“So there are two reasons to embrace what happens. One is that it’s happening to you. It was prescribed for you, and it pertains to you. The thread was spun long ago, by the oldest cause of all.
The other reason is that what happens to an individual is a cause of well-being in what directs the world–of its well-being, its fulfillment, of its very existence, even. Because the whole is damaged if you cut away anything–anything at all–from its continuity and its coherence. Not only its parts, but its purposes. And that’s what you’re doing when you complain: hacking and destroying.”
Source: Meditations Book Five end of paragraph 8
My Thoughts
Well, obviously this is directing us to accept what we don’t want, i.e. Embrace the Suck. I doubt there are many who wouldn’t readily accept good fortune. It matters when it sucks, when we are tempted to complain, and when we want to quit. We need to lean into it, Amor Fati, and continue the best we can. As Marcus Aurelius says, “What stands in the way becomes the way.”
It’s not easy though, at least not for me. You can tell yourself 1000 times to not complain, to do it this way or that. And in the end, we fuck up and react just like we always have reacted. How many thousands of times will it take before we do it right? How many thousands of additional times until we do it right a second time? How can we stay present enough in our daily lives and slow life down just enough to catch ourselves before we start hacking and destroying?
For my part, I’ll always embrace the suck, eventually. I’ll take a breath, and after a bit of consideration understand what I need to do and then do it. But to not complain? To not sometimes act like a total ass? To not be angry with fate that I’m faced with this unfair obstacle? To not for a moment get angry and to lose control letting my body and mind react of their own accord consequences be damned?
I don’t have an iron grip and perfect control of my reactions. I’m preprogrammed to act and think in certain ways, after years of watching others and practicing the wrong way.
How does one rewrite that code?
Answer – Continue living and practice being present. Practice acting and reacting how you should. Keep practicing for as long as it takes and hope that you can reprogram yourself before fate decides that you are done with this life.
Refer to your own philosophy, to your coin. Have the Discipline to do what needs to be done, Faith that the process will work, and Forgiveness when you make mistakes. Take action, know that you will fail, and grow from that failure.
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