Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

This was a fabulous read, such a breath of fresh air and time tested true wisdom. Marcus Aurelius is known as the last good emperor of Rome. His writings show that he must have been. I could learn a lot from his writings. One of his main themes is to accept what is and to help those around you when possible. Another great thing he wrote was of a whole bunch of people and how they had helped him and what he learned from them. That covered book 1. I should do that because I have learned a ton from people, and it made me more appreciative of what I have listening to all the people he was thankful for. I loved it, and I highly recommend this book. It is so worthwhile for the wisdom found therein. I could fill this page with lovely quotes from his meditations. But I'll try to keep it short. The whole work is found here in case anyone would just like to browse his words.

Then the first paragraph in Book 2 is:

"Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busy-body, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. All these things happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil. But I who have seen the nature of the good that it is beautiful, and of the bad that it is ugly, and the nature of him who does wrong, that it is akin to me, not only of the same blood or seed, but that it participates in the same intelligence and the same portion of the divinity, I can neither be injured by any of them, for no one can fix on me what is ugly, nor can I be angry with my kinsman, nor hate him, For we are made for co-operation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth. To act against one another then is contrary to nature; and it is acting against one another to be vexed and to turn away. "

I think that is so good because it's true, we will always come in contact with people who are annoying or irritating or even bad, but we shouldn't shun them. We should be understanding and try to help them. And if that fails, then we shouldn't let their actions affect us. We should just go on with our lives.

Another great theme he expanded on was how short and insignificant this life is and then he points out how everybody dies and everybody who knows the somebodies who die will also die and then there is no one. So it is important to live your life for God and not for those around you.

"Do not waste the remainder of thy life in thoughts about others, when thou dost not refer thy thoughts to some object of common utility. For thou losest the opportunity of doing something else when thou hast such thoughts as these, What is such a person doing, and why, and what is he saying, and what is he thinking of, and what is he contriving, and whatever else of the kind makes us wander away from the observation of our own ruling power. We ought then to check in the series of our thoughts everything that is without a purpose and useless, but most of all the over-curious feeling and the malignant; and a man should use himself to think of those things only about which if one should suddenly ask, What hast thou now in thy thoughts? With perfect openness thou mightest, immediately answer, This or That; so that from thy words it should be plain that everything in thee is simple and benevolent, and such as befits a social animal, and one that cares not for thoughts about pleasure or sensual enjoyments at all, nor has any rivalry or envy and suspicion, or anything else for which thou wouldst blush if thou shouldst say that thou hadst it in thy mind. "

Here is another good one about wealth in Book 8, it reminds me of Job saying "The Lord giveth and the lord taketh, blessed be the name of the Lord."

"Receive wealth or prosperity without arrogance; and be ready to let it go. "

A good place to end in light of the current economy. Be happy with what you have, accept what is and move on. Another theme of Marcus Aurelius' writings!!