This post is the third in an experimental Stoic Philosophy book club series on Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Participants expressing interest are tagged at the end of the post, let us know if you're new and would like to join and be tagged!
Prior posts for context:
- Book 3: In Carnuntum
- Book 2: On the River Gran, Among the Quadi
- Book 1: Debts and Lessons
- Geneisis Post
Thanks to @cryotosensei, @gd and @siggy47 for their participation in the comments last week. I'm continuing the experiment of forwarding sats to "members" who added to the discussion in the previous week. Let us know if you would like to participate regularly and be tagged as a member.
Book 4
Summary and Highlights
This was a weird week for me. I don't know what it was, but I found it hard to stay focused. Perhaps it has something to do with the fervor of activity in the Bitcoin community due to excitement around price movements. So far, Marcus writings have felt to me like they have more emphasis in staying Stoic in the face of adversity. However, with seemingly "good" news happening in the Bitcoin space, I'm starting to get in touch with the other side -- that all of these blessings and triumphs are transient and won't matter at the end of life. What is important is to act well according to the situation at hand. If nothing else, it's fascinating to consider how much of what I get out of the reading is colored by what is going on in my own subjective, little life. And if things heat up, staying Stoic in the face of euphoria might be both really essential and really hard. Here are some of my highlights:
- No random actions, none not based on underlying principles.
This is repeated a lot in the hippy spiritual scene (Yours Truly not previously exempt) as "everything happens for a reason". But for some reason, the way it's phrased sounds scientific and made me read it as like it was coming from a physics textbook. One one hand, the mind is tempted to dive down the rabbit hole and pin down the cause-and-effect relationship. On the other, there is a beauty and tranquility when Marcus chalks it all up to "Fate" and accepts it without needing to know.
I am reminded of hours of podcasts I've watched on "Bitcoin from first principles" and considering the mental stories of how broken money is the root of so many problems in the world. But then there is the other side -- just live my life in the best I can with what I know and let that be that.
- People will try to get away from it all -- to the country, to the beach, to the mountains. You always wish that you could too. Which is idiotic: You can get away from it anytime you like.
I spent a stint of time working remotely while traveling and this is one of those lessons that emerged from the experience. One can be working on the beach, in the most beautiful place in the world, but have their consciousness tied up in a task involving a computer in a data center across the globe. Then the environment doesn't matter. I found that it was a real practice to be able to "switch" from working to being present with my body and surroundings. It's still challenging to do so -- sometimes I take my work in my head as I'm doing other things, but Marcus' observation that the freedom is in the ability to put yourself in the present, or where you need to be, was an astute discovery.
- If thought is something we share, then so is reason -- what makes us reasoning beings.
This passage connects me in reflection to @gd's comment from last week, about the mind and the body being separate. There are some schools of thought that say there are different faculties of the mind. One is an "organ of perception" -- perhaps that which perceives thoughts? And there is a higher order of the mind -- perhaps what Marcus describes as "reason" here? His definition of Reason is not a concise discussion, but the quote here and his separation between "thought" and "reason" reminds me of those teachings.
The rest of this passage is also really cool in that he describes what else we "share" by illustrating how everything is connected.
- Choose not to be harmed -- and you won't feel harmed. Don't feel harmed and you haven't been.
Short, sweet and powerful. Fully realizing this means taking sovereignty over our fear and emotions. Much easier to say than do. I'll refrain from quoting Spiderman, but it also reminds me of the responsibility that sovereignty brings, and the feeling of making that first Bitcoin transaction or the feeling of moving into self-custody. It's both exhilarating to experience the freedom, but it comes with the confrontation of the fear and possibility of messing it all up. A corollary to Marcus' statement here is the tough truth that you are the only one responsible for continuing to play the victim-perpetrator game.
- You have functioned as part of something; you will vanish into what produced you. Or be restored, rather. To the logos from which all things spring. By being changed.
This quote is simultaneously poetic, blatantly obvious and containing deep mystery. An observation that can only be made so naturally by deeply studying and absorbing the processes of Nature. Don't have much else to say other than: Agree.
- If you seek tranquility, do less.
I'm in the process of experimenting with this right now. Sometimes a preoccupation with productivity, efficiency or achievement is a way of hiding from fear and self-judgment. Slowly, I'm beginning to relax into allowing myself to "do less", but it requires confronting these hindrances in the process. Later, Marcus says to only do "what is necessary", and answering that question self-reflectively seems to be the emerging next step. From his other writings, it sounds like taking stock of circumstances in life. What I a husband, am I a father, am I a citizen? What are the responsibilities and necessities for performing those roles well? And are the archetypes dictated by society or coming from within? Still very much in progress for me.
- The value of attentiveness varies in proportion to its object.
This might be my favorite quote from Book 4. It certainly echos spiritual teachings of many traditions. In yoga, there is a state of "Samadhi" or oneness. A samadhi can be performed on anything -- a blade of grass, a candle flame, another person, whatever. But the yogis have investigated what the highest object samadhi can be practiced upon. I won't elaborate further, but this idea is of course reiterated in conventional wisdom that we "are what we eat" and we become like who and what we spend our time with. The obvious question is: what do you spend most of your time on? How valuable is that?
- Everything is transitory -- the knower and the known.
Again, this is a deep one. He is observing that observers change as they observe what they are observing as it changes. Some depictions of God are the "all knowing" or "all seeing", Ultimate Observer. And if you carry that forward, is Marcus meditation assigning a dynamic, changeable attribute to God himself?
Reflections & Discussion
Reputation
It might not be worthwhile to spend my time analyzing the minds of others, but I can't help be curious about the character of Marcus Aurelius himself through his readings. I found a few quotes, specifically in 3, 16 and 18, where the emerging topic is reputation -- both what contemporary people think and legacy after death. My guess would be this is something of a topic for him through Book 4.
I also a pertinent contemplation today. Reputation might also be a sort of emergent currency today in Bitcoin, in internet culture, in open-source software, in influencoor society and perhaps even in the V4V community. I guess it has always been one... I'll withhold a lot of mixed and incomplete thoughts and critiques on the idea for now, but it's interesting to imagine Marcus' challenges around it as Emperor of Rome, and see it emergent in myself and the communities I participate in. To his point, though, achieving it doesn't save anyone the fate of death and eventually being forgotten. It's probably nothing new, just a theme that jumped out to me.
Judgement
In the second half of the reading, I felt an emphasis on judgement, and how judging oneself and others is harmful, or violent even. Probably best described in 39,
Nothing that goes on in anyone else's mind can harm you. Nor can the shifts and changes in the world around you. -- Then where is harm to be found? In your capacity to see it. Stop doing that and everything will be fine. Let that part of you that makes that judgment keep quiet...
This stands out to me probably because I've experienced it, struggled with it, so I can relate easily. Judging others is usually a reaction to the reality of judging myself. And in any case, being judged by myself or by others often has a cutting, violent feeling, and easily creates a sort of vicious circle of inflicting harm. I sense a focus from Marcus on this topic for Book 4.
Participants
Thank you everyone who has been reading Meditations, and participated in the discussions.
Feel free let me know if you don't want to be on the tag list anymore :)
@siggy47 @cryotosensei @carlosfandango @Bitman @gd @sudocarlos @BitByBit21 @bc52210b20 @Atreus @byzantine @davidw @Roll @grayruby
Please signal interest in the comments if you'd like to be tagged.