Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was Roman emperor from 161 until his death in 180. A great thinker, Marcus embodied Plato’s ideal of the philosopher king to a considerable extent. He was a strong emperor, engaging in various wars in defense of the Roman empire for his entire reign, but he was also greatly concerned with social justice and welfare, even going so far as to sell his own possessions to alleviate people’s suffering from famine and plague (from which he died).
Marcus left behind a corpus of writing which, despite it’s antiquity, offers us some truly timeless wisdom. Here are six lessons we can learn from his observations on life.
Lesson #1: We Are Responsible for Our Own Experience of Life
“Such as are your habitual thoughts; such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dyed by the color of your thoughts.”
Much has been made recently of the (so called) ‘law of attraction.’ Before ‘The Secret,’ a wealth of writers had tapped into the idea that what happens in our mind is the most important thing in shaping our experience of life. From Norman Vincent Peal’s ‘Amazing Power of Positive Thinking,’ and Joseph Murphy’s ‘Power of the Subconscious Mind’ to
Wallace Wattles ‘Science of Getting Rich,’ all were taking about a truth which Marcus understood so may centuries ago.
Viktor Frankl said that between what happens to us and our response to it, there is a gap, and in that gap lies our whole experience of life. Steven Covey, in his ‘Seven Habits’ called our ability to widen this gap ‘being proactive.’ It is the first habit of a highly effective person to cultivate an awareness that s/he is in control. To coin a phrase, life is what you make it.
Lesson #2: Everything Changes
“Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away.”
I keep a sign posted over my desk at work. It reads ‘this too will pass.’ It is a reminder to me that, whatever I am experiencing in life, it will disappear and be replaced with something else. Only one thing is certain – everything changes. People who know this and tap into the natural course of change can be very successful. Let’s take one area as an example – the stock market. People who bought stock after the dot com crash, knowing that the market would rebound after such a dramatic fall, reaped enormous rewards. Those who sold when prices had become stupidly inflated and wildly disconnected from earnings, knowing that the market couldn’t keep on rising forever, also did well.
Clinging on to the way things were can be a source of great misery. The past is gone and it’s never coming back; the present is already changing. So why complain that things used to be better? There are opportunities if only we can see that change is coming.
Lesson #3: Live a Real Life
“It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.”
I recently picked up a copy of Felix Dennis’ book ‘How to Get Rich’ while waiting for a flight recently. It’s a great read – unlikely to make you rich I suspect, but full of wonderful observations. In the first chapter, Dennis (who is ‘one of the richest self-made men in Britain, according to the back sleeve of the book) tells us that one of the main obstacles to being rich is comfort – a regular paycheck, a pension, a nice title, stock options. In other words, people don’t want to risk losing what they have. In other words, they are afraid. They are not living the life they want because they are scared they might lose more than they gain.
In the British comedy ‘The Office,’ Tim is set to leave his dead end job and go to university when he is given a small promotion. This persuades his to stay at work because although, as he puts it, he has ‘rolled a three and could very well roll a six,’ going to university might not work out – he might end up ‘rolling a one.’
Taking risks is no easy thing, but when we come to the end of it all, shall we regret that we stayed too much in our comfort zone?
Lesson #4: Be Grateful
“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.”
Marcus clearly understood that gratitude is an important commodity to possess. We take so many things for granted, and only when we lose them do we stop to think just how important they were to us. If you cannot sleep because you have stomach ache or you have injured yourself, you will quickly become grateful for a good night’s sleep!
Every day is a gift, and there are so many, many things to be happy about. We all have problems and we all suffer lack and privation, but why not focus on the good things we have? If you can read this, then you have had an education and you are probably rich enough to own a computer and pay for an Internet connection. Make a list of things you can be grateful for – you might be amazed at how long it is!
Lesson #5: Be Detached
“Receive wealth or prosperity without arrogance; and be ready to let it go.”
Felix Dennis, in his book ‘How to Get Rich,’ speaks plainly about the real meaning of wealth. It is nothing, he says. It isn’t real. Getting rich, he writes, is just a game. If we take the pursuit of wealth (or anything else, for that matter) too seriously, we are likely to fail. In the Bhagavad-Gita, Lord Krishna says to Arjuna, ‘Plunge into the heat of battle, and keep your heart at the lotus feet of the Lord.’ He is saying, I think, that the battle of life is a game – we must play it with all our heart, but we must not be attached to the outcome. In this detached state, we can be ready and open to receive wealth or success. We can pursue these things with energy and passion, but if we cling to them, or pursue them as something of importance, they are likely to elude us.
Lao Tze, who lived seven hundred years before Marcus Aurelius, wrote
“Those who take hold of the world and act on it
Never, I notice, succeed.
The world is a mysterious instrument,
Not made to be handled.”
It seems that Marcus understood this paradox.
Lesson #6: All Is Well
“Everything is unfolding as it must, and if you observe carefully, you will find this to be so.”
In 1373, Julian of Norwich was suffering from a severe illness. Believing she was near death, she had a series of visions. In one of them, Jesus appeared to her and said, ‘All will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of things will be well.’
The idea that things are unfolding as they should is a common theme in the mystical traditions of the world. Anthony de Mello, in his wonderful book ‘Awareness,’ writes ‘When you awaken, when you understand, when you see, the world becomes right…You’ll never explain it… Life is a mystery, which means your thinking mind cannot make sense out of it.’
The world looks like a big mess to me, but if we take Marcus’ advice, sit quietly, abandon our opinions, and simply observe, then perhaps we shall indeed see that ‘all is well.’
Michael Miles runs EffortlessAbundance.com. You can download his new book ‘Thirty Days to Change Your Life, by visiting http://effortlessabundance.com/newsletter/.
This is a fantastic article. Thanks for sharing man.
I agree with my fellow Alex – great advice very simply laid out. Life comes down to a matter of choice. What choices you make and how you choose to react to the consequences.
This is a good article and pays homage to some wise thoughts. I would like to point one out though, and tell why I believe it can be wrongly interpreted;
“Those who take hold of the world and act on it
Never, I notice, succeed.
The world is a mysterious instrument,
Not made to be handled.”
I haven’t read this quote in context, so I can never be %100 sure, but I think the insinuation of “fate” here is not intended. Yes, don’t try to take the reins and steer life in the direction you want, you’ll never succeed to tame it. However, don’t drop everything altogether and trust in some obscure belief that fate will unfold things as determined by some magical deity up in the sky.
You want to own a Porsche one day, let’s say. One way to go is to bend every aspect of your life towards that goal. You’ll probably succeed in getting one if you are persistent enough but your life will lose substance once you reach the goal you twisted your life for.
Same goes for fate. I think everyone would agree how ridiculous and silly it would be for someone to sit around and wait for a Porsche to appear at his/her driveway.
There is a fine line there. Between being officious and ignorant. The hard part is to be able to stay on that line. It is immensely easy to step into either extreme’s domain and walk around freely.
The Meditations was written in the form of a “Notes to myself” diary — a 2nd C blog in a way. Its publication was accidental, and its survival a testament to genuineness of the guy’s voice.
It’s so true that the Law of Attraction existing long before The Secret. Napoleon Hill is the first to write extensively about it and I’ve summarized his famous Think and Grow Rich book at http://shanelyang.com/2007/10/10/think-and-grow-rich/
I like lesson #6 best. How interesting that you shared about the visions that “Julian of Norwich” had before death. I had a recent flash which was about near-death, though not quite in the same context. If you are interested to read it, it’s here…
http://www.attractionmindmap.com/raise-awareness-release-guilt/
Great post. The world needs philosophy! Here’s one of my favorite gems from Marcus Aurelius:
“You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
The Roman Empire is one of my favorite parts of history. So many great pieces of advice, but the one that stands out is ‘be Detached’.
If you ever read Og Mandino’s ‘The Greatest Salesman in The World’, you understand the importance of being detached from material things. In that book, the main character gives away half of everything he earned, and saw it all come back triple fold.
http://yinvsyang.com
Very good. So uplifting. I’m glad that so many people are discussing these things online. I especially love the Lao Tze quote. It’s amazing that such advanced thinking goes back so far. Thank you.
This was a great read and very inspiring. Thanks so much for sharing the thought’s of one of mankind’s most enlightened thinkers.
Felix Dennis’ book ‘How to Get Rich’ is an amazing read. He really gives it to you straight.
What a load of mince. A waste of web space!
Great Article! I like #1 the best. We are responsible for our own experiences.
We are responsible for our own life by the decisisons and actions we have taken in the past.
I believe one of the problems in todays society that it has given people an excuse for their actions instead of making them take responsibility. – That’s why so many people today believe that they should get what they want without having to sacrifice – after all they deserve it because of what has happened to them …..
“We are what we think; as we desire so do we become! By our thoughts, desires, and habits, we either ascend to the full divine dignity of our nature, or we descend to suffer and learn.”- J. Todd Ferrier
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It’s amazing that all we need to know to be happy and content in this world has already been said and written.
Unfortunately we have to hear things many times before we take action, thus the need to repitition.
Excellent summary of some excellent points. Marcus Aurelius must have been a student of the Buddha! The Buddha’s teachings, over 2500 years old, convey many of the same ideas. It’s interesting, isn’t it, that the same essential truths have been spoken by so many different sages in so many different times and place? Now if only we would wake up and listen!!
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That Marcus dude was a real niggard when it came to verbosity.
[...] @ hdbizblog dot com Thanks for visiting!Michael Miles has a great post at Pick the Brain about Marcus Aurelius and 6 timeless observations: #1: We Are Responsible for Our Own Experience of Life “Such as are [...]
I like to take things like these and put them on notes where I will find them “accidentally”. It never fails that I run across one of them at exactly the moment I needed to remember it. As it happens, this entire post was received at just the right moment.
Thanks.
i just loved this article.
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