Meditations By Marcus Aurelius
An unfiltered peek into the mind of one of history's greatest leaders
Think about some influential leaders in history. Queen Elizabeth II, Napoleon, George Washington and the list goes on. Imagine how much wisdom came from their positions and the absolute mental fortitude to be able to thrive in these positions and to cause great progress in their time. Fortunately, you do have access to the thoughts of a great leader. Marcus Aurelius. Known as the last of the 5 good emperors of Rome, Marcus Aurelius wrote to a journal about things to remember. Instead of dwelling on the day in his journal he instead focused on larger themes to live by and used them to lead a good life.
Meditations was never meant to be published and it can also be translated as “To Himself” but the original journal had no title because he thought he was writing to himself. You get a full and unfiltered view into the former emperor’s writing. But first things first let’s introduce how the ‘Philosopher King’ came to be and his influences which all led to the creation of Meditations.
Marcus Aurelius’ Influences
Marcus was recognised by the emperor Hadrian for his truthfulness and Hadrian sometimes referred to him as ‘The truest one’. Marcus was too young to be emperor so instead Hadrian adopted a member of office named Antoninus Pius on the condition he in turn adopt Marcus Aurelius to be his successor.
Antoninus was old and Hadrian believed he would maybe be on the throne for 5 years acting as a placeholder to Marcus Aurelius’ rule. Instead Antoninus lasted comically long, having ruled over Rome for 23 years. Instead of Antoninus being angry that he was acting as a placeholder to Marcus Aurelius, he instead took Marcus under his wing and ruled Rome the best he possibly could and there was not a single record of warfare under his rule. Marcus had a 23 year apprenticeship in ruling over Rome by one of the most virtuous emperors of Rome. Marcus Aurelius was heavily influenced by Antoninus and admired how he always stuck to his strict principles while on the throne so much so that he never saw him sweat and had set times of when to use the bathroom every day. Antoninus instilled and demonstrated the way an emperor should live.
Instead of Marcus Aurelius writing about the troubles he faced on a day to day basis instead he wrote about core ideas which he constantly repeated to himself throughout meditations with different analogies and explanations. There is not a set order and ideas change from passage to passage but they form a larger philosophy that the reader can interpret how Aurelius thought and went about his days. I recommend reading the Gregory Hays translation as it is the most understandable and flows the best as it is written in modern English rather than using “thy” and “thou” of the older times.
The ‘Philosopher Kings’ Philosophy
Nature was one of the most important things to Marcus Aurelius. All his core ideas are linked to the fact that we should follow our nature and of the logos.
The stoics believed that the logos animates the universe and that humans have some of the logos which is what separates you and makes you a “rational being”. Marcus Aurelius calling humans “rational beings” links once again to nature as you should live how nature intended you too and that you should help other rational beings and act as guardians to things that are not “rational beings”. To make it simpler the logos can be compared to the God’s they make the universe what it is. Also, that humans participate in the logos rather than always having it. It is more like a process as by not following the logos you actually degrade your own logos.
These are some of the recurring themes in Meditations and how to apply this wisdom to your daily life to live a better life.
Nature
Everything comes back to nature. Marcus Aurelius seemed quite fond of nature and saw it as a duty to live by nature. “No one can keep you from living as your nature requires. Nothing can happen to you that is not required by Nature.” Confiding with nature as Marcus Aurelius did can give you a sense of clarity as you know everything that will happen and has happened to you is according to nature. This particularly comes in handy when experiencing change.
Marcus Aurelius repeats the idea that “change is Nature’s delight”. He continually reminds himself that the world is continually changing and you should embrace this change as it is in accordance with nature and “Nothing that is according to nature can be evil.”
Dealing With Bodily Pain
“Everything that happens is either endurable or not. If it’s endurable, then endure it. Stop complaining. If it’s unendurable … then stop complaining. Your destruction will mean its end as well”
Marcus Aurelius had a clear view that “if it does not harm the community, it does not harm its members”. The emperor split the brain and body so that the body’s afflictions never affect the mind and that even with chronic pain you have to accept what nature prescribes you as you have to embrace fate as it is part of the logos and disregarding fate and resisting it will only weaken your own logos. To Marcus if it did not harm your character or how your mind operates then it was natural. “chronic pain is always endurable; the intelligence maintains serenity by cutting itself off from the body, the mind remains un-diminished. And the parts that pain affects let them speak for themselves” which means bodily pain shouldn't affect the mind. As they are two separate entities, the parts that feel pain should not affect parts that do not have the same pain.
How To Treat Others
Marcus Aurelius emphasised controlling your anger towards people. The reason you should not feel anger is because it is pointless as he said “Where does blaming get you? no pointless actions”. Anger doesn’t resolve the situation or make it any better. You can use the arisen anger to remember the good things about the world “when you run up against someone else’s shamelessness, ask yourself this: is a world without shamelessness possible? No.” Look on the bright side of a situation, if a person has no virtue it highlights the people that show good virtues as with no bad there would be no good. It is a necessary evil.
The former emperor often looked at the world as a group. Everyone in the world forms a tree and each person is their own leaf. The analogy of the tree is to show “We were born to work together … to obstruct each other is unnatural. To feel anger at someone, to turn your back on him: these are obstructions”. Being angry at other people is unnatural and the people who do are willingly separating themselves from the group therefore degrading their own logos and making life harder for themselves for no apparent reason.
How To Act In Accordance With The Logos
Marcus often refers back to three disciplines when telling himself how to deal with the world:
The discipline of perception
The discipline of action
The discipline of will
With these three disciplines in your mind at all times it will make your life way simpler to deal with.
The discipline of perception is to always see things from an objective and indifferent view. Not letting your emotions and biases cloud your judgement. This is because we humans always give an impression to everything. When we see something we immediately judge it as good or bad but it is neither and these made up impressions we give to everything then affects our mind which is the most important part of the human body. And also weakening your own power of the logos. It is not the objects or situations that are bad but simply the interpretations you give them so remaining indifferent will make dealing with events much simpler and you won’t be affected by emotions that are ever-changing which will reduce the pain you feel as if you don’t perceive yourself as being harmed then you have not been harmed.
The discipline of action is being a member of society. Each human has been allotted their own logos but it’s not like it’s yours but instead that you take part in it. Marcus Aurelius says you can’t take part in the logos passively but you need to actively participate in the logos by treating others justly as our nature is fundamentally unselfish and we must take part in the world, in fate and in other humans so we make full use of the logos.
Finally, the discipline of will is a counterpart to the discipline of action. The discipline of will is your attitude towards things that are not in your control, those that have been done to you by other people or by nature. We have responsibility over our own actions and control what we do but we cannot control others so if we have acted wrongly then we have harmed ourselves but in that same sense everything outside our control has no ability to harm us. So acts of wrongdoing by other people like theft or violence only hurts them and acts of nature are indifferent and can only harm us if we choose them to and if you question the benevolence of the logos then it also degrades your own logos. Now the most important thing is to recognise that all events have been foreseen by the logos and are part of its plan and that the plan in question Is unfailingly good so we must accept whatever fate has in store for us however unpleasant it may seem. Marcus Aurelius compares people who care about things they can’t control to squealing pigs, nothing will change either way no matter how much screaming they do.
The discipline of will is strikingly similar with other religions like christianity where they say you should always follow in God’s plan and the suffering you experience in the present is for a reason which gives the person hope that everything they suffer is for an end goal that will surpass all the suffering they have experienced.
Marcus Aurelius mentions the three disciplines in many passages of the meditations but here is the main one
“Everywhere, at each moment, you have the option:
to accept this event with humility [will]
to treat this person as he should be treated [action]
to approach this thought with care, so that nothing irrational creeps in [perception]”
Death
“to be sent away from it, not by a tyrant or a dishonest judge , but by nature, who first invited you in-why is that so terrible? Like the impresario ringing down the curtains on an actor. “but I’ve only gotten through three acts!” Yes. This will be a drama in three acts, the length fixed by the power that directed your creation, and now directs your dissolution. Neither was yours to determine. So make your exit with grace- the same grace shown to you”
Change is the only thing that is continuous in nature. But nothing is lost from change instead Marcus Aurelius sees change as a continual process where old things are made into new things and it is how nature thrives. Death is a form of this change, resisting death will do nothing to make you last longer; it could instead have the opposite effect and even shorten the already limited time you have on earth.
Like a stoic who follows the discipline of will, you can’t control death but it is nature who controls it. Accept what nature prescribes to you as it is good and your fate.
Attribution