Spirit 369

Oct 27, 2022

Marcus Aurelius and The Art of Choosing Your Perspective

Here are five perspective-techniques the Stoics used, all illustrated with examples from Marcus Aurelius’ personal notebook, Meditations:

Cosmic Cam — zooming out to a cosmic or universal perspective

A favourite technique of the Stoics — also popular with Platonists and Epicureans — is to zoom out from your personal situation and see the Big Picture. We can practice this visualization exercise as well — it’s been called the ‘View From Above’. We can contemplate the night sky, or images of the cosmos, or imagine our soul rising through space. Even reading science fiction can give us a sort of ‘cognitive distancing’ from our present concerns — I found reading Olaf Stapledon’s Star Maker emotionally relaxing for this reason.

Marcus also contemplates the universe to remind himself how everything is connected, and to shift from an egocentric to an ecocentric view, in which his life is but one strand in the Greater Whole. As a Stoic, he believed the universe was guided by providence, by the divine wisdom of the Logos, so we should accept everything that happens to us.

Micro-Cam — zooming in to overcome attachments to externals

An alternative perspective to zooming out is to zoom in, really close, in order to critically examine something you might be overly attached to.You can do this with anything you’re overly attached to. Are you obsessed over the body — yours or someone else’s? Zoom in, consider all its imperfections, its transience, its decomposition. Marcus constantly reminds himself that his body is just a bag of skin and bones, so don’t get hung up on it. This might seem gross to you. That’s OK. These are just suggestions for perspectives, you don’t have to use one if you don’t like it.

Time lapse — stretching time to see things from a long-term perspective

Marcus likes to see events against a backdrop of what we might call Deep Time or Big History. Again, it’s a distancing technique to let go and accept the present.That’s pretty interesting, from an emperor — to remind yourself that empires rise and fall. It didn’t mean Marcus stopped fighting to preserve and protect the Roman Empire. But he never fell for the idea it was eternal.

He uses the ‘river of time’ perspective to remind himself how many have lived and died before him, all those billions of lives, so intense, so full of highs and lows. They came and went in a flash, like the lives of moths. I agree with this. Still, that Deep Time perspective can be useful if you’re really struggling with anxiety over your failings. It doesn’t matter that much, you’re just a blink in eternity. Relax, take it easy, enjoy the show, you’re a miniscule and temporary part of it.

Slow mo — focus on the present moment

This is an alternative technique, which is also very useful in different situations. Rather than ruminating on the past or possible future, you wake yourself up from this compulsive rumination or day-dreaming, and bring your focus sharply to the present moment, stretching out the Eternal Now like a slow mo shot.

This may sound contradictory to the last technique. But the point is to find the right perspective for the right moment. Sometimes it’s helpful to imagine Deep Time, sometimes you need to focus on the here and now.

Pan-cam — remind yourself that everyone goes through tough times

Pan-cam is basically a technique to pan round and see how, in the words of REM, ‘everyone hurts’ — in the video for that song, inspired by Fellini’s 8 ½, the camera pans along a traffic jam and we get to see in to people’s inner thoughts and sufferings.

Marcus also reminds himself, when life is tough and he may feel self-pity or bewilderment, that 

this is the way the world is. 

Don’t be surprised if it hurts sometimes. Everybody hurts, not just you. That can help you let go of your attachment to your unique drama, and realize it’s not your suffering, it’s just suffering, the human condition.