Marcus Aurelius was a philosopher and Emperor of Rome (AD.161–180), and his seminal piece, Meditations contains a series of profound wisdom and understanding of human behaviour.
Medtitations was essentially Marcus Aurelius’s diary to himself, a daily collection of thoughts and Stoic ideas that guided his actions, worldview and his thoughts. In the world of Stoicism, it would be fair to say that Marcus did not focus on logic and physics (in the realm of Logos as a whole), but more about how Stoicism can apply to the human as social animals.
The questions that Meditations tries to answer are primarily metaphysical and ethical; Why are we here? How should we live our lives? How can we ensure that what we do is right? How should we deal with pain and misfortune? How can we live with the knowledge that someday we will no longer exist? While it may be challenging to summarise his teachings and writings on these questions, it may be worthwhile to draw attention to one pattern of thought that is central to the philosophy of Meditations. This is the doctrine of the three “disciplines”.
- The Discipline of Perception
This requires that we maintain absolute objectivity of thought; that we see things dispassionately for what they are. At every instant, the objects and events of the world around us bombards us with impressions. As they do so, they produce a mental impression. From this mental impression, our mind generates a perception, which might be best compared to a print made from a photographic negative. Ideally, this print will be an accurate and faithful representation of the original. But this may not be. It may be blurred, or it may included shadow images that distort or obscure the original.
Chief among these inappropriate value judgments are the designations of “good” and “evil” of things that are in fact neither. For example, my impression that my car has burned down is simply that — an impression or report conveyed to me by my senses about an event in the outside world. By contrast, my perception that my car has burned down and I have thereby suffered a terrible tragedy includes not only an impression, but also an interpretation imposed upon that initial impression by my powers of perception — The Greeks call this Hypolepsis.
In other words, it is not the objects and events that are the problem. Rather, it is the interpretations we place on them. Our duty is therefore to exercise stringent control over the faculty of perception, with the aim of protecting our mind from error.
2. The Discipline of Action
This relates to our interaction with other people. Human beings, for Marcus as for the Stoics generally, are social animals. All human beings possess not only a share of the logos but also the ability to use it. We are essentially participants in the logos, and as human beings, we are part of nature, and it is our duty to accommodate to its demands and requirements.
To do this, we must make proper use of the logos we have been allocated, and perform as best as we can the functions assigned to us by the master plan of the larger cosmic logos. We were made, Marcus tells us over and over, not for ourselves but for others, and our nature is fundamentally unselfish. In our relationships with others, we must work for their collective good while treating them justly and fairly as individuals.
What does this mean for us? In our daily lives we all have our parts to play. We should aim to enrich the collective good in society as opposed to having a selfish and self-enriching nature. We should never aim to profit at the expense of another human being, and above all, to continuously treat human beings with a level of respect and humanity regardless of their station in life.
3. The Discipline of Will
This governs our attitude to things that are not within our control, those that we have done to us (by others or by nature). We control our own actions and are responsible for them. If we act wrongly, then we have done serious harm to ourselves and must bear full responsibility for our actions.
By contrast, things outside our control have no ability to harm us. Acts of wrongdoing by a human agent (theft, torture or other crimes) harm the agent, not the victim. Acts of nature such as fire, illness or death can harm us only we choose to see them as harmful.
We must learn to see things for what they are, and accept them by exercising the discipline of will. For if we recognise that all events have been foreseen by the logos and form part of its plan, then it follows that we must accept the pleasantness and unpleasantness as well. This applies to all obstacles and (apparent) misfortunes, and in particular to death — a process we cannot prevent and therefore cannot harm us as it is natural and proper.
Together, the three disciplines constitute a comprehensive approach to life. We see them laid out starkly in Meditations 7.54
“Everywhere, at each moment, you have the option:
- to accept this event with humility [will];
- to treat this person as he should be treated [action];
- to approach this thought with care, so that nothing irrational creeps in [perception]”
How is this relevant today? As the world goes through one of its biggest crises in modernity, let us not forget to see things as what they are, and to accept events around us with acceptance and humility. Let us continue to treat people around us with respect, and do what is necessary of us for the collective good.
No man is an island, and if we all work towards governing our thoughts and how we react to events around us, we can create a better world for all of us. This is how we live in accordance with the logos.
