This post is the eighth in our Stoic Philosophy book club series on Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Participants expressing interest are tagged at the end of the post, let us know if you're new and would like to join and be tagged!
Prior posts for context:
- Book 7
- Book 6
- Book 5
- Book 4
- Book 3: In Carnuntum
- Book 2: On the River Gran, Among the Quadi
- Book 1: Debts and Lessons
- Geneisis Post
Book 8
Summary and Highlights
I sat down and read through this yesterday. Book 8 is another rather long compilation totaling 61 entries. For some reason, I found it rather hard to relate deeply to much of it. Probably this is due to my own state of mind, as diving back into this material over the Easter holiday weekend is feeling more like a duty than a pleasure. Marcus entries are interesting and many of them are logical thought trains which bolster many of the same Stoic points we've encountered before. Here are a few that stuck out to me...
In #1, Marcus seems to be coming to terms with some FOMO of his place in life. Instead of being emperor, the impression is that he'd much rather have lived his life as a philosopher, and enjoy the reputation of that station. Interesting. He says,
Another encouragement to humility: you can't claim to have lived your life as a philosopher -- not even your whole adulthood. You can see for yourself how far you are from philosophy. And so can others. You're tainted. It's not so easy now, to have a reputation as a philosopher. And your position is an obstacle as well. So you know how things stand. Now forget what they think of you. Be satisfied if you can live the rest of your life, however short, as your nature demands.
Marcus has expressed concern about his reputation in previous books. Funny how it's the title of Great Philosopher he seems to envy, and funnier still how his post-humous acquisition of it competes with that of those he admired thousands of years later.
- You can hold you breath and turn blue, but they'll still keep on doing it.
The feeling I get when I want other people to behave according to my own plans and desires. Against my best efforts at mind-reading and thought-control, others keep on doing their own thing. I just like the concise nature and feeling of this quote.
- Nature's job: to shift things elsewhere, to transform them, to pick them up and move them here and there. Constant alteration.
Reminds of my favorite quote I used to put on company business cards: "The only constant is change." by Heraclitus. I initially used this quote in a software engineering context from classes about how it's important to "embrace change" as part of the software development methodology and lifecycle. Years later, studying yoga and philosophy, I've come to appreciate the universality of it.
- Remorse is an annoyance at yourself for having passed up something that's to your benefit. But if it's to your benefit, it must be good -- something a truly good person would be concerned about. But no truly good person would feel remorse for passing up pleasure. So it cannot be to your benefit, or good.
Marcus puts down an elegant little puzzle to help the mind let go of the past. I've been intentional about letting go of past regrets lately, so this one stuck out to me. The logical framework is interesting, and undoubtedly helpful for many situations. The thing that hangs me up a little is the assumption that pleasure is at the root of the regret. Maybe I'm being dishonest with myself, but some of my regrets are that I didn't take initiative or action in certain circumstances, by saying "yes" to certain experiences. I can't tell if the action would have led to pleasure or pain, probably both, but I sort of regret missing out on the opportunity to express, explore or unfold my character. I think this entry is very good, but maybe a different approach is applicable to my reflections, or maybe I'm rationalizing...
- When you have trouble getting out of bed in the morning, remember that your defining characteristic -- what defines a human being -- is to work with others. Even animals know how to sleep. And it's the characteristic activity that's the more natural one -- more innate and satisfying.
The contrarian in me wants to point out that animals also know how to work with others -- wolves hunt in packs for example. But I can see that humans, through tool-making (technology) and specialization (cooperation) have established an identity of relative power and mastery over other species on this planet.
- When you have to deal with someone, ask yourself: What does he mean by good and bad? If he thinks x or y about pleasure and pain ( and what produces them), about fame and disgrace, about death and life, then it shouldn't shock or surprise you when he does x or y. In fact, I'll remind myself that he has no real choice.
This is a great reminder to take all this work on self-knowledge and apply it to adjust expectations of other people and the outside world. At first, it seems like Marcus could be headed towards judging other people. But rather, but observing other people to find a right view of their motivations and worldview, we can find more acceptance of their behaviors and the workings of the environment around us. There is a lot of this principle I can apply better in life. It seems like a fundamental shift in worldview that requires a constant practice in detachment.
- Remember that to change your mind and to accept correction are free acts too. The action is yours, based on your own will, your own decision -- and you own mind.
Freedom exists in each and every moment and changing our mind, and our actions are an exercise of that. It seems so commonplace in the current culture wars that people "fighting for freedom" seem to take such an entrenched position, to "die on this hill". All well and good, but if Nature is constantly changing things, we must be open to changing ourselves. This is not only essential, but part an embodied act of Freedom itself.
- You have to assemble yourself -- action by action...
I appreciate this entry's reminder that everything happens in small sequence, "one step at a time". Sometimes I get lost in the big picture and that inhibits me from taking initiative and action altogether, but the big picture doesn't happen right away, and it may even change itself while we're taking the steps toward it.
- "To the best of my judgement, when I look at the human character I see no virtue placed there to counter justice. But i see one to counter pleasure: self-control."
Marcus suggests an interesting system of detecting what is "good" by finding virtues to contrast a hypothesis, justice in this case. An interesting tool to e-"value"-ate.
- I have no right to do myself an injury. Have I ever injured anyone else if I could avoid it?
Self-love. Jesus (happy Easter!) said we should treat others as we would like to be treated. However, sometimes we treat ourselves pretty poorly. It's encouraging to consider that if Marcus is reminding himself of this, he must have dealt with it too.
- The cucumber is bitter? Then throw it out. There are brambles in the path? Then go around them. That's all you need to know. Nothing more. Don't demand to know "why such things exist."
Ahhh... the eternal answer to the question "WHY?". This one stands out to me because it has come up often in recent arguments with my wife ;) The mind thinks that if it can find a suitable answer to "why" then then matter can rest. However, more and more, I'm convinced this is an eternal question, especially in an argument between two humans. The answers are almost always subjective and just go further and further into an endless past. It's better to acknowledge what is, and let it go. So why does "why" come up when I'm arguing with my wife? Probably because I've played those annoying mental games with other people in the past and my past is now becoming my future. Endless, indeed.
- Not to know what the world is is to be ignorant of where you are. Not to know why it's here is to be ignorant of who you are. And what it is. Not to know any of this is to be ignorant of why you're here.
At risk of another "why" question, this entry inspires purpose and responsibility for investigating ourselves and the reality around us. Here, Marcus is relating to the deeper questions of meaning, whereas the "why" questions of the mundane are pointless. He implies that a value in investigating oneself and the world is self-evident, or will become so through the process.
- To join ourselves not just to the air surrounding us, through breath, but to the reason that embraces all things, through thought. Reason is just as omnipresent, just as widely diffused in those who accept it as air is in those who breathe it.
A beautiful description, suggesting at the Stoic conception of pneuma. Reason as a dimension of the "breath of life".
- The existence of evil does not harm the world. And an individual act of evil does not harm the victim. Only one person is harmed by it -- and he can stop being harmed as soon as he decides to.
Answer: The perpetrator.
- Fear of death is fear of what we may experience.
Here Marcus is referring to the experience of the process of death -- the pain of a violent death or such. However, my first reaction was to interpret the fear of death and the fear of life as the same fear. Oftentimes we are just as ham-stringed in life by a deathly terror of the change we may experience with a new opportunity, new circumstance. Perhaps death, if seen as a gateway to new life, can be reinterpreted similarly -- new experience.
Reflections
I was rather confused by #7. I'll quote the whole thing here:
- Nature of any kind thrives on forward progress. And progress for a rational mind means not accepting falsehood or uncertainty in its perceptions, making unselfish actions its only aim, seeking and shunning only the things it has control over, embracing what nature demands of it -- the nature in which it participates, as the leaf's nature does in the tree's. Except that the nature shared by the leaf is without consciousness or reason, and subject to impediments. Whereas that shared by human beings is without impediments, and rational, and just, since it allots to each and every thing an equal an proportionate share of time, being, purpose, action, chance. Examine it closely. Not whether they're identified point by point, but in the aggregate: this weighed against that.
I don't get some of the fundamental claims. How is nature of the leaf (natural world) "without impediments? And what are those impediments specifically? How are we sure man doesn't have the same or similar impediments according to his degree of consciousness? We don't know what we don't know, right? Anybody with a better reading of this and more clarity, please help me out!
Participants
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