Allow me to give you my best impression,
Of fantasy.
As fate goes unplanned.
Placing windows over their were signs...
Of something tragic.
The lowest of my standards.
To live life as in nature,
And the discipline of thought.
Of this servile prologue.
Candid profile of mine.
My impression of you is good nor bad.
It is rooted in false judgment,
Of the highest standards.
All my actions are motivated by virtue.
All my desires are motivated by nostalgia.
As I can feel as distinct as your breath.
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Is being conscious more than being colorful?
It might be or might not be.
I know only that it's different.
No one can prove that it's more than just different.
I know the stone is real and the plant exists.
I know this because they exist.
I know this because my senses show it to me.
I know I'm real as well.
I know this because my senses show it to me,
Though less clearly than they show me the stone and the plant.
That's all I know.
Alberto Caeiro - June 5th 1922
Because, when I don't see you, you cease to exist.
And if I feel nostalgia for what doesn't exist,
The feeling is in relationship to nothing.
It's not the ship but our own selves that we miss.
Alberto Caeiro - May 29th 1918
Truth, falsehood, certainty, uncertainty....
Do truth, falsehood, certainty and uncertainty remain the same?
It's no longer the same time, or the same people, or the same anything...
To be real is this.
Alberto Caeiro - April 12th 1919
The Stoics were materialists, and God is conceived of as a type of fiery breath that blends perfectly with all other matter in the universe. In doing this, God transforms matter from undifferentiated 'stuff' into the varied forms that we see around us. This process is continuous, and God makes the world as it is, doing what it does, moment by moment. Just as the soul of a person is understood to bring alive and animate what would otherwise be dead and inert matter, so God is thought of as the 'soul of the world', and the universe is thought of as a sort of animal.
Epictetus (following the Stoic tradition) as 'following nature' or 'living in harmony with nature'. The Stoic prokoptôn maintains his 'harmony with nature' by being aware of why he acts as he does in terms of both (a) what his appropriate actions are, and (b) accepting what fate brings.
Keeping ourselves in harmony with nature requires that we focus on two things. Firstly, we must pay attention to our own actions so that we respond appropriately, and secondly we must pay attention to the world in which our actions take effect and which prompts those actions in the first place.
Remembering then this disposition of things, we ought to go to be instructed, not that we may change the constitution of things, – for we have not the power to do it, nor is it better that we should have the power, – but in order that, as the things around us are what they are and by nature exist, we may maintain our minds in harmony with the things which happen. (Discourses 1.12.15–17, trans. Long)
The wise and good man … submits his own mind to him who administers the whole [i.e., God], as good citizens do to the law of the state. He who is receiving instruction ought to come to be instructed with this intention, How shall I follow the gods in all things, how shall I be contented with the divine administration, and how can I become free? For he is free to whom every thing happens according to his will [prohairesis], and whom no man can hinder. (Discourses 1.12.7–9, trans. Long)
In this last extract we see Epictetus refer to the ideal Stoic practice as that of 'following the gods'. This means essentially the same as 'following nature', for God, who is immanent in the world (as the Stoics understand it) is identified with the way the world manifests, so if one follows nature, one must also be following God (see Discourses 1.20.15, 1.30.4, 4.7.20 and 4.10.14)
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