Plutarch: The mind is a 'fire to be kindled'

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.” — Plutarch, On Listening to Lectures Plutarch c. 46 A.D - 127 A.D. (lived to age c. 81), was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, ambassador and magistrate. For many years Plutarch also served as one of the two priests at the temple of Apollo at Delphi, the site of the famous Delphic Oracle. Born into a prominent and wealthy family, Plutarch studied mathematics and philosophy at the Academy of Athens. One of the earliest moral philosophers, he pointed frequently to the effect of character on man’s destiny.

MORE THAN A CONTAINER The mind pictured as a vessel, a container for holding something doesn’t sound very sexy or engaging, does it? I believe that this is Plutarch’s point - that your mind is more than a mere container, or COULD be more, or SHOULD be more. Learning does involve taking in and remembering information. As we go through life, we accumulate experiences, learn facts - these become memories, or are stored in the mind and some are forgotten. The mind actually has no limit to the amount of information that could be stored there, to date no human mind has become “full”, unable to take in any more. This is not Plutarch’s point but we’ll get to that in a bit.

I’m sure you’ve encountered people that place a high value on remembering lots of facts and figures - they have a great memory. Most of us wish we had a better memory, I certainly do! Maybe it’s a game to them. Perhaps all that information is used as a defence for fears of being inferior, or to compete with others. Taking in all that information might be a stall tactic to avoid making a decision and taking any action. Ideally that information coming in is for a true higher purpose beyond personal gain. In this age, we have access to an ocean of information, more than is good for us! In fact all that information is not just close by, we are bombarded by it all day and from every direction. The vessel is overflowing! How much of that flood is worth remembering? Who is responsible for this steady bombardment? The answers are obvious, but I pose this question: where does all that useless information go? The groups responsible know: it worms it’s way into your subconscious mind through repetition. Repetition creates pattern. Learning does involve taking in information, but NOT PASSIVELY. This is where a discerning, or critical mind comes in. WHAT information do you desire to invite in? How MUCH? For what USE or END? Which brings us to... LIGHT THE FIRES When I say the word “fire”, one word you would associate with it would be DESIRE. Yes, so this is where you decide what to allow to take root in your deepest thoughts. The place where all the truths and falsities are filed for future reference. WHY you really do what you do. This is the Subconscious Mind. A limitless storehouse of memory, values, beliefs, emotions, feelings and all the habits that make up what is your personality. What does your mind desire? CRAVE? Feed it. Crave the truth: about yourself, this world and the “other world” (if you believe in that). The mind, if given the right information, will be able to take in a proper amount of information, organize it, and then use it in the real world to affect positive change. This sounds efficient, preferable to spending energy warding off negativity or overload. This does involve choice, and these are made minute-by-minute in a given day. How to make the right choices? MAKING BETTER CHOICES Another excerpt from On Listening to Lectures: “Suppose someone were to go and ask his neighbors for fire and find a substantial blaze there, and just stay there continually warming himself: that is no different from someone who goes to someone else to get to some of his rationality, and fails to realize that he ought to ignite his own flame, his own intellect, but is happy to sit entranced by the lecture, and the words trigger only associative thinking and bring, as it were, only a flush to his cheeks and a glow to his limbs; but he has not dispelled or dispersed, in the warm light of philosophy, the internal dank gloom of his mind.” Again Plutarch is pointing to the point of learning: to USE the information we learn to better ourselves and share with others. Making better choices, in fact making ANY choice involves risk - the risk of being wrong. How to test or discover if the information is valid? How does it FEEL? What do your instincts tell you? When you take that information that seems right and take some action - talking to others or attempt to integrate it into your life - you are applying the scientific method to thoughts, TESTING them to find out how true/untrue the information is. If you sit on it, or just keep taking in more (most likely because of low confidence), you will never know. If you do test out possible beliefs, you will find a bright light that will show you quickly the truth. PLAY WITH FIRE So all this bombardment, filing, filtering, measuring, dispensing and testing sounds fairly serious, and can become mentally tiring. The example of a child provides all the insight and simplicity to allow balance we need to comfortably handle the barrage of input that surrounds us. A child has a voracious curiosity and an insatiable need to play with everything. If something stops becoming fun, the child stops playing with that toy or game. Again it come back to instinct, a childlike innocence that flexes and adapts. Stay playful, knowing that any thought, feeling or action can be dropped if it doesn’t fit in with who you are or what your purpose is. Then thought and action are one - imagine the effect on your sense of identity, and the feeling of being who you truly are. People can do great things, amazing things never seen before. You have surprised yourself, haven’t you? We are not just passive repositories of memories and information, but important players in what happens in the world. Now go play with fire.