The Wisdom of Hypatia: Ancient Spiritual Practices for a More Meaningful Life (21 page)

rise in your imagination above the Earth, so that all the ordinary affairs of life, which usually seem so important to us, shrink to insignificance. Humans, scurrying about in their busyness, in their intrigues and treacheries, in their loves and desires, seem like so many ants swarming in the dirt. National borders too, which otherwise seem so

important, vanish; all you can see are oceans and land masses. But just as the View

from Above shrinks the human distances to insignificance, it also shrinks human lives to insignificance. And so we see humans being born, rushing about in their brief lives, and dying, to be replaced by yet more humans. Empires rise and fall—even the Roman

Empire—and fame and fortune disappear into the void of endless time.”

“What’s the purpose of such imaginary visions?” asks Marcus.

“The View from Above has several goals. The first is the Discipline of Desire, for it helps us to appreciate the fundamental valuelessness of most of what we ordinarily

consider valuable, for on the global scale and over the long term most of it makes no difference. The Roman Empire will fade. No one will care that the revolt of the Brig-antes was put down.”

Marcus is shocked. “Surely the heroism of Lollius Urbicus will live on!”

“He too will be forgotten. Use this exercise to refocus your attention from passing

events to the core Stoic values: the only good is moral good, and the only evil, moral evil. All the rest is just means to this end.”

“But this view seems so depressing,” Marcus replies. “It cries ‘Everything is vanity!’

like some dismal philosophers.”

“On the contrary, my son—rightly viewed—this vision is liberating. First, by reveal-

ing the unimportance of so many issues and by focusing on the few that are import-

ant, it frees us to concentrate our effort on the few things that really matter, and to let the rest go. Second, it reveals the pageant of the Earth’s history, and indeed of cosmic history, and how we are a part of it. Though each of us is a small part, the universe is the totality of such small parts. Finally, through this exercise you experience the exhil-aration of a mind that can expand outward to encompass first the Earth and then the

universe.”

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View from Above:
Sit comfortably and close your eyes. Begin by imagining yourself exactly where you are. Then imagine yourself rising in the air, on your own or

in a vehicle, whatever seems most vivid and natural to you. As you rise vertical-

ly into the air, the buildings, the streets, and eventually the city shrink smaller

and smaller. The people, cars, and so forth shrink, just as they do when you

take off from an airport. Soon the city is lost in the topography of the land.

You can barely perceive myriads of dots moving around in chaotic patterns:

humans, going about their business, getting and spending, loving and fighting,

but the details are too remote now to see. Next, by a shift in your conscious-

ness, or by engaging a time machine in your vehicle, you see time on Earth

begin to accelerate. The dots move faster and faster. Soon human lives go by in

the blink of an eye. Buildings are erected and crumble in moments. Countries

are founded, flourish, and decline to extinction while you watch. Populations

grow and shrink, and shift around the globe, their national borders visible only

to them. People become rich and famous, but are soon forgotten. Soon the

languages in which they were praised are forgotten. Eventually the sun ex-

pands into a red giant, and the Earth and everything on it are vaporized. The

sun shrinks back, leaving empty space, but myriads of other stars shine in the

cosmos. Now return to ordinary time and space. Meditate on your experiences

for a while, and then reflect on them in your journal.

Providence or Chaos?

Marcus often contrasts the providential world of the Stoics with the Epicurean world, which he characterizes as chaotic and ruled by chance. He reminds himself of the difference by the dichotomy:

Either Providence or atoms.130

Marcus obviously prefers the Stoic view, but his point seems to be that even if the

Epicureans are correct, and the world is ruled by chance, that does not imply that human beings should not use reason.

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If God, all is well,

and if random, don’t you be random.131

For even if Stoic natural science is false (and certainly some of it is, from the perspective of contemporary science), the philosophers of the Porch argued that people should still live in accord with human nature, of which reason is the characteristic property. This implies that we should be indifferent to indifferent things, that the only authentic good and evil is moral good and evil, and that this is the only realm of true human freedom.

Furthermore, reason and experience teach us that the world is not completely random; there is order in it, and in this sense it is governed by Universal Reason (Logos). Therefore, details aside, there is obviously some truth in the Stoic worldview.

Such terms, however, as Providence, Destiny, Reason, and God suggest more than sim-

ple orderliness; they suggest an orientation toward the future, some purpose, some care for what happens. If you are a believer in God or Goddess, or in a whole pantheon of gods and goddesses, then you are probably comfortable with the notion of a purposeful Providence. On the other hand, you may see the universe as more chaotic, subject to chance and accident, with little evidence of divine purpose. Furthermore, as you know, randomness plays an important role in contemporary science, from the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle to the random mutation and genetic recombination that fuels evolution. Indeed, randomness, and in particular the random motion that we call heat, is the principal driver of the creation of order in the physical universe.132

On one hand, we have a dilemma. Reason or randomness? Providence or chance? In

any particular case it is difficult to know, which is why Marcus’ recommendation is valuable: “don’t you be random.” In other words, no matter what happens, for whatever divine purpose or lack of purpose, you are free to respond in accord with
your
moral purpose.

This brings us to Rusticus’ next lesson.

Consent to Destiny

Rusticus is sitting on a garden bench besides Marcus, who is speaking.

“I’ve been practicing the View from Above. It has shown me that in the infinite

span of history the events of an individual life—even being declared Caesar—have

little ultimate significance. But it is difficult to be indifferent to the calamities that Fate brings us.”

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“By being indifferent to indifferent things,” Rusticus replies, “the Discipline of Desire teaches us to accept what Nature or Destiny brings. Indeed, you should welcome

what Destiny brings, because this is the Destiny tailored especially for you. Write this down in your tablet:

The characteristic of the good person

is to delight in and welcome what happens

and is spun for him by Destiny;

and not to defile the daimon enthroned in his breast,

or disturb it by a crowd of impressions,

but to preserve it in serenity,

following it obediently as a god,

neither saying anything contrary to truth,

nor doing anything contrary to justice.133

“The first part is the Discipline of Desire; the last two lines refer to the Discipline of Assent and the Discipline of Impulse: the good person says nothing false and does nothing unjust.”

“I understand,” Marcus says, “that we should be indifferent to difficulties and un-

pleasant circumstances, but it seems unnatural to welcome these things.”

“Think of this, my son. Many people go to the temples of the healing god Asclepius

in order to be cured of physical and mental ailments. What happens there?”134

“Typically,” Marcus replies, “after prayer, fasting, and other practices, they have a healing dream in which the god prescribes a cure, if he does not heal them outright.

Thousands of dedicatory plaques testify to the success of the god’s ministrations.”

“Yes,” says Rusticus, “and just as doctors do, the god may prescribe unpleasant

cures or difficult practices for the patient, as appropriate to their condition, and the patient accepts them in order to be cured. So also, Providence prescribes circumstances to each of us, appropriate to our personal destiny, and we should consent to them, difficult or unpleasant though they may seem to everyday, philosophically uninformed

opinion. If all this seems difficult, it’s helpful to remember Seneca’s remark:

Life is not made for delicate souls.135

“Like the members of your own body, we are all members of the Universal Organ-

ism, Nature, and so we should welcome the part we are destined to play. What would

106 the discipline of desire

you think of your foot if it complained about getting muddy, or your teeth if they

didn’t want to grind against each other?”

“I would think,” Markus replies, “that they do not know their own nature or their

purpose as part of the whole.”

“Likewise you have a destined place in the cosmos. Think of masons building a pyr-

amid. They put squared stones into places perfectly fitting them, and thereby assem-

ble a harmonious structure. So also the Architect of the universe shapes our individual lives and arranges them in circumstances fitting to them.

For there is one harmony in all things.

And as the cosmos is made up out of all bodies to be the body it is,

so out of all causes Destiny is made up to be the cause it is.136

“Like the ancient Orphics and Platonists, we Stoics talk of the Fates, three crone

goddesses who spin, measure, and cut the thread of each person’s life. They weave the fabric of Destiny, the Tapestry of Fate. Remind yourself:

Whatever may happen to you,

it was prepared for you from all eternity;

and the plaiting of causes

was from eternity weaving into one fabric

your existence and the coincidence of this event.137

“Everything is woven together in mutual causality. Therefore, when something

bad happens, or even something especially good, you should say to yourself:

This comes from God.

This is from the decree and spinning of the thread of Destiny

and some such coincidence and chance.138

“Hence, you can see that true piety corresponds to the Discipline of Desire, for it

leads us to consent to the divine will or Logos. Through the interweaving of Destiny everything is implicated in everything, in mutual interdependence, sacred interconnection, and sympathy, and the cosmos is a single living organism with consciousness and will.”