“Man must be like the rock against which the waves constantly break: it stands unmoved, and the waves settle around it.”Marcus Aurelius · Gânduri către sine · 180 · Cartea IV, 49
Disturbance lives in your reaction, not the event: refuse to fight back and the pressure burns out alone.
Marcus Aurelius describes passive endurance as power: the rock does not fight the waves or answer them, it simply holds firm, and they break and settle on their own. The mechanism is that disturbance lives in the reaction, not the event; refuse to react, and the pressure burns itself out. A boss who criticizes daily exhausts himself if the employee never supplies the fuel of a retort.
Why it matters Useful in repeated conflicts: enraging news, online comments, pressure at work. It reminds you that you can choose to be the firm surface the wave breaks against, not the wave itself.