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Daily Advice 11.21.20
Nov. 21st, 2020 01:10 pmMore from Marcus Aurelius:
Keep focused on what you are doing; don't give into distraction. I don't know about you, but I find this to be one of the hardest things to do. I find many things in modern life almost unbearably boring-- driving, above all, and also most activities in which I have to be inside. So I distract myself with podcasts, books on tape, and the like. At my very worst-- at the end of the day, if I allow my blood sugar to crash-- I find myself forcing my body through household activities like cleaning or cooking dinner while I listen to the news, or to the sort of political podcast designed to produce fear and outrage. In these times, my will is barely present, and my mind is filled with the worst sorts of things.
Emperor Marcus advises us to keep our divine part-- our soul-- pure, "as if we are bound to give it back immediately." Many spiritual traditions hold that the nature of our afterlife is determined by the state of our soul at the moment of death. If the mind is its own place, then what sort of place am I in? And what sort of place would I find myself in, if I were to cast off this meat-suit?
If thou workest at that which is before thee, following right reason seriously, vigorously, calmly, without allowing anything else to distract thee, but keeping thy divine part pure, as if thou shouldst be bound to give it back immediately; if thou holdest to this, expecting nothing, fearing nothing, but satisfied with thy present activity according to nature, and with heroic truth in every word and sound which thou utterest, thou wilt live happy. And there is no man who is able to prevent this.
Keep focused on what you are doing; don't give into distraction. I don't know about you, but I find this to be one of the hardest things to do. I find many things in modern life almost unbearably boring-- driving, above all, and also most activities in which I have to be inside. So I distract myself with podcasts, books on tape, and the like. At my very worst-- at the end of the day, if I allow my blood sugar to crash-- I find myself forcing my body through household activities like cleaning or cooking dinner while I listen to the news, or to the sort of political podcast designed to produce fear and outrage. In these times, my will is barely present, and my mind is filled with the worst sorts of things.
Emperor Marcus advises us to keep our divine part-- our soul-- pure, "as if we are bound to give it back immediately." Many spiritual traditions hold that the nature of our afterlife is determined by the state of our soul at the moment of death. If the mind is its own place, then what sort of place am I in? And what sort of place would I find myself in, if I were to cast off this meat-suit?
