Marcus Aurelius

I went to the library Monday to do some research on Pater. I found an article on his Renaissance by Jeffrey Wallen called "Alive in the Grave: Walter Pater's Renaissance." Though I very much enjoy the title, I am not inordinately thrilled with the content (maybe not so much the content exactly, but the style of the writing?). Anyhow, I went ahead and checked out the book itself as well. Then I found Marcus Aurelius (I am a fan of his Meditations.) I checked it out since my copy got lost somewhere in Poughkeepsie. Though the entire book is relevant, below are just a few select passages. I apologize for such extensive quoting, but some things must be done (it is just so good.)

"17. In human life time is but a point, reality a flux, perception indistinct, the composition of the body subject to easy corruption, the soul a spinning top, fortune hard to make out, fame confused. To put it briefly: physical things are but a flowing stream, things of the soul dreams and vanity; life is but a struggle and the visit to a strange land, posthumous fame but a forgetting." (Aurelius 16-7)

Only just a little bleak, just like Eliot. Time is now, but life is just a struggle that is essentially lost to the world at some point. We all decay. We all are doomed to decay. Stephen ruminates in Ulysses:
"Bag of corpsegas sopping in foul brine. A quiver of minnows, fat of a spongy tidbit, flash through the slits of his buttoned trouserfly. God becomes man becomes fish becomes barnacle goose becomes featherbed mountain. Dead breaths I living breathe, tread dead dust, devour a ruinous offal from all dead. Hauled stark over the gunwale he breathes upward the stench of his green grave, his leprous nosehole snoring to the sun" (Joyce 41-2).

Talk about decay! Though he didn't sleep in his coffin nightly, Stephen reminded himself of his corporeality frequently and mercilessly.
"At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless; Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is . . ." (Eliot 15-6)
The dance of death? or the dance of life? Dr. Sexson keeps mentioning the Tibetan Book of the Dead. I had only been familiar with the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying.

In class, Dr. Sexson mentioned the Four Noble Truths. (Thanks to sasana.org:)
1. All life knows suffering. Nobody gets what they want out of life.
2. The cause of suffering is ignorance and clinging. Wanting it is the problem.
3. There is a way to end suffering. By learning not to want it.
4. This is the way to end suffering: The Eightfold Path.
1. Right Understanding Learning the nature of reality and the truth about life.
2. Right Aspiration Making the commitment to living in such a way that our suffering can end.
3. Right Effort Just Do It. No Excuses.
4. Right Speech Speaking the truth in a helpful and compassionate way.
5. Right Conduct Living a life consistent with our values.
6. Right Livelihood Earning a living in a way that doesn’t hurt others.
7. Right Mindfulness Recognizing the value of the moment; living where we are.
8. Right Concentration Expanding our consciousness through meditation.
"right action" (Eliot)

Along a similar vein, I like that Pat brought up koans in his presentation. Koans drive me nuts. They are a question or riddle. However, koans do not have answers(even if they do.) For me this delves into Kevin's ponderance on paradoxes in a recent blog. As far as actually answering a koan, the key is to admit that you do not know the answer, nor can you ever know the answer. You see my Western frustration. I get it though. I understand that enlightenment comes in the form of letting go, emptying out (not feeling obliged to have answers for all, not feeling distressed at not knowing.) Kenosis. Autumn.

Example koans:
What is the color of wind?
What is the sound of one hand clapping?

M. Aurelius again:
"33. We shall very soon be only ashes or dry bones, merely a name or not even a name, while a name in any case is only a noise and an echo. The things much honored in life are vain, corruptible, and of no import. The living are like puppies who bite, or quarrelsome children who laugh and then immediately weep. Faith and Reverence and Justice and Truth "have left the wide-pathed earth for Heaven."11 What is it which holds us here, if indeed the objects of sense are ever changing and last not, the senses themselves are blurred and variable as wax, our soul is but an exhalation from the blood, and good repute among such is vain? What holds us? To await death with good grace, whether it be extinction or a going elsewhere. And until the time for it comes, what suffices? What else but to honor the gods and praise them, to do good to men, bear with them and forbear. As for all that lies within the limits of mere flesh and mere life, remember that none of it belongs to you or is within your power." (47)

Why do we go on living when we see the inevitable death? Aurelius references a passage from Hesiod's Works and Days that details Aidos (Reverence) and Nemesis abandoning the earth to return to Olympus. So why don't we choose this path, the path into the rose garden through the door that was never opened.

I suppose Eliot answers this in his own way at the end of the Dry Salvages section. "And right action is freedom from past and future also. For most of us, this is the aim never here to be realized; who are only undefeated because we have gone on trying; we, content at the last if our temporal reversion nourish (not so far from the yew-tree) the life of significant soil" (45). As Aurelius points out that "none of it belongs to you or is within your power," all we can do is water the earth, the significant soil, with our contributions.

Things change, Kundun.
"21. Before long you will not be anybody or exist anywhere, nor will any of the things you now see, or anyone of those now living. For all things are by nature intended to change, to be altered and destroyed, in order that other things in their turn may come to be." (Aurelius 126)
In my opinion this is the key to epiphany. All things are meant to change. When a sudden change or shift occurs, so does an epiphany. Stasis does not bode well for the livelihood of epiphanies. There must be change to foster them. Also, in my opinion, when a manifestation of clarity, beauty, or even darkness occurs to a person, his or her brain is forever changed.

So where did Pater go? next blog I suppose.