Reading Meditations (1)

Yesterday morning I read half of Meditations in one sitting.

Every sentence is a classic — I couldn't help copying out whole passages, and more than once I gasped:

My goodness! This was written by a man born in AD 121.

Thousands of years have passed, and in some respects our human wisdom hasn't grown all that much.

Wisdom comes not only from reading widely and learning from the wise, but also from turning inward and seeking inner calm, so that the truth can surface.

I've tried to arrange these passages according to my own understanding and feelings, rather than in the order they appear in the book.

I did it this way because

sometimes several passages offer the same insight, and I couldn't bear to cut any of them;

and sometimes I sensed a connection, a certain resonance, between different passages.

These are very personal impressions😌

Here goes — enjoy:

1. Life is so short — pursue truth and real happiness; don't waste it.

4-37 You will soon be gone from this world, yet you have still not made yourself simple and plain, nor freed yourself from troubles, nor shaken off the suspicion of being harmed by external things, nor cultivated a kindly disposition towards all people, nor managed to use your wisdom solely for right action.

2-4 You must now at last grasp the universe of which you are only a part, and grasp the governor of the universe of whom your existence is only a passing flow; you have only a limited time, and if you do not use it to clear away the clouds over your mind, it will pass, and you will pass, never to return.

3-10 So the time each person lives is short, the corner of the earth he inhabits is small, and even the longest posthumous fame is short — and even that fame is carried on only by a succession of pitiful generations, who will soon die themselves, who do not even know themselves, let alone those long dead.

3-14 Stop wandering about at random, for you will face the decline of your memory, no longer able to recall the deeds of the ancient Romans and Greeks, nor to read the books you have been saving for your old age. So seize the last days that lie before you, throw away useless hopes, and come to your own aid, if you care for yourself at all — and this is within your power.

2. Should you do a thing, take up a hobby, act a certain way? You can't judge it in isolation.

Always weigh it against the highest value of your life. Even if it means doing nothing, don't do the "second-best thing." Better to stay quiet, or rest. Because once anything is started, it may well take three times as long as you estimated.

Open your life up, see more possibilities, so you can make better choices.

Look more, do less; and when you declutter, let go of unnecessary thoughts too.

4-24 The philosopher says: if you want tranquillity, engage in very few things.

But consider whether it would be better to say: do what is necessary, and everything that the reason of a naturally social animal requires, and do it as it requires. For this brings not only the tranquillity that comes from doing things properly, but also the tranquillity that comes from doing few things.

For the great majority of what we say and do is unnecessary; if a person cuts these out, he will have more leisure and less discomfort. So with every single thing he does, a person should ask himself: is this a necessary thing?

A person should cut out not only unnecessary actions but also unnecessary thoughts; that way, idle actions will not follow in their wake.

3-4 When you are not directing your thoughts towards some aim of the common good, do not waste the rest of your life thinking about other people. For while you have such thoughts, you lose the chance to do other things.

What this person is doing, and why; what he said, what he thought, what he argued about — paying attention to all these things makes us neglect to observe our own ruling power. So in the course of our thinking we should check every aimless and worthless thought, along with a great deal of curious and malicious feeling;

3-6 If you find that everything else falls short of it and is of lesser value, give no place to anything else, for once you take a side path and lean towards something else, you will no longer be able to concentrate on preferring the good that truly suits you and belongs to you,

because it is not right to let anything else — say, the praise of the many, power, or the enjoyment of pleasure — compete with what is good in terms of reason, politics or practice. All those things, even if they seem adaptable to better things within limits, will quickly gain the upper hand and carry us away.

So I say: go straight for the better thing, and hold to it... Do not proudly hold on to your own judgement; care only about inquiring by the right method.

2. Keep retreating into yourself and renewing yourself; let your principles be simple and fundamental, so that the moment you turn to them, they are enough to cleanse the soul completely.

4-3 People seek to retreat into themselves; they withdraw to country cottages, mountains and seashores, and you too tend to long for such things. But this is entirely the mark of the most ordinary sort of person, for whenever you wish to retreat into yourself, you can. For there is no place a person can retreat to that is quieter or freer from trouble than his own soul, especially when he holds such thoughts within him that, by contemplating them, he immediately enters perfect tranquillity. I firmly maintain: tranquillity is nothing but the good order of the mind.

2-5 Every moment, think firmly, like a Roman, like a person with complete and unpretentious dignity, doing the task at hand with feelings of affection, freedom and justice.

Free yourself from all other thoughts. If you do every act of your life as though it were your last, setting aside all indifference and strong aversion to the commands of reason, and all hypocrisy, self-love and discontent with your lot, you will set yourself free.

You see how few things a person needs to grasp in order to live a tranquil life, a life like the existence of the gods;

2-14 No one loses any life other than the one he is living now; and no one lives any life other than the one he is now losing. The longest and the shortest lives thus become one and the same.

Although what has passed away is not the same, the present is the same for everyone. So what is lost appears to be merely a single moment.

For no one can lose the past or the future — how could anyone take from a person what he does not have?

2-7 Do the external things you encounter distract you? Give yourself time to learn something new and good, and stop going round in circles.

But you must also avoid being carried down another path. For those who wear themselves out with their own activity in life are triflers too; they have no aim to guide each action — in short, all their thoughts are aimless.

3-4 Since the only thing that belongs to him is the decision he makes about his own conduct, he constantly considers what has been allotted to him from the whole of things, how to make his actions upright, and persuades himself that the portion allotted to him is good. For the fate allotted to each person is held by that person, and fate holds him too. He also remembers that every rational animal is his fellow, that caring for all people accords with human nature, and that one should not heed the opinions of everyone, but only of those who clearly live according to nature.

But as for those who do not live this way, he always remembers what sort of people they are at home and away from home, by day and by night; remembers what work they do, and with whom they lead an impure life. Accordingly, he places no value at all on praise from such people, since they are not even satisfied with themselves.

3-8 So throw everything else aside and hold fast only to these few things; and remember, besides, that everyone lives only in this present moment, and the present is an indivisible point, while the rest of his life is either already past or not yet determined.

3. Pay no heed to other people's praise.

4-19 The person with a strong desire for posthumous fame does not consider that those who remember him will soon die themselves, and then their descendants too, until all memory of him, passed along by foolish admirers who in turn die, is finally extinguished in oblivion.

But suppose those who will remember him were even immortal, so that the memory would be eternal — what would that mean to you? I am not asking what it means to the dead, but what it means to the living.

What is praise, other than something that has a certain use? For you are now unseasonably rejecting this gift of nature and clinging to other things...

4-20 Everything that is in any way beautiful is beautiful in itself; its beauty belongs to itself and does not include praise as a part of it. So being praised neither makes a thing better nor worse.

I firmly believe this applies also to things the common people call beautiful, such as material things or works of art. What is truly beautiful needs nothing beyond law, truth, benevolence or modesty. And which of these is beautiful because it is praised, or made ugly by being blamed? Do things like emeralds, gold, ivory, purple robes, lyres, daggers, flowers and shrubs become worse for not being praised?

2-8 A person is seldom seen to be unhappy for not paying attention to what goes on in other people's minds; but those who do not pay attention to the movements of their own minds are bound to be unhappy.

4. Keep your inner freedom, and understand: the universe is change; life is opinion.

So what is it you are dissatisfied with? With the wickedness of people? Then let your mind recall this conclusion: rational animals depend on one another; forbearance is part of justice; people do wrong involuntarily; and consider how many people, after hostility, suspicion, hatred and fighting, have died and turned to ashes — and that will at last quiet you. — But perhaps you are dissatisfied with what has been allotted to you from the universe — then turn and recall this thought: either there is providence, or there are atoms, a chance combination of things; or think of the arguments proving that the world is a kind of political community, and that will finally quiet you.

— But perhaps bodily things will still take hold of you — then consider further: once the mind separates itself from the body and discovers its own power, it does not mingle itself with the breath, whether that moves gently or violently; and think again of all you have heard and agreed to about pain and pleasure, and that will finally quiet you. — But perhaps the desire for so-called fame will torment you — then look at how quickly all things are forgotten; look at the chaos of infinite time, past and future; look at the emptiness of applause, at the fickleness and poverty of judgement of those who pretend to give praise, and at the narrowness of the space to which praise is confined — and then at last quiet yourself.

For the whole earth is a point, and what a tiny corner of it is the place where you live; how few are the things on it, and what sort of people are those who would praise you?

2-17 In human life, time is a fleeting point, substance is in flux, perception is dull, the whole structure of the body is prone to decay, the soul is a whirl, fate is an unsolvable riddle, and fame is not based on wise judgement.

In a word, everything belonging to the body is a rushing stream, everything belonging to the soul is a dream and a vapour; life is a war, a stranger's sojourn, and posthumous fame quickly sinks into the river of oblivion.

What, then, can guide a person? Only philosophy.

And this consists in keeping the divinity within a person free from violence and harm, above pain and pleasure, doing nothing without purpose, without any falsehood or deceit, feeling no need for anyone else to do or not do anything; and, moreover, accepting everything that happens to him and every portion allotted to him, whatever they may be, as coming from there, from the place he himself came from.

5. Ways to keep your inner freedom

So keep this firmly in mind: remember to retreat into this little territory of your own; above all, do not let yourself be distracted or strained, but stay free, and look at things as a human being, as a person, as a citizen, as a mortal.

Among the things close at hand that you readily encounter and notice, let these two be: one, that things do not touch the soul — they are external and unchanging, and our troubles come only from the opinions within; the other, that all these things you see change and vanish very quickly; always keep in mind how many such changes you have already witnessed. The universe is change; life is opinion.

4-31 Love the art you have learned, however humble it may be, and be content with it; spend the rest of your life like someone who has entrusted himself, with his whole body and soul and all that he has, to the gods,

making yourself neither anyone's tyrant nor anyone's slave.

4-2 Let no action be done without purpose, nor otherwise than according to the principles of perfect art.

4-32 You will see all these things: people marrying, raising children, falling ill, dying, waging war, feasting, trading, farming, flattering, being arrogant, suspicious, scheming, cursing, complaining, falling in love, hoarding wealth, coveting the power of consuls and kings. And the lives of these people no longer exist at all.

Go back again to the time of Trajan: it was all the same, and their lives too have passed away.

Look in the same way at other eras and whole nations, and see how many, after great exertions, soon fell and were dissolved into their elements.

But above all you should think of the people you yourself know well, who distract themselves with vain things and do not know how to do what accords with their proper constitution,

and thereby hold firmly to your own constitution and be content with it.

Here it is necessary to remember that the attention given to each thing has its own proper value and proportion. For then you will not be dissatisfied, as long as you do not devote more attention than is fitting to small things.

6. On every occasion that might trouble you, apply this principle: this is not a misfortune, but to bear it nobly is good fortune.

I am unhappy because this has happened to me. — Not so; rather think: I am happy, even though this has happened, because I remain free from pain, neither crushed by the present nor afraid of the future.

For something like this could happen to anyone, but not everyone, on such an occasion, would keep himself free from pain.

Why, then, is this a misfortune rather than a piece of good fortune that has happened to me? In every case, do you call something a person's misfortune when it does not deviate from human nature? And would you regard a thing as a deviation from human nature when it does not go against the will of that nature?

Well, you know the will of nature. Will what has happened prevent you from being just, noble, temperate, prudent, and free from rash opinions and error? Will it prevent you from having self-control, freedom and all the other good qualities?

It is precisely in these qualities that human nature obtains everything that belongs to it.

7. Accept good and evil, and death, as you accept a ripe fruit falling from its stem.

4-42 It is no evil for things to undergo change, and no good for things to continue in existence as a result of change.

4-43 Time is like a river made up of the events that happen, and a swift-flowing one; for no sooner is a thing seen than it is swept away, and another comes in its place, and this too will be swept away.

4-44 Everything that happens is as familiar and well known as the rose in spring and the fruit in autumn; for such are disease, death, slander, betrayal and anything else that delights or troubles foolish people.

4-5 Death, like birth, is a mystery of nature: a combination and dissolution of the same elements, and nothing at all that a person should be ashamed of, for it does not go against the nature of a rational animal, nor against the reason of our constitution.

4-6 It is natural that such people should do these bad things; it is a matter of necessity, and anyone who will not allow it is like someone who will not allow the fig tree to have sap. But in any case, keep this in mind: both you and he will die within a very short time, and soon not even your names will be remembered.

4-7 Take away your opinion, and you take away the complaint: "I have been harmed." Take away the complaint "I have been harmed," and the harm itself disappears.

4-8 What does not make a person worse does not make his life worse either, and does not harm him from without or within.

3-2 If a person has a feeling for, and a deeper insight into, the things that are produced in the universe, then the things that appear as their consequences will seem to him almost all arranged in a way that gives pleasure.

So when he looks at the gaping jaws of real wild beasts, he takes no less pleasure than in the imitations of painters and sculptors; he can see a certain ripeness and fitness in an old person, and look upon the charm and loveliness of the young with pure eyes. Many such things will appear; they do not please everyone, but only those who are truly familiar with nature and her works.

2-11 Not falling into evil is entirely within a person's power. How can what does not make a person worse make his life worse? It is possible that the nature of the universe overlooks these things — but not through ignorance, nor while knowing them yet lacking the power to prevent or correct them; nor could it be that, for want of power or skill, it made so great a mistake as to let good things and bad things befall good people and bad people indiscriminately.

But certainly, death and life, honour and dishonour, pain and pleasure — all these things happen equally to good and bad people, and they do not make us better or worse. So these things are neither good nor evil.

2-17 Finally, wait for death with a cheerful mind, seeing death as nothing other than the dissolution of the elements of which every living thing is composed.

And if the elements themselves suffer no harm in the course of a thing's constant change, why should anyone worry about the change and dissolution of all these elements?

For death is in accordance with nature, and nothing in accordance with nature is evil.

4-21 If souls continue to exist, how does the air contain them all from eternity? — But how, then, does the earth contain the bodies of all who have been buried since ancient times? Just as these bodies, after lasting a while, change, and whatever they become, their dissolution makes room for other bodies,

so it is with souls that pass into the air: after continuing to exist for some time, they are changed and dissolved, and, by being taken up into the regenerative intelligence of the universe, acquire a fiery nature, and in this way make room for the souls with bodies that arrive there. This is the answer one might give on the hypothesis that souls continue to exist.

8. Choose firmly the principles of life you believe are "good," and examine yourself steadfastly.

3-5 Do not labour unwillingly, nor without regard for the common good, nor without due consideration, nor while distracted; do not let a show of learning cost you your own thinking; and do not become a chatterer or a busybody.

Moreover, let the god within you be the guardian of a living being, of a mature man engaged in public affairs, of a Roman, of a ruler — a ruler who has taken up his post like one waiting for the signal that summons him from life, needing neither oath nor anyone's testimony.

Be cheerful, too, seeking neither outside help nor the tranquillity that others give. Thus a person must stand upright, not be held upright by others.

3-6 If you find in human life anything better than justice, truth, temperance and fortitude — in a word, anything better than the self-sufficiency of your own mind, which enables you to act according to right reason in the conditions allotted to you without your choosing —

I say, if you see anything better than this, turn to it with all your heart and soul, and enjoy what you have found to be best.

4-16 If you return to your principles and to the worship of reason, within ten days you will seem a god to those to whom you now seem a beast and an ape.

4-18 The person who does not look into what his neighbour says, does or thinks, but attends only to what he himself does, and to what is just and pure...

The person who does not look around at the moral corruption of others, but simply goes forward along the straight path — how much trouble he spares himself!

4-22 Do not let your thoughts be scattered; in every action, respect justice, and with every impression, hold fast to your power of comprehension and understanding.

4-23 O universe, everything that is in harmony with you is in harmony with me. Nothing that is timely for you is too early or too late for me. O nature, everything your seasons bring is fruit to me: all things come from you, and all return to you.

4-51 Always take the straight road; the straight road is the natural one. Accordingly, say and do everything in conformity with sound reason. For such a purpose frees a person from trouble and warfare and all scheming and ostentation.