Marcus Aurelius and Be Passers-By: Two Kinds of Detachment
A Roman emperor once wrote in his private notebook that “life is a warfare and a stranger’s sojourn.” Put that line next to the forty-second saying of the Gospel of Thomas, where Jesus says only “Be passersby,” and you’d have a hard time guessing which came from a Stoic and which from a Gnostic gospel. Both tell you to travel light. Both treat fame and possessions as things you rent for a while and give back. ...