Silly Duke

Duke Orsino, like many of my fellow meditators, feels sad because of their inability to live with those they love effectively. Duke, shows that the principles of meditation do not escape Bill Shakespeare. Duke uses his musicians to help him create a mood designed for him. Meditation is the exact same thing, but the mood must be created must more artificially. This is a big challenge, but that is why meditation is a challenge that is worth putting the time to. In meditation, we are told to have a purpose with our thought, we want direction because an idle mind is not a trained mind. Duke by this logic, is a very weak man. He wants his musicians to just overload him with music as if his mind can get out of its own way. What Duke should do is consider his problems and then act. He takes “meditation” and perverts it. One thing a person learns from meditation is that you do not solve your problems as you sit and think through them: even if you are really considering carefully.

            Duke shows why practicing meditation incorrectly can backfire, but it is not completely his fault. The obvious complications that Olivia brings also invites other problems, proving the ease of many people’s downfall. Olivia does not act based on solely rational decisions, who would? Orsino meditates on other people, not himself. Effectively he tries to meditate through other people’s problems and obviously it won’t work. Meditation needs to be aimed at what we can control. Which is why we can meditate on practicing being a good husband or friend, but we cannot make the people we affect feel a certain way, and Orsino needs to realize that.

            The illegitimacy of his meditation reflects on his feelings as he shows that he is in love with only ideas, not reality. Meditation allows one to recognize these thoughts and react. Orsino needs some guided meditation so that he can get his heart the information it needs.

            In the end, that is what it is all about. Orsino is thinking about women, but what he needs to think about is the long-term solutions to the everyday problems he has noticed through organized thought.

            We want to be like Sir Toby and Sir Andrew from Act II, who are unquestionably concerned about their own happiness. If we combine this good attitude for our self, all we need to do is be equally good to others and nothing is in the way.