“The model for the application of your principles is the boxer rather than the gladiator. The gladiator puts down or takes up the sword he uses, but the boxer always has his hands and needs only to clench them into fists.”
The Roman Stoicism was not interested in abstract theory. Rather, they are more interested in ethics and personal behavior and how to put their understanding of philosophy into a real-life situation and by practice to become an authentic people; to be a person with high character, integrity and to develop the inner strength with rationality to bear the life with different circumstances. As Marcus Aurelius puts it: “The art of living is more like a wrestling than dancing, in that it stands ready for what comes and is not thrown by the unforeseen.”
“In man’s life, his time is a mere instant, his existence a flux, his perception fogged, his whole bodily composition rotting, his mind a whirligig, his fortune unpredictable, his fame unclear. To put it shortly: all things of the body stream away like a river, all things of the mind are dreams and delusion; life is warfare, and a visit in a strange land; the only lasting fame is oblivion. What then can escort us on our way? One thing, and one thing only philosophy. This consists in keeping the divinity within us inviolate and free from harm, master of pleasure and pain, doing nothing without aim, truth, or integrity, and independent of others’ action or failure to act. Further, accepting all that happens and is allocated to it as coming from that other source which is its own origin: and at all times awaiting death with the glad confidence that it is nothing more than the dissolution of the elements of which every living creature is composed. Now if there is nothing fearful for the elements themselves in their constant changing of each into another, why should one look anxiously in prospect at the change and dissolution of them all? This is in accordance with nature: and nothing harmful is in accordance with nature.”
Throughout history, the Stoicism was recognized not by the title “Stoic”, but by a kind of toughness, or the Greek called it “Apatheia”, meaning “freedom from suffering”. In a nod to Heraclitus, they held the world began in a great cosmic conflagration, and so it shall return in an endlessly repeating cycle of beginnings and endings. Every event is predetermined, governed by fate and entirely for the good. The Stoic argues that what matters most is the virtue, and virtue consists entirely in living accord with the whole and the divine universe. If things do not go accordingly, trust that the divine plan will work itself out no matter what, and there is nothing anyone can do about, but what one can do is react and embrace to the events in the right way, which is said harmoniously, virtuously, in tune with the flow of things. How to in tune with the flow of the Nature of the Whole; God; Universes? The Stoic claimed that by using our inborn gift given by the God; our Reason or Marcus Aurelius called it “Directing Mind” to see the thing as they are by stripping down the cause and the matter so we would see it clear with the mind free from sensation or prejudice judgemental.
The reader will encounter a great deal of repetition in this book. They are so personal and inwardly directed that the book does not have any intention to publish for the public. Unlike the book of Seneca’s Letter from the Stoic. This book, Meditations are meant to write as a form of a daily journal to remind himself about his understanding of the philosophy. Repetition is a form of spiritual exercise designed to reinforce the main principles of Marcus’ philosophy. For a philosopher-king seeking to guide himself repetition is a philosophical virtue. Therefore the reader can always find that, three of the most common words Marcus addresses to himself is: “Remember”, “Keep in mind”, “Do not forget.”
For Marcus philosophy was the therapy of the soul and he practices a variety of therapies on his soul. In this sense, his Meditations are his medications. The most important thing as a medication for Marcus is the way he withdrawing into the self and introspect about his thoughts. As he puts it in his Meditations: “Men seek retreats for themselves – in the country, by the sea, in the hills – and you yourself are particularly prone to this yearning. But all this is quite unphilosophic, when it is open to you, at any time you want, to retreat to into yourself. No retreat offers someone quieter and relaxation than that into his own mind, especially if he can dip into thoughts there which put him at immediate and complete ease: and by ease, I simply mean a well-ordered life. So constantly give yourself this retreat, and renew yourself. The doctrines you will visit there should be a few and fundamental, sufficient at one meeting to wash away all your pain and send you back free of resentment at what you must rejoin.”
Perhaps the book is so inwardly directed and personal that some of the readers might find the thought of Marcus and principles of philosophy incomprehensible and arduous to comprehend. It is hard to imagine that life is worthless and at times, this exercise can have the effect of alienating us from the things we value most as humans. For instance, there are a few sentences of thoughts:
“Death, just like birth, is a mystery of nature: first a combination, then a dissolution, of the same elements. Certainly no cause for shame: because nothing out of order for an intelligent being or contrary to the principle of his constitution.”
“Consider, for example, the time of Vespasian. You will see everything the same. People marrying, having children, falling ill, dying, fighting, feasting, trading, farming, flattering, pushing, suspecting, plotting, praying for the death of others…..And now their life of theirs is gone, vanished. Pass on again to the time of Trajan. Again, everything the same. Life too is dead.”
“Epictetus used to say that when you kissed your child you should say to yourself: ‘Tomorrow you may be dead.’ But these are ominous words! ‘No,’ he replies, ‘nothing is ominous which points to a natural process. Otherwise, it would be ominous to speak of the corn being reaped’.”
At last, the readers who come to read the book that should not try to take anything from the writing of it seemingly without any meditate but need to constantly revisit the book like medication or therapy to cure the soul and remind about the principle of life. As Marcus puts it in his Meditations: “The salvation of life lies in seeing each object in its essence and its entirely, discerning both the material and the casual: in applying one’s whole soul to doing right and speaking the truth. There remains only the enjoyment of living a linked succession of good deeds, with not the slightest gap between them.”
“Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”
– Marcus Aurelius
Lone Wong | Things to remind in the journey of life 