Friday, December 29, 2017

Commentary on Meditations: B9:4-8

The sinner sins against himself: the wrongdoer wrongs himself, by making himself morally bad.

There can often be wrongs of omission as well as commission.

These will suffice: the present certainty of judgement, the present social action, the present disposition well content with any effect of an external cause.

Erase the print of imagination, stop impulse, quench desire: keep your directing mind its own master.

Irrational creatures share in one animate soul, and rational creatures partake in one intelligent soul: just as there is one earth for all the things of earth, and one light to see by, one air to breathe for all of us who have sight and life.

When we are not virtuous, we are really only harming ourselves.  Indeed, we may harm others, but if others truly are applying the discipline of assent, then they are not harmed by us, in which case, the only harm done is to ourselves.  When our home was burglarized in 2014, indeed it felt like a violation of our privacy, but upon examination, nothing was truly lost to us.  We lost the use of a few computers and the use of jewelry and other possessions, but no real harm was done to us.  The burglar harmed himself with injustice.  Perhaps one day he'll realize there is a better way.

Things left undone are just as bad actively doing harm.

It is sufficient to be content now; to do well now; to love your fate now.

Your perception of the world indeed is all in your head.  Harm done to you only exists in your head.  Desires and impulses are only in your head - they are not real.

We are all part of one great Whole.  Think on this the next time you feel harmed or you wish to harm.  In the end, you are only harming yourself.  We share all with all.

(see also Citadel p. 44-45, 70, 146, 188, 271)

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