Hello mind mappers and welcome to the video. Today we're going to be going over The Inner Citadel by Pierre Hadot. This book is all about building an impenetrable fortress inside of your mind to help you deal with things like fear, anxiety, and self-doubt.
It's a really amazing book. It was definitely a tough read, but I'm hoping that I've been able to distill some of the wisdom down into a simple mind map for you. Let's start with The Inner Citadel.
The first quote. that I pulled from the book goes like this. Soon you will have forgotten everything. Soon everybody will have forgotten you.
Marcus Aurelius in Meditations. Really quickly, this book is really based upon Marcus Aurelius in his book Meditation. It's really just a modern kind of translation or a modern take on quite an old book.
You'll see that Marcus Aurelius was actually wrong. 18th century's Almost two millennia have actually passed and the meditations are still alive. Nor have their pages been reserved to a few aristocrats of the intellect.
For centuries, they have brought reasons to live to innumerable unknown people who have been able to read them in the multiple translations of the meditations which have been made in every corner of the earth and they still do today. The meditations are an inexhaustible source of wisdom, an eternal gospel. My intention, which is to offer the modern reader an introduction to the readings of meditations, will thus perhaps not be without usefulness.
I will try to discover what Marcus wanted to accomplish by writing them, to specify the literary genre to which they belong, and especially to define the relationships with the philosophical system which inspired them. Finally, without trying to produce a biography of the Emperor, I will try to determine how much of him is visible in his work. The thing that I got from this passage was why do some things last a millennia?
Something at the core of meditations, to me, strikes something inside of each one of us. That's why it's lasted so long. That's why we're reading this book here today together, and that's why you're watching this video.
The content inside of meditation is the same content that is inside of all of us. The struggle to live up to our virtues, the struggle to live the good life, the struggle that every human being goes through. It's all the same things that Marcus was dealing with, the ancient Stoics were dealing with almost two millennia ago. I have yet to find a more elegant and simple way of describing these struggles than Stoicism provides. Another helpful thing that I think Stoicism provides is many different angles and articulations of the solutions that its practitioners have found.
This book, again, was very dense. It's well thought out. It's definitely enlightening. I know you'll love it. And moving forward, we're going to talk a little bit about mind mapping.
Why is mind mapping so effective? You can get the most out of these mind maps by following along. You can find the process of how I mind map plus All 50 plus of the mind maps that I've already done on this channel, including this one, at the link down below, completely for free. Following along is going to help you learn more, remember better, and apply these books to your life. And with that, we'll move into our first idea, which is practice.
Such writing exercises thus lead, necessarily, to incessant repetitions. And this is what radically differentiates the meditations from every other work. Dogmas are not mathematical rules learned once for all and then mechanically applied. Rather, they must somehow become achievements of awareness, intuitions, emotions, and moral experiences which have the intensity of the mystical experience or vision. The spiritual and affective spirituality, however, quick to dissipate.
In order to reawaken it, it is not enough to re-read what has already been written. Written pages are already dead and the meditations were not meant to be re-read. So interesting, he's actually saying, let's not be librarians of the mind. Let's not just gather information and bring it in never to be seen again, never to be read again.
What we're really trying to do here is let's bring this information in. Let's learn from these ancient teachers and put it into practice in our lives. And you'll notice with this mind map, I've really put and I really... put focus into on all of my mind maps, practical exercises, things you can do, things you can take away from the book and put into your life immediately.
Continuing on, what counts is the reformulation, the act of writing or talking to oneself right now in the very moment when one needs to write. It is also the act of composing with the greatest care possible to search for that vision which, at a given moment, will produce the greatest effect. in the moment before it fades away almost instantaneously, almost as soon as it is written. Characters traced onto some medium do not fix anything.
Everything is in the act of writing. Thus we witness a succession of new attempts at composition repetitions of the same formulas and endless variations on the same themes, the themes of Epictetus. The goal is to reactualize, rekindle, and ceaselessly reawaken an inner state which is in constant danger of being numbed or extinguished.
The task, ever renewed, is to bring back to order an inner discourse with which becomes dispersed and diluted in the futility of routine. As he wrote in the Meditations, Marcus was thus practicing Stoic spiritual exercises. He was using writing as a technique or procedure in order to influence himself and to transform his inner discourse by meditating on the Stoic dogmas and rules of life.
This was an exercise of writing day by day, ever renewed, always taken up again, and always needing to be taken up again. Since the true philosopher is he who is conscious and not yet having attained wisdom. So we're talking here about, again, reactualizing, rekindling, and reawakening our inner state which is in danger of being numbed or extinguished.
Particularly here, Marcus Aurelius was using... Writing as his way to kind of rekindle that state. And really for me, this is what the journey that we're all on here is all about. Wisdom coming from all these amazing books that we've read isn't simply a computer program. It's not something that we can download and immediately be ready to boot up anytime something difficult happens.
As he says here, we really need to treat it as an exercise. Something that we revisit time and time again so that it's ready at hand when it needs to be ready. So what does the roadmap truly look like?
Finding wisdom and insight is the first step. We need to find that wherever we can. It could be from books, it could be from meditations, journaling, conversations, doing our best to rekindle and relearn from different perspectives every single day.
In fact, these mind maps, these videos that I'm making for you is my way of rekindling this information so that it becomes part of my being and I can more readily pull it out during my coaching conversations or just coaching with myself. And then continuing to grow the spark inside of us that seeks this wisdom. Continuing to come back time and time again, because of course we need to continually rekindle this type of fire inside of us that we're really looking to continually grow.
And that's what the Stoics were doing as well, when they were writing and journaling and doing those types of exercises. Now I wanted to talk about something that I've noticed inside of almost all of my coaching clients. See, often I get coaching clients looking to start a business, achieve a goal, or get into better shape. All of those things are great. All of those things I can help with.
But one common thing that I've found is that most of these people have tried a plan before. Most of us have tried a plan before. Whether it's a business plan, a fitness plan, a career plan, all of these things we've mostly all tried before.
Along the way, somewhere, they and we have failed and didn't achieve what we set out to do. They turn around and blame the plan. Subsequently, they get discouraged.
You know, put your hand up if this is you. I'm sure it's a lot of us. Here's the secret that I share with all of them.
The plan is not that mathematical model that we talked about before, that computer model that we've talked about before, and it's never going to be perfect. Our job is to set out along the path, pick a direction, find insight, and grow our wisdom. making changes along the way.
Therefore, the beginning plan almost doesn't really matter. The end plan will always be much different. And that's really the core of Stoicism. Everything is going to change.
We need to continually upgrade our wisdom so that we can make the best decisions in the moment. Now, this doesn't mean that we can't stand on the shoulders of giants, but it does mean that we have to be willing to adapt along the way. We need to reactualize, rekindle. and reawaken continually along the way.
Our next idea is the inner citadel. And the quote from the book goes like this. In order to understand what Marcus Aurelius means when he says that things cannot touch the soul and are outside of us, we must bear in mind that when he speaks about us and about the soul, he is thinking of the superior or guiding part of the soul. The superior or guiding part of the soul.
It alone is free, because it can give us or ref- Fuse its ascent to the inner discourse which enunciates what the object is, which is represented by a given fantasia. Now, don't be ashamed if you don't know what those words are. I had to look them up myself as well.
Fantasia, to me, is really just kind of the idea, right? Any idea. This borderline which objects cannot cross, this invulnerable stronghold of freedom, invulnerable stronghold of freedom, is the limit of what I shall refer to as the inner citadel. Things cannot penetrate into this citadel.
When the guiding principle thus discovers that it is free in its judgments, that it can give whatever value it pleases to the events which happen to it, and that nothing can force it to commit moral evil, then it experiences a feeling of absolute security. From now on, it feels nothing can invade or disturb it. It is like a a cliff against which the crashing surf breaks constantly, while it remains standing unmovably as the waves come bubbling to die at its feet.
Now that was quite a paragraph. We're going to dissect it step by step. Epictetus said that what troubles people is not things, but their judgment about those things. So let's talk about the final point of the paragraph here.
The surf breaks, crashing onto the shore. This is a state that we all know too well. Being the surf, being at the mercy of those waves, being at the mercy of the surf, of the ocean.
It's where things like fears, doubts, uncertainties, and anxieties live. It can push us off course, just as a wave would push a piece of driftwood around. These states or emotions are, in the Stoics'eyes, unavoidable, and in fact, chosen. Sorry, they're avoidable, and in fact.
They're chosen states. So what is the inner citadel? What does it actually mean? Well, a citadel is a fortress, typically on high ground, protecting or dominating a city.
The inner citadel might be thought of as our higher mind, trained to choose our response to the outside world, protecting us from things like fears, doubts, uncertainties, and anxieties. So how might we go about building our own fortress, building our own citadel? Well... Here are a couple things. Everything can be taken from a man but one thing.
The last of the human freedoms. To choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances. To choose one's own way. That's from Viktor Frankl, who is a very stoic thinker, and he believes that between the stimulus or the outside and the response, the inside, or between the stimulus, the wave, and the shore, which is the inside.
or the response, there is a space, just enough for us to make a choice. How are we going to react to this wave or this object or this reality? And I believe that building our citadel happens right there. Every time we choose a different or more virtuous response, we add one brick to the citadel.
What a great exercise to practice when you come up against hard things. Step number one, you come up against... Something difficult, whether it's one of those fears, doubts, uncertainties, anxieties, an outside situation, something that's going on. Step number two, we choose a virtuous response. We choose to do something that our most virtuous self, something we'll talk about in a second, would choose to do.
Step number three, we want to mentally add that brick to the citadel. We want to congratulate ourselves for making the response that might have been, more difficult for making the response that might not have been chosen had we not been willing to make that choice. So for example, when we come up against a hard time or some sort of a craving when we're trying to eat a little healthier or something like that, every time we make the right choice, a good exercise for us to do is think, I'm adding an extra brick to my citadel. I'm adding an extra brick to my impenetrable fortress. A fortress that When it's fully built, not even the harshest craving will be able to overcome.
Next, we're going to talk about our daemon. Although the self may thus rise itself to a transcendent level, it is very difficult for it to keep itself there. The figure of the daemon allows Marcus Aurelius to express, in religious terms, the absolute value of moral intent and the love of moral good. No value is superior to virtue. and the inner daemon, and everything else, compared to the mysteries which Honor the eminent dignity of the inner daemon, his worthless petty-mindedness.
Again, this is a very deep book, but really what we're talking about here is, who are you at your highest level? And what they would call that, the Stoics would call that your daemon. The highest version of yourself is essentially the daemon. I like to think of it as the wisest version of myself, because kind of life is all about gathering wisdom.
This is you on your best path, holding high your virtues and keeping tabs on if you're living up to them. Every moment we are alive, there is a highest version of ourselves calling us towards it. Time for an exercise.
What virtue does your inner daemon hold up? What virtues does your inner daemon hold up? Find some virtues that you tend to have trouble upholding and imagine how your daemon thinks about them.
Imagine how it might be. react in the moment. Here are a couple of mine and then I want you to fill out yours as well in the mind map.
One virtue that my daemon upholds is patience. I tend to be an impatient person, but my inner daemon holds patience for the people around him, even when he feels like they might not deserve it. My inner daemon holds up courage. He works to do what is best, even when it's hard.
My inner daemon also holds up wisdom, tries to tap into the wisdom in the moment versus just holding on to it and becoming a librarian of the mind. I try to be a warrior of the mind. Cultivating this vision of my inner daemon and working to live up to that highest and wisest version of myself has probably been one of the most effective personal development tools I have ever come across.
Let's bring this into action. The cameraman analogy. Anticipating something difficult?
Try this. Step number one, imagine your daemon holding a camera on you in that difficult situation. Step number two, think about how you might act. Given this is going to be recorded and played over and over again, how might you want to act in that situation? How might you hold up to virtue in that situation?
Step number three is act so that you would be able to watch it without being ashamed. That's a very good analogy I think for modern life because so many of us are on camera a lot of times, we could use that. We could use that kind of feeling that we get when we're on camera and just bring that into our daily lives and bring it into the situations that we might find ourselves in that could be difficult.
Our next point is about fire and the paradox of fire, which grows stronger the more things are brought to it which could smother it. or at least present it with an obstacle, is the same as the paradox of good will. The latter is not content with one field of exercise, but assimilates all objects, including the most diverse goals, communicating its goodness and perfection to all the events to which it consents. Fire and the good will are thus utterly free with regard to the matter they use.
Their matter is indifferent to them, and the obstacles which are set in their way do nothing but feed them. In other words, nothing is an obstacle for them. Nothing is an obstacle for the goodwill or for fire. And Marcus Aurelius said, that which impeded action thus becomes profitable to action, and that which blocked the road allows me to advance along the road. The way that I view this is that there are going to be obstacles no matter what you are trying to accomplish.
For that much, we can be sure. Why then do we as humans tend to stop when we come across the first obstacle that we encounter along the way? Why then do we dwell and worry about obstacles that might be in the way?
How much of our time is spent worrying about the obstacles that might come up? The Stoics ask us to think about obstacles in a different way. Instead of thinking, you know, why would this obstacle be here?
Or what obstacle might come next? We might think, how? Might this obstacle contribute to my ultimate goal?
Or maybe what might I learn from this obstacle that will give me wisdom for the next one that I encounter? Think about that in your own life. How might you use a particular obstacle that's in your way right now to contribute to your ultimate goal?
How might overcoming this obstacle make the next obstacle a little bit easier? How might this obstacle give you ammo to be able to overcome another obstacle in the future or even Just enough of... an experience to help someone around you. That's another way to think about it too. The more wood you put on a fire, the more it has to burn.
What an amazing concept. The more obstacles that are in our way in the long run, the stronger that we get. And actually, we can think of, okay, the way to get stronger is to actually seek out more obstacles.
You know, I think a lot of the time when we're setting goals and that sort of thing, we think about the end thing that we're coming to. We're thinking about the objective. that we're trying to accomplish.
And instead, what if we reverse that? What if we think about what's the hardest thing I could do right now that would help me live a more meaningful life? I think that's a very good way to set goals.
How can I overcome this obstacle such that overcoming this obstacle will make everything else easier or unnecessary? After all, that has to be one of our main goals. Gain wisdom and get stronger so that we may accomplish something exponentially more meaningful. The Stoics believed that, and I believe that as well.
Our final point here today is Carpe Diem, the Stoic way. Marcus recalls the imperial courts of the past, that of Augustus, for example, in order to realize that all of these people who have, for an instant, come back to life in his mind are, in fact, dead. There is no more case of obsession with death or morbid complacency than when, In the film Dead Poets Society, Robin Williams, who plays a teacher of literature, makes his students carefully study a picture of the school's old boys, in order that his students appreciate the value of life.
The teacher wants them to become aware that all the boys in the picture, apparently so alive, are now dead. He hopes that they will thereby discover life's preciousness. As he instills in them, Horace is saying, Carpe diem, seize the day. The only difference in these two outlooks is that Marcus, the only value, is not just life, but moral life.
And I said here, we'll all be dead someday, but today we are not. This is one of the more powerful exercises coming out of Stoicism. It's one that you see quite often quoted, if you're inside of any of the Stoic groups that I'm in. And I think it's for a reason.
The idea that... complacency and contemplating and meditating on one's death actually gives us this urgency that life really desires. To live life to its fullest, we need to have an urgency.
The Stoics, of course, also believe that we want to live a moral life, and that's our highest calling, and a little bit of urgency couldn't hurt along the way. Today, I think we're much more divorced from death than ever in human history. Bodies are taken away by trained professionals and dressed up to look alive even in death.
Now this might be a good thing, but most people don't regularly have to deal with death on a deeply personal basis, at least not regularly. But yet, when we do have to deal with death, we are charged with energy. If you've ever had the unfortunate experience of having to deal with death on a more personal basis, maybe a family member, a friend, or a pet, has died, all of a sudden you have this fire of urgency lit underneath you. Perhaps you have a little bit of grief and other emotions swirling around in the beginning, but afterwards there's this sense of urgency.
And I don't think I'm the only one that's felt this. It propels us to live life to its fullest. But here's the deal. Why wait for such a horrid circumstance? And as we've talked about before, it's about practicing it on a daily basis because that spirit, that invigoration, that urgency will come and go if we don't actively seek it out.
So why wait for such horrid circumstances? We will all die someday. Why not just remind yourself, contemplating and meditating one's own death and in the death of other people that we look up to as Marcus did and As Robin Williams showed those kids to do inside of Dead Poets Society, it's a really great way to develop a little bit of urgency, to help you choose the path to meaningfulness, help you choose whether to stick in that dead-end job that you're in right now, or go for your passion.
It's one of the things that really has driven me throughout my life, to choose the path of entrepreneurship, and choose the path of writing my own book, rather than... Choosing the path of continuing down the step-by-step path laid out in front of us by society. Thanks for being with me here today. That was The Inner Citadel by Pierre Heddo.
I really appreciate you being with me here today, and I hope you'll check out some of the other Stoic books that I've done reviews on on the channel, and I'll see you in the next one.