from Chapt IX...
39. Either all things proceed from one intelligent source and come together as in one body, and the part ought not to find fault with what is done for the benefit of the whole; or there are only atoms, and nothing else but mixture and dispersion. Why then are you disturbed? Say to the ruling faculty, "Are you dead, corrupted, playing the hypocrite? Are you a mere beast, chewing a cud?"
40. Either the gods have no power or they have power. If they have no power, why do you pray to them? But if they have power, why do you not pray for deliverance from the fear or the desire or the pain, which a thing causes, rather than pray that any of these things should or should not happen? For certainly if they can help at all, they can help to this end. But perhaps you will say that the gods have placed all that in my own power. Well, then, is it not better to use what is in your power like a free man than to desire in a slavish and abject way what is not in your power? And who has told you that the gods do not aid us even in the things which are in our power? Begin then to pray for such things, and you will see. One man prays to be able to lie with a certain woman; rather should he pray to be freed of desire for here. Another prays to be rid of his enemy; he should pray against wanting to be rid of him. Instead of praying that you may not lose your little one, pray for release from fear. Turn your prayers this way, and see what comes.
X.
1. Will you then, my soul, never be good and simple, all one and naked, clearer to sight than the body which encompasses you? Will you never enjoy an affectionate and contented disposition? Will you never be full and without a want of any kind, longing for nothing more, either animate or inanimate, for the enjoyment of pleasures? Nor yet desiring time wherein you shall have longer enjoyment, or place, or pleasant climate, or society of men with whom you may live in harmony? But will you be satisfied with your present condition, and pleased with all about you, and will you convince yourself that you have everything and that it comes from the gods, that everything is well for you, and will be well whatever shall please them, and whatever they shall give you for the perfect living being, the good and just and beautiful, which generates and holds together all things, and contains and embraces all things which are dissolved for the production of other like things? Will you never be such that you shall so dwell in community with gods and men as neither to find fault with them at all, nor to be condemned by them?
2. Observe what your nature requires, so far as you are governed by nature only: then do it and accept it, if your nature shall not be made worse for it. And next you must observe what your nature requires as far as you are a living being, and this you may do, unless it involves injury to your nature as a rational being. But the rational being is consequently also a social being. Follow these rules then, and trouble yourself about nothing else.
3. Everything which happens either happens in such a way that you are formed by nature to bear it or not to bear it. If what happens to you is within your strength to bear, bear it without complaining; if it is beyond your strength, do not complain, for it will perish after it has destroyed you. Remember, however, that you are formed by nature to bear everything which your own opinion can make endurable and tolerable, by thinking that it is either your interest or your duty to do so.
4. Whether the universe is a concourse of atoms or nature´s law, let this be first established, that I am a part of the whole which is governed by nature; next, I am intimately related to the parts which are of the same kind with myself. For remembering this, inasmuch as I am a part, I shall be discontented with none of the things which are assigned to me out of the whole; for nothing is injurious to the part, if it is for the advantage of the whole. For the whole contains nothing which is not for its own good; and all natures indeed have this common principle, but the nature of the universe has this principle besides, that it cannot be compelled even by any external cause to generate anything harmful to itself. By remembering then that I am a part of such a whole, I shall be content with everything that happens. And inasmuch as I am in a manner intimately related to the parts which are the same kind with myself, I shall turn all my efforts to the common interest, and avert them from the contrary. Now if these things are done so, life must flow on happily, just as you may observe that the life of a citizen is happy if he continues a course of action which is advantageous to his fellow citizens, and is content with whatever the state may assign to him.
7. The parts of the whole which are comprehended in the universe must of necessity perish, that is, they must undergo change. But if this is both an evil and a necessity to the parts, the whole could not escape deterioration, seeing the parts are subject to change and prone to perish in various ways. Did nature herself design to do evil to the things which are parts of herself, and to make them subject to evil and of necesity fall into evil, or have such things happened without her knowing it? Bot these suppositions are indeed incredible. But if a man should even drop the term "nature" as an efficient power, and should speak of these changes as natural, even then it would be ridiculous to affirm at the same time that the parts of the whole are naturally subject to change, and at the same time to be surprised or vexed as if something were happening contrary to nature, particularly such as the dissolution of things into the original elements. For there is either a dispersion of the elements out of which everything has been compounded, or a change from the solid to the earthy and from the spiritual to the aerial, so that these parts are taken back into the universal reason, whether this at certain periods is consumed by fire or renewed by eternal changes. And do not imagine that the solid and the spiritual part belong to you from the time of your begetting. For it received its increase only yesterday and the day before, so to speak, from the food you eat and the air you breathe. This then that has received changes from without is not that which your mother brought forth. But even admitting that you are intimately bound up with that, by your individuality, this does not affect the argument.
8. When you have assumed these attributes - good, modest, true, rational, equable, magnanimous - take care that you do not change them; and if you should lose them, quickly return to them. And remember that the term "rational" was intended to signify a discriminating attention to every separate thing and freedom from negligence; and that equanimity is the voluntary acceptance of the things which are assigned to you by the common nature; and that magnanimity is the elevation of the intelligent part above the pleasurable or painful sensations of the flesh, and above fame, and death, and all such trilas. If then you keep true to these attributes, wihtout desiring that others should recognize that you have them, you will be another person and will enter on another life. For to continue to be such as you had hitherto been, and to be torn in pieces and defiled in such a life, is the character of a very stupid man, one overfond of his life, and like those half-devoured fighters with wild beasts, who though covered with wounds and gore, still entreat to be kept to the following day, to be flung once more to the same claws and bites. Therefore, fix yourself firmly in the possession of these few attributes, and if you are able to stand fast, stand fast as if you were transported to the Happy Isles. But if you find yourself falling, and cannot maintain your hold, go courageously into some nook where you can still hold on, or even depart at once from life, not in passion, but with simplicity and freedom and modesty, after doing this one thing, at least, bravely - to leave it thus. In order, however, to aid the remembrance of these attributes, it will greatly help you, if you remember the gods, and that they do not wish to be flattered, but wish all reasonable beings to be made like themselves, and be as the fig tree doing the work of a fig tree, the dog a dog´s, and a man a man´s work.
11. Acquire the contemplative way of seeing how all things change into one another, and constantly attend to it, and exercise yourself about this part of philosophy. Nothing is so apt to produce magnanimity. Such a man has put off the body, and as he sees that at any moment he must go away from among men and leave everything here, he gives himself entirely up to just actions, and in everything else that happens he resigns himself to the universal nature. But as to what any man shall say or think about him or do against him, he never even thinks of it, being himself contented with these two things, with acting justly in what he now does, and being satisfied with what is now assigned to him; and he lays aside all distracting and busy pursuits, and desires nothing else than to run the straight course and by so doing follow God.
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32. Let it not be in any man´s power to say truly of you that you are not simple and good; let it be a lie if anyone shall think anything of this kind about you; this is wholly in your power. For who shall hinder you from being good and simple? You have only to decide to live no longer, if you cannot be such a man. For in that case, it does not stand with reason that you should live.
-Marcus Aurelius
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