Marcus Aurelius quote

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What do you all think of this advice from philosopher-king Marcus Aurelius in his ‘Meditations’?

The mind without passions is a fortress. No place is more secure. Once we take refuge there we are safe forever. Not to see this is ignorance. To see it and not seek safety means misery.
 
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If that’s the case, then I’m basically in agreement with him.
 
I love Marcus Aurelius & his book.

Not everything in stoicism aligns with Christianity, but yeah, it’s a good quote.

The Catholic equivalent would (more accurately) say “the mind which controls its passion…”
 
TK421 said:
I love Marcus Aurelius & his book.

Not everything in stoicism aligns with Christianity, but yeah, it’s a good quote.

The Catholic equivalent would (more accurately) say “the mind which controls its passion…”
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But a life without emotions (or tamped-down ones) would be a little drab wouldn’t it? Wasn’t that the point of the portrayal of Vulcans on ‘Star Trek’?
 
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semper_catholicus said:
If that’s the case, then I’m basically in agreement with him.
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The Stoics believed that emotions were a trap that led to suffering and unhappiness. To be truly free one had to distinguish between things external to yourself that were causing you pain or anxiety and the feelings or associations or perceptions of those things in your mind, which you had some control over. By altering how you feel about an external that is ostensibly troubling you, you can neutralize its threat to you.
 
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tomarin said:
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TK421:
I love Marcus Aurelius & his book.

Not everything in stoicism aligns with Christianity, but yeah, it’s a good quote.

The Catholic equivalent would (more accurately) say “the mind which controls its passion…”
Click to expand...
But a life without emotions (or tamped-down ones) would be a little drab wouldn’t it? Wasn’t that the point of the portrayal of Vulcans on ‘Star Trek’?
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It also squashes your ability to be compassionate for the meek and oppressed, which is why Christianity emphasizes self-control of passions instead of removing them.

Western Stoicism and Buddhism are very similar in respect to seeing "desires" as a bad thing.

The image sometimes used by theologians towards passions has been of a horse and a rider. The rider is meant to control the horse rather than the horse controlling the rider.
 
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A calm serene mind is a fortress 🕍 The one who realizes this and tries to attain it, enters the fortress.👍 The one who realizes this but gives in to passions, cannot enter it.👎 O and what misery the passions will cause him!😥
 
@TK421 Yes, although to the degree that Marcus Aurelius can be taken as a spokesperson for stoicism, he does often promote living a life in service to others.
 
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I think the last thing I want to be is in my mind, I’m so much happier out of it.
 
Faith is a fortress in my opinion but mind is nebulous and without bounds and since it is permanently connected to God it cannot be in isolation.

As for passions, they are a sign of life I think, I wouldn’t want to extinguish them just control them enough so that I can still enjoy spontaneity. Passions naturally arise from the body our souls inhabit, and we inhabit them for a reason, but they serve a greater purpose and help give us our spark. God is a God of the living.
 
mary724 said:
A calm serene mind is a fortress 🕍 The one who realizes this and tries to attain it, enters the fortress.👍 The one who realizes this but gives in to passions, cannot enter it.👎 O and what misery the passions will cause him!😥
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Emoji theater!

All joking aside, I agree that somebody can be passionate about the wrong things, or silly, unimportant things and cause themselves a great deal of unnecessary suffering 🙂
 
0Scarlett_nidiyilii said:
Emoji theater!

All joking aside, I agree that somebody can be passionate about the wrong things, or silly, unimportant things and cause themselves a great deal of unnecessary suffering 🙂
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That sounds like life in a nutshell.
 
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tomarin said:
What do you all think of this advice from philosopher-king Marcus Aurelius in his ‘Meditations’?

The mind without passions is a fortress. No place is more secure. Once we take refuge there we are safe forever. Not to see this is ignorance. To see it and not seek safety means misery.
Click to expand...
Probably true enough. Self-mastery, control of passions/ concupiscence is a major order of the day for humans, as that’s the “tinder for sin” as they say.
 
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I mean, there really are things to cry about—the loss of a loved one, for instance.

But then there are the fantasies we make up in our head and then work ourselves into a snit over (“I waved at my neighbor today and she waved back but she didn’t smile widely enough so she’s probably mad at me and maybe she hates me, just like everybody hates me, why does everybody dislike me so much, my life totally sucks!”)
 
0Scarlett_nidiyilii said:
I mean, there really are things to cry about—the loss of a loved one, for instance.

But then there are the fantasies we make up in our head and then work ourselves into a snit over (“I waved at my neighbor today and she waved back but she didn’t smile widely enough so she’s probably mad at me and maybe she hates me, just like everybody hates me, why does everybody dislike me so much, my life totally sucks!”)
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A big theme in Meditations is that we should conquer death by not being afraid of it, by accepting it as natural and ‘no big deal,’ etc. However Marcus Aurelius usually seems to be talking about one’s own death - it’s not clear to me if it would be appropriate to say such things to a grieving person, for example.
 
tomarin said:
it’s not clear to me if it would be appropriate to say such things to a grieving person,
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What you say to a grieving person is very simple : I’m so sorry.

What you do for a grieving person is to regularly reach out to them so their not alone, take them out for coffee, bring them meals, offer to watch their children and pets if they need to run errands, and be a shoulder to cry on (or not judge just because they don’t cry in front of you)
 
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