I often look around the world and see how terrible and despicable people are, whether it be people I meet in real life or people I hear about on the news. The Harvery Weinsteins and the Jeffrey Epsteins of the world fill me with a sense of dread and a deep anger regarding the human race. I loathe the worst parts of the human soul. I loathe our vices and our deadly sins. I loathe our hypocrisy and our indifference to the suffering of other people.
I don't hate people. But I bear contempt towards whatever drives people to seek more power for the sake of power. I bear contempt towards the parts of our nature that fuels our greed. One is right to hate the vices of oneself and other people, but one is not right in hating other people. I hate whatever made you spit in that homeless man's face, but I cannot hate you. I hate that you consistently take more for yourself and leave others with so little, but i cannot hate you. I hate whatever drives your evil, but how could I ever hate you?
I feel sorry for you. It saddens me that you do wrong. It saddens me that you lack the wisdom to know that you do wrong. It saddens me how you display your vices. Every man must battle his own vices. Your vices have clearly won. And you have lost. Yet, you have not done so willingly. For what man would willingly choose vice over virtue? A man without the knowledge of the harm it does him? A man weaker than his vices? A man who has lost control of his desires? And what are we to do with such a man? Throw him in prison? Do you not see the chains that already bind him? Each vice, each desire and each piece of wisdom, that he is ignorant of, is a chain that binds him.
Then somewhere else in history there is a person like Marcus Aurelius. There is no point in pretending that Marcus was perfect. What Marcus knew, however, was that each day was a test. Each day is a battle against our vices. Each day we must fight to be good and to do right. We must fight our temptation, our laziness and all the other parts of our human soul that would have us do evil. In meditations Marcus himself admits that he has trouble getting out of bed in the morning. Our great stoic philosopher king has trouble rising from bed. The man continiously wrote to himself, reminding himself how to obtain virtue and how to rid himself of vices. Each line in the meditations in the form of advice in obtaining virtue is also an open admission of a vice he wants rid of. This only shows that what makes Marcus Aurelius
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[Disclaimer: I am not a โveteranโ reader and looking to explore literature by reading the top rated content. Sorry if this post offends anyone.]
On Goodreads, the book is rated very well. Iโve read it over twice now and I do find some nuggets of insight particularly about mortality and the vastness of death. His journals hit that message home and then some. But I canโt help that the vast majority of the writing is frankly a little boring to read. It sounds more like ramblings of an old man trying to convince people that itโs not too late to change.
Maybe itโs because we are submerged by this messaging daily in our culture. Or maybe he was an early pioneer of this philosophy. Or maybe his book just holds historic significance. What is the reason that itโs so highly rated?
Maybe it's my ADHD, but I found Meditations to generally be an incomprehensible mess and largely a waste of my time compared to Fragments from Heraclitus. ๐คทโโ๏ธ
I know YMMV when it comes to any piece of information, but I see Meditations and Marcus touted on this subreddit time and time again, yet I think it is one of the worst intros to Stoicism.
While Heraclitus may not classically be considered a "stoic", much of his philosophy can be, and in fact he pre-dates them (stoics) all by a fair bit.
Curious to hear others' opinions on this! ๐
Trying to figure out the best translations to buy of their work. Any recommendations?
Thanks!
The vicious cycle is like this:
Stage 1: I get used to being a loner and find my own joy in doing various hobbies. My mind isn't clouded with unnecessary and destructive thoughts anymore. Restlessness goes away. In a way, I'm at peace and feel like I have at least in some level, followed Stoic principles that I am able to survive and persevere even in being completely alone. It's not that I avoid any socializing activities, but just that there are no chances for socializing and I don't go out of my way to do socializing. But it feels like a fake peace because I can feel some darkness just hiding around the corner, loneliness and anxiety, ready to strike anytime, in some short moments. I currently live and work in Japan but am not a Japanese, I'm an Asian foreigner.
Stage 2: When I go back to my home country for a vacation, at the start, I don't go out that much to meet my old friends having gotten used to being alone but I get invited numerous times that I eventually spend time with them. Since it's not like I go home frequently, there's a significant amount of time in between that socializing with people kind of feels new and refreshing. I would enjoy the time however short it is since vacations aren't exactly long.
Stage 3: The next stage of the cycle is when I go back to Japan, where my life is pretty much devoid of any socializing. In this stage, my mind just can't calm down. I'm filled with loneliness and anxiety, like a kid who's lost and wanting to go home. It's also in this stage that I would crave for intimacy especially with a girl. Like I want a girlfriend to spend time with and make memories. And since I have none of these things, this restlessness would pervade for even months. Then after a significant amount of time and slowly, I go back to the first stage, getting used to being a loner and kind of at peace.
During the pandemic since I haven't been able to go back to my home country and have transitioned to work from home basically everyday only going to the office 1-3 times a year, I've learned to build my own gaming PC and started my hobby of growing rare plants and found joy in these. At the start, for quite some time, I was doing fine during the pandemic especially compared to those who have much more challenging circumstances. But then there's just this limit of having not socialized with another human being physically that for the past months, I can't help getting that bouts of loneliness and depression although not at the level of
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What do you beautiful people think about it? I feel it's nice and short, it's sweet and im enjoying it while going to work :)
I'm a complete coin noob who just loves Marcus Aurelius. Can anyone recommend me an authentic coin with his face on it that is <$100? There are several on ebay and websites that I've seen recommended on this sub but I am honestly not sure where to start or who to trust.
Recently read Meditations, what an insightful... book? Well, what it is is unknown, but the collection of words within it truly possesses profundity beyond words. Would recommend "The Emperor's Handbook" translation.
This is an odd question and I'm still not sure quite what motivates it nor what I'm trying to clarify.
Briefly, I think I have a concern about whether a philosophy espoused by hyper-famous, ultra-successful individuals can truly get into the humdrum, prosaic stresses and concerns that confront those of us who are neither billionaires nor emperors.
It seems strange that people who can have had no idea what it feels like to struggle financially, to hold a menial, meaningless job, or to doubt their own efficacy and purpose in a world that seems rigged toward the better-off, yet have anything meaningful or lasting to teach to those who do.
Is there an issue here? Or does Stoicism trade in truths so necessary and eternal that they transcend social divisions? Looking forward to some clarity from this most excellent of subs.
The Meditations is a book of stoic wisdom purportedly to have been written by Marcus Aurelius that is popular in self help circles.
While certainly a popular read, what proof do we have that this book was actually written and published by Marcus Aurelius?
If it was published after his death, how was his journal discovered, and consequently distributed to those who wanted to read it?
Is there an existing original copy in Marcus Aureliusโs own writing?
