Diving into the unique journal of Marcus Aurelius when he was the most powerful man in the world from the book: Meditations
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2:40 - On a morning practice
When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: The people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly…
7:25 - Protect your thoughts
The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. Your soul takes on the color of your thoughts.
8:10 - On being harmed
Choose not to be harmed-and you won't feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed – and you havent been.
Nothing that goes on in anyone’s else’s mind can harm you. Nor can shifts and changes in the world around you. Then where is harm to be found? In your capacity to see it. Stop doing that and everything will be fine
9:40 - A couple rules/practices to follow
Ask yourself at every moment, ‘Is this necessary’
When you need encouragement, think of the qualities the people around you have: this one's energy, that one's modesty, another's generosity, and so on. Nothing is as encouraging as when virtues are visibly embodied in the people around us, when we're practically showered with them. It's good to keep this in mind.
14:15 On revenge
The best revenge is to not be like that.
17:00 - Keep your philosophy ready
Doctors keep their scalpels and other instruments handy, for emergencies. Keep your philosophy ready too ready to understand heaven and earth.
18:15 - On asking for help
Don’t be ashamed to need help. Like a soldier storming a wall, you have a mission to accomplish. And if you’ve been wounded and you need a comrade to pull you up? So what?”
19:00 - On worrying about your reputation
Or is it your reputation that’s bothering you? But look at how soon we’re all forgotten.
So many who were remembered already forgotten, and those who remembered them are long gone.
One Final Note/Challenge
Just as you overhear people saying that ‘the doctor prescribed such-and-such for him’ (like riding, or cold baths, or walking barefoot…), say this: ‘Nature prescribed illness for me’ Or blindness. Or the loss of a limb. Or whatever. There ‘prescribed’ means something like ‘ordered, so as to further his recovery.’ And so too here. What happens to each of us is ordered. It furthers our destiny.
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