Papyrus fragment P.Harr. I 1, Col. 2, Z. 25–50; showing a section of Diatribe 15 of Gaius Musonius Rufus.

Musonius Rufus (c. AD 30–100) was one of the four great Roman Stoic philosophers, the other three being Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, and Musonius’ pupil Epictetus. During his life, Musonius’ Stoicism was put to the test, most notably during an exile to Gyaros, a barren island in the Aegean Sea. Because Stoicism was, for Musonius, not merely a philosophy but a prescription for daily living, he has been called “the Roman Socrates.” MUSONIUS RUFUS: LECTURES AND FRAGMENTS will therefore be welcomed by those who seek insight into the practice of Stoicism.

The Suda states that there are “speeches about philosophy bearing his name,” and mentions letters to Apollonius of Tyana.[1] The letters that survive[8] are certainly not authentic.[9] It is unknown whether Musonius wrote anything for publication. His philosophical opinions were collected by two of his students. One collection of Discourses, by a certain Lucius, form the basis of the 21 lengthy extracts preserved by Stobaeus.[10] A second collection was compiled by one Pollio; it has been lost, but some fragments survive in quotations by later writers.[11]

The titles of the 21 discourses (Cora Lutz edition) are as follows:

1. That There is No Need of Giving Many Proofs for One Problem
2. That Man is Born with an Inclination Toward Virtue
3. That Women Too Should Study Philosophy
4. Should Daughters Receive the Same Education as Sons?
5. Which is more Effective, Theory or Practice?
6. On Training
7. That One Should Disdain Hardships
8. That Kings Also Should Study Philosophy
9. That Exile is not an Evil
10. Will the Philosopher Prosecute Anyone for Personal Injury?
11. What means of Livelihood is Appropriate for a Philosopher?
12. On Sexual Indulgence
13. What is the Chief End of Marriage
14. Is Marriage a Handicap for the Pursuit of Philosophy?
15. Should Every Child that is Born be Raised?
16. Must One Obey One’s Parents under all Circumstances?
17. What is the Best Viaticum for Old Age?
18. On Food
19. On Clothing and Shelter
20. On Furnishings
21. On Cutting the Hair

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Published in 1884, ‘The kingdom of God is within you’ is perhaps Tolstoy’s most significant work of non-fiction. Due to the Russian censors, it was first published in Germany, but its dominant idea of non-violence echoed across the international stage throughout the 20th century.

In essence, the book is a defence by Tolstoy of the position on non-violence he adopted in ‘My Religion’; and therefore also an assault on the Orthodox Church. ‘Nowhere,’ says Tolstoy, ‘is there evidence that God or Christ founded anything like what churchmen understand by the Church.’ And in what it now proclaimed, Tolstoy believed the church was wasting its time: ‘The activity of the church consists in forcing, by every means in its power, upon millions Russian people, those antiquated, time-worn beliefs which have lost all significance.’

Freshly informed by Quaker ideals of non-violence; and full of both story telling and rhetoric, here is Tolstoy calling for a change in consciousness in society. He does not accept that ‘this social order, with its pauperism, famines, prisons, gallows, armies and wars, is necessary to society.’ That which is, is not that which must be.

Rooted in the Sermon on the Mount, Tolstoy’s Christianity is not primarily concerned with worship or salvation, but with a new way of behaving in society – behaviour informed by the pointlessness and sin of violence. Tolstoy tellingly reflects on the army at work – whether in internal repression or in national wars – and asks: ‘How can you kill people when it is written in God’s commandment ‘Thou shall not murder?’

Gandhi was ‘overwhelmed’ by the book, said ‘it left an abiding impression’, and in time, a correspondence started between the two men. The book convinced Gandhi that Hinduism and Christianity were one and the same at their core, and informed his passive resistance first in South Africa and then India; and later, of course, that of Martin Luther King in the USA.

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THIS BOOK explores an unrecognized but mighty taboo—our tacit conspiracy to ignore who, or what, we really are. Briefly, the thesis is that the prevalent sensation of oneself as a separate ego enclosed in a bag of skin is a hallucination which accords neither with Western science nor with the experimental philosophy-religions of the East—in particular the central and germinal Vedanta philosophy of Hinduism.

This hallucination underlies the misuse of technology for the violent subjugation of man’s natural environment and, consequently, its eventual destruction. We are therefore in urgent need of a sense of our own existence which is in accord with the physical facts and which overcomes our feeling of alienation from the universe. For this purpose I have drawn on the insights of Vedanta, stating them, however, in a completely modern and Western style—so that this volume makes no attempt to be a textbook on or introduction to Vedanta in the ordinary sense. It is rather a cross-fertilization of Western science with an Eastern intuition.

Particular thanks are due to my wife, Mary Jane, for her careful editorial work and her comments on the manuscript. Gratitude is also due to the Bollingen Foundation for its support of a project which included the writing of this book.

Sausalito, California

ALAN WATTS January, 1966

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If you cherish “As a Man Thinketh,” then “Above Life’s Turmoil” will not fail you. In this book, Allen disects the human condition and like a master physician, he offers solutions in his haunting and truthful style. In his own words, “Surrounded by noise, we can yet have a quiet mind; involved in responsibilities, the heart can be at rest; in the midst of strife, we can know the abiding peace. The twenty pieces which comprise this book, unrelated as some of them are in the letter, will be found to be harmonious in the spirit, in that they point the reader towards those heights of self-knowledge and self-conquest which, rising above the turbulance of the world, lift their peaks where the Heavenly Silence reigns.” This book is beautiful. As with Allen’s other works, you will re-visit the pages of this book often. Read it yourself and see why.

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Boethius composed the De Consolatione Philosophiae in the sixth century AD whilst awaiting death under torture, condemned on a charge of treason which he protested was manifestly unjust. Though a convinced Christian, in detailing the true end of life which is the soul’s knowledge of God, he consoled himself not with Christian precepts but with the tenets of Greek philosophy.

This work dominated the intellectual world of the Middle Ages; writers as diverse as Thomas Aquinas, Jean de Meun, and Dante were inspired by it. In England it was rendered in to Old English by Alfred the Great, into Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer, and later Queen Elizabeth I made her own translation. The circumstances of composition, the heroic demeanour of the author, and the ‘Menippean’ texture of part prose, part verse have combined to exercise a fascination over students of philosophy and literature ever since.

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A total departure from previous writing about television, this book is the first ever to advocate that the medium is not reformable. Its problems are inherent in the technology itself and are so dangerous — to personal health and sanity, to the environment, and to democratic processes — that TV ought to be eliminated forever.

Weaving personal experiences through meticulous research, the author ranges widely over aspects of television that have rarely been examined and never before joined together, allowing an entirely new, frightening image to emerge. The idea that all technologies are “neutral,” benign instruments that can be used well or badly, is thrown open to profound doubt. Speaking of TV reform is, in the words of the author, “as absurd as speaking of the reform of a technology such as guns.”

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