Dear Readers,
Here is the latest Monday Muse with a meditation from the Dying Every Day series, a perennial reminder, insight, and a recommendation to consider.
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💀 Dying Every Day
The Dying Every Day series delivers meditations on the art of living (and dying). Each meditation provides a quote, a selected passage (from an original Stoic text), and a daily exercise to contemplate.
“These are the two ideas you should keep at the very front of your mind and think about. One is that things in the world do not touch your spirit but stand quietly external to it; that which disturbs us comes only from the opinions within us. Second, everything you see changes in a moment and will soon be gone. Always keep in mind how many of these changes you have already seen. The world is constantly changing; your life lies in your opinion.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Selected Reading
In this week’s meditation, we explore the art of thinking through a selected reading from Seneca.
It is clear to you, I am sure, Lucilius, that no man can live a happy life, or even a supportable life, without the study of wisdom; you know also that a happy life is reached when our wisdom is brought to completion, but that life is at least endurable even when our wisdom is only begun. This idea, however, clear though it is, must be strengthened and implanted more deeply by daily reflection; it is more important for you to keep the resolutions you have already made than to go on and make noble ones.
You must persevere, must develop new strength by continuous study, until that which is only a good inclination becomes a good settled purpose. …
Philosophy moulds and constructs the soul; it orders our life, guides our conduct, shows us what we should do and what we should leave undone; it sits at the helm and directs our course as we waver amid uncertainties. Without it, no one can live fearlessly or in peace of mind.
+ Adapted from On Philosophy, the Guide of Life
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Daily Exercise
Consider reflecting on what guides your thinking. How do you discern between helpful and unhelpful ways of thinking? As you go about your week, consider pausing occasionally to notice how your thinking influences your actions.
📌 Perennial Reminder(s)
Your vision of the world reflects more about you than it mirrors objective reality. ‘The reason why the world lacks unity, and lies broken and in heaps, is because man is disunited in himself,’ after all. Societies are made up of individuals who are largely blind to their own illusions, doomed to repeat their destructive patterns till they learn to change how they see and think. …
Perspective creates your reality. The mind’s narration interferes with clear seeing. This story-making voice creates an illusion of separateness that must be seen through in order to be fully present. […]
Source: Lessons from an American Stoic by Mark Matousek (via my conversation with Mark on In Search of Wisdom)
💡 Perennial Insight(s)
Cognitive fusion means buying into what your thoughts tell you (taking them literally, word for word) and letting what they say overdetermine what you do. This trick of mind happens because we are programmed to notice the world only as structured by thought—we see the terrible this or the awful that—but we miss the fact that we are thinking.
In our attempts to have the world make sense, we judge our experiences and then buy into the judgment instead of realizing it is a judgment to begin with. The flip side of fusion is seeing thoughts as they actually are—ongoing attempts at meaning-making—and then choosing to give them power only to the degree that they genuinely serve us. This flexibility skill involves just noticing the act of thinking, without diving in. […]
Source: The Liberated Mind by Steven C. Hayes
🛋️ Perennial Reflection
This week’s passages reminded me of the paradoxical idea that thinking is a path to peace and suffering. The Buddha taught that whatever we frequently think and ponder will become the inclination of the mind and that an untrained mind ultimately leads to suffering.
In the Dhammapada (or Sayings of the Buddha), it explains,
We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world. Speak or act with an impure mind, and trouble will follow you as the wheel follows the ox that draws the cart. …
Speak or act with a pure mind, and happiness will follow you as your shadow, unshakable. How can a troubled mind understand the way?
Buddhist and Stoic wisdom aligns well with modern psychological research. For example, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) tells us that changing our thinking patterns can reduce suffering. By noticing faulty or unhelpful ways of thinking, we can learn better ways of navigating life.
📖 Perennial Book(s)
This week’s book recommendation is The Inner Experience by Thomas Merton (published posthumously in 2004). I actually found this short book at my local library about a year ago. Since then, I learned it was Merton’s final work, and he was making revisions shortly before his untimely death (in 1968). It bridges Merton’s early work on Catholic monasticism, mysticism, and contemplation with his later writing on Eastern meditation and spirituality.
“Reflect, sometimes, on the disquieting fact that most of your statements of opinions, tastes, deeds, desires, hopes, and fears are statements about someone who is not really present. When you say ‘I think,’ it is often not you who think, but ‘they’—it is the anonymous authority of the collectivity speaking through your mask. When you say ‘I want,’ you are sometimes simply making an automatic gesture of accepting, paying for, what has been forced upon you. … Who is this ‘I’ that you imagine yourself to be?”
— Thomas Merton, The Inner Experience
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Thank you for reading/listening; I hope you found something useful.
Until next time, be wise and be well,
J.W.
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The Art of Thinking, Perspectives, and Judgments