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Meditations: A New Translation (Modern Library)

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Me: “You’re right. What would my personal hero (Dr. Hannibal Lecter) do at a time like this? If he can bite the faces off rude corrections officers without his pulse rising above normal, surely I can manage this trivial ordeal.” După cum ne formăm reprezentări despre felurile de mîncare, gîndind că acesta este cadavrul unui peşte, acesta – al unei păsări sau al unui porc, şi, de asemenea, că vinul de Falern este sucul stors din struguri şi că toga pretextă e lînă de oaie impregnată cu sînge de scoică…, tot aşa trebuie să procedăm toată viaţa şi, cînd ne reprezentăm lucrurile ca prea demne de încredere, trebuie să le dezgolim, să le surprindem mica lor valoare şi să înlăturăm pretinsa credibilitate datorită căreia erau considerate de valoare. Periculoasă amăgire este trufia şi, cînd socoteşti mai degrabă că te ocupi de lucruri importante, atunci mai ales eşti victima iluziei” (VI: 13). Note 6.4 – ‘Turned into vapour’ reflects the Stoic conflagration of the universe (see notes 2.14.2 and 5.13). ‘Scattered into atoms’ is the Epic Meditations is the reflection of a great man who has lived nearly two thousand years ago. But still, they ring so true. This shows that mankind and human nature have not advanced much over the years. Human thinking and needs are not so different from the time of Aurelius.

Either way Meditations is a piece of work that endures to this day. Imagine that it still holds up. Meditations was first printed in 1559 CE; Marcus originally wrote this work in Greek – the language of the intelligentsia of the time. It is also believed; these writings were not intended to be published. He wrote these for himself. Yes, just he – and we have been gorking at these writings for centuries – academics and lay people alike – it is respected, it has stood up. So to end with my favorite paragraph, from book 10 paragraph 5. One for physicists as well as philosophers to puzzle over:There is so much here, written by a true GIANT of antiquity. I loved it and I love Marcus and Seneca. Marcus Aurelius a fost un gînditor stoic dublat de un cinic. Prefera franchețea cea mai brutală. Într-o notă, afirmă netulburat: „Iubirea se reduce la frecarea a două epiderme, la un spasm, la o secreție vîscoasă” (VI: 13, p.177). Stranger: “Consider that as the heaps of sand piled on one another hide the former sands, so in life the events that go before are soon covered by those that come after.” Given this and the Tao Te Ching, I would have imagined that the Tao Te Ching was the one written by a canny Emperor, Marcus somehow often manages to sound like a harassed corporate drone forced to share a workbench with people who don't brush their teeth and who wash and change their clothes regularly - meaning once every nine weeks - (5:28) I could imagine it as the basis for a new US Sit-Com, maybe Aurelius: the customer service years, a slight change from his previous appearances in the films The Fall of the Roman Empire and Gladiator both of which downplay quite how odd Marcus' son the Emperor Commodus was he enjoyed dressing up (or down?) as Hercules and clubbing people with his club, he had all the months renamed after himself, still it was only after twelve years that he was strangled by his personal trainer I have long been of the opinion that sport is bad for you, but in truth maybe it is just personal trainers .

How refreshing if more authors of self help books would confront squarely the central issue of our own mortality and our negative emotions of anger or frustration instead of forever hiding from these topics.Ar fi, mă gîndesc, strigătul de exasperare al unui cititor pragmatic, care înțelege dintr-o dată puținul folos adus de cărți. Ar reprezenta astfel un reproș adus omului care citește în loc să ia parte la viața publică. Reproșul este perfect stoic. Seninătatea, apatheia nu se obțin prin răsfoirea cărților, ci prin exercițiu spiritual, prin meditație asiduă la destin, natură și moarte. În concluzie, convingerea lui Marcus Aurelius pare să fi fost aceasta: cînd te confrunți cu bătrînețea, cu fragilitatea ființei umane, cu moartea, cărțile (și lectura) sînt de puțin folos. Seneca a afirmat același lucru: e mult mai util să meditezi la un scurt pasaj decît să răsfoiești zilnic mormane de cărți. Ca filosof din stirpea stoicilor, împăratul Marcus Aurelius nu a iubit prea mult cărțile, dar nu cred că a fost un bibliofob veritabil... Meditations deal extensively with the concept of death. Marcus Aurelius explains why one must not be afraid of inevitable demise. Marcus has advice for politicians, which it is clear from this book he thinks are untrustworthy, illogical and prone to anger. He condemns unreservedly all their faults and the problems with the modern electoral system:

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