Summary: Meditations (page 4)

In keeping with the Stoic tradition, the author of the Meditations demonstrates that the world is a cosmos, not chaos.

First and foremost, the beauty of the world serves as proof of this—the regularity of the seasons, the movement of the stars, and the order we find within ourselves. The remarkable complexity of our own bodies, in which every limb and organ finds its proper place, mirrors within the microcosm the same order that governs the macrocosm: Can it be that within you a certain order subsists, yet in the Whole there is only disorder? And this, when everything is so well combined, interwoven, and harmonised? ¹.

Thus, the course of events is not only governed by necessity but is also just:

Remember that everything that happens, happens righteously. I do not merely say that it follows in sequence, but that it also accords with justice ².

In truth, what is truly harmful — and what the wise man must reject — is not any particular feature of the world, nor any specific event, but a certain human attitude: the impulse to rebel, lament, or push an event away.

The goal is to master those negative emotions — regret, resentment, sadness — that set us against nature, and so to become our own inner master.

Marcus Aurelius describes this state of mind as follows: The inner master, when he conforms to nature, perceives events in such a way that he can always, within his power, adjust his attitude towards them without effort ³.

This mindset grants him great strength, if not invincibility: When he meets an obstacle, he absorbs it, like a fire that takes hold of whatever is thrown into it — whereas a small lamp would be extinguished. A blazing fire swiftly consumes whatever is fed to it, and from what is thrown in, it burns ever higher ⁴.

What further reinforces this invincibility is that nothing can truly reach him. Indeed, external things — events or misfortunes — cannot affect him; they may harm his body (a stab wound, for instance), but only the opinions and judgments he forms about them can disturb his mind:

Things do not reach the soul but remain confined outside, and troubles arise only from the opinions it forms of them ⁵.

The wise man is one who eliminates all negative judgments — those that would cause him sadness or bitterness. He permits no judgment to disturb his happiness.

As a result, neither external events nor judgments about them can disturb his serenity.

If the Stoic sage suffers a stab wound, he will regard the pain as a worthy trial and face it without distress. If he is dying as a result of this attack, he will remind himself that death is not an evil, for it is part of the natural cycle of life. Thus, he will feel neither fear nor regret.

Mastering one's judgments brings freedom, power, and absolute serenity — which Marcus Aurelius expresses succinctly in the Meditations: Suppress "I have been injured," and the injury is removed ⁶.

As Marcus Aurelius observes, in many cases, the wisest course is to suspend judgment altogether and renounce all opinion: Chase out opinion, and you will be saved. Who then prevents you from chasing it out? ⁷ or Suppress your opinion, then, and like a ship that has rounded the headland, you will find calm seas — perfect calm, a gulf without waves ⁸.

Of all representations, death is the most troubling, the one most likely to shake man's serenity by provoking negative judgments. For this reason, Marcus Aurelius devotes several passages to it, seeking to show that death is nothing to be feared.

¹ IV, 27
² IV, 10
³ IV, 1
⁴ ibid.
⁵ IV, 3
⁶ IV, 7
⁷ XII, 25
⁸ XII, 22