I’ve often heard Meditations recommended in forums and pop culture as a must-read. I borrowed this copy from a more affluent fellow inmate. It was a beautiful edition: hardcover with gold leaf pages and a ribbon bookmark. However, the more I appreciated the book’s quality, the more I realized the teachings of Marcus Aurelius would likely disapprove of such extravagance.
So, what is this book about? Marcus Aurelius was a great general and ruler of Rome in the second century AD. He wrote these reflections as a guide on how to live a good life as a virtuous man. The preface, written by the translator, discusses Marcus Aurelius’s historical life and explains the different translations and how his teachings were organized into 12 “books.” These “books” are essentially short chapters of “meditations,” which are brief (often single-sentence) aphorisms or rules to live by.
The preface, though only about 10 pages, took a while to read. Marcus Aurelius began studying philosophy as a young child, primarily following the works of the Stoics. Stoics advocate for a modest lifestyle and learning to accept difficult situations as part of nature.
In his younger years, Marcus lived in the palace as a prince but dressed and lived like a commoner, which made many other palace residents uneasy. The difficulty in reading the preface stemmed from Marcus changing his name multiple times, a custom of the time to indicate rank. He was a successful general who won many battles and brought Rome to its peak. Some believe these meditations were written to teach his son how to be a good man.
Now, to the substance of the book. When I first started reading, I thought it would be a quick read. Each page has 3 or 4 meditations, each only a few sentences long on average, with ample white space. I was wrong. Each meditation is written in old English, with many “thees” and “thous” and unfamiliar words that I had to infer from context. Many of the laws were vague, requiring multiple readings to understand their point. To be honest, some I never fully grasped.
This example illustrates the difficulty:
“Constantly observe who those are whose approbation thou wishest to have, and what ruling principles they possess. For then thou wilt neither blame those who offend involuntarily, nor wilt thou want their approbation, if thou lookest to the sources of their opinions and appetites.”
I didn’t gain much knowledge from reading this book, though I wish I had. Reading it felt like reading the Bible: slow, difficult, and not relevant to modern times. Some meditations seemed like random thoughts of someone under the influence of strong hallucinogens. One simply asks, “What is death? If everything?” The main points I gleaned were: everything happens because of nature; we are all connected through nature as a single consciousness; when someone is bothering you, realize they are part of nature and adjust your opinion of them; life is short and fleeting, so don’t worry too much as it will soon be over; and we should not fear death.
I’m glad I read this book simply to cross it off my bucket list. However, I wouldn’t recommend it unless you read a version with cliff notes to explain each meditation. 1/5 stars.
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