An In-Depth Review: The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius – Part 2
This is the second part of yesterday’s guest post “An In-Depth Review: The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius – Part 1” written by Adam Isom, which can be read here.
How To Live and The Work in Life
But then the question is, how should you go about living? Firstly, always do your duty and live according to reason and nature, according to Marcus the Stoic. Don’t conjecture what others are thinking of you, but only care that what you do is just, sincere, consistent, and not to serve fame, pleasure, or pain. Rather than saying to someone that you are determined to be fair to them, be fair and good and it will show. Rather than thinking or talking about the kind of man that a good man ought to be, be a good man (or woman), without affectation, and others will see your virtue. In other words, do your duty and reveal yourself through action rather than words.
As for what you work at, Marcus recommends that you occupy yourself with few things while still doing what is necessary. He also exhorts you to never be too busy for someone, and to examine things calmly as if you had all the time in the world. In this latter aspect, he perhaps unwittingly repeats yet another one of the 48 Laws of Power, formulated by Robert Greene two thousand years later.
Marcus Aurelius was a Stoic, and that is why he insists that nothing, even sickness, should deflect you from your duty. Your inner work should be on shaping your character daily with contentment, simplicity, and modesty to achieve a ‘tranquillity that another man cannot upset’, unlike anything physical (which implies the possibility of degrading).
Finally, if you are genuinely wrong, then you should gladly change. For if you really seek the truth, you won’t allow your ego to get in the way—something scientists and philosophers in particular appreciate.
