PNTV: The Inner Citadel by Pierre Hadot (#360)

Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another episode of Philosopher's Notes TV. Today, another great book, the Inner Citadel by Pierre Ado. The Inner Citadel Subtitle the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. Pierre Ado is one of the world's leading historians of ancient philosophy. He has since passed away, but a brilliant thinker who is all about connecting ancient philosophy to modern life and applying it in a profound, deeply spiritual way. Living with virtue, etc. I picked this book up on Ryan Holiday's recommendation as per the last episode we did and as per a lot of books that we cover now. What's interesting about this book is it's not like most books, right? So most books I sit down and I can hammer through a normal self help book that's 200, 250 pages in a morning and then write the PDF and record the MP3 later that day. Not with this book. 312 pages of dense wisdom that took me days to read. So challenging, deeply meaningful, rewarding read. Highly recommend it. Just a beautiful analysis of Marcus Aurelius meditation. So again, Peter Hadou, leading historian of ancient philosophy who basically goes into Marcus Aurelius Meditations and provides us with an analysis of what's going on, why did he write in this style, etc. Etc. And then most importantly, showing us how we can apply Aurelius spiritual practices to our own lives. And you got to remember that Marcus Aurelius, Emperor of the Roman Empire, never intended to publish his Meditations, which this book analyzes. He was simply writing notes to himself. That's what meditations the word literally meant or the phrase meant notes to himself. He was writing notes to himself that became the Meditations. Never intended anyone to read it. So this book, Hadot tells us, is basically like looking into his spiritual practices. It's a very, very intimate look at one of the most powerful and wise leaders we've ever known and how hard he worked to master himself. So, philosopher's note, a bunch of my favorite big ideas. Five of them here. Let's take a quick look. The first thing is the inner citadel. What is the inner citadel? Think of a citadel which is absolutely secure, right? A citadel is just super protected secure. Well, we want to have that level of absolute security and in our mind, in our consciousness. And that was one of the things that Marcus Aurelius worked so hard to create. That's what Stoicism is all about, having that presence of mind to maintain a level of equanimity in the midst of life's challenges. And if you're the emperor of the Roman Empire, you have a lot of challenges. And he often wrote to himself, yes, you could be peaceful and tranquil in that sense if you were out relaxing somewhere by the beach, but you're not. So you've got to find that centeredness right here, that citadel right here. And the key to it is something that Viktor Frankl talked about as well. Viktor Frankl said that the last freedom that someone can take from you is your freedom to choose. He says that in between stimulus, response, there is a gap. In that gap is where your freedom exists. In that gap is where you build your citadel. And you want to lengthen the space between the stimulus and the response. And even more importantly, you want to condition yourself to quickly see, do I have control over this or not? Which is rule number one of Stoicism. Some things are out of our control, some things are within. Disciplining ourselves to respond optimally is what it's all about. In the note, I echo this perspective with George Mumford, who is one of the world's leading mindfulness coaches as applied to sports. To put it in perspective, he was Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant's mental toughness coach, right? Working with Phil Jackson, he talked about the same thing. These great athletes had an inner Citadel. They were able to maintain a sense of calm in the midst of chaos. And that's what we want to build. And the only way you build that is through rigorous, disciplined practice, which is what Aurelius was doing every time he sat down to write. And Hado makes the point that there is incessant, as Pierre Oudot says, incessant repetition by Aurelius. He's constantly reminding himself of the same ideas from a slightly different perspective. So it moves from theory to practice, which is what we're doing here. Obviously, we talk about the same themes again and again and again from slightly different perspectives, to drill it in a little bit more, to make it a more fresh experience so we can apply it today. That's what the Meditations is. And when you look at it through that lens, it makes sense that it's repeating itself again and again and again. So absolute security is built through practice and repetition, creating that space between stimulus and response. That's where absolute security exists and our citadel is built. Now, again, in the last episode, we talked about, in the philosophy of cognitive behavioral therapy, we talked about the primary point of Stoicism, and really of ancient philosophy and of modern positive psychology, is to have a good relationship with our inner daimon, right? So the inner daimon is your Inner soul, it's the highest version of you. Creating a healthy relationship with that version of you means you, Daimon, Good Daimon, which again is the cornerstone of positive psychology. Eudaimonia, sense of flourishing, is what the entire science of positive psychology is based on. You want to have a high level of well being, awesome. Live with virtue, to create a good relationship with the highest version of yourself. Daimon. I shared in our Journaling 101 class and in the last episode that I usually write in my journal, my virtues, right, Arete, Eudaimonia, Entheos, heros and Euthymia, my ancient virtues that I strive to embody. And then right next to it, I write the modern positive psychology equivalents, which are creativity for me, my top signature strengths, my virtues in action, which are creativity, hope and optimism, energy and enthusiasm, courage and love and purpose. So anyway, I write these five ancient ones, the five modern ones, and I usually write Arete first. I'm going to change that. As I was preparing for this little episode, I realized, you know what? The first one needs to be Eudaimonia. So, eudaimon, I want to have a good relationship with my inner soul. And then how do you do that? Well, it's what we talk about all the time. Arete. I want to today do my best. I want to close the gap between what I'm doing, actually doing, and what I'm capable of doing. When you close that gap, there's no room for regret and disillusionment and anxiety and depression. In that moment, you're doing your best. When you're doing your best, your soul is happy, you feel good. So keep that in mind and know that the ancient Stoic philosophers also called that version of you that's always watching you. You might have noticed Christian thinkers and theologians would call that your conscience. Well, back in the day, the Stoic philosophers called that the other. The other is always watching you. Your inner soul, your daimon, is always watching you. And your primary responsibility is to make that essence happy and pleased with what you're about ready to do. Keep that in mind, the other, as you go through your day. And the next big idea is the discipline of desire. So the cornerstone of, again, Aurelius writings was to discipline himself, to think and act in certain ways. One of the disciplines is the discipline of desire. And the basic idea there is that the classic Stoic philosopher wants to desire. Basically, what is. That's what they want to desire. Of course, they have goals and they have aspirations, but their ultimate desire is to love what is whatever's happening right now is what they want to be happening. Nietzsche, centuries later, called that amor fati to love one's fate. Byron Katie calls that loving. What is, whatever is, is. Eckhart Tolle says, you want to love that moment. Act as if you scripted it. It doesn't matter what it is, you can't change it. Therefore, you might as well love it and get the most out of it that you possibly can. That's a discipline of desire. Easier said than done. Practice that if you're feeling so inspired. The fourth big idea is the paradox of fire. This is another big theme of Stoicism and Aurelius. Ryan Holiday wrote a whole book on a piece of wisdom that Marcus Aurelius wrote to himself that basically said he needed to train himself to turn obstacles upside down. When you face an obstacle, if you turn it upside down, it actually becomes a benefit, it becomes a gain. One of the metaphors that the ancient ones used that Pierre talks about is the paradox of fire. The paradox of fire is that when it encounters things that could stifle its growth, it actually uses those things as fuel, right? So the more things you throw at a fire, the more it grows, with the exception of water, of course. But it will take on those obstacles and it will use them as fuel for its fire, for its growth. We want to use obstacles in our life the same way we want to turn them upside down. We want to embrace the paradox of fire. The metaphor I share often in this context is Nassim Taleb's Antifragile, where he tells us, the wind extinguishes a candle. Flame's not big enough, but it fuels a fire. If you've got a bonfire, that wind is going to grow it, whereas it will blow out a candle. So you need to. We need to build that inner citadel such that we have absolute security and we can turn those obstacles upside down, embrace the paradox of fire, and use everything to our higher purpose. The fifth big idea is carpe arete. And in this we talk about the Stoic practice of reflecting on death. So reflecting on death was a big part of their embracing life. And I actually have a coin that Ryan Holiday created. You can find this at the Daily Stoic. One of the practices is called memento mori. Remember death. So back in the day, Aurelius, or a general might be going through Rome, huge parade, right? People celebrating him, and they'll be standing in their chariot, feeling all the praise and applause, etc. All the adulation. A returning general won a victory. Awesome. Right now they would have an advisor sitting behind them whose only job was to whisper in their ear, memento mori. Remember death. Remember this is ephemeral, this moment of you at your peak, right? It's a moment and this is going to fade. It's ephemeral. And your life is going to end. Therefore, take it for what it is and. And get back to work. Knowing that this moment is precious, Pierre connects this to, what was it, the book or the movie with the kids, right? In high school with Robin Williams. I'm forgetting the name of it right now, but we'll go with it, right? And he has them come up and actually, I'm curious what it is, so I'm going to look at my notes. What is that movie? You know what the movie is? Help me with it. The movie is, of course, Dead Poets Society. Dead Poet Society. How can I forget that? Dead Poets Society, right? What does Robin Williams character do? He brings the kids, high school kids in his class, up to a picture and he shows them the old boys of the school who are at the top of their class years ago. And he says, hey guys, all. All those young, youthful boys, they're gone. So what does he tell them? He tells them, carpe diem. Remember death. It's a practice. Remember that all these people who are here are gone. And Aurelius used to do this. He would remember all of the old emperors, right, who were at their peak of fame. They're gone now. It's a good way to humble yourself and to bring yourself into this moment, to seize the day. So carpe diem was Robin Williams incantation to his students, right? Carpe diem, seize the day. Pierre makes the point that that's what Aurelius practiced in these ancient Stoics, only they seized a moral day. They were committed to living their best, morally living with virtue, right? Having their inner daimon. Be happy. How do you do that? Carpe arete. And there's a little thing on the other side. So on the front side of this coin we have memento mori, right, from Ryan in the Daily Stoic, little skull on it that will remind you of death. And then the other side we have a paraphrase of an Aurelius thought, which is, you could leave life right now. Aurelius would write to himself, hey, remember, you never know when your last moment is going to come, therefore do your best in this moment. Carpe arete. Close the gap between what you're capable of being, what you're actually being. You have a good soul, you're feeling pretty darn good about yourself and about life. In this moment, you're embracing the paradox of fire. Obstacles are awesome. Why? Because you've disciplined your desire to want what is, that's the source of your inner citadel. When you learn to want what is, that's absolute security. You're never arguing with reality. You're responding as appropriately as you can and high fiving your inner highest self as your highest purpose. And it's a pretty powerful way to go through life as you construct your inner citadel. Dead Poets Society style. Carpe diem. Carpe arte. Let's do this. I hope you enjoyed and if you're feeling it, I think you'll really enjoy the book. Again, it's not your typical self help book. It's a really, really not that most self help books aren't thoughtful, but this is a really thoughtful, rigorous, intellectually challenging and inspiring look at one of the greatest thinkers in history by another one of the greatest thinkers in history. And I highly recommend it. So there you go. I hope you have another awesome day. Look forward to seeing you soon. See ya. Isn't it a bit odd that we went from math to science to history, but somehow missed the class on how to live? For some wacky reason, optimal living 101 never made the schedule. Of course it's too late to go back and change that and you're too busy to read full time to catch up. But. But if you're like us, you're all about optimizing your life so you can actualize your potential. So imagine this. Imagine having someone read the best books on how to optimize your life and pull out the big ideas that can really change your life. You know those sections. You underline an asterisk and mark all up. Then imagine that guy me connecting those awesome ideas to other great books and helping you actually apply the wisdom to your life today. Well, that's what I do with something we call Philosopher's Notes, where I've distilled hundreds of great books into 20 minute super practical summaries. Then imagine me taking the absolute best big ideas from those great books and sharing them with you in hour long Optimal Living 101 classes on everything from productivity, purpose and confidence to nutrition, goal setting and conquering procrastination. Helping you optimize every facet of your life so you can actualize your potential. You've got a personal trainer. I'm kind of like your personal philosopher. Ancient wisdom, modern science, and practical tools. That's what our Optimized membership program is all about. If you're feeling it. We'd love to have you join us.