As fans of the movie Gladiator know, there was an elderly Roman emperor named Marcus Aurelius, and his top general was named Maximus.
I don't know if the rest of the story proceeded as Hollywood depicted it—highly doubtful—but there was indeed an emperor named Marcus Aurelius, and his top general was indeed a man named Maximus.
Marcus Aurelius was not only a very enlightened ruler, but perhaps the only example in history of Plato's ideal of a philosopher-king.
In his memoirs, Marcus Aurelius occasionally touched upon his general Maximus. And his main point about Maximus was how much he learned from him.
I find that fascinating. Here was the emperor of the world, most examples of which were puffed-up with self-importance, and yet Marcus Aurelius stressed how much he learned from his top general.
Here was someone who did not need to inflate a self-image. He was content to be as he was, and happened to find himself as an emperor.
That was one of the great things about Marcus Aurelius: his humility. It's a quality that I try to learn from Marcus Aurelius and others.
It seems to me that humility is a pre-requisite for the spiritual journey, since without it the inner doors remain closed.
As far as I can tell, the spiritual journey to our true self takes place in two dimensions, and both require a good dose of humility.
On the inner level, we become more willing to observe the contents of consciousness with love but without reactivity, without "picking them up." We become more willing to let our emotions and thoughts and stories and so on be there without feeling that we have to do something about them.
This doesn't seem possible without humility, because only humility allows for the openness and receptivity central to this non-reactive watching.
And on an outer level, it seems like there's a gradual falling in love with all forms. We become more willing to let everything be as it is on an external level, knowing that it has to be as it is at this moment, and knowing that they're all forms of the One form.
This also takes humility. It takes humility to be able to observe the world without thinking about how it needs to be "improved." As Nisargadatta Maharaj once said, our little 3-pound brain comes out of a vast process, and then it imagines that it's going to turn around and evaluate and "fix" that vastness.
But then a question arises: If we don't do that, how will the world ever "improve"? It's a good question, one that I wrestled with for many years.
As we begin to wake up from the dream of "fixing" the world, our activities continue as before, since nothing changes except our perception. If we were working on the environment before, we'll probably continue doing it, but perhaps without the stress of make-wrong and polarization and self-righteousness.
The world will change however it does, but in my observation it's simply going from one "is-ness" to another, never ceasing in its mysterious perfection as it does so.
—jim sloman 4/20/01
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