1 Leaming to Live
Spiritual exercises can he best observed in 1 hc l'lllll l'XI of I lclll•niHt k 111ul Roman schooli; of' philosophy. The Stoic11, fol' in11l lllll'l' , 1lt•d111·rtl l'� plidtly
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that philosophy, for them, was an "exercise!' 8 In their view, philosophy did not consist in teaching an abstract theory9 - much less in the e,xegesis of texts10
- but rather in the art of living. 1 1 It is a concrete attitude and determinate lifestyle, which engages the whole of existence. The philosophical act is not situated merely on the cognitive level, but on that of the self and of being. It is a progress which causes us to be more fully, and makes us better. 12 It is a conversion13 which turns our entire life upside down, changing the life of the person who goes through it.14 It raises the individual from an inauthentic condition of life, darkened by unconsciousness and harassed by worry, to an authentic state of life, in which he attains self-consciousness, an exact vision of the world, inner peace, and freedom.
In the view of all philosophical schools, mankind's principal cause of suffering, disorder, and unconsciousness were the passions: that is, unregulated desires and exaggerated fears. People are prevented from truly living, it was taught, because they are dominated by worries. Philosophy thus appears, in the first place, as a therapeutic of the passions15 (in the words of Friedmann: "Try to get rid of your own passions"). Each school had its own therapeutic method, 16 but all of them linked their therapeutics to a profound transformation of the individual's mode of seeing and being. The object of spiritual exercises is precisely to bring about this transformation.
To begin with, let us consider the example of the Stoics. For them, all mankind's woes derive from the fact that he seeks to acquire or to keep possessions that he may either lose or fail to obtain, and from the fact that he tries to avoid misfortunes which are often inevitable. The task of philosophy, then, is to educate people, so that they seek only the goods they are able to obtain, and try to avoid only those evils which it is possible to avoid. In order for something good to be always obtainable, or an evil always avoidable, they must depend exclusively on man's freedom; but the only things which fulfill these conditions are moral good and evil. They alone depend on us; everything else does not depend on us. Here, "everything else," which does not depend on us, refers to the necessary linkage of cause and effect, which is not subject to our freedom. It must be indifferent to us: that is, we must not introduce any differences into it, but accept it in its entirety, as willed by fate. This is the domain of nature.
We have here a complete reversal of our usual way of looking at things. We are to switch from our "human•• vision of reality, in which our values depend on , our passions, to a "natural" vision of things, which replaces each event within the perspective of universal nature.17
Such a transformation of vision is not easy, and it is precisely here that spiritual exercises come in. Little by little, they make possible the indispensable metamorphosis of our inner self.
No 11ystcmatic treatise codifying the instructions and techniques for Npiritu11l cxcrciNcN h11K come down to us. '" However, allusions to one or the
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other of such inner activities are very frequent in the writings of the Roman and Hellenistic periods. It thus appears that these exercises were well known, and that it was enough to allude to them, since they were a part of daily life in the philosophical schools. They took their place within a traditional course of oral instruction.
Thanks to Philo of Alexandria, however, we do possess two lists of spiritual exercises. They do not completely overlap, but they do have the merit of giving us a fairly complete panorama of Stoico-Platonic inspired philosophical therapeutics. One of these lists19 enumerates the following elements: research (zetesis), thorough investigation (skepsis), reading (anagnosis), listening (akroasis), attention (prosoche), self-mastery (enkrateia), and indifference to indifferent things. The other20 names successively: reading, meditations (meleta1), therapies21 of the passions, remembrance of good things,22 self-mastery (enkrateia), and the accomplishment of duties. With the help of these lists, we shall be able to give a brief description of Stoic spiritual exercises. We shall study the following groups in succession: first attention, then meditations and "remembrances of good things," then the more intellectual exercises: reading, listening, research, and investigation, and finally the more active exercises: self-mastery, accomplishment of duties, and indifference to indifferent things.
Attention (prosoche) is the fundamental Stoic spiritual attitude.23 It is a continuous vigilance and presence of mind, self consciousness which never sleeps, and a constant tension of the spirit.2• Thanks to this attitude, the philosopher is fully aware of what he does at each instant, and he wills his actions fully. Thanks to his spiritual vigilance, the Stoic always has "at hand"
(procheiron) the fundamental rule of life: that is, the distinction between what depends on us and what does not. As in Epicureanism, so for Stoicism: it is essential that the adepts be supplied with a fundamental principle which is formulable in a few words, and extremely clear and simple, precisely so that it may remain easily accessible to the mind, and be applicable with the sureness and constancy of a reflex. "You must not separate yourself from these general principles; don't sleep, eat, drink, or converse with other men without them." 25
It is this vigilance of the spirit which lets us apply the fundamental rule to each of life's particular situations, and always to do what we do "appropriately." 26
We could also define this attitude as "concentration on the present moment": n Everywhere and at all times, it is up to you to rejoice piously at what is occurring at the present moment, to conduct yourself with justice towards the people who are present here and now, and to apply rul� of discernment to your present representations, so that nothing slips in that is not objective.211
Attention to the present moment is, in a sense, the key to Hpiritunl e"crci11cs.
Ir frees us from the p11ssionH, which 11rc 11lwnys CllUKcd hy the l>RNI or the
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future29 - two areas which do not depend on us. By encouraging concentration on the minuscule present moment, which, in its exiguity, is always bearable and controllable,30 attention increases our vigilance. Finally, ' attention to the present moment allows us to accede to cosmic consciousness, by making us attentive to the infinite value of each instant,31 and causing us to accept each moment of existence from the viewpoint of the universal law of the cosmos.
Attention ( prosoche) allows us to respond immediately to events, as if they were questions asked of us all of a sudden. 32 In order for this to be possible, we must always have the fundamental principles "at hand" ( procheiron).33 We are to steep ourselves in the rule of life (kanon),34 by mentally applying it to all life's possible different situations, just as we assimilate a grammatical or mathematical rule through practice, by applying it to individual cases. In this case, however, we are not dealing with mere knowledge, but with the transformation of our personality.