Meditations

“To wonder what so-and-so is doing and why, or what he is saying, or thinking, or scheming – in a word, anything that distracts you from fidelity to the Ruler within you – means a loss of opportunity for some other task. See then that the flow of your thoughts is kept free from idle or random fancies, particularly those of an inquisitive or uncharitable nature. A man should habituate himself to such a way of thinking that if suddenly asked, ‘What is in your mind at this minute?’ he could respond frankly and without hesitation; thus proving that all his thoughts were simple and kindly, as becomes a social being with no taste for the pleasures of sensual imaginings, jealousies, envies, suspicions, or any other sentiments that he would blush to acknowledge in himself. Such a man, determined here and now to aspire to the heights, is indeed a priest and minister of the gods; for he is making full use of that indwelling power which can keep a man unsullied by pleasures, proof against pain, untouched by insult, and impervious to evil. He is a competitor in the greatest of all contests, the struggle against passion’s mastery; he is imbued through and through with uprightness, welcoming whole-heartedly whatever falls to his lot and rarely asking himself what others may be saying or doing or thinking except when the public interest requires it. He confines his operations to his own concerns, having his attention fixed on his own particular thread of the universal web; seeing to it that his actions are honourable, and convinced that what befalls him must be for the best – for his own directing fate is itself under a higher direction. He does not forget the brotherhood of all rational beings, nor that a concern for everyman is proper to humanity; and he knows that it is not the world’s opinions he should follow, but only those of men whose lives confessedly accord with Nature. As for others whose lives are not so ordered, he reminds himself constantly of the characters they exhibit daily and nightly at home and abroad, and of the sort of society they frequent; and the approval of such men, who do not even stand well in their own eyes, has no value for him.”

Meditations

“Again, it is a sin to pursue pleasure as a good and to avoid pain as an evil. It is bound to result in complaints that Nature is unfair in her rewarding of vice and virtue; since it is the bad who are so often in enjoyment of pleasures and the means to obtain them, while pains and events that occasion pains descend upon the heads of the good. Besides, if a man is afraid of pain, he is afraid of something happening which will be part of the appointed order of things, and this is itself a sin; if he is bent on the pursuit of pleasure, he will not stop at acts of injustice, which again is manifestly sinful. No; when Nature herself makes no distinction – and if she did, she would not have brought pains and pleasures into existence side by side – it behooves those who would follow in her footsteps to be like-minded and exhibit the same indifference. He therefore who does not view with equal unconcern pain or pleasure, death or life, fame or dishonour – all of them employed by Nature without any partiality – clearly commits a sin.”

Meditations

“Thus, with every man, imagine his counterpart; and then go on to the reflection, ‘Where are they all now?’ Nowhere – or anywhere. In this way , you will grow accustomed to looking on all that is mortal as vapour and nothingness; and the more so, if you will also remember that things once changed are for ever past recall. Then why struggle and strain, instead of being content to live out your little span in seemly fashion? Think what materials and possibilities for good you are rejecting; since what are all your tribulations but exercises for the training of your reason, once it has learnt to see the truths of life in a proper philosophic light? Be patient, then, until you have made them familiar and natural to yourself, in the same way as a strong stomach can assimilate every kind of diet, or a bright fire turn anything that is cast upon it into heat and flame.”

Meditations

“Whatever befalls, Nature has either prepared you to face it or she has not.  If something untoward happens which is within your powers of endurance, do not resent it, but bear it as she has enabled you to do.  Should it exceed those powers, still do not give way to resentment; for its victory over you will put an end to its own existence.  Remember, however, that in fact Nature has given you the ability to bear anything which your own judgement succeeds in declaring bearable and endurable by regarding it as a point of self-interest and duty to do so.”

The Art of Loving

“To stick to one’s judgment about a person even if public opinion or some unforeseen facts seem to invalidate it, to stick to one’s convictions even though they are unpopular – all this requires faith and courage.  To take the difficulties, setbacks and sorrows of life as a challenge which to overcome makes us stronger, rather than as unjust punishment which should not happen to us, requires faith and courage.”

The Bhagavad Gita

“For death is sure of that which is born, and of that which is dead, birth is certain.  Why do you grieve over the inevitable?  All beings are unmanifest in the beginning, manifest in the middle, and again unmanifest at the end.  Is this a cause for grief?” 

The Bhagavad Gita

“Heat, cold, pain, pleasure – these spring from sensual contact, Arjuna.  They begin, and they end.  They exist for the time being.  Endure them.  The man who these cannot distract, the man who is steady in pain and pleasure, is the man who achieves serenity.” 

Meditations

“Enough of this miserable way of life, these everlasting grumbles, these monkey antics!  Why must you agitate yourself so?  Nothing unprecedented is happening; so what is it that disturbs you?  The form of it?  Take a good look at it.  The matter of it?  Look well at that, too.  Beyond form and matter, there is nothing more.  Even at this late hour, set yourself to become a simpler and better man in the sight of the gods.  For the mastering of that lesson, three years are as good as a hundred.”

Meditations

“Everything – a horse, a vine – is created for some duty.  This is nothing to wonder at: even the sun-god himself will tell you, ‘There is a work that I am here to do,’ and so will all the other sky-dwellers.  For what task, then, were you yourself created?  For pleasure?  Can such a thought be tolerated?”

Meditations

“Never let the future disturb you.  You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.”