The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.” ~ Marcus Aurelius
An untroubled spirit is one that lacks guilt. That doesn’t come from being a sociopath, but from being a man who does good, honorable things with his time and lends his mind to learning and improving, not tearing others down in a quest to get to the top.
An untroubled spirit comes from simplicity. To be a simpleton is frowned upon. Blowhards who know many things look down on those who knew but a few things, even if that specialized knowledge aides other humans in a greater fashion than the blowhard’s diversified knowledge. Simplicity, however, is the key to productivity and happiness. It’s the path to a life devoid of stress and worry.
When you know what’s good and what’s bad, and that should be something very simple, black and white even, life becomes easy. All you then need are the balls to live life according to those decisions that are right.
It’s when you sell your soul, when you compromise your values for momentary pleasure or brief reward, you cannot possibly have an untroubled spirit.
Seeing things for what they are is simple, but difficult. We latent motivations, underlying aspirations, weaknesses, that lead us to see things not for what they are, but how we’d like them to be, whether that’s good or bad. We attach emotions to things that don’t need them, that are clouded by them.
We’re swayed by media that presents a story to fit their narrative. We’re influence by friends and foes and family that all want something for us or from us and what they show us, who they present themselves as is the cause of what they want.
We’re gullible, even to ourselves, our own faults and follies. Seeing things as they are takes calm where rage wants to win. It takes stoicism where emotion wants to dominate.
Both may be simple, but they’re far from easy. Yet, to live a flourishing life, a good life, a happy and successful life, we need both as our foundation.
