Fingers Pointing Towards The Moon
March 23, 2009
“Wise men don’t judge: they seek to understand”
- Wei Wu Wei
On Controversy
February 19, 2009
“In controversy the instant we feel anger we have already ceased striving for truth, and have begun striving for ourselves.”
- Buddha
Begin With The End In Mind
February 19, 2009
“Two years from today, you will be no different except for the people you surround yourself with, and the books you read.”
- David Ramsey
Meditations
February 19, 2009
“Remember that your directing mind becomes invincible when it withdrawals into its own self-sufficiency, not doing anything it does not wish to do, even if its position is unreasonable. How more more, then, when the judgement it forms is reasoned and deliberate? That is why a mind free from passions is a fortress: people have no stronger place of retreat, and someone taking refuge here is then impregnable. Anyone who has not seen this is short of wisdom: anyone who has seen it and does not take refuge is short of fortune.”
- Marcus Aurelius, 8:48
Meditations
February 19, 2009
“Always remember these things: what the nature of the Whol is, what my own nature is, the relation of this nature to that, what kind of part it is of what kind of Whole; and that there is no one who can prevent you keeping all that you say and do in accordance with that nature, of which you are a part.”
“Just as the nature of the Whole is the source of all other faculties in the every rational creature, so it has given us this power too. In the same way that nature turns to its own purpose anything obstructive or contrary, placing it in the fated scheme of things and making it part of itself, so the rational being can also convert every obstacle into material for his own use, and use it to further whatever his original purpose was.”
“When you fret at any circumstance, you have forgotten a number of things. You have forgotten that all comes about in accordance with the nature of the Whole; that any wrong done lies with the other; further, that everything which happens was always so in the past, will be the same again in the future, and is happening now across the world; that a human being has close kinship with the whole human race – not a bond of blood or seed, but a community of the mind. And you have forgotten this too, that every man’s mind is god and has flowed from that source; that nothing is our own property, but even our child, our body, our very soul have come from that source; that all is as thinking makes it so; that each of us lives only in the present moment, and the present moment is all we lose.”
- Marcus Aurelius, 2:9, 8:35, 12:26
Meditations
February 19, 2009
“No soul’, says Plato, ‘likes to be robbed of truth’ – and the same holds of justice, moderation, kindness, and all such virtues. Essential that you should keep this constantly in your mind: this will make you more gentle to all.”
- Marcus Aurelius, 7:63
Meditations
February 19, 2009
“I have often wondered how it is that everyone loves himself more than anyone else, but rates his own judgement of himself below that of others. Anyway, if a god or some wise tutor appeared at his side and told him to entertain no internal thought or intention which he won’t immediately broadcast outside, he would not tolerate this regime for a single day. So it is that we have more respect for what our neighbours will think of us than we have for ourselves.”
- Marcus Aurelius, 12:4
Meditations
February 18, 2009
“The man without one and the same aim in life cannot himself stay one and the same throughout his life.’ The maxim is incomplete unless you add what sort of aim that should be. Judgements vary of the whole range of various things taken by the majority to be goods in one way or another, but only one category commands a universal judgement, and that is the good of the community. It follows the the aim we should set ourselves is a social aim, the benefit of our fellow citizens, A man directing all his own impulses to this end will be consistent in all his actions, and therefore the same man throughout.”
- Marcus Aurelius 11:21
Meditations
February 18, 2009
“Revere the ultimate power in the universe: this is what makes use of all things and directs all things. But similarly revere the ultimate power in yourself: this is akin to that other power. In you too this is what makes use of all else, and your life is governed by it”
“He who sees the present has seen all things, both all that has come to pass from everlasting and all that will be for eternity: all things are related and the same.
You should meditate often on the connection of all things in the universe and their relationship to each other. In a way all things are interwoven and therefore have a family feeling for each other: one thing follows another in due order though the tension of movement, the common spirit inspiring them, and and unity of all being.”
“All things are meshed together, and a sacred bond unites them. Hardly a single thing is alien to the rest: ordered together in their places they together make up the one order of the universe. there is one universe out of all things, one god pervades all things, one substance, one law, one common reason in all intelligent beings, and one truth – if indeed there is also one perfection of all cognate beings sharing in the same reason.”
- Marcus Aurelius 5:21, 6:37-38, 7:9
Meditations
February 18, 2009
“If someone can prove me wrong and show me my mistake in any thought or action, I shall gladly change. I seek the truth, which never harmed anyone: the harm is to persist in one’s own self-deception and ignorance”
“Remember that to change course or accept correction leaves you just as free as you were. The action is your own, driven by your own impulse and judgement, indeed your own intelligence”
“To continue the same man as you have been up to now, to be torn apart and defiled in this life you live, is just senseless self-preservation like that of half-eaten gladiators who, mauled all over and covered in blood by the wild beasts, still plead to be kept alive for the next day, when in the same state they will meet again those same claws and teeth.”
“Whenever you take offense at the wrong done by another, consider what similar wrong you are committing – it could be setting value on money, or pleasure, or reputation, and so on through the categories. This reflection will quickly damp your anger, aided by the further thought that the man is acting under compulsion – what else can he do? Or, if you can, remove the cause of his compulsion.”
- Marcus Aurelius 6:21, 8:16, 10:8:2, 10:30
