Meditations - Marcus Aurelius (Emperor of Rome) [69]
9. The student as boxer, not fencer.
The fencer’s weapon is picked up and put down again.
The boxer’s is part of him. All he has to do is clench his fist.
10. To see things as they are. Substance, cause and purpose.
11. The freedom to do only what God wants, and accept whatever God sends us.
11a. What it’s made of.
12. The gods are not to blame. They do nothing wrong, on purpose or by accident. Nor men either; they don’t do it on purpose. No one is to blame.
13. The foolishness of people who are surprised by anything that happens. Like travelers amazed at foreign customs.
14. Fatal necessity, and inescapable order. Or benevolent Providence. Or confusion—random and undirected.
If it’s an inescapable necessity, why resist it?
If it’s Providence, and admits of being worshipped, then try to be worthy of God’s aid.
If it’s confusion and anarchy, then be grateful that on this raging sea you have a mind to guide you. And if the storm should carry you away, let it carry off flesh, breath and all the rest, but not the mind. Which can’t be swept away.
15. The lamp shines until it is put out, without losing its gleam, and yet in you it all gutters out so early—truth, justice, self-control?
16. When someone seems to have injured you:
But how can I be sure?
And in any case, keep in mind:
• that he’s already been tried and convicted—by himself. (Like scratching your own eyes out.)
• that to expect a bad person not to harm others is like expecting fig trees not to secrete juice, babies not to cry, horses not to neigh—the inevitable not to happen.
What else could they do—with that sort of character?
If you’re still angry, then get to work on that.
17. If it’s not right, don’t do it. If it’s not true, don’t say it. Let your intention be < . . . >
18. At all times, look at the thing itself—the thing behind the appearance—and unpack it by analysis:
• cause
• substance
• purpose
• and the length of time it exists.
19. It’s time you realized that you have something in you more powerful and miraculous than the things that affect you and make you dance like a puppet.
What’s in my thoughts at this moment? Fear? Jealousy? Desire? Feelings like that?
20. To undertake nothing:
i. at random or without a purpose;
ii. for any reason but the common good.
21. That before long you’ll be no one, and nowhere. Like all the things you see now. All the people now living.
Everything’s destiny is to change, to be transformed, to perish. So that new things can be born.
22. It’s all in how you perceive it. You’re in control. You can dispense with misperception at will, like rounding the point. Serenity, total calm, safe anchorage.
23. A given action that stops when it’s supposed to is none the worse for stopping. Nor the person engaged in it either. So too with the succession of actions we call “life.” If it ends when it’s supposed to, it’s none the worse for that. And the person who comes to the end of the line has no cause for complaint. The time and stopping point are set by nature—our own nature, in some cases (death from old age); or nature as a whole, whose parts, shifting and changing, constantly renew the world, and keep it on schedule.
Nothing that benefits all things can be ugly or out of place. The end of life is not an evil—it doesn’t disgrace us. (Why should we be ashamed of an involuntary act that injures no one?). It’s a good thing—scheduled by the world, promoting it, promoted by it.
This is how we become godlike—following God’s path, and reason’s goals.
24. Three things, essential at all times:
i(a). your own actions: that they’re not arbitrary or different from what abstract justice would do.
i(b). external events: that they happen randomly or by design. You can’t complain about chance. You can’t argue with Providence.
ii. what all things are like, from the planting of the seed to the quickening of life, and from its quickening to its relinquishment. Where the parts came from and where they return to.
iii. that if you were suddenly lifted up and could see life