The Wisdom of Hypatia: Ancient Spiritual Practices for a More Meaningful Life (17 page)

philosopher Iunius Rusticus, a man in his 40s, is teaching Marcus Aurelius, still in his 20s. They sit facing each other, a scroll of Epictetus’
Discourses
lying unrolled on a side table. Rusticus leans forward with intensity:

“The goal of the Discipline of Assent is to exclude everything from your higher

soul—the real you—that is not true. That is, to assent to the true, to dissent from the false, and to suspend judgment on the uncertain.”

“Is such perfect judgment possible?” asks Marcus.

“It is possible because cognition is a two step process. The first is the passive formation of an
impression
, such as an image, sensation, or feeling, in your mind as a consequence of the physical interaction of your lower soul and body with the rest of the world. That is, this impression is received passively from what is exterior to your higher soul. For example, this impression might be a very loud sound or a painful sensation.

This process is involuntary, and may involve some reaction, as when you jump at the

sound or say ‘Ouch!’ from the pain.

“Next is an active process of inner discourse, by which your guiding principle—

your higher soul—attaches a value judgment or interpretation to the impression,

such as ‘This is scary’, ‘I am in agony’, or ‘I am unhappy’. This is a voluntary process; this is where you may exercise your freedom, if you are wise! And this is the crucial step for those of the Porch, for as Epictetus says,

What troubles people is not things,

but their judgments about things.99

the discipline of assent 85

“The Stoic sage does not immediately attach the
habitual
judgment to an impression, but withholds judgment until a
reasoned
judgment can be attached. Therefore remember:

Suppress your judgment.100

“The goal is to make an
objective
judgment, which is a simple description of the event, without the additional
subjective
value judgment.

Do not draw inferences in excess of what first impressions report.101

“Wait,” says Marcus as he fumbles to pull a tablet from the folds of his toga. He

scratches the maxims on its wax surface.

“By all means, write them down,” says Rusticus, “but they will do you no good im-

pressed in wax; you must impress them on your soul and practice them daily.

“By the way,” Rusticus continues, “another part of the Discipline of Assent is that

just as we are obliged to govern our inner dialog (our internal judgments), so also in our outer dialog we should assent only to the true. That is, we should tell the truth and refrain from unjustified spoken judgments.

“Now, an objective judgment is a description of an event in its bare reality, that is, a value-neutral description, and one of our Stoic spiritual exercises is to practice doing this.

Make for yourself a definition or description of every object presented to you,

so as to see distinctly what it is in its own naked reality, complete and entire,
and tell yourself its proper name, and the names of the things of which

it is compounded and into which it will be dissolved.102

“Consider eating a good steak.103 What is this in its naked reality? It is a piece of a muscle, cut from a dead cow, which (if it is well aged) has been allowed to begin to rot, which means that germs have begun to grow in the muscle fibers and decompose

them. This piece of semi-rotten dead muscle has been burned, more or less, which kills many of the germs, and also thickens or clots the blood and other body fluids, trapping them in the dead muscle. When you chew a bite, your teeth crush the charred,

dead muscle, releasing some of those body fluids, which are further decomposed by

the spit in your mouth, and which chemically stimulate your tongue to produce cer-

tain impressions (called taste). Appealing?”

“You make me lose my appetite,” Marcus laughed.

86 the discipline of assent

“Listen,” Rusticus continues, “and I will give you a ‘naked’ description of sex, which men desire above everything else. It is merely a rubbing together of bellies, accompanied by the spasmodic ejaculation of a sticky liquid. That is all.”104

“Master,” Marcus replies, “you go too far! These so-called naked descriptions seem

to be flesh-denying, ascetic, anti-life exercises in rejection of the physical world and its pleasures. It sounds like the ravings of those naked ascetics that hate the world and their own bodies. You would suck all the joy out of life!”

“Not at all!” says Rusticus. “Ideally a naked description should be akin to objective scientific or clinical descriptions that are value-neutral, and therefore neither positive nor negative, simply factual. While I have used pleasurable activities to illustrate neutral description, the same technique applies to unpleasant things, and tends to eliminate the judgment of unpleasantness in the same way that the preceding examples

eliminate the judgment of pleasantness. The goal is to eliminate the subjective value judgment, not to switch it to its opposite. We want to separate the bare impression, which we cannot control, from the subjective judgment, which we can. When we describe an impression to ourselves in its bare reality, we should think:

This you are in reality,

whatever else common opinion would have you be.105

“Neutral description is one example of how the Discipline of Assent sets aside sub-

jective value judgments and governs your inner dialog, your judgments about things.

Since you are judging things from an objective, physical perspective, rather than from a personal one, you are judging them from the perspective of universal Nature or God, that is, from the divine perspective. This is one way in which the Stoic sage becomes more godlike.”

Neutral Description:
Write out neutral descriptions of a variety of things, events, conditions, or circumstances that seem either good or bad to you. Contemplate your descriptions and see if they modify your subjective reactions. Do

the good things seem less compelling, and the bad ones less repulsive? Try to

describe some things that occur on a regular basis in your life (e.g., eating food

you like, getting stuck in traffic, an annoying person). Next time the situation

arises, recall your neutral description and see if you are able to replace your

habitual subjective judgment with an objective one. This will give you some

conscious control over your judgments, some control over your inner chatter.

the discipline of assent 87

Rusticus continues. “Whereas the passive formation of an impression is involun-

tary, the subsequent value judgment is voluntary, and under your control. Therefore

you do not have to allow any judgments that you do not want to allow. Your higher

soul is thus like a
spiritual acropolis
, an invulnerable inner fortress to which you can retire in peace, admitting only what you choose. Think of the Acropolis in Athens, that walled high rocky cliff, to which the Athenians retire when under siege, which protects the temples, the sanctuaries of the gods, at its summit. And whose temple stands in

the center of the acropolis in many Greek cities?”

“Why, Athena’s, of course.”

“And why hers?” Rusticus presses.

“Because she is the Protector of Cities.”

“Good,” Rusticus smiles. “She is Goddess of Wisdom and Goddess of War,” for she

brings cleverness, insight, and judgment to the protection of what is most sacred. Let Wisdom ward your citadel as well. Write this down:

The mind that is free from disturbances is an acropolis,

for people have nothing more secure to which they can fly for refuge

and be impregnable.106”

After Marcus finishes scratching on his wax tablet, the teacher continues. “Judgment is an active and voluntary process. Therefore your guiding principle can choose whether to go out and meet exterior events by choosing whether to attach a value judgment to them, by choosing whether to judge or evaluate them. From your mental acropolis you

can choose what to go out and meet and what to bring inside the walls. Therefore,

Things stand outside the door, just as they are,

with neither knowledge of themselves, nor report of themselves.

What is it then that reports about them?

The guiding principle.107

“Moreover,

The things whose pursuit or avoidance disturbs your peace

do not come to you,

but you, rather, go to them.

Let then your judgment about them be untroubled,

and they will be quiet too,

and you will be seen neither pursuing nor avoiding them.108

88 the discipline of assent

“Your guiding principle is free to attach any value judgments it wills to the impressions it receives. Remember:

The guiding principle rouses and turns itself,

and while it makes itself what it is and what it wills to be,

it also makes everything that happens

appear to be what it wills it shall be.109

“But what should it
will
things to be? When should it judge something good and worth pursuing, or evil and worth avoiding? What is the best criterion for judgment?

This is the topic we will take up when we meet tomorrow.”

Practicing the Discipline of Assent

What do these ancient teachings mean for us nowadays? The basis of Stoic wisdom is a correct understanding of what is in your control and what is not. The Discipline of Assent helps us to understand that many of our reactions are habitual, and that habits can be changed. The raw impression is a physical fact, but the judgment can be changed. Detach-ing the judgment from the impression allows you to begin reprogramming your reactions.

It doesn’t mean that you don’t care about things. The ultimate goal is to get control over what you care about so that you can live a purposeful, socially engaged, but tranquil life.

How about some examples?

Suppose your boss is in your face, screaming at you. A neutral description might be

that someone is speaking to you loudly and wagging their finger in your face. That’s the objective fact. You may have an immediate, involuntary reaction of fear or anger; that’s also part of the initial impression. But any further judgment should be suspended. Is their anger justified? Have you done something wrong? Will you be fired? All that is uncertain; leave it outside the door.

Suppose the bank has foreclosed on your house. The bare fact is that you have received a piece of paper with some words on it. That is certain and you should assent to it. Is it a mistake? Can you fight it? Will you have to move in with friends? Live on the street? All this is uncertain, and so you should suspend judgment on it. You may have immediate, involuntary reactions—disbelief, anger, fear—when you read the words; these feelings are objective impressions. After acknowledging them, you set them aside and return to the primary fact: you have received a foreclosure notice. What should you do about it? That is the subject of the next two chapters.