Marcus Aurelius, Meditations ***

Meditations is a collection of brief thoughts from the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius which collectively sketch his views on how to live a good and rewarding life. He subscribed to a mostly Stoic philosophy with an emphasis on recognizing that you as an individual are part of an interconnected logos and that you control the equanimity with which you accept everything that happens to you - up to and including death.

The main inspiration I get from Meditations is its form. The book consists of thoughts and reminders that the Roman emperor wrote for himself. It's repetitive and unstructured, with references to incidents meaningful only to him. He didn't set out to articulate a consistent philosophy but only to write notes to reinforce ideas that are easy to forget in the heat of living, such as the need to be patient with people who are "meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly" and the fact that "Alexander the Great and his mule driver both died and the same thing happened to both." Meditations remains popular because of its practical guidance, but I only agree with maybe half of its wisdom (mostly because I don't share the Stoic belief in a rational universe). On the other hand, I am inspired to start such a collection of my own.

A Meditations-type entry of my own:

• Consider the difference between water and jade.

This enigmatic statement triggers an entire train of thought for me about the nature of thought and reality, but would be completely obscure for most anyone else - especially if the works of the philosopher Hilary Putnam were lost.

The funniest thing about Meditations is how often Marcus Aurelius admonishes himself for being annoyed by other people:

The gods live forever and yet they don't seem annoyed at having to put up with human beings and their behavior throughout eternity. And not only put up with but actually care for them. And you - on the verge of death - you still refuse to care for them, although you're one of them yourself. (7.70)

People out for posthumous fame forget that the Generations To Come will be the same annoying people they know now. And just as mortal. What does it matter if they say x about you, or think y? (8.44)

I laughed on the very first page where he thanks his drawing instructor for teaching him "not to be obsessed with quail-fighting." This important lesson comes between his mother's "reverence for the divine" and his mentor's "recognition that I needed to train and discipline my character."

Let me finish my notes with a few more meaningful aphorisms:

Stop whatever you're doing for a moment and ask yourself: Am I afraid of death because I won't be able to do this anymore? (10.29)

People ask, "Have you ever seen the gods you worship? How can you be sure they exist?" Answer:... I've never seen my soul either. And yet I revere it. (12.28)