We Are of the Same Mind
“When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: The people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly. They are like this because they can’t tell good from evil.
But I have seen the beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil, and have recognized that the wrongdoer has a nature related to my own—not of the same blood or birth, but the same mind, and possessing a share of the divine.
And so none of them can hurt me. No one can implicate me in ugliness. Nor can I feel angry at my relative, or hate him. We were born to work together like feet, hands, and eyes, like the two rows of teeth, upper and lower. To obstruct each other is unnatural. To feel anger at someone, to turn your back on him: these are obstructions.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 2:1
What Have We Done?
Saturday night, May 30th, the first night of curfew enacted in the city of Denver to stem the violence resulting from the horrific death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. As I readied for bed, I could hear from my office window the explosions of flash bang grenades, I could see the flashing lights against the night sky. The 12 city blocks away was suddenly not far enough.
The next morning, news of the looting, dumpster fires, destruction and defacement of our city’s timeless landmarks served to remind me of the opening verse of the Bhagavad Gita:
On the field of duty, on the field of desire,
Bhagavad Gita
Assembled ready to resolve who is final sire,
My hundred sons and the five sons of Pandu,
What did they do, what did they do?
Indeed, what have we done? What have we done internally? Externally?
What can we do, as Swamis, as seekers, as teachers and students of the spiritual path?
The Stoics
The Stoics believed in preparing oneself for life. The Stoics taught that the end, or purpose of life is to live consistently in harmony and agreement with the nature of the universe, to live according to virtue, to succor to life. The ideal person will both love others and yet become not emotional over the inevitable losses and misfortunes that life, and karma, inflicts. So it is that Marcus Aurelius provides us with a bit of sadhana, a strategy for maintaining psychological resilience in the face of life’s inevitable obstacles to peace. Aurelius reminds us that each of us, from looter and protestor to the seeker in the ashram, each one of us possesses a share of the same unlimited Divine.
Marcus Aurelius tells us we all, right and wrongdoer alike, are of the same mind, possessing a share of the same Divine. The Aitareya Upanishad brings us one of the great utterances, prajnam brahma, all reality is consciousness, and that same consciousness is the life of all. Thus we know from the Stoics and the ancient sages a truth: In all sentient beings — be it looter, protester, Guru, Swami, seeker, teacher, George Floyd — the same Self resides.
Thus all are equal. Thus, all are to be worshipped.
So what do we do? What do we do?
Can we detach with love?
Can we forgive?
Can we remember who and what each of us truly is – One; each a microcosm of the same macrocosm?
Can we sit in quiet ahimsa, and be an ever greater blessing to all those who enter our aura?
In the face of these undoubtedly challenging times, can we find our bliss?
The Stoics and the Sages are there to help us find our way.
Om tat sat om
Aham brahmasmi
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