“The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.” - Marcus Aurelius The retaliatory, quid pro quo, "eye for an eye" mindset is oddly and persistently common, despite its obvious shortcomings. It is the preferred approach of those who are ensnared in the toils of judgment. In it is the promise of …
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Reputation
Reputation is interesting as it doesn't always align with character. Your character may or may not be perceived accurately by others, therefore it is entirely possible that what others think of you may not be consistent with who you are or how you've been acting. History shows us that many of our revered historical figures …
Relatedness
"Keep reminding yourself of the way things are connected, of their relatedness. All things are implicated in one another and in sympathy with each other. This event is the consequence of some other one. Things push and pull on each other, and breathe together, and are one." - Marcus Aurelius Every time you come to …
Wisdom is Justice
"On the verge of dying and still weighed down, still turbulent, still convinced external things can harm you, still rude to other people, still not acknowledging the truth: that wisdom is justice." - Marcus Aurelius To those who hold a grudge against another or who judge any externality for that matter, know this: wisdom is justice. …
The Value of Attentiveness
"The age of Vespasian [9AD-79AD], for example. People doing exactly the same things: marrying, raising children, getting sick, dying, waging war, throwing parties, doing business, farming, flattering, boasting, distrusting, plotting, hoping others will die, complaining about their own lives, falling in love, putting way money, seeking high office and power. And that life they led …
Part of a Whole
"Have you ever seen a severed hand or foot, or a decapitated head, just lying somewhere far away from the body it belonged to...? That's what we do to ourselves - or try to - when we rebel against what happens to us, when we segregate ourselves. Or when we do something selfish. You have …
External Things
"External things are not the problem. It's your assessment of them. Which you can erase right now. If the problem is something in your own character, who's stopping you from setting your mind straight? And if it's that you're not doing something you think you should be, why not just do it? - But there …
Illuminating Thoughts
"We speak of the sun's light as "pouring down on us," as "pouring over us" in all directions. Yet it's never poured out. Because it doesn't really pour; it extends. Its beams ("aktai") get their name from their extension ("ekteinesthei"). To see the nature of a sunbeam, look at light as it falls through a …
A Perpetual Spring
"No carelessness in your actions. No confusion in your words. No imprecision in your thoughts. No retreating into your own soul, or trying to escape it. No overactivity. They kill you, cut you with knives, shower you with curses. And that somehow cuts your mind off from clearness, and sanity, an self-control, and justice? A …
To Live a Good Life
"To live a good life: We have the potential for it. If we can learn to be indifferent to what makes no difference. This is how we learn: by looking at each thing, both the parts and the whole. Keeping in mind that none of them can dictate how we perceive it. They don't impose …
Gregory Hake 