After Reading Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations

Fragment of a bronze head of Marcus Aurelius,
2nd century CE

I recently read Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations – a book I had long been curious about. The Meditations are essentially the spiritual diary of a Roman emperor and that in itself is interesting, better still, every now and again he writes with great wisdom, though reading the Meditations from cover to cover is not always very engaging. However, despite my respect for the Meditations, I will admit that the view expressed therein that the world is somehow fundamentally ordered and that the universe is ruled by some kind of divine and ultimately benevolent plan (see, eg, Books 8.5, and12.5) strikes me as deeply flawed. Try telling all the children who are periodically raped by their fathers in their own bedrooms that the universe is ruled by principals of justice and benevolent order. And how easy to live “according to nature” – this is another recurrent theme throughout the Meditations – when your nature is to be the emperor of Rome! When it comes to the power of (a pantheist or ultimate) God, as identified with the Stoic concept of the benevolent and ordered universe, I share the following concerns as expressed by Cicero:

“Either God wishes to remove evils and cannot, or he can do so and is unwilling, or he has neither the will nor the power, or he has both the will and the power. If he has the will but not the power he is a weakling, and this is not characteristic of God. If he has the power but not the will, he is grudging, and this is a trait equally foreign to God. If he has neither the will nor the power, he is both grudging and weak, and is therefore not divine. If he has both the will and the power (and this is the sole circumstance appropriate to God), what is the source of evils, or why does God not dispel them [Cicero, The Nature of the Gods, 3.65]?”

Put that another way – if God is so powerful why do horrible things happen again and again and again? To my mind there are only two plausible answers to this question: either because the universal God does not exist or this God does exist and allows awful things to happen because he is a cold bastard and is therefore not worthy of reverence. The beauty of polytheism, as I perceive it, is that the responsibility for bad things becomes diffused across the universe and the Gods are not always infallibly virtuous, perfect or powerful – they are just (usually) more virtuous, more perfect and more powerful than us, and that is why they deserve reverence, for we can learn from them, can be guided by them and may benefit from their intervention in our affairs. 

Putting the issues of a benevolent and ordered universe (or God) aside, Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations do illuminate some fundamental problems associated with the human condition and deliver valuable insights as to how to achieve apatheia (a mind freed from disabling passions). These are often interesting and/or wise and well worth reading. Thus, here follows some of my favourite passages from the Meditations:

“Cast everything else aside, then, and hold to these few truths alone; and remember, furthermore, that each of us lives only in the present, this fleeting moment of time, and that the rest of one’s life has either already been lived or lies in an unknowable future. The space of each person’s existence is thus a little thing, and little too is the corner of the earth on which it is lived, and little too even the fame that endures for the longest; and even that is passed on from one poor mortal to another, all of whom will die in no great while … [Book 3.10]” 

“… among the precepts which you keep most closely at hand for frequent reference, let the following be included: firstly, that things of themselves have no hold on the mind, but stand motionless outside it, and all disturbances arise solely from the opinions within us, and secondly, that all that you presently behold will change in no time whatever and cease to exist; and constantly reflect on how many such changes you yourself have already witnessed [Book 4.3].”

“They cannot admire you for the sharpness of your mind. So be it, but there is much else of which you cannot say, ‘I have no gift for that.’ So display the qualities that are wholly within your power, sincerity, dignity, endurance, disdain for sensual pleasure, satisfaction with your lot, contentment with little, kindness, freedom, frugality, avoidance of idle chatter, and elevation of mind. Do you not see how many fine qualities you are already able to display, for which you can offer no excuse of want of natural talent or lack of aptitude? Or are you compelled to grumble, to be grasping, to flatter others, to heap criticism on your poor body, to be ingratiating, and boastful, and restless in your mind, because you were created without the necessary gifts? No, by the Gods … you should exercise yourself instead of neglecting your faults and taking comfort in your dullness [Book 5.5].”

“Constantly reflect on how swiftly all that exists and is coming to be is swept past us and disappears from sight. For substance is like a river in perpetual flow, and its activities are ever changing, and its causes infinite in their variations, and hardly anything at all stands still; and ever at our side is the immeasurable span of the past and the yawning gulf of the future, into which all things vanish away. Then how is he not a fool who in the midst of all this is puffed up with pride, or tormented, or bewails his lot as though his troubles will endure for any great while [Book 5.23]?”

“When you have savouries and fine dishes set before you, you will gain an idea of their nature if you tell yourself that this is the corpse of a fish, and that is the corpse of a bird or a pig, or again, that fine Falernian wine is merely grape-juice, and this purple robe some sheep’s wool dipped in the blood of a shellfish; and as for sexual intercourse, it is the friction of a piece of gut and, following a sort of convulsion, the expulsion of some mucus. Thoughts such as these reach through to things themselves and strike to the heart of them, allowing us to see them as they truly are. So follow this practice throughout your life, and where things seem most worthy of your approval, lay them naked … [Book 6.13].”

“Asia and Europe are mere corners of the universe; and by that measure, every ocean is a drop of water, and Mount Athos is a clod of earth; and the whole of present time is but a point in eternity. All is paltry, ever mutable, swift to vanish [Book 6.36].”

“All is in the course of change; and you yourself are constantly changing and, in a sense, passing away; and so too is the entire universe [Book 9.19].”

“No one can rob us of our free will, said Epictetus [Book 11.36].”

“All turns on judgment, and that rests with you. So when you will, pluck out the judgment, and then, as though you had passed the headland, the sea is calm, and all is still, and there is not a wave in the bay [Book 12.22].”

Written by M' Sentia Figula (aka Freki), find me at neo polytheist