Stoic Maxims As Medicine For the Mind
“Not to think of philosophy as your instructor, but as the sponge and egg white that relieve ophthalmia — as a soothing ointment, a warm lotion”(Book 5, 9)
At first glance, the meaning of this quote taken from Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations is not obvious. What does it mean for philosophy to be the “sponge” and “egg white” for eye inflammation? How can it be an “ointment” or “lotion”? Surely, we cannot apply philosophy to reduce the pain of our eyes or wounds. So what does he mean exactly? My thinking tells me that Aurelius wants to correct a common misconception surrounding philosophy. Indeed, philosophy can often be perceived as a strange, unorthodox subject out of touch with today’s materialistic and status-driven world. So when someone attempts to teach its tenets, it may seem dry or uninteresting. But when we think of it as the medicine that relieves our cold or the trusty handbook we need in the wilderness, it becomes much more valuable. Through this metaphor, Aurelius wants to show that his Stoic philosophy can offer help to our diseased and deficient selves. By helping us see authentically, we can recognize the true worth of things. By accepting external events that occur to us as natural, we can embrace life to the fullest. And by reminding ourselves of both the shortness and insignificance of life, we identify the things that truly matter to us. Ultimately, the Stoic way of life is a life worth living because it allows us to live a more comfortable and peaceful life by being secure in our own existence.
The first key component of the Stoic philosophical way of life is to see authentically. By stripping things of their perceived values, Aurelius wants us to see things for what they are and not be tricked or seduced. He first investigates the nature of everyday things. A deliciously cooked fish or bird or pig is just “dead meat”, a fine vintage is just “grape juice”, a purple robe, a status of royalty, is just “sheep wool dyed with shellfish blood”, and sex is just “rubbing” motion and “a brief seizure and a little cloudy liquid”(Book 6, 13). By stripping away the significance of these everyday things, Aurelius reveals that the things we value in our lives are often not what they seem. You may love great wine, appreciate wine culture, and would be willing to pay a lot for a fine vintage, but it is just grape juice you are lusting after. Similarly, love-making can be considered as a highly intimate and cherished activity, but it is merely a biological process. On life and death, Aurelius similarly examines their perceived worth. While we traditionally think of death as a remorseful incident, he thinks that death is “the end of sense-perception, of being controlled by our emotions, of mental activity, of enslavement to our bodies”(Book 6, 28). Aurelius provides such a stark definition of death that it is barely recognizable. The things that we enjoy, like seeing and thinking, are chores to Aurelius, and we are slaves to our bodies. Similarly, his outlook on living is that it is “nothing to get excited about” and that living three days is no different than living three generations(Book 4, 50). Again, Aurelius is rejecting the traditional outlook that life is precious and special. Instead, it’s something dreadful, pointless, and extended. Death is liberating in comparison. In the end, Aurelius’ bleak definitions of everyday things and life and death provoke his readers to re-evaluate the meanings of important things to them so as to free them from disillusionment and trickery.
Thinking clearly is equally as important as seeing clearly. The next tenet of Stoicism instructs us to use our minds to detach ourselves from external events and recognize our independence. He gives us a few guidelines for managing external events. The first one says that if you “choose not to be harmed…you won’t feel harmed”(Book 4, 7). Next, he writes that “tranquility…comes when you stop caring what they say. Or think, or do”(Book 4, 18). While these instructions may seem elementary, we are often ignorant of them. For instance, if you receive a bad grade on a test, you will usually feel sad. But Aurelius tells you that you can choose not to feel that way. There is no law that requires you to be sad when you get a bad mark. You can simply shift your perspective to look at the problem in a different way. The same applies to someone’s insult or action towards you. In this manner, we can achieve tranquility by detaching from external things and comments. More importantly, Aurelius wants us to recognize that we are powerless in the face of nature. Instead of trying to be nature’s master, we should accept its rule. He writes in the next book that “existence flows past us like a river: the “what” is in constant flux, the “why” has a thousand variations. Nothing is stable, not even what’s right here. The infinity of past and future gapes before us — a chasm whose depths we cannot see” (Book 5, 23). Observing rivers and chasms, Aurelius tells us that nature’s secrets are directly observable. While we may be accustomed to thinking that our surroundings are static, it is in reality constantly changing like the stream of a river. The world does not stop for us nor does it particularly care about us. We must accept its changes and move on. Similarly, time will forever push forward toward infinity, leaving us in the dark about its nature. Traveling through nature’s dark chasm, falling ever deeper into time and space, we should make peace with what we have, what is gone, and what is to come.
Lastly, by reminding us of the shortness of life and our insignificance, Aurelius compels us to treasure the things we value and do the things we love because there is so little time to waste. The brevity of life inspired Aurelius to write that “before long you’ll be no one, and nowhere…Everything’s destiny is to change, to be transformed, to perish”(Book 12, 21). The image of a boat sinking into the ocean can be employed to visualize Aurelius’ sentiment. If life is like a boat, carrying all of the things important and dear to you, what would you save before it sinks? If you could only save one thing, what would that be? Aurelius compels us to think about what is important to us and treasure it for as long as our fleeting lives allow. What is equally important is realizing the truth that our lives are negligible in the grand scheme of the universe. He calls the design of the world like a flood and the “foolishness of…little men busy with affairs of state, with philosophy — or whatever think of as philosophy” as “nothing but phlegm and mucus”(Book 9, 29). Furthermore, he asks us to consider the thousands of lives that have come before us and the thousands that will come after; how many people will forget your name and how many more who do not know. He concludes that “to be remembered is worthless. Like fame. Like everything”(Book 9, 30). It is possible that Aurelius’ words may stir up nihilistic thoughts. If everything we do is “phlegm” and will be quickly forgotten, why should we do anything at all? While it may seem like Aurelius is spreading nihilism, this is not the case. His message is not that everything we do is futile. Rather, he is encouraging us to use anonymity to our advantage by doing the things we truly love. We should not pursue what society dictates as “honorable” or “desirable”, like politics or philosophy, or whatever will bring us fame. Aurelius thinks that kind of life is foolish and wasteful. Instead, we should pursue our hobbies, dreams, and goals shamelessly, discarding the opinions of others. The grandness of time and the universe should not frighten us but empower us to hurry to our true occupations and callings. That is what Aurelius would want us to do.
In order to put Aurelius’ principles into practice, we must first transform our way of seeing the world and then pay attention to the mind at all times. In this way, we can have absolute control of the mind so as to minimize worries and maximize inner peace with our existence. As Pierre Hadot writes in his Philosophy as Way of Life, mankind’s principal cause of suffering is “because they are dominated by worries”(PWL, 83). You may think of everyday worries of completing tasks and errands and long-term worries of career paths and mating. At any time in our lives, there is some constant desire hanging over our heads that we must acquire or else we will fail. The task of philosophy, then, is to minimize our wants and calm our passions. In the first step, we must shift our mode of seeing from a human vision to a natural vision. Instead of thinking of things as existing only in our immediate surroundings, we need to replace them with the perspective of universal nature. That is, looking at things from the scope of the universe. To do this, Hadot outlines that we must enter the Stoic spiritual attitude of “Attention (prosoche)”. This state of mind entails “a continuous vigilance and presence of mind”, so much so that the meditator is always aware of his actions and wills them fully. This “concentration on the present moment,” according to Hadot, accedes from the present moment to cosmic consciousness, then to the viewpoint of the universal law of the cosmos (PWL, 84). While the terms that Hadot employs may seem abstract, he is simply describing the stages that we go through as we concentrate our attention on the mind, first from committing our actions wholeheartedly at each moment, to then viewing it from the larger, cosmic perspective so as to realize its significance (or insignificance against the boundless universe). In this way, we can be ready to face life’s difficulties with Stoic maxims at hand.
We are, at the core, imperfect beings with deficiencies and weaknesses. When life becomes tough, we are bound to fall down and get hurt. Just as medicine is for the body, philosophy is for the mind. By applying Stoic principles to life’s problems, like an ointment or lotion, we heal our souls. For instance, when faced with the loss of a significant other, we can utilize our minds to choose not to feel excruciating sorrow. Instead, we may choose to feel joy at the thought of them, reminded of their strength and character, and how lucky we were to have met them. When faced with the societal pressure to fit in or go down a particular career path, we may recall Aurelius’ words that life is exceptionally short. If we do not pursue our true passions and goals, it will be foolishly wasted. And when we fall into the seduction of material goods, we can recognize their true value and reject them with conviction. Ultimately, Aurelius’ Stoic principles expose our minds to the grandeur of nature and the universe, offering a perspective that is both humbling and empowering. Let us start applying some Stoic lotion to our lives.
