Jules: Happy New Year friends of the journey of life and unrelenting Seekers. I thought I would begin the new year with some wisdom from the West. Actually it does not really matter where wisdom comes from for so long as we can learn and be wiser from the teachings. It is from Marcus Aurelius and his book “The Meditations”:
- If you are pained by any external thing, it is not this that disturbs you, but your own judgment about it. And it is in your power to wipe out this judgment now.
- Be like the jutting rock against which waves are constantly crashing, and all around it the frothing foam then settles back down. Say not “Oh, I am so unfortunate that this has happened to me.” But rather “How fortunate I am that, even though this has happened to me, I continue uninjured, neither terrified by the present nor in fear of the future.”
- Never consider anything to be beneficial to you which could ever compel you to violate your faith in yourself, to abandon your modesty, to hate anybody, to be overly suspicious, cursing, disingenuous, or to lust after anything which must be hidden behind walls or veils.
- Wisdom and right action are the same thing.
- Whenever you notice someone else going astray, immediately turn and examine how you yourself have gone astray, for example, esteeming money, pleasure, reputation, or something else, as if it were the highest good. Examine yourself in this way and you will quickly forget your anger.
- People seek retreats for themselves in the country, by the sea, and near the mountains, and you too are especially prone to desire such things. But this is a sign of ignorance, since you have the power to retire within yourself whenever you wish. For nowhere can a person retire more full of peace and free from care than into his own soul.
- Kindness is unconquerable, so long as it is without flattery or hypocrisy. For what can the most insolent man do to you if you continue to be kind to him?
- The noblest way of taking revenge on others is by refusing to become like them.
- If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is wrong, I will happily change, for I seek the truth, by which no one ever was truly harmed.
- Someone else may ask: “How may I possess that?” But you should ask: “How may I not covet that?” Someone else asks: “How can I be rid of him?” But you: “How can I not wish to be rid of him?” Another: “How may I not lose my little child?” But you: “How may I not dread the loss of my child?” Turn your prayers around entirely, and see what happens.
Jules: Oh, Marcus Aurelius was an Emperor of Rome and died in 180AD. It goes to show that wisdom is timeless. Hope you find this wisdom to begin the new year useful. I will end by sincerely wishing for you:
“That your heart be peaceful and free
That your mind be clear and calm
That your body be strong and healthy
That you be well and happy
That you gain great wisdom in your life journey”
