Marcus Aurelius vs Mahatma Gandhi on Presence
Marcus Aurelius and Mahatma Gandhi on presence, side by side — 5 passages against 4, and what the disagreement is actually about.
Marcus Aurelius and Mahatma Gandhi both have a great deal to say about presence — 5 passages and 4 respectively in thinkr's library — and they do not say the same thing. Setting them side by side is more useful than reading either alone, because the disagreement shows you what each position is actually giving up.
Marcus Aurelius on presence
Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher. His Meditations — private notes in Greek, never meant for publication — are the most beloved Stoic text in the modern world.
“Confine yourself to the present.”
“Do every act of your life as though it were the very last act of your life.”
“Waste not the remnant of thy life in those imaginations touching other folk, whereby thou contributest not to the common weal.”
“Each of us lives only now, this brief instant. (Hays translation)”
“Many the lumps of frankincense on the same altar; one falls there early and another late, but it makes no difference.”
Mahatma Gandhi on presence
Indian lawyer and ascetic who led the nonviolent independence movement. His satyagraha — truth-force — shaped twentieth-century moral politics.
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
“We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change.”
“When there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence… I would rather have India resort to arms in order to defend her honour than to remain a helpless witness to her own dishonour.”
“There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supersedes all other courts.”
Where they part
Rome, 121–180 CE and India, 1869–1948 are not the same world, and the difference is not only historical. Marcus Aurelius treats presence as something to be confine yourself to the present… — a matter of practice. Mahatma Gandhi approaches it from another side entirely. Neither is refuting the other; they are answering slightly different questions, and noticing which question you are actually asking is most of the work.