The Wisdom of Hypatia: Ancient Spiritual Practices for a More Meaningful Life (18 page)

the discipline of assent 89

Somebody cuts me off in heavy traffic. My immediate impression is surprise and I

swerve or brake; fear, anger, or relief follows quickly. These are my immediate, involuntary reactions, to which I must assent. Beyond that, I should suspend judgment. That the other driver is an idiot, that they intended to scare me, that I have narrowly escaped death, and so on: all this is uncertain, and I should set it aside. The objective fact is that the other car pulled too close in front of me. Why allow the rest inside the walls, where it will only disturb my tranquility?

You read or hear in the news that some people are being tortured, that they are being imprisoned unjustly, or that they are starving and homeless. The bare fact is that you have been told these things; set aside your habitual judgments so that from a state of tranquility you can act more wisely (as taught in the next two disciplines).

Suspending judgment is not the same, of course, as apathy. You suspend judgment in

order to break free of habitual reactions so that you can evaluate circumstances correctly and respond to them appropriately. The Stoic prescriptions for correct evaluation and action are the Disciplines of Desire and Impulse, respectively, the subjects of the next two chapters.

Suspending Judgment:
As you go about your daily affairs, pay attention as situations stir up your emotions, positive or negative. In your mind, separate what

is certain—the naked description—from what is uncertain—your habitual judg-

ment—and set aside the latter. Record your observations in your journal. Note

your successes and failures in suspending judgment. (Remember the evening ex-

amination of conscience?) Do you find that practicing the Discipline of Assent is

giving you the ability maintain neutrality in the face of life’s experiences?

Introduction

We come now to the second discipline of the Second Degree of Wisdom. In many ways

it is the most difficult of the three disciplines, since it requires the greatest reorientation of your thinking, and so you should plan on spending some time practicing it. The first discipline taught you how to suspend habitual judgments, in particular about whether something is good or bad, or to be desired or avoided. What then should you seek or shun?

The second discipline will teach you how to reprogram your desires and aversions so that you can always obtain what you desire and avoid what you want to avoid, and so live in peace and happiness. To this end you will learn the complementary relation of desire and action, what it is you are truly free to choose, and how to detach yourself from what it out of your control. You will learn about your inner daimôn, which makes these choices, and your guardian daimon, which guides them, and how to detach your feelings from things outside of your control in both your personal life and the world. Finally I will explain the importance of understanding events, whether positive or negative, in terms of your personal destiny.

Desire, Impulse, and Nature

We can imagine a discussion between Rusticus and Marcus as they stroll through

one of the palace gardens. Rusticus is speaking. “I explained yesterday that the Porch recognizes three mental faculties—judgment, desire, and impulse—with their corresponding disciplines. The first governs the higher soul—the head we might say—but

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92 the discipline of desire

the last two, impulse and desire, regulate two complementary aspects of the lower

soul; call them the heart and belly. Desire relates to
passion
in the sense of what we feel and also what we passively suffer, whereas impulse relates to
action
, to what we want to do, our active intention. Thus passion is a consequence of universal Nature, and hence of external causes, in contrast to action, which is a consequence of our human nature, and hence of internal causes. Therefore these two disciplines are based, respectively, on physics (the study of Nature) and ethics. So that you remember the

cause of your destiny, say to yourself:

I have what universal Nature wills me to have;

and I do what now my nature wills me to do.110

“Together the Disciplines of Desire and Impulse are intended to coordinate uni-

versal Nature and human nature so that you fulfill your nature as perfectly as possible.

Now from the Stoic perspective, universal Nature is God and human nature is the in-

ner daimon, so these disciplines harmonize the god within and the god above all, that is, the individual logos with the universal Logos. Since the inner logos is a fragment of the universal Logos, this harmony is our natural state. Tell yourself:

First, nothing will happen to me that is not in harmony with universal Nature;

second, it is in my power never to act contrary to my god and daimon.111

“As you’ve seen, the Discipline of Assent gives us control over our judgments, so we assent to the true, dissent from the false, and withhold judgment from the uncertain.

Given this control, how can we use it to decide truly what to seek and what to avoid?”

Good, Bad, and Indifferent

What an organism perceives as
good
is whatever it seeks to obtain and keep, and what it perceives as
bad
is whatever it seeks to avoid or get rid of. A philosophy, then, teaches a way of life by defining the good, which should to be chosen, and the bad, which should be avoided.

We have seen that for those in the Garden pleasure is good and pain is bad, as Epicureans understand pleasure and pain. Thus the Garden’s philosophy is classified as
hedonism
because the ultimate standard of good and the goal of life is pleasure (
hêdonê
in Greek).

Of course you have seen that life in the Garden is far from the sort of sensual self-indulgence that “hedonism” usually connotes. In contrast, the Porch’s philosophy is a kind of the discipline of desire 93

eudemonism
because its goal is happiness or spiritual well-being (Greek
eudaimonia
, literally, having an inner
daimon
—higher soul—that is doing well). How is this goal achieved?

The philosophers of the Porch say that we can live happily if we understand good and bad correctly, in accord with our nature, for then we will see that the good is always obtainable and the bad always avoidable. This is the case if we understand good and bad in terms of what is in our power, namely, our
moral purpose
, which is our commitment to act in accord with Stoic ethical principles (discussed in the next chapter). Therefore the only truly good things are what is morally good, right, noble, virtuous, and so forth, and the only truly bad things are what is shameful, disgraceful, base, vicious, and so forth. Since nothing can prevent us from choosing to act morally, the good is always obtainable and the bad avoidable. The Emperor affirms the Stoic definition of good and bad this maxim:
I have seen the nature of the good that it is virtuous,

and the nature of the bad that is vicious.112

The other side of the Stoic prescription is to eliminate value judgments from things that don’t depend on us, to be “indifferent to the indifferent,” and to accept what Nature or Destiny brings. That is, what is in our control, and what we should choose, is to act virtuously. But the results of our actions are not in our control, and so we should consider them neither good nor bad in this fundamental sense. Thus the Discipline of Desire brings about a transformation of consciousness, in which the higher self is experienced as a safe haven from the onslaught of Fate.

Be like the cliff against which the waves continually break;

but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.113

The effect of the Discipline of Desire is not apathy, as you might suppose, but a more solid foundation and stronger fortress from which to act effectively and courageously in the world. Recognizing this intellectually and feeling it in your gut are, of course, two different things. How can we be indifferent when our plans come to naught or lead to disaster? How can we be indifferent to the trouble and pain in the world? We cannot, but dealing with them effectively requires a base of serenity and strength. This requires mental training and vigilance in your judgments until they become habitual. In modern terms, you are practicing
cognitive behavioral therapy
, in which new ideas and thinking are used to 94 the discipline of desire

reprogram your emotions and behavior. (In fact, cognitive behavioral therapy is based on ancient Stoicism.114) Let’s see how it’s done.

Circumscribing the Self

The Stoics teach a number of practices that are intended to transform the consciousness of the philosopher. Here I will outline a concentrative practice described by Marcus, which philosopher Pierre Hadot calls “delimiting or circumscribing the self ” and describes as “the fundamental exercise of Stoicism.”115 It elevates consciousness to the first level above that of the non-philosopher.

The exercise is to progressively detach yourself from exterior circumstances by judging them as “indifferent,” that is, neither good nor evil. It is like stripping away the layers of an onion to get to the inner daimon (the essential you). First, you must withhold judgment about what others say or do. Second, you must detach yourself from memory of past suffering or fear of future suffering; this involves focusing on the present moment. Third, you withhold value judgments from involuntary emotions. As mentioned in the last chapter, the early stages of sensation are beyond voluntary control, but it is in our power to withhold judgment. The Stoic sage certainly feels pain, grief, sickness, and so forth; he or she is not insensitive. But the sage withholds judgment on them. Fourth and finally, you detach yourself from the flux of exterior things and events, including those in the body and lower soul. This is a detachment from the flow of Fate. Naturally you must do what is necessary to preserve your body and lower soul (this is required by Nature), and you also have to act appropriately toward other people, as discussed in the next chapter.

The overall effect of circumscribing the self is a detachment from things that are not essentially yours, that is, from things not pertaining to your higher soul, which is to say from things that are not your business, but the business of God (Destiny, Fate, Nature, Goddess, whatever the name). What is in your power is to act virtuously, which should be the object of your desire. What happens “lies in the laps of the gods,” as the ancients said, and so getting disturbed by it will only interfere with your ability to seek the good in future choices. In this way you come to a state of spiritual serenity in all circumstances. This exercise prepares the way for the second level of philosophical consciousness, which aligns your reason with the Universal Reason of Nature (discussed later), for by suspending judgment on what is not in your control, you accept your role in the unfolding drama of Destiny.

Has someone said something very nasty to you? Or very nice? That was outside of your direct control (your moral purpose), so be indifferent to it. Of course, it’s natural to feel a the discipline of desire 95

little annoyed or pleased, but indifference means you don’t attach any great importance or moral significance to it. Did you lose some money? Unless it was a consequence of your own moral mistake, be content that your inner daimon is unscathed. Stewing in sadness or seething with anger will confuse your future choices, which are made best in a state of serenity. The practice of circumscribing the self will help you to concentrate your awareness into your guiding principle, the quiet source of your autonomy and freedom.

At the end of his description of circumscribing the self, Marcus says, “you make yourself like the Sphere of Empedocles, ‛a pure orb, proud of its joyful uniqueness’.”116 This is an important image. Empedocles (490–430 BCE) was a Pythagorean sage who argued that

the universe alternated between phases governed by Love, a force of attraction, and by Strife, a force of separation. In the phase when Love had reached her maximum strength, the entire universe was a well-rounded sphere, united by Love. The poet Horace (65–8

BCE) reveals why Empedocles’ Sphere is a good symbol of the higher self:

Who then is free? The sage, who keeps in check

His baser self, who lives at his own beck,

Whom neither poverty nor dungeon drear

Nor death itself can ever put in fear,

Who can reject life’s goods, resist desire,

Strongly, firmly braced, and in himself entire,

A hard smooth ball that gives you ne’er a grip,

’Gainst whom when Fortune runs, she’s sure to trip.117

The polished sphere is an image of the imperturbable guiding principle of the sage.