Stoic
The Philosophy of a Stoic
You seem saddened with grief that has driven you away from the forest. Are you trying to run away ? Will any place satisfy you ? Are you not dashing away hither and thither to find a path that in turn draws you to more sorrow and pain ? Take authority of yourself and be stationed within your soul. Thus find a place in the inner home, where your soul actually belongs.
You have come through the dense forest covered with trees that have risen to the Skye height, that shut off all lights. In the secluded spot you have looked in wonderment at the beauty and desired her love. But that path has led you to this cave, in which the rocks have eroded deep within.
What's good in dragging up suffering, that is over ? By being unhappy now for what has passed you only deceive your life and bring on your life more hardship that you should bear . Fight against these follies of the mind, exert yourself against the load that wishes to sink your soul as a monster of fear. The source of suffering lies within. When you yourself is the creator of your own sorrow let it not plague and harass the mind. Otherwise, the things that you are trying to run away from will be with you all the time.
The only safe harbour in life's tossing lies in you. Do not be bothered about the troubled sea, or on the fear of what the future may bring. Stand ready and confident squaring the breast to take without skulking and flinching whatever the fortune may hurl. On the way to the tracks , that lead to precipice on the giddy height, it is so ordained that one will be carried off the course and go down, from where one must sail again to the cherished land once more. The destiny will hurl the boat headlong on the rocks, dash it into pieces. But if you can cling to the destiny's wholesome plan, you will not feel miserable at the wreck.. Like Odysseus, Neptune is always against the mortal from the day man is born. But journey we must make . Without it we will never arrive at the height where we are destined to merge with the higher part - our Self.
It is a long road you have started on. You must expect slippery paths, knocks and falls. On the way the companions will depart, one you love will die, you have to bury your father, son, daughter and wife. But do not be afraid. These are the things all must face. Wanting to die or escape is derived from false concepts of the principles of nature and life. In the path, where often the thunder and lightening may strike, hold on to the terrain without being afraid of the fearful light. Odysseus' wandering is also our own wandering. Everyday there are storms caused by the vices that Odysseus never knew from before. Like him mortal life is not spared of the eye-distracting beauties, or the savage monsters revelling on blood. Insidious voices beguiling the ears of the sailors, ship wrecks, misfortunes, all are companions with which all mortals must live day by day. Sometimes one must encounter monsters and beasts, sometimes the evil men, who are more dangerous than the beasts. Fire may rob man from property, flood may cause havoc, but brave should bear up with courage all that fortune sends. As clear sky follows clouds, after calm comes storm, day succeeds night, part of heaven ascends while the other part descends in the darkness, brave man knows that only by means of such opposite the eternity endures.
It is clear that to loose someone one loves is the hardest blow to bear. But preserve the serenity of the mind and the attitude that all that happen have a greater reason and take place only to serve the nature to its best. Everything will return : Every beauty ravaged by time will again succeed the beauty that has gone. Although things that succeed will not quite be the same there is nowhere a loss, never a complete dissolution of what once has been. Everything will go to preserve the order of the things. Multitudes of beings doomed to die after birth will follow others to where every one is heading for from the beginning of time.
Nothing is durable. Destinies of men and cities sweep alike. Terror may come in the most tranquil time without giving any hint that it comes. Torture, exile, shipwreck , war, misfortune, may banish man to wilderness and make the very surrounding in which one lives suffocating. But all these are the terms of human lots. Keep this view of life in front of your eyes when you move further to your life's destined path. It is only then you will not be overwhelmed or feel struck numb by the fortune or misfortune that may come.
The city , from where I come, has burned down; the wealth and glory of her beauty have gone. Like that time will sweep away the traces of every city of whose splendour and magnificence you may hear. The structures built by human skill and industry can not stand nature's force. I have seen how the mountain massifs have crumbled away, whole regions of land have submerged under flood water, waves have covered landmarks far out from the boundary where the sea once had stood. Under the soaring peak beside the sea, that beckoned mariners seeking lowly pleasure, I have seen the immense force of the volcanic fires, that once made the mountain tops glow , slide and eat vegetation away and reduce to a barren land the shore that once was a seat of burgeoning life. Subterranean explosions, violence of flood, volcanic outbursts fracturing the crust, plague carrying off population, draught turning lands to desert and decay and many other ways , that are tedious to account, are among the modes by which the fate always overtakes. As a result all that stand must fall. But keep in your view the notion that things fall only to rise to the exalted heights.
This is the way to defy that inspire fear. Despise all things that terrify and set chains on the freedom and brings man to a state that cause tears. Be beaten, get burnt, walk straight, probe the mystery of the nature and life where they may hide. Liberate quality in yourself that can take command of the mind over the pleasures of life. What's the use of possessing a horse, if you can not master and control its reins and gallop through the terrain where you wish to see the true nature of your spirit unveiled ? Overcome emotions, take self control . Use the divine spark , that is a part of your make up, and rise within yourself. Use your power and from a trickling fountain burst into a cascade. Let not the waves of the noise, the cataracts of pain, create a racket around your soul. Absorb the babel and the roaring discordant noise and hear the voice of the falling commotion of the spirit emitting music of life and be self-absorbed.
If you desire to reach the destination lying at the height , like Odysseus passing by the Siren's land by binding himself on the mast, with these words in mind steer all clear. Let not eating, drinking , squandering , theft, that most living call living, slip you from self-control and lead you to Siren's jaws. Stay clear from the drunken man's tortuous path; guard your eyes from the beauty in wood and by the stream; tilt not your heart to the seduction of the senses believing that on the earth you have found the garden of Paradise. Where the giant forest in ecstasy gazes at the sky , the woman's breasts , buttocks and thigh glow in passion's light, the serpent of life trades the forces of light with misery and death of the night , the curvetting horse with vicious might accoutre around passion's hearth, the waxing day awakens the solitude of lust, sputtering flames of the heart drive the huntsman to chase the stags of the lust, where mother, daughter, wife, lover and whosoever bring love, embroil life in which man is tossed in tides, hold your spirit's might and stand above the wreckage in the waves , that create day and night, darkness and light. Thus swim over the sea to the shore where you have your origin of birth and walk towards the height where the mountains take their radiant baths.
Climb up. When the ones, who are coming down the slope, will throw forward the bodies to the ground and tilt the weight towards the rugged earth , rein your body backward from the drag of the spirit of gravity and climb upward to the mountain terrain beckoning the mind to a realm beyond the stars. Reconcile the body to accept tiredness , remain serene, rise to the sublime height higher than yourself, carry your mind forward above the trifling world flitting underneath in the light and dark. Seize yourself, make king of yourself and rise to a kingdom above the earth.
PHILOSOPHER WITH Will-TO-LIVE