PHRL 498 (Religion & Philosophy Capstone) - Intellectual Autobiography: From Pre-existence to Existence to Essence

 Introduction

The day after Halloween in 1992, my father drove me to a farm on the other side of the Snake River to Fruitland, Idaho. My appointment was with a man named Chad Clark and he was to give me a Patriarchal blessing, which, for Mormons, acts as a type of life roadmap for a person, and which not only is to guide the individual in the future but also pronounces from whence that person came. In the opening paragraph of my blessing, I was informed, “Prior to your mortal birth you lived in the world of spirits. It was there that you prepared for mortality. You associated with many great and important spirits. You grew to maturity and exercised your free agency, made covenants and were foreordained to positions of responsibility that are being shown to you as you proceed through life.” Being born into Mormonism (officially known as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) meant my essence was defined before I even had a chance to consider it. Many aspects of this religion formed and shaped me, however, I came to a point, around the age of 38, where I felt it did not serve me well anymore. This would become the starting point of my philosophical exploration and journey.

I began seeing a therapist named Laura McPherson, who not only gave me the space to express my feeling and thoughts, but she also recognized and acknowledged that I work for, live in and associate with a Type A company, a Type A community and Type A religion, meaning these organizations’ and communities’ populations tend to be comprised of people who exhibit traits such as aggressiveness, competitiveness, ambitiousness and authoritarianism (Sissons, 2022). To manage the anxiety and stress of these environments, she taught me a number of techniques as informed by Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). This was my first pitstop in my philosophical journey. As I studied CBT, I found the linkages to Stoicism and how I could redirect my locus of control to within. This exploration sent me down a path of defining my true existence, as well as a deep dive into Hellenistic philosophy between the years of 2014 and 2021.

As I studied Stoicism, and in particular the idea of eternal recurrence (Durand et al., 2023), I came across references to Nietzsche’s doctrine of the same name (Wilkerson, n.d.) and how he used it as a litmus test to determine if an individual loves his fate and is living his best life. This discovery was the catalyst to widen my philosophic aperture to study not only Existentialism, but other philosophies. In 2021, I enrolled in American Public University (APU) and have since been studying philosophy and thinking about what my essence is and should be.

This essay will explore the three phases of my intellectual autobiography, with the first phase delving into Mormonism and my so-called pre-existence, phase two exploring Stoicism and how it helped me to delineate my existence, and phase three discovering Existentialism and how Nietzsche, Camus and Sartre have guided me to define my own meaning and essence.

Pre-existence and Mormonism

I was thrown into a Mormon family. Heidegger would say I was “never in control of [my] own being” and that I could not “determine or control biological or cultural factors that constrain possibilities” for myself (Wheeler, 2011). As such, I was indoctrinated into believing that I had pre-existed, meaning I had a life before I was born. And this is not in the sense of reincarnation, rather, it was in a spiritual, non-physical sense. In this pre-existence, there was a war of ideas with Jesus Christ on one side and Lucifer on the other. Mormons believe this war of ideas began as all humanity debated on the plan for existence (The Pearl of Great Price, 2013/1851). At the center of this plan was personal agency. On one side, Lucifer intended to remove choice and guarantee the salvation of all, while Christ intended to defend personal agency, but then provide a way for salvation to those who misuse their volition and consequently need to repent of sin. Christ would enter the mortal world, atone and pay the consequences of all humankind’s sin, and resurrect himself, thus breaking the chains of spiritual and physical death. Without fully explaining the intricacies and dogmas of Mormonism, I concluded that the most important virtue in the church is obedience. If a believer wanted to return to God’s presence (gain eternal life and happiness), as they were in the pre-existence, then they need to obey and follow the path outlined before them.

The Mormon faith teaches that happiness comes through obedience to teachings, commandments, and rituals. The long list of obedience includes attending church, scripture study, prayer, baptism at age eight, worthiness interviews during adolescence, missions and marriage, and making temple covenants to name a few. The most important blessings for Mormons are those found in the temple, and no one can attend the temple unless they commit 10% of their income to the church for their entire life – a Mormon’s salvation is entwined with lucre. And then parenthood renews the cycle, as raising children in the faith becomes integral to spiritual salvation. Happiness remains tied to lifelong obedience and generational continuity.

While this plan seems organized and clear, there are aspects which jeopardize one’s pursuit of joy. Not only must an individual stay on the straight and narrow path, but he has a responsibility for other people’s salvation, which can cause profound negative spiritual and mental effects if someone else’s choices put his own salvation at risk. The Doctrine and Covenants (2013/1851) notes that parents have a duty to baptize and rear their children in the religion. However, if parents fail in their efforts, the sins of the child will be on the parent’s heads. Furthermore, an early leader of the church, John Taylor, taught members, “If you do not magnify your callings, God will hold you responsible for those whom you might have saved had you done your duty” (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2025). The central concept of the war of ideas in the pre-existence and the fight for one’s agency stand in stark contrast to the authoritarian mindset of obedience and guilt which are hallmarks in the religion’s modern teachings. For me, I could not exist authentically in this religion, nor did the virtue of spiritual obedience to a leader in a far-off city make logical sense to me.

Existence and Stoicism

After meeting with a psychotherapist for several weeks and discovering the linkages between CBT and Stoicism, I procured a copy of Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations (2014). Only a few passages were clear and meaningful to me when I read it the first time. Someone recommended that I read Pierre Hadot’s The Inner Citadel (2001) to fully comprehend all that Marcus Aurelius wrote. One chapter of Hadot’s book focuses entirely on Epictetus since he had such a profound impact on Aurelius. I then obtained a copy of Epictetus’ writings and from this point on, my library bloomed with books on Stoicism.

The single most important doctrine of Stoicism is the demarcation of what is “up to us” (Epictetus & Long, 2018) and what is not. Epictetus notes that our abilities to judge, our motivation and desires and aversions are the things that are up to us. But our body, possessions, our lot in life and even our reputation are not up to us. As I read this passage the first time and then repeatedly, I felt an immense sense of relief as I comprehended such a clearly defined locus of control which stood in contrast to the guilt-tripping, manipulation and expansive locus of duties required in Mormonism. Epictetus’ lesson on delineation pervades Aurelius’ Meditations and is expanded upon by Hadot. Once I understood this demarcation, I realized I could truly exist and set boundaries between my innermost self and other people and events.

My studies further deepened as I discovered The College of Stoic Philosophers. Their courses taught me Stoic physics, logic and ethics. During these classes, I began to learn the language and subjects of philosophy. I was introduced to Skepticism, Epicureanism, Neo-Platonism and other schools of thought. However, I was not expecting to encounter Existentialism while studying Stoicism.

While studying Stoic physics I learned of the idea of eternal recurrence (Durand et al., 2023), and how Nietzsche’s doctrine of the same name (Wilkerson, n.d.) was used to great effect to help individuals determine if they truly love their fate and are living their best life. Hadot (2001) also made the same connection. The longer I contemplated the concept of amor fati and saying “yes” to my life repeatedly and endlessly, I realized there was perhaps more work to be done in terms of discovering my essence.

Essence and Existentialism

My first act of asserting a definition of my essence was to apply at APU and enroll in my first philosophy course. Philosophy 101 did not discuss Existentialism, but a posting by one of the students referred to Kierkegaard and how his writings had a profound impact on her life. She listed Sartre, Camus and other Existentialist philosophers as notable influences in her life as well. While I had come across Camus and Nietzsche a few years before, I knew nothing else about Existentialism. After taking several required philosophy classes, by June 2023 I enrolled in a course on Existentialism; perhaps my favorite course of all the classes I’ve taken.

Stoicism’s mantra of “living according to Nature” (Sellars, 2014, p. 125) nicely sums the aim for life, but implicit in that motto is a trust in the universe that all was intended to be exactly as it occurs. For some, the effort in trying to discern reasons for why the universe dishes out breath-taking hardships can be too much for their schema of existence. To me, Camus’ assessment of the universe seems a smidge more honest than the Stoic assessment. His definition of the absurd, which explains the tension of humanity’s relentless quest to find meaning despite the fact that the Cosmos forever remains silent, resonates more deeply with me. Rather than being forced to find a meaning for one’s strange circumstance (Stoicism), one is free to admit the absurdity of existence and is liberated to define one’s own meaning and essence. 

Later in my course on Existentialism, I learned that I had been living in “bad faith” because I was largely dependent on other’s norms and values (Overthink Podcast & Anderson, 2022) and I was only dreaming of my essence (Flynn, 2006). Even though I had been liberated from Mormonism, I realized I was largely finding comfort in my fate or facticity, and I was denying that I had a responsibility to positively create my meaning and essence instead of remaining fixed in my circumstances. In July 2023, while on a business trip in India, I came to a profound realization I was shirking my responsibility and that I needed to begin to live in good faith and act on creating my essence (Putnam, 2023). Since writing that essay, I enrolled in a number of psychology classes at APU, and I am about to complete my college degree in philosophy. I have also solidified my plans to retire from my corporate career by the year 2031 and enroll in a Master of Counseling program with the intent to become a licensed professional counselor (LPC). Beyond this next phase, I intend to practice my craft in a hospital or university setting, helping other people through life’s challenges as well as assisting them in finding their own meaning project.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this essay explored the three phases of my intellectual autobiography, with the first phase delving into Mormonism and my so-called pre-existence, phase two examining Stoicism and how it helped me to delineate my existence, and phase three uncovering Existentialism and how Nietzsche, Camus, and Sartre guided me to define my own meaning and essence. 

References

Aurelius, M. (2014). Meditations (M. Hammond, Trans.). Penguin Classics, An Imprint Of Penguin Books.

Durand, M., Shogry, S., & Baltzly, D. (2023). Stoicism (E. N. Zalta & U. Nodelman, Eds.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy; Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/stoicism/#CosmCyclConf 

Epictetus, & Long, A. A. (2018). How to be free : an ancient guide to the stoic life : Encheiridion and selections from Discourses. Princeton University Press.

Flynn, T. R. (2006). Existentialism : a very short introduction. Oxford University Press.

Hadot, P. (2001). The Inner Citadel: The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius (M. Chase, Trans.). Cambridge, Mass. London Harvard University Press.

Overthink Podcast, & Anderson, E. (2022). Sartre’s theory of bad faith. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUXXmHkI-Ug

Putnam, D. (2023). Time and Existentialist Creation. Rockyrook.com. https://www.rockyrook.com/2023/07/rel-411-time-and-existentialist-creation.html

Sellars, J. (2014). Stoicism. Routledge.

Sissons, B. (2022, September 30). Personality types: Type A and type B traits. Www.medicalnewstoday.com. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/type-a-vs-type-b.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (2025). Chapter 18: Service in the Church. Churchofjesuschrist.org. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/teachings-john-taylor/chapter-18?lang=eng 

The Doctrine and Covenants. (2013). Doctrine and Covenants 68. Www.churchofjesuschrist.org. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/68?lang=eng (Original work published 1835)

The Pearl of Great Price. (2013). Abraham 3. Www.churchofjesuschrist.org. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/pgp/abr/3?lang=eng (Original work published 1851)

Wheeler, M. (2011). Martin Heidegger (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Stanford.edu. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/heidegger/

Wilkerson, D. (n.d.). Nietzsche, Friedrich | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://iep.utm.edu/nietzsch/#H7

Io, Saturnalia! (And the Contemplation of the Eternal Return and the Wisdom Therein)

Round and round we go. We watch the pendulum swing, back and forth. Sometimes the swing is swift and sometimes the interval takes longer, but always and everywhere it (events, history, life, death, growth, regress, etc.) repeats.

The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius noted this a few times in his Meditations (2014).

"a man of forty with any understanding whatsoever has in a sense seen all the past and all the future" (11.1).

This same translation of Meditations makes a note and commentary on Book 2.14, which is related to this thought. 

"see the same things: The eternal sameness of things is another frequent theme in the Meditations, taking two widely disparate forms. One (as here) derives from the belief of orthodox Stoicism, evidently accepted by Marcus, that from eternity to eternity the world goes through an endless succession of identical cycles (so that all that happens has happened before, and will happen again): see especially 9.28, and also 5.13 (and note), 5.32, 6.37, 8-6, 9.35, 10.7.2, 11.1.2, 12.26. For the doctrine of everlasting recurrence see LS, 52; Sandbach, pp. 78-9. The other is the expression of a world-weary and often dismissive view that 'there is no new thing under the sun' (Ecclesiastes 1:9) in human life, behaviour, and depravity: with a few years' experience (in 7.49 and 11.1.2 Marcus puts it at forty) you have 'seen it all'. See also 4.32, 4.44, 6.46, 7.1, 8.25, 9.14, 9.33, 10.2.7, 12.24 ('monotony and transience')" (2014).

This time of year (December to early January) usually prompts a lot of introspection for me. I reflect on the year, I try to indulge in the festivities, I recall Christmases past and I plan for the future - revisiting and revising plans, taking account of the current situation in life and evaluating options for the future, and then making course corrections as needed.

This year, as part of this introspection, I decided to research and learn a bit more about the Roman festival known as Saturnalia. While I've always known something about it, I searched for meatier content about what it was like and from whence it was formed. For this, the book entitled The Christmas Encyclopedia provides a very adequate explanation and summary.

A pre-Christian harvest and winter solstice celebration held throughout the Roman Empire in honor of Saturn or Saturnus (from the Latin satus, “to sow”), god of agriculture, who reigned during the so-called Golden Age of Rome, a time of peace and prosperity. Originally celebrated for one day on December 17, the festival under the Caesars extended through December 24, in which the spirit of gaiety and frolic prevailed, recalling that Golden Age. All work, businesses, schools, and matters of court were suspended, criminals received reprieves from punishment, war was not waged, and no humans were sacrificed to Saturn; the lighting of numerous candles in his temple symbolized such mercies.

Instead, festivities began with the sacrifice of a young pig in the temple. Each community selected a Magister Ludi (Master of the Games) or a Saturnalicus Princeps (Chief of the Saturnalia), a mock king, who supervised the feasting, revelry, singing, and dancing. He was chosen by lots, sometimes as the one who found the coin hidden in servings of pudding. Masters and slaves traded places, with masters serving their slaves, who could bid the former to perform any task and could exact ludicrous punishments should they fail to execute them. Class distinctions were suspended as well, as a spirit of humanity seized everyone to do good unto his neighbor, including dispensing money to the poor. Transvestism was common and, in keeping with the tradition of masquerades, in northern provinces, Germanic tribes often donned masks in the likenesses of horned beasts and hideous creatures, symbolic of spirits which were believed to inhabit the winter darkness.

Statues of Saturn, as well as homes, were decorated with holly, sacred to this god; with evergreen wreaths, symbolic of the sun; and with evergreen garlands, symbolic of the renewal of life at the approaching winter solstice, December 25 on the Roman or Julian calendar. (In the Christian era, these evergreens would come to symbolize eternal life through Christ.)

At the conclusion of the festival came the exchanging of gifts: signillaria (clay dolls) for the children and strenae (olive branches honoring the woodland goddess Strenia) or cerei (wax tapers or candles) for the adults.

The festivities were essentially repeated for three days at the January Calends, beginning on the first day of the new year (January 1). This was especially the time when the populace presented the emperor with votae(gifts).

Although the Saturnalia was not the sole winter solstice festival of the Roman Empire (among other festivals, a feast on December 15 honored Consus, god of the storeroom; one on December 17 honored his consort, Ops, a mother goddess), it was by far the most important in terms of its traditions and symbols, many of which the early Christian Church adopted into the Christmas season. The lighting of candles, decorating with holly and evergreens, giving of gifts (the Wise Men that visited the manger had no monopoly on gift-giving), holiday charity, and the unrestrained merrymaking all were most recently derived from the Saturnalia.

The basis for these traditions actually originated some 4,000 years before the birth of Christ in the land of Mesopotamia, which included Sumer, later corresponding to Babylonia; through northern and western routes, the customs reached Greece, Rome, and other parts of Europe. The equivalent Sumerian and Babylonian celebrations, respectively, were the Zagmuk (“Beginning of the Year”) and Akitu (“New Year's Festival”). The Sumerian festival was semiannual, held in the fall (month of Tishri) and in the spring (month of Nisan), commemorating the two principal solar points of the year (winter and summer). Akitu, however, occurred only at the first new moon after the spring equinox.

The mythology surrounding Akitu held that as the year drew to a close, the world, created by the supreme Babylonian god Marduk, lay dying. During the festival, it was traditional for the king to perform rituals to atone for any sins of man against Marduk and to assist him in battling the monsters of chaos in the underworld, acts that would restore the world of the living for another year. To begin the rituals, the king entered the temple of Marduk. There, he suffered humiliation as the high priest stripped him of his regal vestments and beat him; then the king swore annual allegiance to Marduk, after which he was reinstated as king. It is likely that the king then symbolically “sacrificed” himself by appointing a mock king in his stead from the ranks of criminals (his mock counterpart is seen in the Master of the Games of the Saturnalia and Archbishop of Fools of the Feast of Fools). This criminal was then arrayed in regal raiment and sacrificed sometime during a 12-day celebration, which consisted of feasting, socializing, and gift-giving (a parallel is seen in the 12 days of Christmas). Wooden images depicting the monsters of chaos were burned to assist Marduk in his battle for life, and such images are believed to be the earliest precursors of the Yule log.

These, then were some of the world's earliest known plans for year-end festivals, which most modern civilizations have since adapted to their own cultures. (Crump, 2013 emphasis added).

Reading the above, I am struck by the switching of roles and parts in those ancient cultures. What must it have been like to be the master of the estate, and then for the better part of a month, turn the reigns and authority over to the servants? One day you're sitting at the top, and the next you're being told what to do by the lowliest of the classes. Would our current overlords (e.g. Prime Ministers, Presidents, Senators, CEOs, business owners, Principals, Mayors, etc.) ever be willing to do the same in today's day and age? It makes for a fascinating thought experiment.  Yet, this is what the ancients did!

While it seems impractical to put this ancient ritual into practice today, there are some aspects about this ritual worth contemplating in the vein of premeditatio malorum. Those in power and those who possessed fortune had those preferred indifferents taken from them during Saturnalia. While they thought they enjoyed sound footing and an unassailable point of advantage, it was taken from them. Do we think we possess a similar position in our lives in 2023? Could the home in which I live, and the job at which I work and the salary I am paid, and the health I enjoy - could one or all of those be taken on a whim? Absolutely. All of it could be taken upon death, or some of it could be taken due to circumstances and events beyond my control.

In fact, returning to what Marcus Aurelius wrote about a man of forty seeing it all, at the age of 47, I too have seen and heard many of these events in the course of my life. I have contemplated what it must have been like for my father's father to watch his entire ranch burn down, forcing the family to practically to start all over. I've read the account of my father's mother holding her young baby, while the doctor listened to his heart slowly stop beating, saying, "now, now, now" indicating when the baby's heart stopped.

I've contemplated the tens of thousands of young men, at the young age of 20 take one step off a boat to storm a beach in some distant land and die in a split second to a bullet to the head. I've wondered what it must have been like for my father who was about to be deployed to the Pacific in 1945, but then to not have to serve because the war ended after two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan. I've wondered about the details of the story of my father's mother pleading with the officer in the army to discharge my father to help on the ranch, thus saving him from serving in the Korean War.

I've contemplated a man named Rich O'Conner, who worked for a major corporation for over 30 years, who interviewed me at the beginning of my career, and who just a few weeks before retirement, pulled into his driveway, suffered a major heart attack and died - who never fully enjoyed the fruits of his labor.

I've lived through a global pandemic and watched millions of people both die and suffer from the effects of COVID-19 as well as the effects of the vaccines administered to cure and prevent the virus. I've watched the world and culture fundamentally change in a matter of months and years due to the global lockdown from the pandemic.

I've contemplated my sister-in-law and her husband and how they lost their baby a few months after she was born, and then all the angst and anxiety they had to endure through two more pregnancies and births, wondering if the same fate would happen to those babies. I've contemplated the life of my father-in-law, who retired wealthy, but suffered from bankruptcy due to the housing crisis and great recession of 2008, and then less than a decade later, unexpectedly die at the age of 66. I've contemplated the death of my brother-in-law at the age of 49 - he was at the cusp of greatness in his career as a college professor and researcher, and a loving husband and father of four children.

I've contemplated the religion in which I grew up (Mormonism) and the debris and chaos left in its wake - the abuse they have facilitated and the lack of morals and failure in responsibility to help those women and children who suffered under the church's patriarchy. I've contemplated the unethical nature of the church's leadership in softly and harshly lying about its past and its dogmas. I've contemplated and stand in awe at an organization who preaches the gospel of Jesus regarding mankind cannot love God and Mammon both, yet it has amassed an ungodly amount of capital and assets and cash to the tune of close to $200 billion. I stand all amazed at the selfishness, corruption, egotistical and hypocritical nature of such an organization.

Perhaps I have not seen all of it, but I have seen quite a bit of it. And what do I learn from it? I learn, what I think Saturnalia is attempting to teach: that it repeats and it can happen to anyone including me. One day I could be on the up-and-up, getting ahead in my career, and the next I could be assessed down and earning less. One day I could feel safe and secure in my home, the next I could be robbed and many of my possessions taken.  One day I could be playing basketball quite healthily, the next I could be injured and forced to never play again. One day I could be fast asleep in my bed, the next I could be waking up in the middle of the night receiving a call from the police about an accident or incident my child was involved in.

Saturnalia teaches us our lots can change on a dime. However, what is 'up to us' is our attitude and reaction to said change. Could we lose status, wealth, health, loved ones and still retain our equanimity? Could we still find a way to demonstrate a good moral character despite the "losses?" To me, this seems to be a worthy challenge. We need not be stuck in mourning our losses. Grieve we may and in some cases, we must, but to remain in in such a state does not demonstrate a good moral character. The challenge is to prove to yourself you can take the misfortunes and fortunes of life and retain your equanimity. Saturnalia gave the people a chance to practice this very virtue.

And regardless of misfortune or fortune, there are opportunities to practice a good moral character. Seneca notes this of Socrates, who survived and lived under the Thirty Tyrants. In his essay On Tranquility he wrote,

Can you find any city more wretched in any way than the Athenians’ city when the thirty tyrants tore it apart? They had killed thirteen hundred citizens, all the best men, but did not make an end of it; but their sheer savagery stimulated itself. In a city which held the Areopagus, that most scrupulous of courts, in which there was a senate and a people similar to the senate, the grim college of executioners met each day, and the unhappy senate house was crammed with tyrants: could that state repose in which there were as many tyrants as there were henchmen? Their minds could not even entertain any hope of recovering their freedom, and no scope for a cure appeared against such a powerful force of evils; for how could the poor city find so many Harmodii? Yet Socrates was openly out in public life and comforted the mourning fathers and exhorted men despairing of the state, and reproached wealthy men fearing the consequences of their riches because they came too late to regret the dangers brought on by their greed; he bore himself as a mighty example for those willing to imitate him, walking as a free man among the thirty masters. But Athens herself killed him in jail, and liberty did not tolerate the liberty of the man who had safely provoked the horde of tyrants; you learn from this that even in an oppressed state there is a chance for the wise man to put himself forward, and that in a flourishing and happy state envy and a thousand other evils dominate (2014, p. 191)

Therefore, regardless of any circumstance or event or fortune or misfortune, there are ways and opportunities to practice and live with a high, good moral character (virtue) - one can exercise one's volition to demonstrate excellence.

This is it - this is life. Once you realize this is the ultimate fate we face, Saturnalia can teach you the greater lesson of recurrence. Just as this festival has been around thousands of years in some form or fashion, perhaps we have lived this same life thousands of time before or perhaps we have lived some existence in a different state or status thousands of times before. Just as roles were swapped (status, gender, form, etc.) during Saturnalia, perhaps we have lived thousands (millions?) of different roles or forms previously. And if that is the case, would you act differently with others today?  If one day you were the master of the estate, and the next day during Saturnalia, your servants were master of the estate, would that change the way you act as the master?

Another lesson recurrence and Saturnalia can teach us is the reflex of retreat to sound ground. The moment we are born, we began to die. Through the course of life, we erect layers of knowledge around us, bank accounts, homes, walls, gates, savings, 401Ks; we build our reputations and deposit good acts into our account so we can withdraw from it in times when we face ill repute. However, try as we might, we must give ground. Life advances, misfortune strikes and if our reputation and wealth do not suffer first, then our mind and body will eventually succumb to disease, age and death. Will we anxiously cling to every scrap life takes from us, or will we learn the wisdom of accepting our fate, and retreating to solid ground - the sound logic that informs us the only thing we truly possess and control is our moral character; our virtue.  All else matters not. Anyway, why cling? Saturnalia and recurrence teaches us our fate will change and if we don't like it, soon enough things return to the way they used to be. So, in the meantime - in the present moment - act with justice, wisdom, discipline and courage.

To conclude, Marcus Aurelius eloquently sums these lessons - important ideas to contemplate during this season of Saturnalia.

Even if you were destined to live three thousand years, or ten times that long, nevertheless remember that no one loses any life other than the one he lives, or lives any life other than the one he loses. It follows that the longest and the shortest lives are brought to the same state. The present moment is equal for all; so what is passing is equal also; the loss therefore turns out to be the merest fragment of time. No one can lose either the past or the future - how could anyone be deprived of what he does not possess?

So always remember these two things. First, that all things have been of the same kind from everlasting, coming round and round again, and it makes no difference whether one will see the same things for a hundred years, or two hundred years, or for an infinity of time. Second, that both the longest-lived and the earliest to die suffer the same loss. It is only the present moment of which either stands to be deprived: and if indeed this is all he has, he cannot lose what he does not have (2.14).

References

Aurelius, M. (2014). Meditations (M. Hammond, Trans.). Penguin Classics, An Imprint Of Penguin Books.

Crump, W. D. (2013). The Christmas Encyclopedia. Mcfarland & Company, Inc., Publishers.

Lucius Annaeus Seneca. (2014). Hardship and Happiness (E. Fantham, H. M. Hine, J. Ker, & G. D. Williams, Trans.). University of Chicago Press.

Rel 411: Friedrich Nietzsche: Saying, “yes, yes!, YES!!” to Your Life

Friedrich Nietzsche: Saying, “yes, yes!, YES!!” to Your Life

“Toti se inserens mundo” is how Seneca described someone who lives life to its fullest (Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales Letter 66). Pierre Hadot analyzed this passage from Seneca and translated this phrase as “plunging oneself into the totality of the world” which meant “to go beyond the self, and think and act in unison with universal reason” (Hadot 207-208). In a sense, this is a challenge and a call to the individual who would strive in life, to feel the anxiety and challenge of living the best life he can, and not be timid, but “out of joy [plunges his soul] into chance” (Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra 167). Nietzsche contends that this striving to overcome all is at the root of every human’s desire and is the will to power. He further offers a tantalizing thought experiment, known as the eternal recurrence, which the individual can use to spur himself to constantly question if he is living the best life. If the individual can exclaim “yes” to his fate and his challenges in life, time and time again, then he is overcoming all and exerting his will to power. As Nietzsche writes in The Gay Science, “all in all and on the whole: some day I want only to be a Yes-sayer!” (157).

The concept of the will to power certainly is varied and complex. But there is one thread which is woven throughout Nietzsche’s works: the power to overcome – to exert one’s will. One scholar of Nietzschean philosophy cites The Anti-Christ in explaining what is good or bad in Nietzsche’s philosophy. “What is good?—All that heightens the feeling of power, the will to power, power itself in man. What is bad?—All that proceeds from weakness.  What is happiness?—The feeling that power increases—that a resistance is overcome.” (Wilkerson).

The author further explains that exerting one’s will to overcome is as much an effort at self-mastery and is a matter of who the individual obeys and to whom he listens. If one can command oneself, then one exerts his will to power (Wilkerson). This concept of self-mastery is further bolstered by Nietzsche’s ideas on “strict schooling at the proper time” (Nietzsche The Will to Power 516). He is a proponent of a strict education, but also notes that without it, some men are still fortunate to have the school of hard knocks teach them in “the form of a long, lingering illness, which demands the utmost will-power and self-sufficiency; or in the form of a calamity which suddenly befalls him and his wife and child at the same time, forcing him to take action in such a way as to restore his energy and resilience, strengthening his 'moral' fibre and his will to live” (516). In sum, the common theme in the will to power is the idea of the individual assuming radical self-discipline, “to be capable at any time of taking the lead; to prefer danger to comfort,” to say “yes” to any trial or challenge life throws at him and to be the one who both commands himself and obeys himself (516). And while the individual’s will to power relies on self-mastery, one must also recognize his place in the world, a place which Nietzsche calls “a monster of energy, without beginning or end” (585).

This world, according to Nietzsche, waxes and wanes and is “forever changing, forever rolling back, with enormous periods of recurrence” and eternally self-creates and self-destroys and “has no aim if it does not lie in the happiness of the circle” (585). He concludes this passage by explicitly stating “This world is the will to power – and nothing besides! And even you yourselves are this will to power – and nothing besides!” (586). The eternal recurrence is another topic intertwined throughout Nietzsche’s philosophy. In the preceding passage, he connects the idea of the will to power for the individual with the will to power for the world. On another occasion, he uses the idea of eternal recurrence to prod the individual to question whether he is using his will to power to create the best life possible for himself.

Nietzsche describes the “idea of eternal recurrence” as “the highest formula of affirmation that can possibly be attained” (Stolz 188). As described in The Gay Science, he asks the reader to imagine a demon confronting him with the proposition of living his life repeatedly for eternity, in all aspects – “every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unspeakably small or great … in the same succession and sequence” (Nietzsche 194). What would his reaction be? Would he exclaim “Yes!” or would he be “crushed” by the thought (194)? The experiment and one’s reaction to it is meant to spur one to action and evaluate their state of life to the point of affirming they love their life or to the point of making profound changes.

The thought experiment of eternal recurrence is meant to be “the great cultivating thought” which reveals “’what one is’ now (being), and who they could become (becoming)” (Stolz 192). It is meant to be a “weapon” or “hammer” to crack open the shell of the individual raised in “the herd animal status quo” and prompts them to “become strong in character through the revaluation of all values” (192, 197, 193). Much of this work ought to be developed “in a state of solitude” precisely in order to unlearn what one has been taught in school systems and colleges or “sites of student conformity into animal consciousness” (196, 198). Furthermore, as one repeats this thought experiment often through their life, they must apply discerning self-inspection, heeding how they feel about their character, and then committing to discard undesirable qualities and vowing to enhance those they wish to strengthen (195). Through a life-long process, their life becomes a “singular work of immortal art” as a “plan to express their superiority” (194). Their lived philosophy turns into a “YES!!” in response to fate.

In conclusion, Nietzsche contends that striving to overcome all is at the root of every human’s desire and is the will to power. He further offers a provocative thought experiment, known as the eternal recurrence, with which the individual spurs himself to constantly question if he is living the best life. If the individual can exclaim “yes” to his fate and his challenges in life, time and time again, then he is overcoming all and exerting his will to power. He can confidently judge his life thus: 

“Have you ever said Yes to one joy? Oh my friends, then you also said Yes to all pain. All things are enchained, entwined, enamored -

– if you ever wanted one time two times, if you ever said ‘I like you, happiness! Whoosh! Moment!’ then you wanted everything back! 

– Everything anew, everything eternal, everything enchained, entwined, enamored, oh thus you loved the world – 

– you eternal ones, love it eternally and for all time; and say to pain also: refrain, but come back! For all joy wants – eternity!” (Nietzsche Thus Spoke Zarathustra 263). 

Works Cited

Hadot, Pierre. Philosophy as a Way of Life : Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault. Edited by Arnold I Davidson, Translated by Michael Chase, Blackwell Publishing, 2017.

Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Gay Science. Edited by Bernard Williams, Translated by Josefine Nauckhoff, Cambridge University Press, 2001.

---. The Will to Power : Selections from the Notebooks of the 1880s. Translated by R Kevin Hill and Michael A Scarpitti, Penguin Books, 2017.

--. Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Translated by Adrian Del Caro, Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Seneca. “Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales.” Artflsrv03.Uchicago.edu (PhiloLogic4), University of Chicago, artflsrv03.uchicago.edu/philologic4/Latin/navigate/249/7/4/. Accessed 17 June 2023.

Stolz, Steven A. “Nietzsche, Eternal Recurrence and Education: The Role of the Great Cultivating Thought in the Art of Self‐Cultivation (Bildung).” Journal of Philosophy of Education, vol. 55, no. 1, 2021, pp. 186–203, https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9752.12488.

Wilkerson, Dale. “Nietzsche, Friedrich | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, iep.utm.edu/nietzsch/.

Letters from a Stoic 68 - On Wisdom and Retirement

On Wisdom and Retirement

The three big points I gleaned from this letter are:

1. a Stoic (cosmopolitan) never retires from the universe

2. hide your retirement (from the daily grind) in plain sight

3. in the pursuit of wisdom, it's better late than never

The Cosmopolitan's Work Never Stops

While a Stoic may decide to retire from employment, he ought to have learned he never retires from the Cosmos.  He still yet has work to accomplish.

when we have assigned to our wise man that field of public life which is worthy of him, – in other words, the universe, – he is then not apart from public life, even if he withdraws; nay, perhaps he has abandoned only one little corner thereof and has passed over into greater and wider regions; and when he has been set in the heavens, he understands how lowly was the place in which he sat when he mounted the curule chair or the judgment-seat. Lay this to heart, – that the wise man is never more active in affairs than when things divine as well as things human have come within his ken.

In his retirement from employment, he has work on his soul yet to accomplish.  He may spend time reflecting on wisdom and perhaps he may observe that he can share this wisdom with those who still have years of life left on this rock floating in the Cosmos.  When the retired Stoic begins to see the divine as well as daily human affairs, perhaps he can share counsel for his fellow-travelers who will cross the path he treads today.

Retirement from Employment Ought to be Hidden in Plain Sight

Making a show of your retirement from employment may attract attention.  The flash of expensive cars and big homes may indicate the wealth you have amassed over a lifetime of work, but to satisfy the ego may welcome prying eyes and thieves.  Therefore, Seneca advocates us to not "vaunt one's retirement" but that we also ought not to "[withdraw] from the sight of men" as this also is a form of vaunting.  To vaunt also means to advertise and "to advertise one's retirement is to collect a crowd."

Therefore, retire from your employment, but do it in plain sight.  Perhaps, find a home that suits your needs rather than your ego.  Drive a car that gets you to where you need to go, but no need to be flamboyant.  I can't help but think of Sam Walton driving the same truck from 1979 to 1992, even after earning millions of dollars.

Retirement from Employment, but not from Work

And even after you retire from employment, you still have work to do.

When you withdraw from the world your business is to talk with yourself, not to have men talk about you. But what shall you talk about? Do just what people are fond of doing when they talk about their neighbours, – speak ill of yourself when by yourself; then you will become accustomed both to speak and to hear the truth. Above all, however, ponder that which you come to feel is your greatest weakness.

When the lionshare of our day is no longer spent in work meetings, then we will have time to hone in on our weakness, in order to correct them.  If others were to spot our weaknesses, what would they say?  This is how we ought to approach finding our weaknesses when we have much more time on our hands.

What, then, am I myself doing with my leisure? I am trying to cure my own sores ...  I do recommend retirement to you, but only that you may use it for greater and more beautiful activities than those which you have resigned.

But what is the point of self-improvement at such a late stage of life?

Let us do what men are wont to do when they are late in setting forth, and wish to make up for lost time by increasing their speed – let us ply the spur ... I shall depart a better man.

If you are convinced there is a path to wisdom, then get yourself going on the path.  Never deviate from the path once you are convinced.  And if you've not achieved the attainment of wisdom before you retire from your active life, then use your new-found time to pursue this noble quest.  You will have departed this life "a better man."

None of us know what awaits us after death.  Perhaps we have lived and will thousands of times as part of the Eternal Recurrence or perhaps we regress or progress into another life based on Buddhist reincarnation.  Or, maybe this is the only life we will live and there is nothing before or after it.  Regardless of your perspective, I think there is a case to be made that we should never give up our quest for wisdom and improving ourselves.  Our allotted time is sufficient; we simply need enough urgency to get going and to keep pursuing.

Letters from a Stoic 36 - On the Value of Retirement

On the Value of Retirement

Key ideas from this letter

• a Stoic will value indifferents differently from most other people
• how a Stoic manages, uses and thinks of indifferents is how he demonstrates his character
• death is not the end, but merely an interruption / eternal recurrence

It seems that this man to whom Seneca is referring, is contemplating retirement and some of his associates are reproaching him and goading to not retire.  Seneca seems to think that the man considering retirement is choosing wisely.

Seneca commentates a bit about the indifferent of wealth and fortune:

Prosperity is a turbulent thing; it torments itself. It stirs the brain in more ways than one, goading men on to various aims, – some to power, and others to high living. Some it puffs up; others it slackens and wholly enervates.

If you give your desires wholly over to acquiring fortune, then you will suffer the follies he lists above.  Wisdom is knowing how to use indifferents well and not be affected by them, but to retain equanimity regardless if you acquire wealth or not.

And because this man chooses retirement over acquiring more wealth, less wise people accuse him of being "a trifler and a sluggard."  Perhaps this man has chosen wisely because "he continues to cherish virtue and to absorb thoroughly the studies which make for culture."  And perhaps he learned this wisdom while young and now he can spend his retirement in continued pursuit of virtue.

the young man must store up, the old man must use.

Seneca explains more clearly, further in the letter, the wise course of action.

Fortune has no jurisdiction over character. Let him so regulate his character that in perfect peace he may bring to perfection that spirit within him which feels neither loss nor gain, but remains in the same attitude, no matter how things fall out. A spirit like this, if it is heaped with worldly goods, rises superior to its wealth; if, on the other hand, chance has stripped him of a part of his wealth, or even all, it is not impaired.

The latter part of the letter hits on themes of memento mori and the eternal recurrence.

I say, let him learn that which is helpful against all weapons, against every kind of foe, – contempt of death ...

In death there is nothing harmful ...

And death, which we fear and shrink from, merely interrupts life, but does not steal it away; the time will return when we shall be restored to the light of day ... everything which seems to perish merely changes. Since you are destined to return, you ought to depart with a tranquil mind. Mark how the round of the universe repeats its course.

Letters from a Stoic 9 - On Philosophy and Friendship

On Philosophy and Friendship

In sum, the Stoic sage is self-content.  He or she can derive eudaimonia with or without friends - there is no need, for the sage, to achieve eudaimonia by looking towards externals to grant them.  Now, with that stated, the Stoic would prefer to have friends and be a friend.

To begin, Seneca discusses a nuance between the Epicureans*  Cynics and the Stoics.  I'm still trying to digest it to ensure I fully understand it.  But here is the passage:

There is this difference between ourselves and the other school*: our ideal wise man feels his troubles, but overcomes them; their wise man does not even feel them. But we and they alike hold this idea, – that the wise man is self-sufficient

I understand Seneca to mean that the Stoic sage feels emotions, but learns to deal with them with a rational response.  While the Epicurean* Cynic sage achieves a state of experiencing no emotions.

Seneca goes on to note that while the Stoic sage is self-content, even without friends, he still would prefer to have friends.  He compares this to other losses a Stoic might experience and how he would react.

If he lose a hand through disease or war, or if some accident puts out one or both of his eyes, he will be satisfied with what is left, taking as much pleasure in his impaired and maimed body as he took when it was sound. But while he does not pine for these parts if they are missing, he prefers not to lose them.

This passage reminds me of a phrase I recently heard while listening to the audio book The Coddling of the American Mind by Haidt and Lukianoff.  As a father or mother, the proper parenting mindset to have is to prepare the child for the road, not the road for the child.  In this mindset, the child represents the human will and attitude, and the road is symbolic of the world and everything in it.  If you want to achieve eudaimonia then you can achieve it with Stoic philosophy.  But if you think you'll achieve eudaimonia by trying to change the world to your expectations and will,  you will fail.

So in the event that you are unjustly accused or exiled or get cancer or you lose a friend or child to death, you can adapt yourself to the circumstance instead of getting stuck in a mental trap of thinking that circumstances and the universe should conform to your preconceived expectations.

And bringing the topic back to friendship, Seneca makes the excellent point that even in the event you lose a friend, there is much to be said in the pleasure it brings to acquire new friends.  Just as the Stoic learns and masters the art of achieving eudaimonia, so too can he learn and master the art of making new friends.

Now there is great pleasure, not only in maintaining old and established friendships, but also in beginning and acquiring new ones. 

He also makes the observation that it is the process of making new friends that is fulfilling and he supports this with the idea that parents love to be parents when they are actively parenting.  And when the child is fully grown, the opportunities of parenting are less and they may miss those times when they were raising their children.

In the case of our children, their young manhood yields the more abundant fruits, but their infancy was sweeter.

On the topic of practicing friendship, Seneca notes that this is the area where the Stoic has the opportunity to demonstrate virtue.  A Stoic will look for a friend in order to have opportunities to practice virtue.  While some people will want friends, so that when they are in a bind, their friends can help them out, Stoics will want friends so that when their friends are in a bind, the Stoic has opportunities to practice virtue.

The wise man, I say, self-sufficient though he be, nevertheless desires friends if only for the purpose of practising friendship, in order that his noble qualities may not lie dormant. Not, however, for the purpose mentioned by Epicurus in the letter quoted above: "That there may be someone to sit by him when he is ill, to help him when he is in prison or in want;" but that he may have someone by whose sick-bed he himself may sit, someone a prisoner in hostile hands whom he himself may set free. He who regards himself only, and enters upon friendships for this reason, reckons wrongly.

He notes that friendship which starts on the premise of reward and payment, such friendship will most likely end as such.

He who begins to be your friend because it pays will also cease because it pays. A man will be attracted by some reward offered in exchange for his friendship, if he be attracted by aught in friendship other than friendship itself.

Seneca then gets more into the details of the nuance of self-sufficiency and friends.  In so explaining, he notes the Stoic concept of Eternal Recurrence and the conflagration and cycles of the Cosmos (Nature).

Therefore, although he is self-sufficient, yet he has need of friends. He craves as many friends as possible, not, however, that he may live happily; for he will live happily even without friends. The Supreme Good calls for no practical aids from outside; it is developed at home, and arises entirely within itself. If the good seeks any portion of itself from without, it begins to be subject to the play of Fortune. 

People may say: "But what sort of existence will the wise man have, if he be left friendless when thrown into prison, or when stranded in some foreign nation, or when delayed on a long voyage, or when cast upon a lonely shore?" His life will be like that of Jupiter, who, amid the dissolution of the world, when the gods are confounded together and Nature rests for a space from her work, can retire into himself and give himself over to his own thoughts.

It is part of our nature to want sociability.  To deny such would be to deny our very nature.  But is it a requirement to be in the constant presence of friends, essential to achieving eudaimonia?  The Stoic response is: no.  Even God/Nature/the Cosmos goes through periods of solitary time in contemplation.  A practicing Stoic, too, would choose to spend time alone, in contemplation.  Just as today's modern stoics take cold showers and fast, to practice hardship, so too the Stoic should incorporate time alone into her routine.

Stilbo offers the right perspective and demonstrates true equanimity regardless of fate.

after his country was captured and his children and his wife lost, as he emerged from the general desolation alone and yet happy, spoke as follows to Demetrius, called Sacker of Cities because of the destruction he brought upon them, in answer to the question whether he had lost anything: "I have all my goods with me!"  There is a brave and stout-hearted man for you! The enemy conquered, but Stilbo conquered his conqueror. "I have lost nothing!" Aye, he forced Demetrius to wonder whether he himself had conquered after all. "My goods are all with me!" In other words, he deemed nothing that might be taken from him to be a good.

I'm not sure how I could endure the same fate as Stilbo.  This is a premeditatio malorum exercise I'll have to contemplate.  And it is this kind of exercise Epictetus wants us to practice too.  We may need to start small - with a favorite coffee mug - and then work our way up to a circumstance similar to what Stilbo actually faced.

It is awe-inspiring to see such fortitude in Stilbo.  Seneca writes in admiration:

We marvel at certain animals because they can pass through fire and suffer no bodily harm; but how much more marvellous is a man who has marched forth unhurt and unscathed through fire and sword and devastation! Do you understand now how much easier it is to conquer a whole tribe than to conquer one man? This saying of Stilbo makes common ground with Stoicism; the Stoic also can carry his goods unimpaired through cities that have been burned to ashes; for he is self-sufficient. Such are the bounds which he sets to his own happiness.

Three quotes, to wrap up this letter.  Three quotes to contemplate in your solitude today.

"Whoever does not regard what he has as most ample wealth, is unhappy, though he be master of the whole world." 

"A man may rule the world and still be unhappy, if he does not feel that he is supremely happy."

"Folly is ever troubled with weariness of itself."

And an alternate translation of the same quote above ... "All foolishness suffers the burden of dissatisfaction with itself."

* Sep 24, 2020 - Thanks to a Instagram follower, he helped to make a correction on this post.  the other school: the wikisource makes it clear that the other school is the Cynics.  The Penguin 2004 edition reads "The difference here between the Epicurean and our own school..." which makes it read that Seneca is comparing the Epicureans and the Stoics, when in fact he is comparing the Epicureans/Stoics and the Cynics.  I've revised the post accordingly.

Notes on Stoic Physics from Stoicism by John Sellars

Ontology is the branch of metaphysics that deals with the nature of being and deals with all questions about the physical world.  The fundamental ontological assertion of the Stoics “underpinning all of Stoic physics is the claim that only bodies exist” (p. 81, Sellars).

The Platonic position was a “claim that the material world that we experience is merely a shadow of another realm where real existence lies” (p. 81, Sellars).

Plato was attacking all hard-lined, as well as moderate materialist perspectives.  He wished for any and all materialists “to admit to the existence of something that is not a body” (p. 82, Sellars).

Stoics believe that for something to exist it must have a body.

To avoid the Platonic trap, Zeno claimed that certain intangible things like soul, justice, virtue, and wisdom actually do exist and are bodies.  He grants Plato’s assumption that only bodies can act and be acted upon (p. 82, Sellars).  But as was discussed in the chapter on Logic in Sellars’ book, propositions (cognitions, impressions we assent to) are physical entities and so therefore intangibles such as virtue, justice or wisdom would be considered bodies.

Incorporeals subsist.  The four types of incorporeals are: void, time, place and sayables (p. 83, Sellars).

The present moment “belongs.”  This means the past and the future are non-existent realities and therefore subsist.  But the present is more real than the future or past, but still “is not as real as a physical object” and therefore “belongs” (p. 84, Sellars).

Universals of Platonic ideas, according to the Stoics “neither exist nor subsist” and “such entities are dismissed as ‘not-somethings’” … but by labeling these as “not-somethings” it creates another “category within the Stoic ontological scheme” therefore they “explicitly reject universals conceived as Platonic ideas” (p. 84, Sellars).

The ‘Stoic trap’ that Chrysippus devises goes like this:

If someone is in Athens, he is not in Magara;
“man” is in Athens;
Therefore, “man” is not in Magara.

The point Stoics want to make is “to deny that the generic name ‘man’ refers to anything at all.”  Platonists would insist that “man” is someone or something, yet the argument shows it cannot be someone or something.  The Platonist would agree with the first two premises, but if he agrees with the conclusion, he will agree with the Stoics that “man” is not-something, while if he rejects the conclusion, he must reject that “man” is someone or something – which he won’t want to admit.

The two material principals are:
a) “that which acts (to poioun) and
b) “that which is acted upon (to paschon) or we might say the active and the passive; they are God and matter” (p. 86, Sellars)

“Ancient sources” and “modern commentators suggest that the Stoics proposed a strict monism, that is, a conception of a single unified material reality.”  This conflicts with the two material principals, because how can a unified body, with nothing beyond itself, both act and be acted upon?

One way to resolve this conflict is to think of the two principles as “merely abstract or conceptual” and that the Stoics wanted “to give an account of the material world that does not have to refer to anything outside of Nature in order to explain its movement or development” thus “they are able to say that the material cosmos both acts and is acted upon … itself” (p. 87, Sellars).

The three ways in which two material entities might be mixed together are:

1. juxtaposition
2. fusion
3. total blending

Fusion is where the original two entities cease to exist and a third entity is created.

Total blending is where the original two entities continue to distinctively exist and a third entity is created.

Pneuma or breath is “the active principle in Nature, sometimes identified with God, sometimes with the soul of God” (p. 163, Sellars)

Pneuma has three principle conditions, “reflecting a different level of ‘tension’”

1. cohesion (hexis) – the force that holds physical objects, such as a stone, together.
2. nature (phusis) – the living force, which causes biological organisms to live.
3. soul (psuche) – the principle of life in animals that have powers of perceptions (impressions), movement (impulses) and reproduction. (See p. 91, Sellars)

Sellars states, “It is thus possible to make Stoic physics sound quite modern and thoroughly naturalistic.”  The three levels of tension coincide to levels of life forms and consciousness as well as a division between things that are purely acted upon and things that act as well as a division between things that are acted upon and which can also act.  Thus a rock would only possess cohesion pneuma and would not possess nature or soul and would be acted upon.  Going up the continuum, algae and plants would possess both cohesion and nature pneuma and could act on dirt and rocks.  Animals would have soul pneuma and could act on plants and rocks and even within animals, some animals such as humans might have greater soul pneuma.  Any modern biology class would most likely show simple versus complex lifeforms, not unlike the pneuma principles outlined above.

Two essential beliefs about the Stoic God are: God is not external to Nature, but rather God is Nature.  The other is “the cosmos is a living being” (p. 92-93, Sellars).

The orthodox Stoic belief was that Nature / the cosmos is conscious (see quotes from Zeno and Diogenes Laertius p. 93-94, Sellars).

The Stoic God is a conscious, living being that is Nature.

The Stoic cosmos can be described in a few points.

Point 1: there is nothing but void beyond the cosmos; therefore nothing external to the cosmos orders it: “The Stoics are thoroughgoing naturalists who want to give an account of the movement and order in the cosmos that does not depend on any entity outside the cosmos” (p. 95-96, Sellars).

Point 2: Nature / the cosmos “organizes and regulates itself” (p. 95, Sellars)

Point 3: Nature / the cosmos is a “living organism [and] is also conscious” (p. 95, Sellars)

Point 4: the cosmos is viewed as “a spherical being” and is “a finite cosmos” (p. 96, Sellars)

Point 5: the cosmos is “held together by the breath or pneuma that pervades it” (p. 97, Sellars)

Point 6: “at certain moments, the entire cosmos was dissolved entirely into fire” causing its destruction and birth.

Point 7: The destruction and birth are cyclical.  “The life of the cosmos in each cycle is identical to its predecessor.  The cosmos, governed by reason, has the best possible organization, this is repeated in each cycle.  Thus, there is eternal recurrence … as a single cycle, repeated endlessly” (p. 99, Sellars).

“Whole” or holon “refers to the cosmos.  “All” or pan “refers to both the cosmos and the infinite void surrounding it” (p. 97, Sellars).

Pneuma or breath holds the cosmos together and “is a conscious and rational organizing principal.  It is the soul of the cosmos, analogous to the soul of any other living being” (p. 97, Sellars).

Per the Wikipedia page, the phoenix “is a long-lived bird that cyclically regenerates or is otherwise born again. Associated with the sun, a phoenix obtains new life by arising from the ashes of its predecessor.”  This is an appropriate comparison to the Stoic eternal recurrence, where the cosmos goes through conflagration and birth in a single cycle, repeated endlessly.

Stoic fate is described as “a continuous string of causes, an inescapable order and connection between events” (p. 100, Sellars).

Stoic providence is described as “God, who pervades the entire cosmos, forms the cosmos into a harmonious whole and orders events in a providential manner.  The cosmos is ‘administered by mind and providence’” (p. 100, Sellars).

Fate and providence are reconciled by Stoics who argue that they “are in fact one and the same thing.”  God’s will is an ordered, continuous string of events and furthermore, because “God is supremely good and supremely rational, then there will surely be only one course of action open to him, namely the best and most rational course of action.”  And this “necessary and unalterable order of causes … is providentially arranged by God to be the best possible order” (p. 101, Sellars).

The theory of cosmic sympathy offers that all parts of the cosmos are continually interacting, such as the sun’s charged particles striking atoms in the earth’s atmosphere causing auroras to appear.  “This sympathy between all of the parts of the cosmos is a product of the fact that it is all permeated by breath or pnuema” (p. 103, Sellars).  Therefore, small events can have wide-ranging impacts.

Between Stoic fate, Stoic providence and cosmic sympathy, it would appear human will or agency is limited.  Some would suggest that individual humans have little to no free will and that their fate is entirely determined, regardless of their actions – so why should humans bother acting at all?  This is known as the “lazy argument.”

Chrysippus’ response to the “lazy argument” references two types of fated things.

• Simple fated things are “necessary and [are] a product of the essence of a thing.”  An example would be death – all mortals will die.
• Conjoined fated things are more complex and involve “two types of causes” called internal and external.  External causes would be things external to human nature that would impact the outcome.  Internal causes are things inherent to human nature.

Thus, humans can attempt to influence their fate when they are sick and may die at night.  While dying is an internal cause, dying at night is not a given as the human may call a doctor or take medication, thus influencing the outcome.

The cosmos is mirrored at the human level.  Where the cosmos has pneuma which constitutes God’s soul, the human soul is a fragment of the cosmic pneuma.  Where the cosmos is embodied in matter, so too the human body is a fragment of cosmic matter (see p. 104, Sellars).

The rational human being has pneuma at four levels of tension (p. 105, Sellars):

• hexis – cohesion of the body
• phusis – being alive in most basic biological sense
• psuche – animal faculties of impression and impulse
• logike psuche – rational power of judgement that can intervene between receiving impressions and acting on impulses.

The commanding faculty of the pneuma is called hegemonikon and is comprised of three parts (p. 105, Sellars):

• faculty of impressions; faculty of impulse; faculty of assent
• Humans share the faculties of impression and impulse with animals.
• The faculty that makes humans unique (their nature) is the faculty of assent.

Commentary on Meditations: B7:32-34

On death. Either dispersal, if we are atoms: or, if we are a unity, extinction or a change of home.

On pain. Unbearable pain carries us off: chronic pain can be borne. The mind preserves its own serenity by withdrawal, and the directing reason is not impaired by pain. It is for the parts injured by the pain to protest if they can.

On fame. Look at their minds, the nature of their thought and what they seek or avoid. And see how, just as drifting sands constantly overlay the previous sand, so in our lives what we once did is very quickly covered over by subsequent layers.

No one knows (or if they do, they have not successfully communicated the result back to the living) what happens after death.  All are theories with a smattering of anecdotal information and data.  Marcus admits as much and notes two extremes.  When we die, we are simply returned to dust and atoms or if there is a God or ultimate directing mind or minds guiding the Universe and all in it, then possibly we may have a "change of home".  This alludes, possibly, to reincarnation or resurrection.  In other places, Marcus makes mention we have all lived this life before and we will live it again.  In the universe - the vastness of time and space - anything is possible.  All of these things are out of our control.  The only choice we have in the matter, is accepting that we will die.

With regard to pain.  Some pain is unbearable; do what you must to endure it.  I am constantly amazed by stories of people who have endured unimaginable pain.  Some people must have an incredible high pain tolerance.  I think of the pains endured by soldiers, refugees, sailors and athletes.  One particular example comes to mind: Aron Ralston.  Then there are those who deal with chronic pain.  I've run across a lot of stories on social media of those who seek Stoicism to help them deal with chronic pain.  It is possible to maintain serenity in spite of chronic pain.  In all these examples, Marcus reminds himself that pain is external to the directing mind.  A human can still reason and think despite pain.  It certainly is not easy, but it can be done.  Which further proves the point that pain is indifferent (our contentment and happiness does not depend on not ever experiencing pain).  In fact, some philosophers went out of their way to self-inflict pain (hugging cold statues with their bare skin) to toughen them up and prevent themselves from seeking pain avoidance.

Fame: so many seek it.  In the age of social media, people actively pursue "going viral."  They want their Tweet or picture or video to be seen, liked, argued over or talked about.  Some seek fame in the pursuit of becoming more wealthy.  Others seek fame solely for popularity.  Yet others seek fame to garner social wealth and then be in a position to more easily persuade others.  The endless flow of time will quickly cause anyone and everyone to be forgotten.  If you've ever observed the waves and sand on a beach or sand dunes and wind, you will quickly learn how frequently and rapidly they change.  Also observe vast cities: London & New York - all the layers of civilization that people continue to build upon today.  Archaeologists find new cities that have been buried by land and time and water.  I think of Mexico City and the thousands of years people have continued to build upon previous cities.  Those cities used to have people in them - people of fame and repute and power.  And now, no one knows who they were.  Only names and grand acts may be found inscribed on walls.  Yet many of these grand acts are relegated to a few words or sentences in a history book.  And that history book too will soon be forgotten.

Commentary on Meditations: B6:36-39

Asia, Europe are mere nooks of the universe. Every ocean is a drop in the universe: Mount Athos a spadeful of earth in the universe. The whole of present time is a pin-prick of eternity. All things are tiny, quickly changed, evanescent.

All things come from that other world, taking their start from that universal governing reason, or in consequence of it. So even the lion's gaping jaws, poison, every kind of mischief are, like thorns or bogs, consequential products of that which is noble and lovely.

So do not think them alien to what you worship, but reflect rather on the fountain of all things.

He who sees the present has seen all things, both all that has come to pass from everlasting and all that will be for eternity: all things are related and the same.

You should meditate often on the connection of all things in the universe and their relationship to each other. In a way all things are interwoven and therefore have a family feeling for each other: one thing follows another in due order through the tension of movement, the common spirit inspiring them, and the unity of all being.

Fit yourself for the matters which have fallen to your lot, and love these people among whom destiny has cast you - but your love must be genuine.

One of the more important exercises of Stoicism is to be mindful of the totality and interconnectedness of the universe.  The more we appreciate how "one" we are with everything, the more we will embrace a spirit of acceptance of our fate as well as a spirit of working well with others and our environment.  As Nietzsche says, "My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fati: that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it...but love it”

amor fati - means love your fate.  It embraces the idea that everything now, exactly as it is, is meant to be that way.  Starting with your soul, and then moving outward to your body in this space and time, with the people whom you share time at this moment, during this struggle or difficult situation, in the room you are in, the building you are in, the campus you are on, the city you are in, the region you are in, the country you are in, the continent you are on, the hemisphere you live in, the planet you call home, the solar system, the local star cluster, the galaxy, the universe.  All of it means or intends to be exactly the way it is.  And if you can accept things the way they are, and embrace and love the very moment you are in, then you embrace eternity - you realize eternity is not some far-off-in-the-future notion; rather it is now.

See yourself in this amazing, complex web of time and space and love your lot in life; love those people who cross paths with you - love your fate and love those people genuinely.

Furthermore, if there is something you feel is amiss in your life, or if you feel discontent, then use that anxiety and discomfort to motivate you to find the source. Given enough time, and given you use your rational faculties, you will find that much of your source of discontentment comes from within. Let that work in your favor to identify ways for you to change your perspective.

(see also Citadel p. 43, 137, 141, 153, 168, 173, 176, 230, 254)

Commentary on Meditations: B5:32

Why do unskilled and ignorant minds confound the skilful and the wise? Well, what is the mind of true skill and wisdom? It is the mind which knows the beginning and the end, and knows the Reason which informs all of existence and governs the Whole in appointed cycles through all eternity.

Hadot has an interesting take on this passage.  Marcus seeks to understand why unskilled, ignorant people confound the wise.  His answer: because the soul already "knows" (accepts Stoic doctrine) - almost alluding to the fact of a prior life that is savvy to ultimate purpose.

Full passage by Hadot:

Other themes also seem to be characteristic of Book V. For example, it contains two allusions to a Stoic cosmological doctrine which Marcus mentions very rarely: that of the eternal return. Usually, Marcus imagines the metamorphoses of things and the destiny of souls within the "period" of the world in which we are now living, without worrying about the eternal return of this period. This is what he does first, in V, 13, where he begins by affirming that each part of the universe, as it is born and dies, is transformed into another part of the universe. Yet he remarks:  

"There is nothing to prevent one from talking like this, even if the world is administered in accordance with determinate periods." 

In this case, he means, all the parts of the universe will be reabsorbed at the end of each period into the original Fire-Reason, before they are reborn from this same Fire in the following period. Elsewhere, in V, 32, we get a glimpse of the immensity of the space that opens up before the soul which "knows"-that is, which accepts Stoic doctrine:  

"It knows the beginning and the end, and the Reason which traverses universal substance, and which administers the All throughout eternity, in accordance with determinate periods." 

We do not find another allusion to the eternal return until XI, l, 3. 

(see Citadel p. 267

Commentary on Meditations: B5:13 eternal return or recurrence

I am made up of the causal and the material. Neither of these will disappear into nothing, just as neither came to be out of nothing. So every part of me will be assigned its changed place in some part of the universe, and that will change again into another part of the universe, and so on to infinity. A similar sequence of change brought me into existence, and my parents before me, and so back in another infinity of regression. Nothing forbids this assertion, even if the universe is subject to the completion of cycles.

The discipline of assent directs us to 'break things down' into parts.  We should truly try to see things as they are, and not add faulty impressions on top of things and ideas.  When it comes to our life and our existence, we ought to apply the discipline of assent too.

We may think of ourselves as so important - a king, a queen, a president, a diplomat, a wealthy landowner, a CEO or vice president, a very well-paid manager, an NFL quarterback, an all-star basketball player in the NBA, an Olympic gold medalist, a celebrity, a movie star, mayor - I could do this all day.  No matter how much importance you put on your life, no one can dispute that you are nothing more than water, carbon, stardust ... this directing mind or soul, inside a bag of bones carrying meat, living on a rock flying through space.  And furthermore, you have no power or control over what happens to that bag of bones on a rock floating in space.

Marcus, along with the Stoics, seems to think that we live multiple iterations of our life - that the universe expands and contracts and all that has happened will happen again.  This is called eternal return.  The link provided does a nice job summarizing this concept.  Also see this link for a couple of articles on the idea of eternal return (especially read the one call Eternal Recurrence: Nietzsche and the Stoics).

So, what does this idea of eternal return have to do with living now?  In the article I linked to above, Nietzsche asks the question: what if you knew you had to live the same life, over and over and over again?  I suppose many would shun the thought, thinking only of the suffering they've had to endure.  But what if you could 'pass the test' and accept your fate (amor fati) and turn your life into a work of art?  What if you could realize you truly have no control over the fact that the universe repeats itself endlessly?  What if you could realize that it is your opinion of your fate that could be flipped to an accepting and even loving opinion?  Would this not aid you in your quest to find contentment and happiness?

I'll finish with a quote from the Eternal Recurrence: Nietzsche and the Stoics article, which does a nice job summarizing the Stoic point of view.

The Stoics had their own way of passing the ‘eternal recurrence test’, differing to be sure from Nietzsche’s but requiring just as much psychic effort and self-fashioning. Their strategy was to train themselves to look at everything from the perspective of universal Nature. If, as they insisted, this is really the best of all possible worlds, governed by a perfect divine Providence, then anything that actually happens at any point must be the best thing that could happen at that point. Certain things may look negative to us, but that is merely a result of our looking at them from within a limited human perspective; could we but see them as God sees them, we would perceive how they are indeed for the best, and we would be able to desire them as God desires them. Clearly it is not easy to acquire such an attitude in respect of all things that happen in our world, so the Stoics performed spiritual exercises to help them; much of what Marcus Aurelius writes in his Meditations amounts to an effort to escape the limits of his own viewpoint and reform his consciousness in likeness to God’s. ... Both strategies for embracing eternal recurrence are an ongoing effort to change the way we perceive, and both acknowledge that this is not a simple matter, for the means of re-fashioning our minds are never simply given to us – we have to be creative.

(see also Citadel p. 267)