【每日斯多葛】2026年7月16日

July 16th

PROGRESS OF THE SOUL

“To what service is my soul committed? Constantly ask yourself this and thoroughly examine yourself by seeing how you relate to that part called the ruling principle. Whose soul do I have now? Do I have that of a child, a youth . . . a tyrant, a pet, or a wild animal?”—MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 5.11

To what are you committed? What cause, what mission, what purpose? What are you doing? And more important, why are you doing it? How does what you do every day reflect, in some way, the values you claim to care about? Are you acting in a way that’s consistent with something you value, or are you wandering, unmoored to anything other than your own ambition?

When you examine these questions, you might be uncomfortable with the answers. That’s good. That means you’ve taken the first step to correcting your behavior—to being better than those wild creatures Marcus mentions. It also means you’re closer to discovering what your duty calls you to do in life. And once you discover it, you’ve moved a little bit closer to fulfilling it.

7月16日

灵魂的进步

“我的灵魂献身于什么服务？要不断这样问自己，并通过观察自己如何对待那个被称为主宰原则的部分，来彻底审视自己。我现在拥有的是谁的灵魂？我拥有的是孩子的灵魂、青年的灵魂……暴君的灵魂、宠物的灵魂，还是野兽的灵魂？”——马可·奥勒留，《沉思录》，5.11

你献身于什么？什么事业，什么使命，什么目的？你在做什么？更重要的是，你为什么做这些？你每天所做的事情，在某种程度上如何反映出你声称自己在乎的价值？你的行为是否与你所珍视的东西一致，还是你只是在漂泊，除了自己的野心之外，没有被任何东西系住？

当你审视这些问题时，你可能会对答案感到不舒服。这是好事。这意味着你已经迈出了纠正自己行为的第一步——迈向比马可所说的那些野兽更好的状态。这也意味着，你更接近于发现你的职责在生命中召唤你去做什么。一旦你发现了它，你就又离履行它近了一点。