Transcript for Lecture on Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations

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0. Introduction

Many books claim to be life-changing, but this is a rare one that actually is. Marcus Aurelius was a stoic philosopher and the greatest emperor of Rome, and we can see how great he was by the sheer amount of challenges that he had to overcome. In the north, a barbarian horde had broken through the frontiers and pushed all the way to northern Italy. His own general in the east, in Egypt, rebelled, and he had to deal with all of this, while one of the worst plagues in antiquity ravaged his population. Rome should not have survived the second century, but because of Marcus, it not only survived, but it thrived. Marcus led his troops from victory to victory, he stabilized imperial politics, and he extended the Pax Romana against all odds.

And the crazy thing is, that's not even close to what's most impressive about the guy. The most impressive thing about Marcus is that he faced all of these challenges with a Zen-like inner peace. And the exciting promise of this book is that you can be like Marcus too. His resilience, his tranquility, his ability to deal with challenges effectively can be yours. The stoic ideal is not the purview of a chosen elect, but available to all rational beings. But there's just one problem, which is that this book isn't an instruction manual you can just apply to your life. In fact, it's not even a book at all. Meditations are a series of diary entries that Marcus wrote while he was fighting on the front lines. What it contains are nuggets of wisdom, but not his full philosophical worldview.

So I think it's very tempting to pick up the Meditations because of how accessible it is to read a paragraph and think you got it. But Stoicism is not pithy one-liners. It's not just getting a Memento Mori tattoo and calling it a day. The core of stoic practice is about inducing a systematic change in your perspective. That philosophical perspective is the key to unlocking the value of this work for your life, and what we will cover in this lecture today. In the next two hours, we're going to go through a condensed version of the education Marcus himself would have received from his imperial tutors, so that you too can learn to see the world like the stoic emperor.

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Before I read the Meditations, and I thought stoic, what came to my mind was this stern dad figure. Okay, he gets up every day at 5 AM, he does his ice bath, and then his powerlifting routine, and then he grinds through the rest of his day like an absolute machine. You're pretty sure he loves you? You're pretty sure. He takes care of your family, he doesn't cheat on your mom, but you're not sure. He's never said it, he sure as hell never showed it, and don't get me wrong, it's not like he's a bad guy, it's simply that you wouldn't want to have him over for dinner too often, because he's a bit boring, he's emotionless, he doesn't seem to care.

This is a common critique I think people have of Stoicism, which is that the stoics don't care, even when they should, and they cite this one line as proof. I quote you Marcus:

When you kiss your child goodnight you should say silently: “Tomorrow, perhaps, you will meet your death.”

(Marcus Aurelius, Meditations)

Now, the common reaction to that quote is to say, what kind of Mormon wisdom is this. Right? Even if I could stop caring about my kids, even if that would make me happier, that's not a worthy trade-off.

The first thing I'll say in defense of Marcus is that whatever this is, this is not Marcus talking out of his ass. Marcus Aurelius had 13 kids, seven of them died before they reached adulthood, and he had to deal with each of their passing while putting out fires in the empire.

That's what's so incredible about this work, which is that Marcus doesn't just talk the talk, he walks the walk, and I want you guys to keep that in mind, especially once he starts to say the crazy stuff later on in the lecture. Here's the second thing I'll say, which is that this critique of Stoicism is based off of a detachment, not caring about things, is based off of a misconception, and I can begin to tease out what's missed by peeling back to that very quote, because people only pay attention to the second half of the quote. Right? Tomorrow perhaps you will meet your death, but what they ignore is the first half, when you kiss your child goodnight.

What people miss is the gentle kiss. It's the clear care, it's the legitimate love that has formed this tender nightly ritual. That is as much a part of Stoicism as the harsh anticipation on death. So it's not so much that this stern detached dad character is wrong as it's simply incomplete, because Stoicism is not just about strength and resilience, but also about love and gentleness and care, and above all, it's about a deep engagement with the world. But when you put it that way, the term sheet the Stoics are handing us seems almost too good to be true. You can have the happiness of a monk while maintaining in the world, you can rear a family, you can have great wealth and power, you can be emperor if you want to, you don't have to retreat from the world, because the Stoics will teach you how to retreat into yourself.