☀️ Micro Morning Meditation: It's Disposition That Moulds Life
How would you react?
1. Morning Contemplation
🎧 You can find the audio version of this morning’s contemplation below.
Good morning.
In his essay On Contentment, the Greek philosopher Plutarch does a great job of demonstrating the human tendency to try to combat internal disturbances by rearranging our external conditions.
People who are scared of sailing or who get seasick, he says, imagine that the voyage will pass more easily if they exchange a skiff for a merchant ship. The obvious problem with this strategy is that they take their sickness and fears with them on the alternative vessel.
Exchanging one way of life for another doesn’t guarantee relief for a distressed mind.
Plutarch then shares some vivid examples to show how this applies even to the powerful, even to those who can rearrange their circumstances at will.
Alexander the Great once cried after hearing Anaxarchus talk about the existence of infinite worlds. When his friends asked why, he said, “Isn’t it worth crying over? There are endless worlds out there, and I haven’t even conquered one!” In contrast, the philosopher Crates, with nothing but his simple bag and worn-out cloak, spent his life joking and laughing as if every day were a holiday.
Agamemnon, as king, was weighed down by his many responsibilities—he was described as someone Zeus had destined for constant hard work. Meanwhile, when the philosopher Diogenes was being auctioned as a slave, he lay on the ground and refused to get up, playfully telling the auctioneer, “Just pretend you’re selling a fish!”
Socrates continued discussing philosophy with his friends even while he was in prison. But Phaethon, after reaching the heavens, would break into tears if no one let him take his father’s chariot and horses.
Plutarch’s point was that disposition moulds life.
Rational intelligence makes the life one already has both the best one and the most pleasant one.
As the tragedian Euripides put it, “There’s no point in getting angry with one’s situation, because it is utterly indifferent; but success will accrue to anyone who treats the situations he encounters correctly.”
In Stoic terms, it isn’t the things that happen to us or the circumstances we find ourselves in that matter—it’s how we react to them.
2. Morning Meditation
Sit down in a safe, comfortable spot, close your eyes, and take a few minutes to meditate on this morning's theme.
Listen to the short meditation below as I guide you to briefly reflect on the key points from today's contemplation.
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