Teachings from a Stoic Philosopher!

Introduction –

Today I’m gonna write about a great philosopher whose teachings are well known around the world. Marcus Aurelius was a roman emperor during 2nd century AD. Marcus Aurelius is a reminder that despite the saying that ‘absolute power corrupts absolutely’, that is not always the case. At the time of his death, he was one of the most powerful people on earth. He could have had anything he wanted, and few, if any, would dare challenge him on anything. And yet he proved himself deserving of the power he held. Under Marcus Aurelius, the empire was guided by virtue and wisdom.

Today, we are left with his journal, his “Meditations”. The work is a landmark of Stoic philosophy that has guided both powerful and common men and women for thousands of years. While Meditations was never intended for publication, it remains in print to this day and is perhaps as popular as ever. The journal shows that the most powerful man on the planet was going through the same problems that we deal with today — the same problems we will be grappling with tomorrow.

He has described many timeless life lessons in his book. I’m gonna share some of them here –

1. Be a Good Character :-

Thinking about being a good person and becoming one are very different. Don’t go on discussing or thinking what a good person should be. Just become one. Thinking continuously about small things before doing makes our work complicated. Thinking about how to be good can distract us from actually being good. Take small steps, little good deeds everyday adds up to the goodness within us. Being good doesn’t cost us anything so why don’t just be one. Being nice gives us eternal peace.

2. Evil harms you only if your response is evil –

This is the thing which we all need to understand. Forget about what others are doing. Forget about what they’re doing wrong. Just focus on yourself and fixing yourself. Evil cannot harm you if your response is appropriate. Thinking about why the people are doing wrong things is just gonna waste your time and energy. Just free yourself from every distraction and focus on yourself. After all you’re the one person you can rely on till the end of the line.

3. Be Grateful –

This is the easiest one. We really don’t have any idea what wonders gratitude can do. Being grateful is the shortest way to reach happiness. We need to stop resenting about what we don’t have and be thankful for what we do have. People after seeing some situations says there’s nothing here to be thankful about, Marcus Aurelius say ‘you don’t have the eyes to see the good’. Always be grateful for the smallest things that are going on in your life. I guarantee that you’ll see a drastic change in your life.

4. Stop Worrying about what people think –

Do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in your life. Stop thinking what people around you is gonna think. ‘You could leave life right now’. Let this be your determination and do what you really love to do instead of doing things which you think others like. You think other people notices you or think about you all day but the truth is they don’t even remember what you’ve done after five minutes and worst case scenario, they didn’t even noticed in the first place. So do what you gotta do.

5. Embrace the Obstacles –

Now this is a thing which almost all of us lack. We all criticize life way too much when some obstacle come in our way. We get comfortable way too much with the comfort zone. We don’t want to suffer or go through the pain which the obstacles give us. Marcus Aurelius says’ “We need to embrace challenges; they are good for the human soul.” We need to grow and learn through the obstacles. He also says’ “What stands in the way, becomes the way”. Embrace challenges, find solutions and grow through that. That is the true way of living.

6. Problems are created in Mind –

I really liked one of the quotes of Marcus Aurelius, “We suffer more in imagination than in reality”. Constantly imagining situations in our mind that are never going happen in reality is something we are pro at. Do not let the events harm you, you are never truly harmed by them. You’re harmed by the problems and scenarios created in your mind. He says, “Choose not to be harmed, and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed, and you haven’t been.” Your mind can be your greatest asset or your biggest liability, you need to choose what you want to make it.

7. Think less about past or future –

What this means is that the past has already happened and the future has not happened yet. All we have is today which is present. Each and every one of us has only now, the brief instant. The rest has already been lived or is impossible to see, so why to worry about it. Now this does not apply in ‘saving/investing money for the future’ so don’t take the wrong idea. It says don’t live in the past just learn from its mistakes and move on and don’t think too much about the future, everything doesn’t happen the way we want but we gotta live through it. Just be happy.

This was all about some of the lessons by Marcus Aurelius. He was an exceptional man, sadly we don’t have him around anymore but what we do have is the book written by him called Meditations. It is worth reading, if you get the chance to read it don’t second guess the idea, just go for it. You won’t be disappointed.

Thank you for reading,

Yash.

IG – mr.writesalot