Philosophy as a way of life

The discipline of desire culminates in a joyful, loving satisfaction97 in the events willed by nature. But in order to achieve this state, we must totally change our way of looking at things. We must consider them from the point of view of universal nature, and this implies learning to recognize the chain of causes which produce each event. We are to consider each event as woven by destiny, and as flowing forth by natural necessity from the first causes. The discipline of desire thus obliges us to relocate the totality of human life within a coi.mic perspective, and become aware of the fact that we are a part of the world: "He who doesn't know what the world is doesn't know where he himself is, either. He who doesn't know for what purpose the world exists, doesn't know who he is himself. Whoever doesn't know the answer to one of these questions is unable to say for what purpose he himself exists." 98

In order to practice this kind of "physics," Marcus, as we have seen, tries to follow a rigorous method of definition,99 which consists in relocating all objects within the totality of the universe, and all events within the nexus of causes and effects. They are to be defined in and for themselves, and separated from the conventional, anthropomorphic representations mankind habitually makes of them.

Here we can perhaps glimpse in what way the three disciplines, like the three parts of philosophy, imply one another within the single act of philosophizing. The method of "physical" definition discussed by Marcus corresponds to the discipline of assent, which prescribes that we must give our assent only to those representations which are objective and freed from all subjective value-judgments.

Once prolonged experience has allowed us to come to know nature's ways and laws, "physics," when practiced as a spiritual exercise, leads us to

"familiarity" with nature.11lD Thanks to this familiarity, we can perceive the links between all phenomena which seem strange or repugnant to us, and between these phenomena and universal reason, the source from which they flow. From such a perspective, every event will seem to us beautiful and worthy of our affectionate assent. To be indifferent to indifferent things means to make no difference between them; in other words, to love them equally, just as nature does: " 'The earth loves the rain; she also loves the venerable Ether.'101 And the Universe, too, loves to produce all that must be produced.

Thus, I say to the Universe: 'I love along with you!' Isn't this, after all, the meaning of of the phrase, 'Such-and-such an event "loves" to happen?' " 102

When, in ancient Greek, one wished to say that something "usually occurs,"

m "iN lll'CUNtomcd to occur," n common idiom made it pm;siblc to sny the

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event "loves" to occur ( philei ginesthai). Here, Marcus gives us to understand that events literally "love" to happen. We are to "love" to see them happen, because universal nature "loves" to produce them.

In the last analysis, such an attitude of joyful consent to the world corresponds to an attitude of obedience to the divine will. This is why Marcus sometimes describes the discipline of desire as an invitation to "follow the gods" or "God," as in the following presentation of the three disciplines:

"Keep the daimon within you in a state of serenity; so that it may follow God in an appropriate way, neither saying anything contrary to the truth, nor doing anything contrary to justice." 103 In the formulation of the second theme, Epictetus placed more emphasis on the fact that our inclinations and actions must be related to our duties (kathekonta) toward our fellow-men. Marcus, by contrast, speaks more often about just actions, done in the service of the human community. As was the case with the first theme, the second theme takes on a strongly emotional tonality for Marcus: we must love other people with all our hearts, he writes,1°" for rational beings are not only parts of the same whole, but the limbs of the same body. Moreover, we arc to extend our love even toward those who commit injustices against us, bearing in mind that they belong to the same human race as we do, and that, if they sin, they do so involuntarily, and out of ignorance.105