From: John Murtari (jmurtari@AKidsRight.org)
Date: Sun May 28 2006 - 13:08:49 EDT
Good People & People of Faith & Romans!
What better way for a parent to observe Memorial day than by paying
respects to a great leader, a soldier, and a parent. Someone whose
thoughts may help guide our actions. Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius
Antoninus, his personal notebook called the "Meditations."
Some may wonder how a Roman Emperor belongs here? Many people feel
uncomfortable with the Faith that is the foundation of NonViolent
Action. Many consider themselves "spiritual, but not religious."
Marcus Aurelius, a non Christian, certainly felt a sense of 'order' in
the universe. Perhaps this brief excerpt will explain why some of us
will find a kindred spirit and some good common sense from this
ancient Roman (oh, he may have been a better writer than parent, his
son, Commodus, was a failure as Emperor):
"Concentrate every minute like a Roman ... on doing what's in
front of you with precise and genuine seriousness, tenderly,
willingly, with justice...
The spot where a person decides to station himself, or wherever
his commanding officer stations him -- well, I think that's where
he ought to take his stand and face the enemy, and not worry about
being killed, or about anything but doing his duty."
If we wish to make change happen, personal action and sacrifice is
essential. We will hopefully be ready to act as parents when we share
his strong sense of duty.
What follows below is also at our web site (including a bibliography):
http://www.AKidsRight.Org/civil_back.htm
INTRODUCTION TO THE MEDITATIONS AND STOIC PHILOSOPHY
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus who lived from 121 AD to 180 AD was the last
of the "good emperors" who governed Rome at its height. He was
Emperor from 161 AD to his natural death. THE "MEDITATIONS" WERE
PERSONAL NOTES TO HIMSELF, NOT MEANT FOR GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS, AND THE
'YOU' HE REFERS TO BELOW IS HIMSELF. As you read some of his personal
thoughts below; he is attempting to answer many questions we also may
be asking. As the editor of the Meditations explains:
Why are we here? How should we live our lives? How can we ensure
we do what is right? How can we protect ourselves against the
stresses and pressures of daily life. How should we deal with
pain and misfortune?
Long identified as a follower of stoicism, in his "Meditations",
Marcus Aurelius shows a great mixture of common sense, especially in
dealing with those we find 'annoying' -- and great confidence in the
"Logos". The term Logos has a semantic range so broad as to be almost
untranslatable. At a basic level it designates rational, connected
thought -- whether envisioned as a characteristic (rationality, the
ability to reason) or as the product of that characteristic (an
intelligible utterance or a connected discourse).
Logos operates both in individuals and in the universe as a whole. In
individuals it is the faculty of reason. On a cosmic level it is the
rational principle that governs the organization of the universe. In
this sense it is synonymous with nature, "Providence", or "God." (When
the author of John's Gospel tells us that "the Word" -- Logos -- was
with God and is to be identified with God, he is borrowing from Stoic
terminology).
All events are determined by the Logos, and follow in an unbreakable
chain of cause and effect. Stoicism is thus from the outset a
deterministic system that appears to leave no room for human free will
or moral responsibility. In reality the Stoics were reluctant to
accept such an arrangement, and attempted to get around the difficulty
by defining free will as a voluntary accommodation to what is in any
case inevitable....
But the Logos is not simply an impersonal power that governs and
directs the world. It is an actual substance that pervades that
world, not in a metaphorical sense but in a form as concrete as oxygen
or carbon. Marcus develops and mixes Stoicism with other philosophies
and does not identify himself as a Stoic. But we may all identify
well with his 'three disciplines':
ONE - Perception: This requires that we maintain absolute
objectivity of thought that we see things dispassionately for what
they are. We must learn to separate the mental impression we have
of external events (phantasia), from the mental perception we then
develop (hypolepsis). For example, my impression that my house has
just burned down is simply that -- a report of an external event
conveyed to me by my senses. By contrast, my perception that my
house has burned down and I am ruined and have suffered a terrible
tragedy is by no means the only possible interpretation, and I am
not obliged to except it. I may be a good deal better off if I
refuse to do so. (Witness the many anecdotes of the wealthy,
business leaders, sports heroes, who started from tragedy.)
TWO - Action: Governs our approach to things that are in our
control, those things that we do. If we act wrongly, then we have
done serious harm to ourselves.
It concerns our relationship with other people. All human beings
possess not only a share of the Logos but also the ability to use
it (which distinguishes us from animals). To Marcus the Logos is a
city and humans are its inhabitants and we have duties because of
our citizenship. We must make proper use of the Logos we have been
allotted. We are made, not for ourselves, but for others, and our
nature is fundamentally unselfish. In our relationships with
others we must work for the collective good, while treating them
justly and fairly as individuals.
THREE - Will: A counterpart to the discipline of action. Governs
our approach to things that are not within our control, those that
we have done to us (by others or nature). Things outside our
control have no ability to harm us. Acts of wrongdoing by a human
agent (robbery, torture...) harm the agent, not us. These acts can
only harm us if we choose to see them as harmful.
EXCERPTS FROM THE MEDIATIONS OF MARCUS AURELIUS:
BOOK TWO, 1, 5: When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: The
people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant,
dishonest, jealous, and surly. They are like this because they can't
tell good from evil.
But I have seen the beauty or good and the ugliness of evil, and
have recognized that the wrongdoer has a nature related to my
own... 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... To obstruct each other is unnatural.
To feel anger at someone, to turn your back on him: these are
obstructions.
Concentrate every minute like a Roman -- like a man -- on doing
what's in front of you with precise and genuine seriousness,
tenderly, willingly, with justice...
BOOK THREE, 7,10: Never regard something as doing you good if it
makes you betray a trust, or lose your sense of shame, or makes you
show hatred, suspicion, ill will, or hypocrisy.... Forget everything
else. Keep hold of this alone and remember it. Each of us lives only
now, this brief instant. The rest has been lived already, or is
impossible to see [the future]....
BOOK FOUR, 3: ...What's there to complain about? People's
misbehavior? But take into consideration:
- that rational beings exist for one another;
- that doing what's right sometimes requires patience;
- that no one does the wrong thing deliberately;
- and the number of people who have feuded and envied and hated and
found and died and been buried.
... and keep your mouth shut.
BOOK FIVE, 3, 19, 22, 25: If an action or utterance is appropriate,
then it's appropriate for you. Don't be put off by other people's
comments and criticism. If it's right to say or do it, then it's the
right thing for you to do or say.... Don't be distracted. Keep
walking. Follow your own nature, and follow Nature -- along the road
they share.
Things have no hold on the soul. They have no access to it, cannot
move or direct it. It is moved and directed by itself alone. It
takes the things before it and interprets them as it sees fit.
When you think you have been injured, apply this rule: If the
community isn't injured by it, neither am I. And if it is, anger
is not the answer. Show the offender where he went wrong. So
other people hurt me? That's their problem. Their character and
actions are not mine. What is done to me is ordained by nature,
what I do by my own.
BOOK SIX, 6, 20,22: The best revenge is not to be like that. In the
ring, our opponents can gouge us with nails or butt us with their
heads... but we don't denounce them for it or get upset with
them... We just keep an eye on them after that. Not out of hatred or
suspicion. Just keeping a friendly distance. We need to do that in
other areas. We need to excuse what our sparing partners do, and just
keep our distance -- without suspicion or hatred.
When you deal with irrational animals, with things and
circumstances, be generous and straightforward. You are rational;
they are not. When you deal with fellow human beings, behave as
one. They share in the Logos....
BOOK SEVEN, 22, 26, 45, 54: To feel affection for people even when
they make mistakes is uniquely human. You can do it, if you simply
recognize: that they're human too, they they act out of ignorance,
against their will, and that you'll both be dead before long. And,
above all, that they haven't really hurt you. They haven't diminished
your ability to choose.
When people injure you, ask yourself what good or harm they thought
would come of it. If you understand that, you'll feel sympathy
rather than outrage or anger. Your sense of good and evil may be
the same as theirs, or near it, in which case you have to excuse
them. Or you sense of good and evil may differ from theirs. In
which case they're misguided and deserve your compassion. Is that
so hard?
"It's like this, gentlemen of the jury" The spot where a person
decides to station himself, or wherever his commanding officer
stations him -- well, I think that's where he ought to take his
stand and face the enemy, and not worry about being killed, or
about anything but doing his duty."
Everywhere, at each moment, you have the option:
- to accept this event with humility [Will]
- to treat this person as he should be treated [Action]
- to approach this thought with care, so that nothing irrational
creeps in. [Perception]
BOOK EIGHT, 27, 34, 50: Three relationships:
- with the body you inhabit;
- with the divine, the cause of everything in all things;
- with the people around you.
Have you ever seen a severed hand or foot, or a decapitated head, just
lying somewhere far away from the body it belonged to? That's what we
do to ourselves -- or try to -- when we rebel against what happens to
us, when we segregate ourselves. Or when we do something selfish.
You have torn yourself away from unity -- your natural state, one you
were born to share in. Now you've cut yourself off from it. But you
have one advantage here: you can reattach yourself. A privilege God
has granted to no other part of the whole... to return, to graft
ourselves back on, and take up our old position again: part of the
whole.
The cucumber is bitter? Throw it out. There are brambles on the
path? Then go around them. That's all you need to know. Nothing
more. Don't demand to know 'why such things exist.' Anyone who
understands the world will laugh at you, just as a carpenter would if
you seemed shocked at finding sawdust in his workshop...
BOOK NINE, 7, 40: When you face someone's insults, hatred, whatever
... look at his soul. Get inside him. Look at what sort of person he
is. You'll find out you don't need to strain to impress him. But you
do have to wish him well. He's your closest relative, The gods assist
him just as they do you.... ... Then isn't it better to do what's up
to you -- like a free man -- than to be passively controlled by what
isn't, like a slave or beggar?...Start praying like this and you'll
see.
- Not 'some way to sleep with her' -- but a way to stop wanting to.
- Not 'some way to get rid of him' -- but a way to stop trying.
- Not 'some way to save my child' -- but a way to lose your fear.
BOOK TEN, 4, 12, 30: If they've made a mistake, correct them gently
and show them where they went wrong. If you can't do that, then the
blame lies on you. Or no one.
To follow the Logos in all things is to be relaxed and energetic,
joyful and serious at once.
When faced with people's bad behavior, turn around and ask when you
have acted like that. When you saw money as a good, or pleasure, or
social position. Your anger will subside as soon as you recognize
they acted under compulsion (what else could they do?). Or remove the
compulsion, if you can.
BOOK ELEVEN, 4, 13: Have I done something for the common good? Then I
share in the benefits. To stay centered on that. Not to give up.
Someone despises me. That's their problem. Mine: not to do or say
anything despicable. Someone hates me. Their problem. Mine: to be
patient and cheerful with everyone, including them. Ready to show
them their mistake. Not spitefully, or to show off my own self
control, but in an honest upright way....
BOOK TWELVE, 3: Your three components: body, breath, mind. Two are
yours in trust; to the third alone do you have clear title.
--
John Murtari
____________________________________________________________________
Coordinator AKidsRight.Org
jmurtari@AKidsRight.Org "A Kid's Right to BOTH parents"
Toll Free (877) 635-1968(x-211) http://www.AKidsRight.Org/
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