Continue reading “The World Is Change, The Life – Perception”So keep this refuge in mind: the back roads of yourself. Above all, no strain and stress. Be straightforward. Look at things like a man,like a human being, like a citizen, like a mortal. And among the things you turn to, these two:
Get Away By Going Within
Continue reading “Get Away By Going Within”People try to get away from it all – to the country , to the beach, to the mountains. You always wish that you could too. Which is idiotic: you can get away with it anytime you like. By going within.
The Chain That Links Heaven and Earth
Doctors keep their scalpels and other instrument handy, for emergency. Keep your philosophy ready too – to understand heaven and earth. In everything you do , even the smallest thing, remember the chain that links them. Nothing earthy succeeds by ignoring heaven, nothing heavenly by ignoring the earth.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Singularity
…and it is singularity which often makes the worst part of our suffering, as it always does of our conduct.
Jane Austin, Persuasion
Straightforward
You can live life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations.
In Harmony With Nature, Always.
Do not ever forget this things:
The nature of the world.
My nature.
How I relate to the world.
What proportion of it I make up.
That you are part of nature, and no one can prevent you from speaking and acting in harmony with it, always.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, II.9.
If You Can Manage This…
Concentrate every minute like a Roman – like a man – on doing what’s in front of you with precise and genuine seriousness , tenderly , willingly, with justice. And on freeing yourself from all other distractions. Yes, you can – if you do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in your life, and stop being aimless, stop letting your emotions override what your mind tells you, stop being hypocritical, self-centred, irritable. You see how few things you have to do to live satisfying and reverent life? If you can manage this, that’s all even the gods can ask of you.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, II.5.
The Banquet Of Life
Continue reading “The Banquet Of Life”Remember to conduct yourself as if at banquet. As something being passed around to you , reach out your hand and take a moderate helping. Does it pass you by?
The Training of a Wise and Good Person
Continue reading “The Training of a Wise and Good Person”There are three areas in which the person who would be wise and good must be trained.
The Only Path to Happiness
Keep this thought a the ready at daybreak, and through the day and night – there is only one path to happiness, and that is in giving up all outside of our sphere of choice , regarding nothing else as your possession, surrendering all else to God and Fortune.
Epictetus, Discourses, 4.4.39
Marginalia List 