The Inner Citadel

Have you ever noticed that your spiritual inspiration tends to rise and fall? Me, too.

Good news. We’re not alone.

Stoic philosophers knew that spiritual insight was a fragile thing—something that must be “ceaselessly reawakened” if one has a shot at living nobly.

Writing down the core tenets of his Stoic philosophy was the reason Marcus created his Meditations. As Hadot tells us, he was practicing Stoic spiritual exercises. Hence, Marcus’s deliberate repetition of certain themes—approaching the same ideas again and again from different angles to firmly solidify the wisdom in his mind and life.

(Creating these Notes, btw, is a spiritual practice for me as well. I hope they are for you as well!)

A couple other interesting things to note:

Epictetus was Marcus’s primary Stoic teacher. Although he never studied with him personally (Epictetus died shortly after Marcus was born), Marcus had access to notes from Epictetus’s lectures. I find it fascinating that the Emperor-Philosopher learned his wisdom from the Philosopher-Slave (recall that Epictetus was a former slave turned leading philosopher).

There are three core disciplines of Stoicism that Marcus was reflecting on incessantly: The Discipline of Assent, The Discipline of Desire, and The Discipline of Action. Hadot walks us through each of these. Ryan Holiday organizes his books by these three disciplines as well—although he describes them as the disciplines of Perception + Action + Will.

Check out our Notes on Ryan’s The Obstacle Is the Way for more.

P.S. The whole process of rekindling our spiritual connection and motivation reminds me of EntreLeadership in which Dave Ramsey quotes Zig Ziglar who used to say: “People say motivation doesn’t last, well neither does bathing, that is why we recommend both daily.”

How’d you like to have a sense of absolute security?

An inner citadel that cannot be conquered by outside forces?

You can have it.

Just follow the guiding principle of Stoicism. (+ Cognitive behavioral therapy + Mindfulness + …)

Rule #1, per Epictetus: “What troubles people is not things, but their judgments about things.”

For a Stoic, the only thing that matters is to live with virtue. Period. They tell us that our true freedom exists in knowing that we always have the ability to choose our response to any given situation. NOTHING outside of us can force us to commit “moral evil.”

Recall, of course, that this is what Viktor Frankl told us in Man’s Search for Meaning. He framed it this way: “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing; the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

I love the way Michael Jordan’s mindfulness coach, George Mumford echoes this wisdom in The Mindful Athlete. Here’s the description of the inner citadel that George builds within his elite athletes: “Think about the eye of a hurricane, or the calm still center in the middle of a cyclone. No matter how intense the storm or what’s swept up in its gale-force winds, that calm, blue center is always there. This is the metaphor I like to use when talking about the space between stimulus and response. We all have this quiet center within us. Mindfulness reconnects us to this center space, where we fully experience the present moment and have access to the transcendent wisdom that’s often associated with conscious flow. In his book Man’s Search for Meaning, neurologist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl famously described it this way: ‘Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.’”

Stimulus. Response.

… Space …

Stepping into that space between stimulus and response is where it’s at.

Practicing this discipline is like building a fortress. One disciplined choice at a time. Brick by brick. Disciplined action by disciplined action. Our inner citadel is built. Nothing outside of us can invade or disturb our well-being.

It’s a never-ending project of a lifetime. Let’s do it.

So, we all have the potential to build an inner citadel.

How do we go about doing that? Here’s one very wise step: Team up with your daimōn.

Your inner daimōn is, essentially, the highest version of you—that part of you that is always there, watching what you’re up to, shining the light in the direction of your optimal path.

(You know what I’m talking about, right?)

Let’s get on VERY good terms with this daimōn!

Epictetus called it “the Other.” He says: “When you go to see some important personage, remember that there is an Other, watching what happens from above, and that it is better to please this Other than that man.”

In other words, when you’re out in the world, be more focused on keeping a REALLY good relationship with your daimōn than with anything else.

Rick Hanson offers another helpful metaphor to help us live at our best. In Buddha’s Brain he tells us: “If you think you might get triggered by the interaction and lose your way, help your prefrontal cortex to help you—an interesting circularity!—by sorting out your key points in advance, even writing them down. To keep your words and tone clean, imagine a video recording being made of your interaction: act so that you wouldn’t wince if you saw it.”

Guess who’s holding the video camera? Your daimōn.

Let’s make him/her/us proud!

Do your best. Let’s build that inner citadel.

(And, of course, when you *don’t* do your best, there’s always THIS moment to get back on track. Follow the daimōn’s flashlight to the citadel!)

Amor fati. This is the essence of The Discipline of Desire. We want to love what is. Whatever is thrown at us, we want to not only accept it, we want to LOVE it.

Easier said than done, of course. Which is why this is a “discipline.” (And why Marcus constantly reminded himself of the need to practice!)

I love that image of the fire. It CONSUMES obstacles and uses them as fuel. (Nassim Taleb uses a similar metaphor when he tells us that the wind fuels a fire but extinguishes a candle.)

Marcus calls this ability to use obstacles for fuel “turning the obstacle upside down.” He says: “That which impeded action thus becomes profitable to action, and that which blocked the road allows me to advance along the road.”

In other words, if you choose to do something and an obstacle presents itself, USE THAT obstacle to practice your most important goal: To live with virtue.

When living with virtue is your primary goal, NOTHING (literally) can prevent you from continuing to make progress toward your ultimate aim.

Reminds me of Vernon Howard’s great line from The Power of Your Supermind where he tells us: “If your grand purpose in life is to wake up, then whatever happens to you is good, for it can prod you into self-awakening.”

Got any obstacles? How can you turn them upside down?

This is a prevalent theme of the book and of Marcus’s spiritual exercises.

Want to appreciate life? Contemplate death. Think about how quickly it all passes. Embrace the preciousness of life.

And, let’s not just seize the day Carpe diem style. Let’s live a moral day. Carpe areté!

P.S. On that note, how about Dan Millman’s wisdom from Everyday Enlightenment: “Most of us have heard the saying ‘Carpe Diem’—Seize the day. A valuable reminder to live fully, but not a realistic idea, since you cannot seize the day. You can seize only the moment—this moment.

The quality of your moments produces the quality of your life. So, as thoughts come and go and the waves of mind rush on, Carpe punctum—Seize this moment. It deserves your full attention, for it will not pass your way again.”

Those are the final words of the book in which Hadot is reflecting on why this book has such enduring value.

It’s a VERY rare opportunity to read the personal notes of a powerful human being intensely committed to perfecting himself and striving to live as a philosopher in service to the world.

It’s almost like he’s writing to each of us, eh? Here’s to engaging in our spiritual exercises as we optimize + actualize in service to the common good! :)