Meditations
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Product Description
Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus (121 – 180 AD) was Roman Emperor from 161 to his death. He was the last of the Five Excellent Emperors, who governed the Roman Empire from 96 to 180. He was able to secure the succession for his son Commodus, whom he made co-emperor in his own lifetime (in 177), though many historians judge that the decline of Rome started under Commodus. Marcus Aurelius was also one of the most vital Stoic philosophers. While on battle between 170 and 180, Aurelius wrote his Meditations as a source for his own guidance and self-improvement. He had been a priest at the sacrificial altars of Roman service and was an keen patriot. He had a logical mind though his notes were representative of Stoic philosophy and spirituality. Meditations is still revered as a literary monument to a government of service and duty.Amazon.com Review
One measure, perhaps, of a book’s worth, is its intergenerational pliancy: do new readers buy it and interpret it afresh down through the ages? The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, translated and introduced by Gregory Hays, by that standard, is very worthwhile, indeed. Hays suggests that its most recent incarnation–as a self-help book–is not only valid, but may be close to the leader’s intent. The book, which Hays calls, caringly, a “haphazard set of notes,” is indicative of the role of philosophy among the ancients in that it is “expected to provide a ‘design for living.’” And it does, both aphoristically (“Reflect of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what’s left and live it properly.”) and rhetorically (“What is it in ourselves that we should prize?”). Whether these, and additional entries (“Enough of this wretched, whining monkey life.”) sound life-changing or like entries in a teenager’s diary is up to the individual reader, as it should be. Hays’s introduction, which sketches the life of Marcus Aurelius (emperor of Rome A.D. 161-180) as well as the basic tenets of stoicism, is accessible and jaunty. –H. O’Billovich
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This second-century book of advice reflects its stoic deistic/atheist tradition. In a word, his goal is to encourage the reader toward excellent works and inner peace disregarding personal circumstances. He ends up sounding much like Confucius, and much like the “under the sun” part of King Solomon’s Ecclesiastes. The opinion he gives for us to be at peace despite the continual thriving of evil around us center around its chaos and our own inability to change anything. Such a view is very much unsatisfying, and leaves us in perplexity over the purpose of it all, anchorless and hopeless. Whereas Aurelius says “The world is chaotic, but you’re powerless so be a man and do right”, Solomon says “The world is chaotic because man is inwardly evil, but take heart because it’s all part of God’s righteous and sovereign plot and part of that plot is our salvation.” Life against God is having no effect, no matter how many nice things you do; life under His loving care is meaningful, because we have a sure hope of redemption and life to come.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
This second-century book of advice reflects its stoic deistic/atheist tradition. In a word, his goal is to encourage the reader toward excellent works and inner peace disregarding personal circumstances. He ends up sounding much like Confucius, and much like the “under the sun” part of King Solomon’s Ecclesiastes. The opinion he gives for us to be at peace despite the continual thriving of evil around us center around its chaos and our own inability to change anything. Such a view is very much unsatisfying, and leaves us in perplexity over the purpose of it all, anchorless and hopeless. Whereas Aurelius says “The world is chaotic, but you’re powerless so be a man and do right”, Solomon says “The world is chaotic because man is inwardly evil, but take heart because it’s all part of God’s righteous and sovereign plot and part of that plot is our salvation.” Life against God is having no effect, no matter how many nice things you do; life under His loving care is meaningful, because we have a sure hope of redemption and life to come.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
This second-century book of advice reflects its stoic deistic/atheist tradition. In a word, his goal is to encourage the reader toward excellent works and inner peace disregarding personal circumstances. He ends up sounding much like Confucius, and much like the “under the sun” part of King Solomon’s Ecclesiastes. The opinion he gives for us to be at peace despite the continual thriving of evil around us center around its chaos and our own inability to change anything. Such a view is very much unsatisfying, and leaves us in perplexity over the purpose of it all, anchorless and hopeless. Whereas Aurelius says “The world is chaotic, but you’re powerless so be a man and do right”, Solomon says “The world is chaotic because man is inwardly evil, but take heart because it’s all part of God’s righteous and sovereign plot and part of that plot is our salvation.” Life against God is having no effect, no matter how many nice things you do; life under His loving care is meaningful, because we have a sure hope of redemption and life to come.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
I have owned this title for a number of years and loved it when I first read it. The emperor sought to be a living model of the philosopher-ruler typified by Plato in “The Republic”. Had Marcus Aurelius lived the totality of what he wrote in his “Meditations”,he would have been fantastic indeed! History tells of him being a fierce persecutor of the Christians. Many innocent people died by his orders since they would not renounce their faith. A leader-philosopher can also be judged on his treatment of the most defenseless of the citizenry (or subjects). He nonexistent to be a Stoic at heart but certainly was not a genuine humanitarian.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
I’ve been living on this Planet for decades now and I have, naturally, wondered about God. I studied the different religions and learned to respect them all. For this reason I have proclaimed myself for more than ten years: A Jewish Muslim practicing Christianity as a Budhist in Scenery. It is my self discovery, so I like to reflect, as to what my religion is. Then, recently, I read the book, “Meditations”, by Marcus Aurelius.
In this book you see the transformation of a man, who starts as a believer of “the gods” and ends in believing in one God, which he points to as being the one Soul, one Universe, that encapsulates everything in it. Aurelius wrote all this right around when Christianity was forming, but there is no mention of it anywhere in this book. Nor is there any mention of Judaism.
Aurelius wrote the book more than 1900 years ago, yet it is as fresh as the birth of a baby… of an thought. Thought of one God. Although this wasn’t anyting new at the time, it did get legitimized when a Roman Emperor started the self-discovery for the world to follow. Anything before that, so it seems, was merely the incubation period.
A very large part of the book, but, is about practical life on Planet. An how-to book, if you will. About life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. Clearly the Founding Fathers of the United States of America were influenced by this book; or additional works inspired by the Meditations.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5