Spiritual Armour
“Things of themselves cannot touch the soul at all. They have no entry to the soul, and cannot turn or move it. The soul alone turns and moves itself, making all externals presented to it cohere with the judgements it thinks worthy of itself.” - Marcus Aurelius
In the movie The Shawshank Redemption Andy Dufresne (played by Tim Robbins) is sentenced to two life sentences for murdering his wife and her lover. Ellis Boyd “Red” Redding (played by Morgan Freeman) and Andy first meet in the prison yard. Red is intrigued by Andy’s poise despite his circumstances, thinking to himself “I could see why some of the boys took him for snobby. He had a quiet way about him, a walk and a talk that just wasn’t normal around here. He strolled, like a man in a park without a care or a worry in the world, like he had on an invisible coat that would shield him from this place.”
The “invisible coat” that Andy wears to protect himself in prison has been described by others. Some martial artists visualise a protective shield. O-Sensei Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of Aikido, wrote “Your spirit is the true shield.” Martial artist Vernon Kitabu Turner describes “The space from fingertip to fingertip as I stretched out my arms and described a circle in the air, including above my head, I called my Wingspan. This was my personal air to protect. The world could be in turmoil, but I wanted to maintain peace and serenity within my own Wingspan … I learned to sense that space as an invisible globe around my body.”
Another way to think of it is as armour. Rock climber Alex Honnold says “When I’m soloing, I have this mental armor. You can say I’m in the zone. There’s something protecting my head from thinking too much …”.The Bible includes several passages[1][2] referencing spiritual armour -“Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” and “The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.”
Stoic philosophers describe an inner citadel, a fortress protecting our innermost self and rendering external forces powerless. Marcus Aurelius reminded himself[3] “Remember that when it withdraws into itself and finds contentment there, the mind is invulnerable. It does nothing against its will, even if its resistance is irrational. And if its judgment is deliberate and grounded in logic . . . ? The mind without passions is a fortress. No place is more secure. Once we take refuge there we are safe forever. Not to see this is ignorance. To see it and not seek safety means misery.”
These metaphors are useful in that they provide a way of thinking about how to engage with the world. How to withdraw, sustain ourselves and deflect the daily barrage. How, as Marcus wrote, to distance ourselves from external forces and “escape anxiety”.
