MEDITATIONS;LOGOS,STOICISM AND NATURE (can you imagine a stoic at his father’s funeral?)

Like the name says it “MEDITATIONS” is a set of thoughts that was expressed by the roman emperor Marcus Aurelius who is a known figure in philosophy especially in the stoic school of thought. Despite the fact that Marcus never claimed to practice stoicism himself but identified himself as someone who just practiced philosophy the ideas he present aligns with the stoic philosophy.

Let us do a bit of background as well as some introduction before we dive in the review.

Marcus was born in the 2nd Century AD( 121 to be specific )and in this era philosophy was something different than what we have in this modern age, back then is was not just about formulating arguments and debating about issues but it was a way of living that dictated ethics in the same way religion does(and did).

Stoicism with which most of Marcus’ ideas resonate with was a school of thought that believed that in the world(universe) all things were created and are directed by the logos. It the same logos that is contained in the opening of Saint John’s gospel when it says “In the beginning was the Word”. The logos is a form of Providence than is represented in all creation and is imbued in nature(in contrast to the idea of random atoms though in the end it did not matter to stoics whether atoms or providence). So for stoics their duty was to align themselves with the logos to discover what they were created for and the best way to do this was to understand was to understand what “nature” required them to do because whether you obeyed or not, nature was going to have it’s way and it would be better if you understood what was happening so as to stop kicking against the pricks. Being an emperor Marcus thoughts tackles subjects like fame, praise but mostly the power of our minds and coming in terms with perhaps the most feared event; death(your own death especially).

Let see what went through this man’s mind ,the closest to what Plato called the philosopher king.

1.It is all about perception

The way you look at the world(and people) is the most important thing that defines you and finding a right way to perceive what you see and feel is the path to leaving a fulfilling life( not a happy one as happiness is not what man was created for ). This extends to ideas like pain and tragedy . If you see it as something that is bound to happen at some point you will save yourself some pain and anger about things that are out of your control. An example Marcus gives is when you kiss your child goodnight think about it that he/she might die tomorrow ? Are you not tempting fate ? Well if someone says the fruits will ripen are they tempting fate or just stating how things work. He goes further saying that refusing to accept how the natural world works is a form of arrogance and is a prescription for a miserable life. So a philosopher has to find ways to understand how the world works so as to avoid defects of perception that will save you from a lot of pain and anger.

The idea equally extends to physical pain in the sense that the reaction you give to pain is more responsible for your suffering than the degree of pain you are undergoing. Who are you going to blame? Yourself? Other people? The gods?

I think the idea is a powerful because personally I see all schools of thought and religious practices as ways to look at the world and behave and if you make a suboptimal choice no matter how honest you are you will be confined to the ideas in the system of perception that you choose. The only problem is that this choice is influenced by a lot of factors and it is very difficult to remain objective sometimes in a world of so much multiplicity. But the aftermath of the death of god is testimony of how things can get so wild quickly.

2.Why so worried about the past, the future or what people think, Nothing is new

This resonates a lot with Solomon’s monologue about vanity though the two reach at quite different conclusions. The analogy he gives is that times is like a river the past is gone and you don’t know what the future holds so what is left is present and the wise thing to do is to know how you can utilise that(the present) to make your life as fulfilling as possible rather than ruminating the past and being obsessed by the future the being but a waste of time. Everything that happens under the sun is a repetition of what has been and what will. To Marcus it did not matter if you lived 30 years or went to a 100 as nothing will be affected by that. The same applied to peoples behaviour which has remained more or less the same through different epochs of time. So man is to live by what is required of him as that is the most effective way of living.

This line of thought is great but personally I have not come to grasp how people reconcile morality and mortality if somehow it does not matter what you do why then behave rightly? Well am doing it for my children ? But you said not worry about the future . Well it is my legacy? Some people have never even heard about Alexander the Great who do you think you are?

It is a good way to avoid vanity but personally I find the level of detachment too advanced. And lastly living a to be hundred is not the same as dying at 10.

3. Death is natural (so?)

Countless times Marcus reminds himself that death is natural and someone has to come in terms with it as a part of nature and he likens people who who wish to avoid it to pigs who dread any season which will come either way or this funny one that they are like pigs who keep kicking when on the sacrificing block. This concerns death in general but most specifically your own as it is something ordained by nature and will just be a phase to which you will decompose to elements which make you and nature will recycle those to make new things. Marcus claims to believe in the gods so it is quite interesting to see how someone in his era simultaneously believed in them(Hades especially ) but does not seem attached to any idea of an afterlife.

Personally I think there is some humility that is to be learned in the sense that death has being around for so long and despite not wishing for it we can come to acceptance with our mortality. But we should as well take that notion and appreciate life more and show love to people we care about because any moment they can be taken away from us. But I can imagine a stoic at his father’s funeral saying “I knew it all along that he was going to die”

4.Power of the mind

The idea is that the mind on it’s is capable of transcending the impulses that comes from the body and emotions coming from the soul. If you train your mind fervently the body will become it’s slave and not vice versa. Marcus believed that the gods had given people minds for this very purpose and self control was not to be derived by external forces(” as opposed to what Christians believed/still believe if am not mistaken”). You can give up on your dreams to be a great thinker but you can live in a way that does not conflict the nature of of your mind as it was made to to transcend lower things(impulses). And if you want to achieve something there is nothing other than your mind stopping from you doing it as long as it doesn’t conflict with the the logos in nature.

The idea is alright with I believe if your goal is just to live a moral life that is within your grasp but religion brings some quite extra-ordinary ideas to the table to which morals are but a by product of the whole thing. But training your mind is something essential and religion is not a substitute for that either as you will have to do it eventually on the methodology might differ.

5. Decompose everything to what it is made of (the substance that makes it)

When overwhelmed try to decompose the situation/idea into what makes it and you will realise that it is not as as complicated as you thought. In Marcus' mind sometimes he would describe a human as mud with blood gushing through him made up of elements that will eventually decay and that helped him not to be so much concerned about what people thought about him and by looking at himself in the same way he was reminded that him like them was woven from the same fabric and was bound to be as flawed as them. This extends to things like love, hate, fame etc.

He also highlights that we should take into consideration just what character do the people we are so much trying to please have because sometimes it is not even worth it.

Some decompositions are creepy but yes micromanagement is an essential tool.

The book has many more themes like gratitude, freewill, living a simple life, why people do what they do and many other more.

I like it because it is an honest book with flaws that can go in our own train of thought and just interesting to see how someone in that epoch really thought. PS: Marcus never intended to publish his thoughts so it really interesting to see this kind of sophiscated thinking done for oneself and not the masses.

I also think to some extent Marcus was just able to say some things he said because he was an emperor of arguably the most powerful empire at the moment and as usual if there is no one chasing you around you can have time contemplate such abstract ideas because you are at the top of the hierarchy and the system favours you. Ideas like lower things exist for higher things and higher things exist for one another which are not so good when it comes to social issues

The thing I also got is that stoicism is somehow a philosophy of first principles which are important but as someone dear suggested to me “you have to transcend stoicism” because if you just stay there you might quite have the good life but you might as well just be a monument of stone strong and prepared against the natural elements yes but inanimate and unaffectionate.

All in all the book is very interesting and gives insight on the most basic things we underestimate and take for granted and the principles are easy to follow making it usable to a larger audience regardless of their pre-existing beliefs and predispositions.

Bye till the next one

@Chungamu