Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations
All those things at which thou wishes to arrive by a circuitous road, thou canst have now, if thou dost not refuse them to thyself. And this means, if thou wilt take notice of all the past, and trust the future to providence, and direct the present only comfortably to piety and justice. Conformably to piety, that thou mayest be content with the lot which is assigned to thee, for nature designed it for thee and thee for it. Conformably to justice, that thou mayest always speak the truth freely and without disguise, and do the things which are agreeable to law and according to the worth of each. And let neither another man’s wickedness hinder thee, nor opinion nor voice, nor yet the sensations of the poor flesh which has grown about thee; for the passive part will look to this.
— Meditations, 12.1
Marcus Aurelius was the last Roman Emperor of the Pax Romana and a prolific writer who wrote for an audience of one — himself. After his death, his writings were compiled and entitled, Meditations. To meditate can be traced to think, to contemplate, to ponder. Without the explicit intent of his musing but for only himself, it seems that the practice of writing for the emperor was as essential as any other training in which emperors engage. Like one practices lacrosse, times-tables, yoga — one practices writing with the humble, human understanding that he will never perfect, iterate, sublimate to the thing, but with keen awareness to the necessity of and the responsibility of the individual to the practice as to remind, hone, strengthen, maintain our most powerful and profound muscle — the soul.
Meditations can ring a repetitive tone — no one said practice is fun or dynamic, yet it kinda needs to be boring. Repetitio mater studiorum est – Repetition is the mother of all learning – so says some and so says the emperor – because the practice needs to be repetitious for success in the game of life — as for an emperor or pauper and anyone far and wide, and in between.
Marcus Aurelius is considered a stoic philosopher — stoics believed in the consistent active exercise of the mind as a bulwark against the complexities and distractions of the outside world. As we read Meditations, we may pine for stories from the emperor to help to flesh out all the philosophic pie in the sky – lest we remember it’s not a memoir. Memoirs go out; meditations go in. In the game of life, he knows what he’s done, and this is how Marcus Aurelius would practice — by himself with his soul, the logos, and a pen — so that whether it’s a shitstorm out there or a confetti shower – what’s on the inside simply is.
Men seek retreats for themselves, houses in the country, sea-shores, and mountains; and thou too art wont to desire such things very much. But this is all together a mark of the common sort of men, for it is in thy power whenever thou shalt choose to retire into thyself. For nowhere either with more quiet or more freedom from trouble does a man retire then into his own soul, particularly when he has within him such thoughts that by looking into them he is immediately in perfect tranquility; and I affirm that tranquility is nothing else than the good ordering of the mind.
— Meditations, 4.3
Postlude
But practice doesn’t always make perfect — Marcus Aurelius broke from tradition at the end of his life and appointed his son the heir emperor. Commodus, the evil emperor in Gladiator doesn’t seem too far from the real emperor who was the beginning of the slow death of Rome — so says history.
