Meditations
I'll take a stab. It is a very accessible work, still today. The writing is clear and simple. It's always been a popular work across the centuries, but the form seems to work well for contemporary audiences. You can engage with at different levels, it doesn't require a deep commitment. You can read a few passages before bed time, leave it for years and pick it up again, leaf through it and skip back&forth. As you grow older, the depth of the work reveals itself. Specifically, given the easy to digest form, Meditations is somewhat of a board room coffee table book, like Machiavelli or Sun…
I think the author fixates too much on this one construction of the idea of deathbed regrets and misses that this is just a single modern incarnation of the positively ancient and cross-cultural idea that you should plan your life around the knowledge that you will die. Marcus Aurelius wrote: You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think. [1] And the Tao Te Ching: The Master gives himself up to whatever the moment brings. He knows that he is going to die, and he has nothing left to hold on to: no illusions in his mind, no resistances in his body. [2] A…
You might try: https://www.openculture.com/philosophy_free_courses Introduction to Logic Ancient Philosophy For quick reference: https://iep.utm.edu/ For the first few months at least, I'd suggest staying away from more modern philosophers like Kant, Nietzsche, etc. For the most part, classical education up until the last century studied the history and classics first, because they made more sense and endured that time for a reason. Don't caught up in what can't be known, natural of reality, or getting stuck in a belief system which may feel grand, but is myopic or stunting. Don't force…
"You can pass your life in an equable flow of happiness, if you can go by the right way, and think and act in the right way." The "think in the right way" takes just a little practice. The "act in the right way" is the hard part, and the whole thing falls apart, in exactly the way you've noticed, without both. I've yet to achieve both, personally, though simply having "think the right way", with a little moderating wisdom from age, isn't nothing. I think a trap in general with systems like Stoicism, or Zen Buddhism, or similar, is believing that thinking or knowing is anything more than one…
It would depend on the translation, and what you understood him to be doing. One of the ones I read recently was incredibly bastardized to seem more stoical, completely removing in cases his own asides. These are diaries he wanted burned -- they were just exercises in writing for himself to clam himself down. He is writing to himself. Go back and read a few sections and ask: "what happened to Marcus on this evening for him to go to his study and rebuke himself with this lesson?" There's clearly a lot of bitterness there, and depression. Opening a translation at random, to a random book:…
I disagree with your characterization of these passages. These seem like questions a person reflects on, not self admonishment. For instance: > > Are you ever going to achieve goodness? Ever going to be simple, whole, and naked—as plain to see as the body that contains you? Know what an affectionate and loving disposition would feel like? Ever be fulfilled, ever stop desiring—lusting and longing for people and things to enjoy? Or for more time to enjoy them? Or for some other place or country—“a more temperate clime”? Or for people easier to get along with? And instead be satisfied with what…
The view that Aurelius was depressed is very widespread. I've read the whole meditations, in several translations, and parts in the original. I've translated part of the original in anger at what deceitful translations are being put out today, which delete half of what he says to make him sound more stoical. Go read more of it. I just chose two parts at random to narrate my thinking in reading these passages again to provide some background here. I'm obviously not making my case on these quotes. > It's a lot like buddhists reflecting on nirvana. This is how its bastardized, but that's not…
I also find it odd how you came to this conclusion from his writings. However, I first studied Epictetus[0] (I prefer Discourses to the handbook), who inspired Aurelius--thus read Aurelius through the lens of Epictetus. Which is a very different take on Stoicism that has nothing to do with the adjective, stoic as some new aged takes seem to associate. There was also a link on here awhile back to some professors lecture on YouTube, but I can't remember it, that I thought had a really great take on Stoicism and Aurelius. (maybe someone will know it and post) My short take on Stoicism is about…
I've been going through it as well. There are a few things that helped me so far. 1) There's a biological component where happiness follows a U curve. Mid 40's tends to bottom out on happiness then steadily increases. Useful to know since riding it out is a viable strategy. [1] 2) This translation [2] of Marcus Aurelius's Meditations is powerful as a daily reminder that no matter the year or station in life, the struggles are universal. Focusing on what's in your control and "knowing thyself" goes a long way towards fighting overwhelm. 3) Modern hypnotherapy is worth studying and possibly…
Hi HN! I built this small app in my spare time to aggregate books recommended on Hacker News. I personally find books recommended on HN to be super helpful, so I think this is the way that I can contribute back. This book aggregation idea is not new. A bunch of sites have done similar things [1, 2, 3]. Yet one common limitation of those sites is that they have limited recall (i.e. not able to get a comprehensive set of book mentions), and thus don't paint an accurate picture of what the top books are. They're all based on insufficient rules, e.g., looking for Amazon Links. As you can see…