PDF Summary:Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius
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1-Page PDF Summary of Meditations
Meditations, by Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, is one of the definitive texts on Stoicism. In Meditations, Aurelius shares his thoughts about the importance of logic over emotion and helps you to start training your mind to think rationally. By following Stoic teachings, you can live with purpose and die with dignity.
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Similarly, people can’t stop you from tolerating them; from meeting their attacks with patience rather than anger. Growing angry with your fellow people would be as bad as giving up the pursuit of logos at their urging.
Reject Anger and Blame
Because others can’t hurt you, it’s possible to meet any mistake or misbehavior with compassion. You can do this by remembering that others are also human, and that they act out of ignorance. Most importantly, remember that people who make mistakes usually haven’t hurt you: They haven’t damaged your mind nor your character.
When someone tries to hurt you, ask yourself why they’ve done so. What good (or harm) did he or she think it would do? If you find that the other person’s sense of morality is close to your own, you must excuse what he or she did as a mistake. If it’s not close to your morality, then you must conclude that the other person is misguided and deserves compassion rather than anger.
Blame is just as useless as anger. Simply put, there’s nobody to blame for anything—the gods are infallible, and human wrongs are due to accident or ignorance.
When faced with someone else’s mistake, remember that you've also made mistakes. Furthermore, you’ve probably avoided making some similar mistakes for bad reasons—such as fear of what others would think—rather than because your reason led you away from those mistakes. In other words, you have the potential to make the same mistakes as the people you're upset with.
For example, sometimes you get hurt while sparring. You don’t get angry about that, blame your partner, or suddenly consider your partner a violent and untrustworthy person. You're simply more cautious when sparring with that person in the future. Bring that same mindset to other areas of your life: Forgive mistakes, and just be more cautious after one happens.
See Humanity as a Whole
When discussing people, consider them as if you were looking down from high above the world. Humankind exists as a harmonious collection of opposites: births and deaths, weddings and divorces, celebrations and mourning periods. When you accept the whole of humanity, with all of its diversity and apparent contradictions, you'll find that you're also much more tolerant of each individual member of humanity.
Given that humanity is such a collection of opposites, the world needs all different types of people. Therefore, when you run into somebody who’s selfish, cruel, or dishonest, remind yourself that such people must exist, and that person just happens to be one of them.
Know That Perspective Brings Purpose
Always keep a sense of perspective. A tiny grape seed exists in infinite space. A single second exists as a part of eternity. Your body and your lifetime are no different from those things. You exist as a speck in infinity, as a moment in eternity, and—most importantly—as an individual in a community.
Because you exist as part of a much larger whole, whatever selfish desires you have are trivial. Therefore, instead of chasing your petty desires, you should accept whatever you're given with integrity and humility and work tirelessly for the common good. Your purpose in life is to do good for others.
You should help others without any thought of reward. Be like vines producing grapes, or bees storing honey: doing good almost unconsciously, simply because it’s what you do.
If you ever feel reluctant to help others, remember that everything is connected through logos. Therefore, in helping others you also help yourself. How could you ever object to doing something that helps you?
Remember That Purpose Allows You to Live Well
To live in a consistent way, you must have a consistent goal. However, since individual people are so changeable, the only way to have a consistent goal is to work for the good of all people. By devoting your energy toward such a goal, you can be sure that you're always consistent in your thoughts and actions. In other words: You should never take action without a purpose, and that purpose should never be anything except the common good.
There are two steps to living a peaceful and purposeful life:
- Don’t worry. Remember, nature and logos control everything.
- Stay focused on your tasks—and remember that your job is to be a good person, to do good things for others.
Remember Death, but Don’t Fear It
You could die at any moment. That thought should guide your actions every day. Consider how long you've been putting off the things you mean to do and realize that your time to do those things is quickly running out.
Approach every task as if it’s the last thing you'll ever do and the final thing you'll be remembered for. Spend every minute focused on what’s in front of you, doing your work with sincerity and care.
However, this doesn’t mean that you should fear death. Death is a natural and necessary process and there’s no reason for a rational person to be afraid of it. You can be sure of this because the gods have given you the intelligence, skills, and tools that you need to avoid harm; therefore, if death were harmful, they would have given you a way to avoid it.
Furthermore, the gods and nature don’t act randomly, letting good and bad things happen to good and bad people alike. However, everyone experiences life and death. Therefore, you must conclude that these things are neither good nor bad. They simply exist.
Don’t Wish for a Long Life
Additionally, there’s no intrinsic benefit to living a longer life. All that a person ever has is the present moment, and that moment is all that’s lost upon death. If I were to live 50 years and you were to live 5,000 years, our lives would amount to the same thing: Collections of moments that fade to nothing once they’re past.
Therefore, worrying about how long your body will endure is a waste of time and energy. Sooner or later each of us will die, and you should face this with quiet dignity, as you would face anything else in life. The question of when it happens is irrelevant.
Even the greatest human life is insignificant; peasants and emperors both blow away like smoke on the wind. Knowing that you're so unimportant, why should you worry about your life or your death? To live your short life righteously, in accordance with nature and logos, is enough.
Ease Your Passing
To take a different approach to facing death, you could ask yourself what it is about life that you're so desperate to cling to. Breathing? Feeling? Speaking? You don’t need those things, and the fear of losing them is an obstacle to following logos.
It might also make death easier to face if you recognize that, no matter how good and righteous you've been in life, at least a few people will be happy to see you go. When you recognize that you'll be making others’ lives easier by dying, you'll be less reluctant to do so.
If the fear of death creeps in, you can look at whatever you're doing at the moment and ask: Am I afraid because I won’t be able to do this thing anymore? By repeatedly examining what you think you're afraid of, you'll realize that there’s nothing to fear.
Take a Bow
As a closing thought, theater has a lot to teach about how to live and how to die:
- Tragic plays exist to remind you of what can and will eventually happen to you. If you enjoy watching tragic events in the theatre, they shouldn’t upset you when they happen in real life.
- After Tragedy came Old Comedy, which taught equally valuable lessons in a different way—by speaking plainly, with a simple honesty that cuts through pretenses and false beliefs.
- Following Old Comedy came Middle and New Comedy. These forms only strive for technique; they have no messages behind them. The shows might be enjoyable, but what’s the point of them? No one should seek to live like that—pleasantly but without purpose.
Finally, like the curtain coming down at the end of a play, death will eventually come for each of us. Actors don’t get to choose how long a play is; the playwright made that decision long before they ever stepped on stage.
Therefore, like an actor bows and leaves the stage at her appointed time, leave this world with humility and grace—the same grace that you received all throughout your life.
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PDF Summary Book 1: Dedications
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Aurelius credits many of his other tutors as well. He thanks Diognetus for teaching him not to be fooled by charlatans or taken in by fads, as well as for encouraging him to practice philosophy and study hard. He recognizes Apollonius for teaching him independence and stoicism, and Sextus for teaching him kindness and humility. He thanks Fronto for teaching him to recognize that power corrupts the people who hold it. He thanks Alexander, a literary critic, for teaching him to always debate ideas instead of pouncing on people’s phrasing or grammatical errors, and he thanks a different Alexander for encouraging him to be honest and to face his responsibilities.
Aurelius has lengthier praise for his teacher Rusticus. He credits Rusticus with training him to remain focused on important matters and not to be distracted by rhetoric or abstract questions. Furthermore, Rusticus taught him to write simple and straightforward letters and to avoid sermons, poetry, and speechifying. Finally, he thanks this teacher for encouraging him to read things thoroughly, rather than being satisfied with a quick skim to get the general ideas.
Giving Thanks to Friends and Family
Aurelius...
PDF Summary Books 2-3: Examine Life and Death Rationally
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The Stoics call spirit pneuma, and it’s considered to be the “breath of life.” Put simply, spirit is the force that animates you. However, although necessary, spirit is really nothing but air; and never the same air twice. You endlessly recycle your spirit as you inhale and exhale.
Intelligence, however, is by far the most important element of these three: You’re ruled by your intelligence. In the end, the mind is all that matters—your mind is what you really are.
Remember That You'll Die
You could die at any moment. That thought should guide your actions every day. You should consider how long you've been putting off the things you mean to do, and realize that your time to do those things is quickly running out.
Approach every task as if it’s the last thing you'll ever do and the final thing you'll be remembered for. Spend every minute focused on what’s in front of you, doing your work with sincerity and care.
To remain focused, avoid distractions and throw away possessions that might distract you. For example, if someone finds himself drawn to frivolous books for entertainment, he should get rid of those books so he won’t be tempted by them.
If you find...
PDF Summary Books 4-6: Reflect on Logos, Duty, and Suffering
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With the above facts in mind, you can accept that everything that happens to you is ordered by logos. Consider each event—even events that seem negative, like illness or injury—as being prescribed by nature (which, remember, is driven by logos). Such things are no different from treatments prescribed by a doctor, and complaining about those misfortunes hurts you as surely as refusing to take your medicine would.
However, don’t show off and gloat about your obedience to logos. Be secure and comfortable in your actions, knowing that you're doing what nature demands of you.
Finally, there will be times when you fail to remember logos. When that happens, don’t get discouraged—instead, simply pick yourself up and continue with your work. Celebrate being human, including the flaws that come with humanity. Your own shortcomings are just more seemingly-negative events for you to accept.
Know Your Personal Nature
People who don’t understand logos often celebrate their good fortunes or bemoan their bad fortunes. They don’t realize that good fortune is something you create for yourself through good intentions, actions, and character. **In short, a good nature will...
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Learn more about our summaries →PDF Summary Books 7-9: Manage Your Relationships to Live Well
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On the topic of satisfaction, you can be satisfied as long as you’re making progress at improving yourself. Though you should always be critical of yourself and strive to improve your mind, don’t waste energy worrying about perfection.
Don’t Seek Out Pleasure
Another sense in which you must be strict with yourself is in your approach to pleasure. You have the innate ability to keep your soul free of lust, confusion, and all manner of evil things. For example, you were given self-control to counteract your desire for pleasure. However, you weren’t given any virtue that counteracts your desire for justice—so, logically, nature must mean for you to shun pleasure and seek justice.
Another rational argument against pleasure-seeking: You feel remorse when you miss an opportunity for something that would have been to your benefit. However, for something to be truly beneficial, it must be a good thing—something that a good person would be concerned about. No good person would feel remorse over missing an opportunity for personal pleasure. Therefore, pleasure must not be beneficial or good.
Another type of pleasure that you might seek out is popularity, or...
PDF Summary Books 10-12: Live and Die With Dignity
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Train Your Mind
In his writings, Socrates asks whether you’d prefer a rational, healthy mind or an irrational, unhealthy one. Naturally, you’d want the former.
He then says that you have to work to achieve such a mind. Now, you might protest that you've already done that work. However, if you're already so rational, then why are you wasting time arguing? Truly rational people would just go about their business, with no concern for what others think or do. Thus, by claiming that your work is done, you prove that you have more work to do. You need to train your mind.
In training your mind to be strong and healthy, you should be like a boxer, not a fencer. A fencer can put down his tool and must pick it up again to use it. A boxer’s tools are parts of him, ready to be used at any time. Similarly, your rationality and philosophy must be readily available whenever you need them.
Exercise your mind constantly. One exercise is to think about how each thing around you has changed, and is changing: What was it before? What will it become in the future? A related exercise is to try to understand the force that drives these changes. For example, there’s an unseen...
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