A personal diary of a roman emperor turned into a self-help book
SYNOPSIS
- Meditations is essentially a book which was never meant to be a book.
- It comprises of personal writings of Marcus Aurelius, who wrote it as a means of reminder for himself. A reminder of all the things he is thankful for, all the prudence he ever learnt from his teachers and most importantly a reminder of his stoic ethics
- Marcus’s version of stoicism mainly revolves around ethics, since he always distanced him self from logic and physics
- Though Marcus wrote his diary as a means of reminder, ‘meditations’ still proves to be great self-book on life, since the central theme of the book is how to suffer less in life and thus, how to live a happy life!!
THE STOIC CREED
A part of philosophy has always dealt with the predicaments of life and how to best deal with them, whether its contemporary philosophy or medieval philosophy. No different it was for ancient Greek philosophers. A part of it meant figuring out life, the reason for human existence and its role, and most importantly, the key to happiness!. Stoicism addresses all these questions in a way which was considered novel at the time. But the most important question that stoicism answers is what is the key to happiness?. And this is essentially the definition of stoicism in the modern times; remaining steadfast among all the hardships of life
Earlier versions of stoicism were mainly based on three pillars; logic, physics and ethics. Logic was all about gaining insight on the nature of knowledge, physics was about understanding the physical world and ethics was about the role of human beings. Marcus’s version of stoicism was solely about ethics
Objective judgment, unselfish action and willing acceptance of all external events
Marcus Aurelius
This is the part where the personal diary of the roman emperor becomes a really good self-help book. Marcus talks about three things; objective judgment, unselfish action, willing acceptance of all external events, and deems them as the cornerstone of a stoic’s way of life.
HOW TO LIVE A HAPPIER LIFE?
This million dollar question, according to stoicism, can be answered by monitoring and taking control of three things
- Perception
- Action
- Will
Perception is important. Nothing can harm us unless we believe that it does. I hate using cliche aphorisms, but it is true when they say ‘most of life is just a mental game’. People who have positive outlook on life tend to live happier lives and even achieve feats like defeating something as deadly as cancer
Action is all about the art of acquiescence. Its about accepting our role in the grand scheme of things. Stoicism identifies the hopelessness of our kind and thus preaches towards having an undying trust on the goodness of the Being that runs the entire place. Thus, even if something feels harmful in the moment, in the grand scheme of things, it will always be good for the entire system, since it happened naturally.
Will is about our reaction to what happens to us. So if someone harms us in any way, what do we do?. Do we take revenge?. But if we do so we degrade ourselves, since every person contains a part of the logos. Stoic creed talks about every human being containing a fragment of the logos, thus degrading a person means to degrade yourself.
CONCLUSION
Meditations is an inadvertent self-help book, full of prudent train of thought. The author, Marcus Aurelius obviously wrote down his thoughts as a simple reminder for himself. Yet his outtake on life is helpful for all, not just for those with a privileged background like him. His views revolve around being truthful, accepting life as it comes and paying little attention to material things like money and fame.
I would give this book a rating of 3/5 stars
Odd Book Reviews 