Two Stoics - Quareness Series 124th "Lecture".

For a period of about sixteen years between 161-180 AD the Roman Empire was ravaged by the Antonine plague (probably smallpox) which is said to have killed up to five million people. The emporer at the time was Marcus Aurelius, one of the more enlightened of the breed, who wrote down what came to be known as his Meditations...a series of fragments, aphorisms, arguments and injunctions in what has been described as "a gospel for those who do not believe in the supernatural".  

Now this man Marcus had early on in life been converted to the philosophy known as Stoicism which in addition to purporting to explain the world and human nature, also sought from its adherents a transformed attitude to life. It urged many practical exercises to reshape for the better how an individual responds to adversity and prosperity, insults, illness, old age and mortality. 

And maybe these Meditations have something useful to say to us in our own time of global pandemic?

Marcus was much influenced by the thinking of Epictetus (an emancipated slave who went on to become one of Rome's leading Stoic philosophers) including that some things depend upon us and others do not, and that we can only directly control what we ourselves choose, do, desire, fear and think. All else depends on others and on 

luck...here today and gone tomorrow, and usually unfairly distributed...and if we pin our hopes on achieving and acquiring the likes of fame, promotions, property, riches, etc. our happiness and peace of mind become highly uncertain prospects.

For the Stoics virtue consists in knowing how best to respond to what befalls us, rather than fretting about what we can't control. All those "goodies" that markets trade and our advertisements hawk are "indifferent" and what really counts in shaping how happy or otherwise we'll be is how we handle the pleasures and difficulties we face.

Stoicism sorta advocates a kind of "virtual lockdown" where little is devastating even if regrettable i.e. it's wiser to weigh up external things at their relative value.  

“Wherever it is possible to live, it is possible to live well” - said Marcus. Each of us can strive to exercise courage in facing the pandemic through generosity in helping others and resilience before the challenges it presents.  

“Things do not touch the soul, our perturbations come only from the opinion which is within” - said Marcus. And our opinions can be reformed for they depend upon us.

The good news here is that although pandemics, bullies and mischances can rob us of our reputations, money, jobs and even our physical health, they cannot make us change our minds. They cannot make us commit evil actions or compel us to think hateful or resentful things about our fellows. Marcus advised us to "Pronounce no 

more to yourself, beyond what the appearances directly declare. It is said to you that someone has spoken ill of you. This alone is told you, and not that you are hurt by it. If what your insulter has said is true, then change. If what they have said is false, it does not merit your being upset by it. If they have betrayed your trust, the shame 

and the fault lies with them". He counselled that "the best revenge is not to become like the wrongdoer".

Worries tend to carry our minds away into the future and if we don't take care in our thinking, we can quickly find ourselves imagining the worst. What always depends on us is what we think and do. Marcus again reminds us - "Do not disturb yourself by thinking of your whole life. Don’t let your thoughts all at once embrace all the various troubles which may befall you, but on every occasion ask yourself:..what is there in this which is intolerable and past bearing? For you will be ashamed to confess. Next, remember that neither the future nor the past pains you, but only the present".

Here we may observe the secret to the serene inner life of the wise person. Contentment resides in accomplishing present action with justice and loving what fate has allotted to us here and now. Of course we each have a small range of things we can do and influence at any time (e.g. increase our understanding, start on new initiatives, etc.) but Marcus asks us also to recognise that however great and urgent the causes we take up, any positive change will always consist of a lot of small decisions taken in present moments. And each of these decisions is more likely to be efficacious if we can calmly and clearly assess what is possible, rather than giving way to anxiety, fear, hatred or despair.

Hopefully we can glimpse the wisdom in this long ago man's writings as to why it is better for us all to serenely bear misfortunes and forbear the flaws of others through remembering that we are made for cooperation and not to fear death but to embrace life in full awareness of our own mortality, rather than to act and think in the heat of 

the moment. There are a lot of preachers, teachers and censors out there who moralise to others with bitterness, complacency, cynicism and irony, but it's extremely rare to come across someone training himself to live and think like a true human being...living in complete consciousness and lucidity, giving each of our instants its fullest intensity and giving meaning to our entire lives. 

As someone else observed..."Marcus is talking to himself, but we get the impression that he is talking to each one of us".

Sean.

Dean of Quareness.

August, 2020.

One particular Stoic exercise explicitly prescribed by Epictetus involved writing down key concepts as a means to later recall them and to deeply internalise them as philosophical aids to call upon when needed.