Will you ever take your stand as a fellow citizen with gods and human beings, blaming no one, deserving no one’s censure?
- Focus on what your Nature demands of you. Focus on this and nothing more.
Everything that happens is either endurable or not.
If it’s endurable, then endure it. Stop complaining.
If it’s unendurable … then stop complaining. Your destruction will mean its end as well.
Just remember: you can endure anything your mind can make endurable, by treating it as in your interest to do so.
If they’ve made a mistake, correct them gently and show them where they went wrong. If you can’t do that, then the blame lies with you. Or no one.
- Accept yourself as part of a larger Whole (the Universe or even just Society). Three principles: the Whole is interconnected; the Whole does nothing that benefits it; the parts cannot be harmed by the Whole, and the Whole is not compelled to cause itself harm. 1 2
Each of us needs what nature gives us, when nature gives it. 1 3
These famous soldiers and warlike men, if thou dost look into their minds and opinions, what do they for the most part but hunt after hunt after their prey?
How they all change into one another—acquire the ability to see that. Apply it constantly; use it to train yourself. Nothing is as conducive to spiritual growth.
- Ask yourself: Do you accept and welcome Nature’s plan for you? Is what you’re doing right now the right thing?
If you can see the road, follow it. Cheerfully, without turning back. If not, hold up and get the best advice you can. If anything gets in the way, forge on ahead, making good use of what you have on hand, sticking to what seems right. 4
- People who are conceited so as to worry themselves with praise and blame have lost their genuine selves.
Give what thou wilt, and take away what thou wilt, saith he that is well taught and truly modest, to Him that gives, and takes away. And it is not out of a stout and peremptory resolution, that he saith it, but in mere love and humble submission.
So live as indifferent to the world, and all worldly objects, as one who liveth by himself alone upon some desert hill. For whether here or there, if the whole world be but as one town, it matters not much for the place. Let them behold and see a man that is a man indeed, living according to the true nature of man. If they cannot bear with me, let them kill me.
For better were it to die, than so to live as they would have thee. 5
Make it not any longer a matter of dispute or discourse, what are the signs and properties of a good man, but really and actually to be such 6
- The possibilities you have:
- Keep on living, as you have gone on so far.
- To end your life, by your own volition and choice
- To die right now, feeling fulfilled as a Stoic should.
When a slave runs away from his master, we call him a fugitive slave. But the law of nature is a master too, and to break it is to become a fugitive. […] To feel grief or anger or fear is to become a fugitive from justice 7
People who feel hurt and resentment: picture them as the pig at the sacrifice, kicking and squealing all the way.
Like the man alone in his bed, silently weeping over the chains that bind us.
That everything has to submit. But only rational beings can do so voluntarily. 8
When thou art offended with any man’s transgressions, presently reflect upon thyself, and consider what thou thyself art guilty of in the same kind.
- Pain doesn’t last forever. At worst, death is the cessation of pain. Accept pain as a natural part of life. Do not run from it.
I am released from those things around me — Not dragged against my will, but unresisting.
Links
Footnotes
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The problem with this is, for example, wars. Wars bring harm, but it is a bit strange to blame a country suddenly invaded by others. It also assumes that the Whole is perfectly rational, which is not necessarily true at least from a modern day standpoint. Society is just as prone to irrational biases as the individual ↩ ↩2
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Another problem is how Aurelius assumes that just because you are selfless means that your life will go smoothly. This is not necessarily true. Even saints are persecuted by others, even when they do no wrong. At the end of the day, even morals are subject to subjectivity. ↩
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If I am hungry and I need food, will nature simply give me food when I need it? If I am in need of assistance, will society as a whole simply give it to me out of the goodness of its heart? Not necessarily so. ↩
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The problem with this is it says we should do what seems right but this may not be in line with what is natural or even moral. ↩
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This of course assumes a bit of self-centeredness and self-righteousness. That one is, indeed, living the proper way of life as man should. It is good advice when the proper way to live is defined. ↩
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If you do not know how to be a good man, how can you act as one? ↩
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And yet if it were unnatural to feel such things, why has Nature given humans the capacity to feel emotions? ↩
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Certainly only rational beings have been graced with free will or the illusion thereof. However, note that rational only comes into play based on the amount of information. Incomplete information or ignorance is simply part of human life as no man knows everything. Ergo, the possibility of submitting to something that would not have been in your best interest otherwise. Still, the Stoic mindset of letting things out of your control be, applies here. Hindsight would dictate one become more educated, but the “Rational Fool” did what what they did based on what they knew ↩