Marcus Aurelius and his Meditations, Stoic View of Life

Today we will learn and reflect on the stoic teachings of Emperor
Marcus Aurelius, a true philosopher-king, in his work, the Meditations.
These were written in his tent while he was on campaign fighting the
Germanic tribes. It was not meant for wide distribution, perhaps he
hoped he could pass on this advice to his son and future emperor
Commodus, but sadly, Commodus was not interested in leading a stoic
lifestyle, he wanted to compete in the arena with gladiators.

You may ask, how will studying the Meditations improve my
soul?
Living a godly and moral life is all that mattered to the Stoic
philosophers. The paradox is that although Marcus Aurelius
may have condoned the persecution of the Christians, in this
work he often sounds like he is rephrasing the moral
teachings Epistles and the Gospels. In part, this is because he
borrowed so much of the teachings of Epictetus, and likely
Seneca also.

We have another video that ponders whether Marcus
Aurelius was a persecutor or friend of Christians.
At the end of our talk, we will discuss the sources used for this
video, and my blogs that also cover this topic. Please, we
welcome interesting questions in the comments, sometimes
these will generate short videos of their own. Let us learn
and reflect together!

YouTube Video:
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations of a Stoic
https://youtu.be/0qHpReZYhv4
Blogs:
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NOTE: YouTube video corrections may not
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differ somewhat in content.
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The Meditations was mentioned only a few times in ancient sources,
with the earliest mention in modern times in the tenth century. We
have three full ancient manuscripts that are the source for today’s
translation.
In the first book of his Meditations Marcus praises his parents and
grandparents, his tutors, the philosophers, and his adopted emperor
father and all his friends and associates for their stoic qualities, showing
his gratefulness, thankfulness, and humility, crediting his own good
qualities not to his own intellect but those who so assiduously taught
him through words and by example. By listing their qualities Marcus is
also telling us the qualities we should all aspire to in our daily lives.

We are the guardians of our thoughts and
emotions. We are responsible for our
happiness, nobody else.
Marcus Aurelius advises us in Book II to
“begin the morning by saying to yourself, I
shall meet with the busybody, the ungrateful,
arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. All
these things happen to them because they
are ignorant of what is good and evil. . . I can
neither be injured by any of the, for no one
can fix on me what is ugly, nor can I be angry
with my kinsman, nor hate him.”
Marcus Aurelius: Roman Emperor and Stoic Philosopher

Marcus Aurelius continues, “Every moment think
steadily as a Roman to do what you need to do
with perfect and simple dignity and feeling of
affection and freedom and justice,” lifting the
weight of all other thoughts from your
shoulders. How can you do this? By living every
day of your life as if it were your last, living your
life by the rules of reason, “laying aside all
carelessness, hypocrisy, self-love,” being content
with what you have.
“Since it is possible that you might depart from
life this very moment, regulate every act and
thought accordingly.”

Like all Stoic philosophers, Marcus Aurelius never asks why bad
things happen to good people, why the virtuous suffer while the
evil prosper, how God can permit suffering in a perfect
world. Not only are these questions never asked by the stoics,
these questions would have been absurd. Marcus Aurelius is
aware that the Stoics never only ask why bad things happen to
good people, rather they ask, bad things happen to both good
people and bad, good things happen to both bad and good
people, sometimes more, sometimes less, so what?

Marcus Aurelius: “Good and evil happen
indiscriminately to the good and the bad.” “Death
and life, honor and dishonor, pain and pleasure – all
these things happen equally to good men and bad,
being things which make us neither better nor
worse. Therefore, they are neither good nor evil.”
“Do not act as if you were going to live ten
thousand years. Death hangs over you. While you
live, while it is in your power, live a godly life.” “Take
away the complaint, ‘I have been harmed,’ and the
harm is taken away.”

The Meditations admonish us to take care of our
soul, so our soul may be a good soul, a kind soul,
a virtuous soul. We do not want our soul to be an
abscess on the universe.
“The soul should not be angry at anything that
happens.”
“The soul does violence to itself when it turns
away from any man,” when it is angry with any
man, when it thinks of injuring any man.
“The soul does violence to itself when it is
overpowered by pleasure or by pain.”
“The soul should not say anything insincerely or
untruthful.”

Both the Meditations and the Beatitudes encourage
us to live our lives like the sturdy house that is built
on the rocks.

The Meditations counsel us to “be like the
rock against which the waves continually
break; but it stands firm and tames the fury
of the waters around it. Do not say, ‘I am
unhappy, because this has happened to
me.’ But rather ray, ‘I am happy, though
this has happened to me, because I
continue free from pain, neither crushed
by the present nor fearing the future.’”

This echoes the words of Jesus on the Sermon
on the Mount: “Everyone then who hears
these words of mine and acts on them will be
like a wise man who built his house upon the
rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the
winds blew and beat upon that house, but it
did not fall, because it had been founded on
rock. And everyone who hears these words of
mine and does not act on them will be like a
foolish man who built his house upon the
sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and
the winds blew and beat against that house,
and it fell; and great was its fall!”
House on the rocks in the Sermon on the Mount

Since we are comparing the teachings of Marcus Aurelius, who possibly
was a persecutor of Christians, to the preachings of Jesus, we should
emphasize that we do not wish to imply that they are equal.
Logically speaking, Christianity as a philosophy is superior to stoicism,
because stoicism is only a secondary influence to Christianity, the
primary influence is Judaism and its rabbinic tradition.
Spiritually speaking, Christianity is far superior, as this quote by Henry
Chadwick in Early Church History emphasizes:

“The Christians found much that was
congenial in Stoic ethics, and did not deny
their debt to stoic wisdom. For example,
Tertullian said that ‘Seneca often speaks like a
Christian.’ The difference is that Christianity
stresses the grace of God makes Christian life
possible. Also, the Love of God rather than
the individual’s self respect is the object
towards which human striving should be
directed. Both emphasize the outgoing
charity towards one’s fellow man.”
(Some verbal rearranging for clarity, Dorset Press, Ch. 3, p. 56.)
Quote from Henry Chadwick

There are many passages in the early Stoic philosophers that suggest
that we should Love God, but they may be referring more to the distant
Platonic God who creates passively through emanations, which may
resemble the later neoPlatonist God of Plotinus.
What does he mean when he implies that stoicism is centered around
the individual’s self respect? Perhaps this is a poor choice of words.
However, stoicism does emphasize how you should possess strength of
character and high personal integrity, and this emphasis is seen both in
Christianity itself and in the many personal stories in the Old Testament.
We read that Marcus Aurelius is the last stoic philosopher, but is this
really true? Many of the themes of stoicism have been adopted by the
early Church fathers, and by philosophers and theologians for the past
two millennia.

The Meditations admonish, “Remember
whenever you are vexed,” when you face
life’s frustrations, “to apply this principle,
that your trials are not misfortunes, but that
to nobly bear what life throws at you is
good fortune.”
Stoics love lists of virtues and vices:
“Show those qualities that are altogether in
your power: sincerity, gravity, endurance of
labor, aversion to pleasure, contentment
with what you have and with a simple life,
benevolence, frankness, no love of frills,
freedom from trifling magnanimity.”

The Stoics and Eastern Church Fathers remind us
of the importance of daily cultivating good habits:
Marcus Aurelius reminds us, “your habitual
thoughts will determine the character of your
mind, for the soul is dyed by your thoughts.”
This echoes St. Paul’s admonishment in 1 Cor 10 5-
6: “We destroy arguments and every proud
obstacle to the knowledge of God, and take every
thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to
punish every disobedience, when your obedience
is complete.”

The Gospel exhorts us to love not only our
friends but also our enemies, and to love
even those who spitefully use us.
Likewise, Marcus Aurelius observes, “it is
peculiar to man to love even those who do
wrong,” for the wrongdoers “are fellow
humans who do wrong through ignorance,
often unintentionally,” and like us they will
also soon die. “Above all, the wrongdoer has
done you no harm” for he cannot steal your
virtue and goodness.”

Marcus Aurelius continues, “it is your
duty to pardon those who wrong
you,” they may be mistaken, they
may be deluded into thinking they
have actually done what is right.
“Confine yourself to the present.”
“Think of your last hour. Let the
wrong that is done by a man stay
there where the wrong was done.”

Whenever someone close tries to harm us, they are
often responding not to us but to someone who has
harmed them many years back, or maybe someone
who has damaged their parents’ soul many decades
ago, we are just collateral damage. We can find it
easier to forgive their wrongs and shortcomings if
we are able to learn what cruel wrong or injustice in
their past damaged their souls.

Bear no grudges. “When another blames
you or hates you, or when men say anything
injurious about you, approach their poor
souls, penetrate within, and see what kind of
men they are. You will discover that there is
no reason to be concerned that these men
have this or that opinion about you. You
must, however, be welcoming to them, for
they are your friends. And God, too, aid
them in all ways, by dreams, by signs,
toward the attainment of those things on
which they set a value.” “If any man has
done wrong, he harms himself. But perhaps
he has not done wrong.”

Blessed are those who are persecuted for
righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when men revile you and
persecute you and utter all kinds of evil
against you falsely on my account.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is
great in heaven, for so men persecuted the
prophets who were before you.
Comparison to the Beatitudes

Marcus Aurelius begins Book IX with
“Injustice is impiety.” Since universal nature
has made rational animals to help one
another rather to attack each other, “he who
transgresses her will is clearly guilty of
impiety toward the highest divinity. And he
who lies is also guilty of impiety towards the
highest divinity. . . He who lies intentionally
is guilty of impiety inasmuch as he acts
unjustly by deceiving.”
When we sin against our neighbor, we sin
against our God.
Showing clemency to barbarians

Marcus Aurelius in Book XI celebrates
the rational soul, the rational soul that
separates mankind from the beasts, the
rational soul that “sees itself, analyzes
itself, improves itself as it chooses,
reaping its own fruits,” in contrast to the
fruits of the field that are reaped by men,
and beasts who are incapable of moral
improvement. “This is a property of the
rational soul, love of one’s neighbor, and
truth and modesty.”

Marcus Aurelius proposes,
“Suppose any man shall despise
me,” let him worry about that. But
my concern is rather that I not do or
say anything in response that is
contemptible. “Shall any man hate
me? That will be his affair. But I will
be mild and benevolent toward
every man, and ready to show even
him his mistake, not reproachfully,
not yet as making a display of my
endurance, but nobly and honestly.”
Column of Marcus Aurelius

So always we must examine our motives, not
only should we love our enemies, and forgive
our enemies, but our love should be genuine,
and we should be eager to forgive, and if we
should publicly correct or forgive our
enemies, we should do this in a loving
manner, with good motives.

Marcus Aurelius tells us that we should always
remember that if men do not do right, we
should assume that “they do so involuntarily and
in ignorance. For as every soul is unwillingly
deprived of the truth, so also is it unwillingly
deprived of the power behaving as it should.”
We should “consider that we also do many
things wrong, that we are merely men, that even
when we refrain from certain faults, we still have
the disposition to commit them, either through
cowardice, concern about reputation, or some
other mean motive.”

We should “consider that we do not even
understand whether men are doing wrong or not,
for many things are done according to
circumstances. Men must know a great deal to pass
correct judgment on another man’s acts.”
We should consider “that it is not men’s acts that
disturb us, but it is our own opinions that disturb
us. Take away these opinions, set aside your
judgment, and your anger will disappear. How shall
we take away these opinions? By reflecting that no
wrongful act of another brings shame on you.”
We should “consider how much more pain is
brought on us by our anger and vexation of our
neighbor’s acts than the acts themselves.”

These meditations remind me of a Dear Ann Landers letter I read many
years ago.
“Dear Ann Landers: I want to share a recent discovery that has made me a
better person. I used to assume that a wealthy woman I knew slightly was
an arrogant snob because she rarely spoke and never smiled. I also had
the notion that the woman in the supermarket with the whining children
was a lousy mother.”
“Then one day, as I stood in line at the grocery store, I noticed that the
clerk never smiled at the customers and ignored polite conversation. I
was tempted to tell her what I thought of her sour attitude when the
elderly woman in front of me took a different approach. She said, ‘Honey,
you look like you’re having a bad day.’ The clerk looked up with the
saddest eyes I’ve ever seen and said, ‘My husband lost his job yesterday,
and I just found out I’m pregnant!’ The lady patted her hand and said,
‘Dear, things will work out.’ When it was my turn, the clerk had tears in her
eyes, but she smiled, and I felt ashamed of myself for being so intolerant.”

“That incident made me realize that people usually aren’t rude because
they are mean and want to make my life miserable. They are unpleasant
because they have problems on their mind and a heavy heart. My entire
outlook on life changed that day, and I am now much more
compassionate.”
“This change in attitude has made those around me happier, but the
greatest benefit is mine. I am less angry and more serene, and I like
myself better than I used to. Singed, Older and Wiser (and more stoic) in
West Virginia.”
So, the next time you go to a restaurant, if you wish to live like a true stoic,
if the waitress seems distracted and provides you poor service, tip her
anyway, God is already punishing her, for she is a waitress, and you know
for sure she is not making very much money at all.

Marcus Aurelius: We should “consider that a good
disposition is invincible, if it is genuine and not an
affected smile acting the part.” If we are kind and
gentle and truly empathetic, we sometimes can
admonish our enemies with tact even as they are
trying to do us harm.
But we are warned, “we cannot do this in irony or
rebuke, but with kindly affection and without any
bitterness of heart, not as from a master’s chair, nor
yet to impress the bystanders, but as if he were
indeed alone even though others are present.”

Marcus Aurelius tells us how true men respond
to those who offend them, true men with
strength, nerves, and courage, true men who are
not subject to fits of passion and discontent.

Marcus Aurelius urges us to “remember these
rules as if you had received them as a gift from
the Muses, and begin at last to be a man while
you live. You must equally avoid flattering men
and being vexed at them, for both are antisocial
and harmful. Remember this when your anger
flares, that it is not manly to be moved by
passion, but rather true men are moved
mildness and gentleness.”

Marcus Aurelius observes, “God sees
into the minds and hearts of all men
bared naked of vestments and rind
and impurities.”
“If it is not right, do not do it; if it is not
true, do not say it,” do not even think
that which is not true.
“Does the light of the lamp shine
without losing its splendor until it is
extinguished; and shall the truth that is
in you and justice and temperance be
extinguished before your death?”

As Winston Churchill so aptly
puts this when describing
the fight against the evil of
Nazi Germany, “Never,
Never, Never, Never, Give
Up” on the fight against evil,
on the fight for right.

SOURCES:
Dover Thrift Edition from Amazon, I found the translation in the Stoic Six
Pack to be undecipherable. Marcus Aurelius is quite readable, you should
purchase this book and read it yourself.
The Meditation of Marcus Aurelius can also be downloaded for free in
many places on the internet, and the Loeb classical library, available on an
affordable annual subscription, has many ancient works with their Greek
and Latin originals.
Meditations, annotated and explained, great introduction and
comments, okay

SOURCES:
I first learned of the Stoic philosophers from a series of
Teaching Company lectures on Greek Moral
Philosophers by Professor Timothy Luke Johnson. This a
series of lectures that deeply affected me, and is one of
my favorites.
Likewise, the stoic philosophers are greatly treasured by
Professor Johnson. He had by chance picked up a used
book containing the writings of Epictetus and was
deeply influenced by his teachings. It is puzzling why
the stoic philosophers are so often neglected by modern
scholars, they were far more highly prized in antiquity
and by the early Christians and Church Fathers.

PLEASE click on the links in the description for our blogs on Marcus
Aurelius.
And on the links for our YouTube videos on the Greek Cynics and Stoic
philosophers, and for our blogs on St Justin the Martyr when they are
released, and other interesting videos that will broaden your
knowledge and improve your soul.
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YouTube Video:
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations of a Stoic
https://youtu.be/-uQxq1O9xSY
Blogs:
http://www.seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/
NOTE: YouTube video corrections may not
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differ somewhat in content.
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