All the beauty and good you'll ever need exists now, in this moment. Nature nourishes and provides for us all - even when we think it has brought us harm.
It's easy to think of the horrors and evils of the world. Murder, war, theft, betrayal - disgrace seems to present itself everywhere we look. The incessant debris and mud from selfishness looks as though it dams any creek or trickle of goodness. In a world of fear and inevitable harm, why are we still living? But the answer is as clear as these same observations...
What creates injustice and harm, the void of compassion and peace between the fragments of the world and its agents? If you look closely, it is the agents themselves - which means us.
For every individual, there is a choice in how one perceives events. Any labelling of 'evil' outside of oneself is completely arbitrary, and this practice of morally judging things outside yourself causes you to be bitter and resentful, committing those same actions and taking on the qualities you despise in others. In thinking of another's action as abhorrent, your hatred becomes associated with the action itself. Every individual has the potential for good. When you drop forgiveness and cast criticisms, you prevent them from acting in ways that can supplement and be guided by their inherent goodness. What you see and the way you act upon your views forces others to retract from any future wellness they might have been able to accomplish. If only you let go of your self-righteousness, you could let them be good again.
And in cases not having to do with other humans, pause. First, recognize what anger and sadness alleviate: nothing. Then, as you calmly right yourself (so that you may act with patience and healthy intentions), see the occurence for what it is. What is the nature of the harm you are so quick to judge? Is it temporary, or 'permanent'? If it's temporary, quit your whining and see that it was merely another unraveling of life. The whole of existence would not harm that which inhabits it, for its constituents make the whole what it is. What happens in every moment is done for the health of all things and beings, all wills and material governed by Providence. If it's 'permanent', you need to revise your understanding of the human frame of living:
1. Nothing can bring harm to you but yourself. By not accepting this event, you chain yourself to being upset at something that cannot reflect the changes you desire.
2. Nothing is permanent. You are connected to the growth of the world - and yet your portion of matter and time is so small. Even those things that last throughout the whole of your lifetime are unimportant and do not last long. Not only this, but if you were made to endure it as dictated by the intertwinings of heaven, then that is exactly what you should do. Everything is endurable, and so you need to make peace with those things that fully accompany your existence. You can do it, no matter how difficult it may seem.
So when you feel that someone has wronged you, or that there is an 'unbearable unpleasantness' existing in the world, pause and realize that it is you who has made that decision. It is you who binds yourself to negativity. It is you who does not allow the offender to reflect change willingly and appropriately within themself. It is you, not the world, that commits these offenses.
Aim your disgust inward to propel you to committing unselfish action. Shame was not created within us to heap it on others, dragging them down with our own subjective views. Rather, subjective systems were created for the user of the subjective systems themselves. While evil does not and cannot exist outside you - for the good of God and the world knows exactly what it's doing - it does exist within yourself. Every time you make a judgement of others, you imprint that same criticism on your own skin. In this case there are two offenses. Firstly, you have removed yourself from being in harmony with Nature. Second, you have used your subjective powers innacurately. By attempting to weaponize shame onto others, you do not realize that you unecessarily bring harm to yourself. You treat your personal view as objective, and vandalize your own being.
Remember these aspects of life when you find yourself feeling offended and taken aback by its ways. We should intend never to be surpised at what Nature brings us and instead wholly incorporate the external into our method of living. Through the diligence of acceptance, we can achieve a genuine and serious care for all - the same care as the divinity that allowed our creation, the love that has brought us and all things into being.
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Diaries of a Budding Stoic
SpiritualA series of letters reminding us of the lessons of Stoicism. Nonfiction.