For today’s Soul Care Sunday we are going to dive into Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, who was a Stoic philosopher and also an Emperor. This book comprises of his thoughts and notes on how to live the most aligned life he could. It’s a book I have returned to again and again over the past two decades and one I would highly recommend getting a copy of for it’s short, pithy pieces of guidance.
There are a few key pieces I thought might be helpful to explore in this weeks Soul Care Sunday. Everything in italics are the words of Marcus Aurelius.
“No one can lose with the past or the future – how could anyone be deprived of what he does not possess?”.
If you really begin to witness and take stock of how much energy your mind spends on ruminating over a past that cannot be changed, and projecting into a future that cannot be accurately predicted, you will begin to see the futile attempts our human minds make to control. One of the things I adore seeing in meditation students is when they begin to meditate they get a front seat with a clear picture into their minds mechanics. They begin to be able to witness, steadily what their mind is up to, and to begin to pay it less attention in their eyes open states. A lot of what the mind is nattering on about is useless, and loops around certain things, also creating an enormous amount of fantasy and dreamscapes. We don’t need to do anything about this, for we cannot stop it, our mind is working beautifully doing what it’s meant to do – AND we can stop paying it so much attention.
This frees us up to then begin to pull our awareness into our actual life, in the present moment.
“The soul of a man harms itself, first and foremost, when it becomes (as far as it can) a seperate growth, a sort of tumour on the universe; because to resent anything that happens is to seperate oneself in revolt from Nature, which holds in collective embrace the particular natures of all other things”.
This call to action is to is to not ignore that we are ultimately nature, connected to all things simultaneously. Our ego structures define us as seperate, individual, as small self. Nature, consciousness, the Universe, moves together as one whole, a whole we are in fact a part of at all times.
“In man’s life his time is a mere instance, his existence a fox, his perception fogged, his whole bodily composition rotting, his mind a whirligig, his fortune unpredictable, his fame unclear. To put it shortly: all the things of the body stream away like a river, all things of the mind are dreams and delusion; life is warfare and a visit in a strange land; the only lasting fame is oblivion. What then can escort us on our way? One thing and one thing only, philosophy. This consists in keeping the divinity within us inviolate and free from harm, master of pleasure and pain, doing nothing without aim, truth or integrity, independent of others’ actions or failure to act”.
In today’s age there is much worrying about what everyone else is up to – where they aren’t doing it the way we would like. The way they move through the world becomes a key focus for the busy mind, taking us further and further away from the only thing we should be really focussed on – what are we up to ourselves, are we holding ourselves in integrity, keeping our divinity alive, moving into alignment with the Universe’s destiny for us? Or are we instead locked in judgement and fighting life like it is a huge battle to be fought, with us at the centre of it, they key actor?
“Do not waster the remaining part of your life in thoughts about other people, when you are not thinking with reference to some aspect for common good. Why deprive yourself of time for some other tasks? I mean, thinking about what so and so is doing, and why, what is saying or contemplating or plotting, all that line if thought, makes you stray from the close watch on your own directing mind”.
This week, watch as you move from an internal focus to an external one, how frequently the mind moves outwards. Be gentle with yourself in building momentum with this internal orientation. Don’t flounder when at first you find that you externally fixate numerous times a minute. Instead see it as a part of the great discovery, of the recognition that the mind has created a space outside itself as the key focus. Meditate with discipline, building the love affair with yourself, caring for the important things and discarding the unimportant.
SIGNPOSTS BACK HOME CONVERSATION SERIES
Mutribo and I have started a Conversations series I think you might like. A way to have a weekly session of meditation and knowledge at your own timing. We start with 15 minutes of meditation, chat for about an hour then complete with 15 mins of meditation. You can try the first talk out through the link below.
We are going to offer a few of these talks as a gifted offering and then we will fold them into our Portal Membership and then these Conversations will be available to all our Portal Members as a weekly offering as a part of your membership!
The Portal Membership is a teaching resource where you can come and learn at your own pace including our Mindfit Meditation program, a multitude of courses and programs on self development and spirituality, that also includes our Live Monthly Talks that you can join me with each month where we explore themes and practices. It is truly an incredible resource and we have made it as financially accessible as we can – an investment the equivalent of a take out cup of coffee a week. You can join annually with a huge discount, or pay monthly, and the membership spans a year.
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