Marcus Aurelius was one of the Roman emperors with more transcendence for the fact that he left a book where he wrote day by day about his thoughts in how to live better. With his writings he tried to teach those who in the future could read about his life the proper way to live in a better life.
Reading about the written words of Marcus Aurelius I can only accept his meditations in the way that every day we encounter facts or events that are adverse to us but the best thing we can do with our lives is not to take it defensively to create controversy but to try to alleviate things. Don’t look for enemies in everything we do but rather try to help as much as possible to solve the bad moments. In the end we come to cooperate with each other because we should not live as sedentary people but instead should be participating and collaborating. The Bible itself it says that we are all parts of a whole; the arm must collaborate with the foot and the mouth must collaborate with the nose.
All our organs work one in function of the other and although they function separately they all do so to maintain balance with each other. If the kidney malfunctions, for example, our own organism collapses because the other organs cannot function in balance. As the kidney's function improves then the others compensate for its malfunction again, this is an example of the unity that exists in our human body.
We come to help each other and not just to excel in isolation in a parallel universe. We should not find adversaries in everything we experience, nor should we belittle or disqualify the actions or activities of one or the other in order to excel over them.
Marcus Aurelius tried to capture in his writings the stoic way of living that he managed to maintain during his life while awaiting his death. It’s known that he took his medicine daily to avoid the deterioration caused by his illness.
His stoicism allowed him to combat the external elements that tried to control his life and transform it into a more pleasant living situation in order to preserve his life. This is important from a survival point of view, especially for people whose difficult situations in life control them in such a way that they think they will lose their battles.
With the control of the external elements that could try to exert control over our life we also have the intelligence to not be carried away by them and to control the material aspect of the situation itself. At the end of the day it’s not the material things that should control us but the mental conditions and the personal tools we use to get out of them.
One of Marcus Aurelius' meditations makes us see that it’s we who must control external situations and not let them control us. We have in our being enough capacity to exercise that control.
The meditations of Marcus Aurelius are highly recommended for those people who are going through difficult situations and don’t manage to control the incidence of external factors on them and therefore are carried away by the difficulty thus making their situation even more difficult to handle.
Marcus Aurelius was of the thought that our destiny in life is already predetermined and that no matter what we do, we can never escape it because everything is already written. Everything will happen according to our free will in choosing the easiest or hardest way to end up always in the same destiny.
Stoicism is a way of life implemented by Marcus Aurelius where he encourages people to live with peace and tranquility of reason because of the knowledge that all our path is written. But as a Christian I must say that although this emperor explained in his meditations many aspects of how to know how to live, I must say that for me the Word of God is my best encouragement and it’s not far from all the recommendations of Marcus Aurelius.
If God has our life, our experiences and our death in his hands, why should I torment myself with the circumstances of life if everything must happen so that I reach my happy final destiny in the hands of God.
I must say that I was never a follower of Marcus Aurelius' meditations but I am a follower of the Word of God and let me tell you that many of the things I was able to read from the meditations of this emperor are not far from the way of living that God has left us in his scripture. It’s up to us to figure out on our own what is the best guide to follow.
When I was able to read some of Marcus Aurelius' Stoic meditations I could not help but shudder because the more I read it the closer it came to the things I learn from reading the Word of God. It’s nothing more than everything I have been trying to teach with the publications I have been presenting all these days, but with the difference that it’s not something taught to me by the happy way of living that Marcus Aurelius wants us to learn, but instead the best way of living that reading and meditating on the Word of God taught me. Take your pick on these two.
Word of God is a great word that no man can change it