Aș menționa că Marcus Aurelius a scris mereu și mereu pentru un singur destinatar: pentru sine, așa cum arată însuși titlul meditațiilor sale: Ta eis heauton, Către mine însumi. Nu se gîndea la un cititor străin, la viitor și postumitate, caietul lui de însemnări îl însoțea pretutindeni, în tabere îndeosebi, prin „țara quazilor, aproape de rîul Granua” (adică în Panonia de azi), cum precizează într-un fragment (II: incipit, p.83), prin ținuturile triburilor germane, în Galia ori în Asia Mică. Împăratul controla riguros legiunile, taberele, castrele de pe granița imperiului, doar noaptea avea timp să noteze, într-un cort de soldat, la lumina precară a unui lucubrum, în puținul timp liber. Marcus Aurelius a fost un gînditor stoic dublat de un cinic. Prefera franchețea cea mai brutală. Într-o notă, afirmă netulburat: „Iubirea se reduce la frecarea a două epiderme, la un spasm, la o secreție vîscoasă” (VI: 13, p.177). But despite such an expensive education our political masters don't have half the grasp on the classics that Marcus has, which is remarkable considering he was home-schooled. I wish Marcus would consider a career in politics just to show up our current representatives for the intellectual pygmies that they really are. setea de cărţi, ca să nu mori cîrtind, ci cu adevărat senin şi recunoscător din toată inima zeilor” (II: 3).

Multă vreme, lucrarea lui Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121 - 180) a rămas necunoscută. Observațiile împăratului, scrise în limba greacă (și nu în latină), așa era moda printre nobili (Atena cucerise deja Roma), între anii 170 și 180, au fost tipărite abia în 1558, după un manuscris azi pierdut. Împăratul consemna sugestii, vorbea cu sine, reflecta, veghea. Nu a avut deloc vanitate de autor. Another great influence in my life; this was the personal philosophical diary of the last "good emperor" of the Roman Empire. In this work Marcus Aurelius draws a picture Stoicism as a philosophy that I call "Buddhism with balls". It is a harsh self discipline that trains its practitioners to be champions (of a sort). Champions of what? Mastery of the self. How refreshing if more authors of self help books would confront squarely the central issue of our own mortality and our negative emotions of anger or frustration instead of forever hiding from these topics. Observațiile împăratului, scrise în limba greacă (și nu în latină), între anii 170 și 180, au fost tipărite abia în 1558, după un manuscris azi pierdut.That these thoughts came from the most powerful man in the world, a man whose personal power so vastly exceeded the personal power of any American president that we have difficulty comprehending it, makes it all the more impressive. Aurelius continually writes that strength comes from humility, self-restraint and good humor towards others. He teaches us to accept what we cannot control and to trust what we know. Even if you were destined to live three thousand years, or ten times that long, nevertheless remember that no one loses any life other than the one he lives, or lives any life other than the one he loses…No one can lose either the past or the future – how could anyone be deprived of what he does not possess?…It is only the present moment of which either stands to be deprived: and if indeed this is all he has, he cannot lose what he does not have.”

I love this quote and I love the wisdom that runs through this book. It’s such a simple idea and it is also a very true one. Make the most of everything and everyone, of every situation and chance that life throws your way because when they have passed, we may not get them again. Walking wet pavements observing (stoically of course) the flashes of lightening over the sky, I wondered if death and being forgotten (everybody who ever knew you also dying) was such a constant preoccupation in these writing because it was a prospect that he really feared, as it has happened this has preserved his memory fairly effectively. Marcus says that he thinks praying for three hours a day is sufficient, but it was unclear to me quite what he would be praying to, his universe otherwise seems fairly deterministic and the gods a part of that as much as the fig trees, horses and people, perhaps his prayer was more his spiritual practise to encourage the serenity, kindness, and indifference to death that he speaks of rather than requests to the gods.

Fun Fact 1: funny thing is, they were all adopted by their predecessor. The next Emperor after Marcus was Commodus, he was a son of Marcus and was a complete Muppet, nasty too – hence the start of a period of volatility after his death. An argument against hereditary ascension to a throne to be sure. This is not the only instance of hereditary ascension being a complete disaster in the Roman Empire.

But with this short work Marcus, who is Italian, and his co-author Gregory Hays have brought the format right up to date by reflecting squarely on the types of issues that we all face today.

ENDSHEETS & RIBBON

You need to avoid certain things in your train of thought: everything random, everything irrelevant. And certainly everything self-important or malicious." they are drawn toward what they think is good for them, but if it is not good for them then prove it to them instead of losing your temper…”

Marcus Aurelius is full of logic and revealing comments about life, death and the universe. His meditations are very open and very honest. And I found them quite touching. The history of his reign as Roman Emperor is impressive, but behind all his success was a very human person struggling and suffering with the same problems that plague all of us. He comes to terms with his mortality and his insignificance in the face of history and time. We are all of us only here a brief time, and we need to make the most of it. There is so much here, written by a true GIANT of antiquity. I loved it and I love Marcus and Seneca. The Roman philosophers are not as well known or as highly regarded as Greek philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, or Zeno the Stoic - and for a simple reason: the Roman thinkers were not primarily interested in abstract theory; rather, they were concerned with behavior, that is, understanding how to live in the everyday world and putting their understanding into practice,the goal being to live the life of an authentic philosopher, to be a person of high character and integrity and virtue, to develop inner strength and a quiet mind and value such strength and quietude above all else. Either way Meditations is a piece of work that endures to this day. Imagine that it still holds up. Meditations was first printed in 1559 CE; Marcus originally wrote this work in Greek – the language of the intelligentsia of the time. It is also believed; these writings were not intended to be published. He wrote these for himself. Yes, just he – and we have been gorking at these writings for centuries – academics and lay people alike – it is respected, it has stood up. I believe that formally Marcus was a a stoic, if his reflections in his book represent cutting edge stoic philosophy or the ponderings of a well educated individual of his day I don't know. In book eleven particularly he quotes Homer, Sophocles, Euripides and Plato, but he never mentions the famous Roman stoic Seneca. Perhaps Seneca was already forgotten by Aurelius' time or perhaps the issue of how to behave under the rule of an emperor was a bit too close to the bone for the Emperor.Me: “You’re right. What would my personal hero (Dr. Hannibal Lecter) do at a time like this? If he can bite the faces off rude corrections officers without his pulse rising above normal, surely I can manage this trivial ordeal.” At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: 'I have to go to work - as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I'm going to do what I was born for - the things I was brought into the world to do. Or is this what I was created for? T huddle under the blankets and stay warm?' Note 6.4 – ‘Turned into vapour’ reflects the Stoic conflagration of the universe (see notes 2.14.2 and 5.13). ‘Scattered into atoms’ is the Epic a brief instant is all that is lost. For you can’t lose either the past or the future; how could you lose what you don’t have?" While it can get a bit repetitive sometimes, and can, at times, feel like ideas we’ve heard a million times before, there is something profoundly soothing and inspiring in Marcus Aurelius’ little maxims: they are a refreshing reminder that leading a life of simplicity and compassion can be a much more rewarding life than one based on greed and superficial, fleeting satisfactions. If it feels oddly familiar, it’s probably because people have been quoting Marcus Aurelius for hundreds of years!