Stoic Reflections On The Collapse of The Gulf Stream, Part Two
The Buddha and Epictetus offer us some wisdom
This is the second of my essays exploring what resources Stoicism and other philosophical therapies—like ones taught by Siddhatha Gotama, the Buddha— can offer us in facing the mounting climate crises. It was inspired by the recent announcements that the Gulf Stream may collapse as early as 2025. For more on that, see last week’s essay.
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In the Pabbatopamasutta, or The Discourse On The Mountain Simile, King Pasenadi of Kosala comes to see Siddhatha Gotama (563-483 BCE?), the Indian philosopher and yogi known as the Buddha (the Awakened One), in the middle of the day. Coming to see Siddhatha (Siddhartha in the later Sanskrit form) in the middle of the day is an expression of urgency and a desire for privacy. Recognizing this, Siddhatha asks him, “Why have you come in the middle of the day?”
The King seemingly equivocates, telling the Buddha he has been involved in those things Kings tend to be involved in, those things “typical of anointed warrior kings successfully ruling a stable territory, accomplished conquerors, who are intoxicated with the intoxication of power and greedy for sensual pleasure.”
It is unlikely, though perhaps not impossible, that the King described himself in this dismissive way. I suspect this is actually a tongue-in-cheek summary of what he said through the contemptuous eyes of the world-renouncing monks who wrote the discourse. That said, Siddhatha seems to recognize the King’s ennui and obsession with power and pleasure, and responds with a challenge.
“What do you think, great King, if trustworthy persons came to you and reported that mountains as high as the sky were coming from each of the four directions, moving and killing all living beings in their path, what should be done?”
The Buddha has bet right that this question will inspire the King to draw on his own resources and begin thinking philosophically, and the King responds, “What would there be to do but to engage in conduct in line with truth, right conduct, skillful deeds, deeds bringing happiness and blessing?”
“I inform you, great king, I announce to you, great king,” Siddhatha replies, “aging & death are rolling in on you. When aging & death are rolling in on you, what should be done?”
The King reflects that what is his as an anointed warrior king will not help him. Neither elephants, nor cavalry, nor counsellors, nor great wealth will help. In this matter, only “conduct in line with truth, right conduct, skillful deeds, deeds bringing happiness and blessing1” will help, both in what remains of this life and in the next one.
As I wrote last week, as tempting as it is to forget it, we have received trustworthy reports of the kind that King Pasenadi feared. In the form of the climate crisis and related ecological catastrophes, mountains are moving in from each of the four directions crushing all living beings in their path. This discourse with the Buddha both offers advice for our situation while reminding us that the idea that we are in an unusual situation is, in one sense, a trick of the mind. All of us face aging and death all of the time, and the amount of life we have left is always completely unknown.
A Buddhist would add that absolutely everything is impermanent, including ecologies, including planets. Of course the prospect of ecological collapse and the extinction of many species, including possibly our own, and by our own hand, carries horrific valences which go beyond merely facing our own mortality. Yet the fear of our own disempowerment and death cannot but be an intimate part of what we fear. Next week I will release an essay looking at the broader canvas of what’s happening, but I think it’s important that we first face our own very personal fears.
King Pasenadi’s advice to himself in the face of this harmonizes well with Epictetus’ “dichotomy of control.” The essence of the King’s realization is that he has no control over when he will be crushed by the mountains of aging and death, but he does have control over his own choices and behaviour.
According to Epictetus, we should as much as possible reserve our desire and aversion for those things which are “up to us,” and withdraw it from those things over those things which are not. The psychological logic here is simple: suffering comes from not getting what we want, or getting what we don’t want. So only want or don’t want what is within our control: our decisions and judgements in this moment.
How hot will the planet get? Will my neighborhood flood? How will it affect my children—I myself am a father of two—? How many people will die? Will the climate crises kill me? My children? Will it wipe out my finances?
All of these things are naturally terrifying. I find them viscerally frightening, nauseating, saddening, enraging. Yet the passions I just described- fear, anger, anxiety— just weaken me. What kind of a person do I want to be? How do I want to live whatever precious amount of life is allotted to me, climate crises or no?
The Stoic advice here is to thoroughly confront and admit that none of the things I just listed are up to me. This is not a prescription for inaction—certainly we should use the power of voting, protest, lifestyle, and whatever else as we think they can best be deployed. We do have an influence over how things go, but if we think it is up to us, we are sorely deluded and carrying a burden no human being can or should carry. We have no control over how successful our actions will be, and truthfully an emotional investment in their success when the odds are so slim and the future so uncertain is more likely to lead to burnout than continued activism.
Having admitted that the future of the ecosystem and human political systems are outside of our control, we are free to focus on what is: “conduct in line with truth, right action, skillfull deeds, actions that bring happiness and blessing.” Striving to act this way is within our power, and something we can rejoice in no matter what happens. This will make us stronger and of more use to ourselves and the people around us.
Next week I will explore a third reflection to help us, this time drawn from the notebooks of Marcus Aurelius.
Photo by Taryn Elliott: https://www.pexels.com/photo/back-view-of-a-person-standing-on-a-vast-green-grass-field-4652275/
The four things the King says are worth engaging in are more or less equivalent phrases. What I translated as “conduct in line with truth” is literally conduct in line with “dhamma” (sanskrit “dharma”) which here refers to the teachings of the Buddha, teachings of the truth, the way things are, the universal pattern, reality. “Skillfull deeds” refers to thoughts, words and actions which produce long term wellbeing. Right conduct is a smaller subset of the same thing, and “deeds bringing happiness and blessing” is the same thing except viewed from the perspective of karma.