​The ancient Stoics believed the world had a logical, natural, reasonable ‘force’ that helped the world and the cosmos unfold into fruition: Logos. It really wasn’t a helpful force, per se, as logos didn’t have an agenda. It was seen as more of an impelling force than as a compelling force. I believe the benefits logos could bestow comes from tuning into it, not from manipulating it. 

According to Holiday (The Daily Stoic, p.355) there’s a helpful analogy to understand the concept of logos: 

Logos is like a moving cart, or wagon, and we are like a dog leashed to that wagon. Where the cart is going will ultimately determine where we will have to go; however, depending on the length of the leash, we could have enough room to explore our surrounding, even linger over some for a short time. However, if we get lost in our egoic explorations, we’ll be unwillingly drug along once the logos-wagon reaches the end of our leash. But, if we’re mindful of the direction and pace of logos, we can choose to accept both the fate of the Cosmos, AND our own level of independence within that fate. 

Honestly, it really doesn’t matter if we obediently go along with the cart, or fight it every step of the way… because the Cosmos is going to keep chugging along where we go along with it, or not. 

This, children of Earth, is one core reason we engage in the practice of acceptance. 

(See y’all tomorrow - for the beginning of the last month of our time together: December - the month of contemplating our own mortality.)

Another lifetime ago, back when I was teaching martial arts, I used to watch my students grow and develop not only as fighters, but as good humans, in service to their fellow people. When they’d experience successes, I’d think of the times I shared bits of wisdom with them, and how those moments could have influenced their good decisions. Conversely, when they’d fail, or lose, or make bad decisions, I’d take their failures into myself, as I know I could have made a difference. I had the teacher-perspective, a blessing in teacher/student relationships. In a fashion, as I was their teacher, their failures were mine. The blame for their failures was on me. 

Some of my readers might believe this is not a “Moderate” perspective when it comes to the failures of others, and that my perspective might be a bit extreme, filled with the egoic self-flagellation of taking blame for the failures of others. I can hear my ancient Roman ancestors now, uttering with much pomp and circumstance: “Non tua culpa, mea culpa factum est.” (It’s not your fault, for it’s my fault) Well, good moderate readers, let me assure you that if some who are responsible for imparting teachings didn’t take this kind of view, we’d never have the kinds of teachers who live in the “above and beyond” space, and truly help shape human beings into excellence generators. 

Teachers, in my opinion, are not just human beings who transfer data (meaningless or otherwise) to empty storage devices. Teachers can be virtue models, shoulders to cry on, safe folx to explore failures, and wise guides to help capitalize on future successes… in all things. 

In a sense, throughout much of our lives, we are our own teachers, so for failures we have to take responsibility just as a wise teacher would for their students failures. 

Now… what if we took this “mea culpa” attitude in all things? What would forgiveness look like when everyone is taking responsibility for the failures? Would there be more understanding? More grace? How could WE change the world when we care for one another, and realize we are one another’s keeper… at least as far as keeping a bit of kindness for one another. 

May this Thanksgiving Day, and all days be filled with myriad opportunities to practice acceptance, grace, patience, kindness, and understanding. After all, it's on YOU. 

(See y’all tomorrow) 

In the times of wise Marcus and his predecessors, there was no social media chatter to get these folx angry and annoyed. However, even though there was no electronic distractions, an ancient, perhaps slower-moving undisciplined mind could get distracted as easily as a faster-paced undisciplined mind of today. 

What would our days look like, especially with the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday here in the US, if we practiced a cultivated ignorance when it came to facing the negative? I think it’d be fabulous! Here’s how I think it’d go: 

“That guy”: Blah blah blah *insert triggery ignorance here*
Us: Hmm, I don’t see why that’s *whatever this dipstick thinks it is*. Would you explain why you think it’s that way? I don’t get it. 
“That guy”: (after some bumbling and fumbling for words and explanations) Umm… uh… nevermind. 

Our “ignorance” causes one to look into their own negativity and actual ignorance, and what follows is peaceful, and serene. 

(See y’all tomorrow)

For every state that has a lottery, there are about a million times as many people (if not more) who, at any given time, are talking about what we’d do with our lottery winnings of we ever won. Where we’d put all those resources, what we’d buy, who we’d help… some of us even have detailed lottery winning plans. 

The reality of lottery winners, however, is very different. 

Suddenly coming into a large sum of money is, at best, very troublesome, and at worst, an outright curse. Most lottery winners claim to be in worse financial shape AFTER they won. Additionally, they claim to have fewer friends, and because of this sudden windfall of money, a long line of post-winning broken relationships. 

Sometimes, the light at the end of the tunnel is one of an oncoming train. Ain’t ‘dat some shit? 

Funny how that works out, no? 

(See y’all tomorrow)

Ah, yes… attachment. A word and concept that makes most Western folx run screaming in the other direction, especially Western pagan folx. Attachments, you see, are the things that prevent us from accepting the inevitability of change. If we’re running away from studying attachment’s negative effects on our lives, then it’s not attachment-philosophy that’s broken… it’s us. We become our own worst enemy. 

Only an enemy would keep us from information that would, otherwise, be the most beneficial to our continued health and existence. An enemy would have us invest in things upon which we cannot rely. Temporary, fleeting things. If we are ensnared by the attachment-enemy’s lures, we wind up attaching to are things that come and go, transitory and temporary in nature. An ally, however, would counsel us to invest and train the singular permanent trait upon which we CAN rely:

Prohairesis - our capacity for reasoned choice. 

The greater our capacity for reasoned choice, the less we will engage in the attachment-neurosis. 

Image, wealth and status, place and time, lifestyles or professions… all of these things are doors through which we can enter into the realm of attachment… 

… unless we consciously and reasonably CHOOSE not to. 

(See y’all tomorrow)

Story time! 

Long ago, there was once a master of the disciplined mind who had a treasured earthenware vessel from which she’d take all her beverages. Whenever using the vessel, or walking past it on the curio shelves, or talking about it with guests, deep within her mind, she’d say to herself, “It is already broken.” Then, as one would expect, that fateful day came and the prized vessel of the master fell, and shattered into a thousand thousand pieces. Upon seeing the brokenness of what was once her treasured vessel, the master simply said, “Ah, yes. There it is.”

See, the master was not shocked because she accepted the facts and the reality of the situation from the beginning of her relationship with the vessel: 

Earthenware vessels are fragile. 
Earthenware vessels are meant to be used. 
One cannot control anything other than oneself. 
Gravity works. Every time. 

The amount of peace and calm we experience when things go pear-shaped is proportional to the amount of time we’ve spent considering the realities of what could possibly go pear-shaped prior to that moment. 

The more we accept and amor our fati, the more peace we have. 
The more we premeditatio on the malorum stuff, oddly enough, the more peace we have. 
The more we memento our own mori, the more peace we have. 

We, like the glass, are already broken. Accepting that fact will help us not be trapped by it. 

What, then, will we do with all that time prior to breaking? 

(See y’all tomorrow)

Rev. Bee will tell y’all that one of the many Rev. Badger soundbytes is: enough is as good as a feast. I use it all the time, really. It reminds me, and others, of the need for a moment to appreciate what we have in that moment without instantly wanting for more. It’s easy for our minds, once they experience moments of pleasure, victory, happiness, or love, to attach to those feelings (or material things). Our undisciplined minds will naturally want another amuse bouche, for example, as if we won't be able to remember what it was like unless we have more and more and more. What we’re doing, essentially, is trying to control the length, frequency, and duration of that singular experience… in other words, we’re trying to control something that’s not within our control. Lust and desire, the offspring of ego, cause us to want more and more and more of those good things. Ego’s machinations cause us to try and control that which isn’t in our control… however, there is something (or someone) we CAN control. 

Ourselves. 

Moderation tempers our ego and trains it, over time, to practice acceptance and not attachment. Practicing being fully in the present moment disciplines our ego to not get lost in the past with longing and sadness, and to not get lost in the future of desire and egoic-hunger.

Accept the moment. Revel in it…

… because even if it never comes again, you can’t take away that you had the experience. 

And that moment, good readers, is enough. 

As are we all. 

(See y’all tomorrow)