“I like your response to questions. I have one for you, Marcus Aurelius Meditations 18. How do you calm the lizard brain and become a rational man, still working hard on this one.”

Thanks,

Ishmael

I checked the Old Stoic’s book and found a few 18s. It seems you were referring to Meditation 18 of Book X:

My method for “calming my lizard brain and becoming a [more] rational man” has varied and so has my success.

What never worked was looking for serenity in female companionship, as they are such fragile ever-shattering creatures. They make serenity harder to hold on to as they seek it from us in such deep measures. I like women, and do not speak against keeping company with them, only point out that as rare as serenity is among men, it is an order of magnitude more rare among women. Beware, when you find it, that no matter how bald or deformed you have become, that you will attract women just by living. A serene man draws women like a physically perfect woman draws men. This is a hazard, and often results in reclusiveness among men devoted to cultivating peace of mind, not to escape the insanity of women, but to prohibit them from draining his like so many thirsty vampires.

My most reliable means of damping down my raging lizard brain and enabling myself to enjoy and savor ideas and non-comforting information [sometimes called the truth] is ritual combat and combat training. Both the ritual and the force expended and absorbed are helpful.

My second most reliable means of preserving peace of mind has been writing, cathartically [Astride the Chariot of Night], experientially [Winter], investigative [The Broken Dance], expressively [Taboo You] and most importantly by engaging in autobiography with a view towards humor in the writing of the contextual Harm City projects [When You’re Food].

Every day I have conversations with men who examine the same factors as I only to become enraged, irrational, sad, irritated. There are only two things about my life that is uniformly different from the lives of these half dozen troubled fellows:

1. They do not fight.

2. They either do not write, or suffer from pretty severe writer’s block, meaning they are having a hard time using that serenity tool.

Perhaps we are merely speaking of the power of solitary ritual and of how it has been scrubbed from our lives. Perhaps fishing, something I have never had the patience to do, is such a ritual for many men.

I do not know. According to the women in my life, over the past 10 years, I am the most maddening partner they have had, for the simple fact that I seem to lack introspection. I spend virtually no time trying to figure myself out. I take it for granted that I’m a deteriorating mess and just get busy with the business of dying. Yet, they all remained addicted to my calming presence, even though they resented the habits that brought it into being and maintained it. That is what I took out of Marcus’ passage 18.

Before I close, Ishmael, I’d like to see what the Old Stoic thinks of 18, by bracketing it for context. I will take passages from 17 and 19 that I suspect bear on the line of inquiry that brought him to, and beyond 18.

In 19, I clearly see the body and its functions in relation to the soul as also serving metaphorically for a description of the body politic in relation to the life of the mind, perhaps an admonishment that the truth will not be found among the hierarchy of gross beings that court your membership, nor will the truth—if found—be accepted or of use to the body politic. This is not the kind of reading that I am good at. I do think these three meditations amount to a cautionary notion that the soul that depends for repose on social union or a place in a hierarchy cannot expect peace of mind anymore than a person whose serenity is vested in the vigor of his youth.

Take care out there.

James