the sake of greater things. It fitted the greater things together in harmony with one another. See how it arranged all things in order. See how it assigned to each its proper worth. See how it brought the highest beings together in unity.
31How have you conducted yourself until now toward the gods, your parents, your siblings, your wife, your children, your teachers, those who raised you, your friends, your relatives, your household? Can you say that toward all of them you have done nothing wrong and spoken nothing harsh? Remember too what you have passed through. Remember what you had the strength to endure. Remember that the story of your life is now complete. Your service is fulfilled. You have witnessed so much beauty. You have risen above so many pleasures and pains. You have ignored so many honors. You have shown kindness to so many who showed none.
32Why do untrained and ignorant souls disturb one that is skilled and wise? What then is a skilled and wise soul? It is the one that knows the beginning and the end. It knows the reason that runs through all existence. It knows what governs the universe through all eternity in its appointed cycles.
33Any moment now you will be ash or bone. Perhaps a name will remain. Perhaps not even that. And a name is just a sound. An echo fading. What we prize most in life is hollow and rotten and small. We are puppies snapping at each other. Children quarreling. Laughing one moment. Crying the next. Faith and reverence and justice and truth have fled from the wide earth to Olympus. What then still holds you here? The world you perceive is shifting and unstable. Your senses are dim and easily deceived. Your soul itself is merely vapor rising from blood. And fame among such creatures is empty. What then? Wait calmly for your end. Whether extinction or transformation. But until that moment arrives, what is enough? Only this. Honor the gods and speak well of them. Do good to others. Bear with them. Let them be. And whatever lies within the bounds of this flesh and breath, remember it is not yours. It is not in your control.
34You can always flow smoothly through life. But only if you can also travel the right path. And only if you can think and act according to reason. Two things belong equally to the soul of God, the soul of a human being, and every rational creature. First: nothing external can obstruct you. Second: your good lies in just disposition and just action. Let your desire end there.
35If this is not my own vice, and not an action stemming from my own vice, and the common good is not harmed—why should I be troubled by it? And what harm is there to the common good?
36Don't let first impressions sweep you away completely. Help others according to your ability and their worth. Even if they lose things that seem important, don't imagine this as harm. That's a bad habit. Be like the old man who asked for his foster child's spinning top back when he left. He remembered it was just a top. So it is here too. When you speak passionately from the platform, have you forgotten what these things really are? "Yes, but people care deeply about them." So will you become a fool because of that? Once, wherever I found myself, I became a fortunate man. To be fortunate means to assign yourself a good fortune. And good fortunes are good turnings of the soul. Good impulses. Good actions.