The Emperor’s Advice - Marcus Aurelius on Working Together as One Body

Who Was Marcus Aurelius?

With history looming over us during a period of unrest and decline across the globe, we’re constantly confronted with the question of how to best live our lives. Marcus Aurelius had an answer, but first, you might ask: Who was Marcus Aurelius? And how is he relevant to us?



As head of the Roman empire from the year 161 to 180 of the common era, Marcus Aurelius was a thoughtful and strategic emperor. Hailed as a benevolent ruler, he defended the empire with all his might. His success can arguably be attributed to the virtuous qualities he brought to his leadership and the ethically informed actions that he undertook to secure the empire.



Through careful examination of his innermost thoughts, the emperor was able to make wise choices in his political career. He further encouraged others to live an examined life. At a young age, Aurelius was influenced by Epictetus, a Greek Stoic who advocated making philosophy a way of life. Inspired by this, Aurelius later wrote his Meditations in the form of reflections on how to live his life meaningfully. In addition to drawing from the Discourses of Epictetus, he was inspired by Greek Stoicism as a whole. As such, his reflections in turn reflect principles pertaining to Stoic ethics.



So who was Marcus Aurelius? A philosopher-king whose insights and advice apply equally today as they did nearly 2,000 years ago. We’ll tell you why.

The Emperor's Advice

Originally left untitled, what became known as the Meditations started as a series of journal entries with the Greek heading Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν or Ta eis heauton, "things to one's self."

Addressing himself, Marcus Aurelius begins Book 2 of his Meditations with a reflection on challenging people. No doubt drawing from personal experience, he acknowledges that difficult encounters are avoidable and that one must come to accept their inevitability. Yet to grow hostile and hateful toward people who irk us does no good whatsoever. Such reactivity only obstructs our ability to cooperate, “for we have come into being to work together.”



Such is the emperor's advice, an emperor who had the privilege to say so. Surely his life conditions were far better than that of the average person at his time or even these days. To approach challenging people with such Stoic repose is not always possible for those of us who live under far more stressful circumstances than this king of kings.

Or is it?

The path of equanimity is accessible to all, although easier for some. Certainly, we have to acknowledge the emperor's fortune relative to his subjects. The life of Marcus Aurelius was no underdog success story. He was born into privilege, the son of a government father and heiress mother. He reigned during an era of relative peace and stability in the Roman Empire, which experienced far worse while he was not in charge. He was basically set for life.



Marcus Aurelius was no doubt better equipped, materially, to meet with challenges on account of his position as emperor. For comparison, imagine being a peasant under the Roman empire trying to cope with the inability to even feed oneself or one's family. This is no ancient myth. The same situation affects countless millions today. Yet regardless of class background and material resources, the emperor's advice on meeting with challenging people still applies.

The emperor's relatively luxurious life was not without its times of stress. Aurelius, however, developed a method to deal with the madness. His reflections may help us, too, realize that ultimately, each of us has the capacity to reorient our reactions to what happens to us. We may not be able to control the outer conditions, but we can control how we internally process them, enabling us to overcome hardship. It may be wise, after all, to heed the emperor's advice.

Working Together as One Body

Of course, as with nearly all statements of such magnitude and proportion, this is far easier said than done. If such advice were given to someone faced with crisis, the order would be rather tall. With the amount of distrust that circulates today, it remains seemingly impossible to look past someone who appears to insult or threaten us. To restrain oneself from reacting at all, in such a case, is quite the feat.

At the initial stages in the cultivation of non-reactivity, however, the emphasis is not on becoming a lifeless shell of a person. Indeed, Stoicism does not advocate this at all. Rather, one must become attuned to the interconnection that underlies it all.

“I, then, can neither be harmed by these people, nor become angry with one who is akin to me, nor can I hate him.” —Meditations 2.1 (translated by Christopher Gill)

Here we find the emperor reflecting on common humanity. When one is in a difficult situation, the first impulse is to react by fanning the flames of ill-will, or even acting out through hostility, largely as a means of defending oneself. Imagine someone attacking you verbally, insulting you to your face. Sadly, many of us don't need to imagine this, having instead experienced it directly. You start to feel the fire boiling inside the body. This negative feedback fuels a cycle of resentment towards the other. Such fire literally destroys us from the inside out.

Seeing the harm in this cycle, Marcus Aurelius reflected that others were like him, with similar habits of mind, similar fears and dreams. With this reflection guiding his actions, he refrained from the impulse to hate, instead cultivating equanimity. An equanimous mind is free from the burden of hatred. Such freedom relieves one of the fear of harm. In place of such fear, trust may grow.

“For we have come into being to work together, like feet, hands, eyelids, or the two rows of teeth in our upper and lower jaws.” —Meditations 2.1 (translated by Christopher Gill)

Like a single body comprised of various parts, as individuals we belong to a greater whole. Indeed, this passage highlights the principle of unity in plurality. Without cooperation between the intersecting parts, the whole cannot function. If, for instance, we cannot collectively mobilize in the face of the climate crisis, instead seeing ourselves as separate from the environment and separate from each other, then we are responsible for our own undoing. The next passage further highlights the difference between working together as one body, which accords with nature, and working against one another, which goes against collective interests.

“To work against one another is therefore contrary to nature; and to be angry with another person and turn away from him is surely to work against him.” —Meditations 2.1 (translated by Christopher Gill)

Here, Aurelius draws attention to the importance of working together as one body by emphasizing social harmony. In fact, those who compete against each other push against the natural course, like the left foot kicking the right, or right fist punching the left. How could parts of the same whole treat each other in this way? It would surely be for their ultimate demise. While others throughout history have obviously disagreed, advocating competition and individualism, the emperor here makes a bold claim, one very few politicians of his time or of late would dare to make.

Fruits of Cooperation

A relatively stable empire was one obvious example of the fruits of cooperation for Aurelius, who refused to act on impulse. Rather than enter into wars needlessly or insult his opponents in order to bandage a bruised ego, the emperor returned again and again to the power of cooperation. Only when we can see past the urges of competition may we unshackle ourselves from the prison of the ego.



Perhaps the fruits of cooperation are available to us all. Indeed, there may be some universal truth in what Marcus Aurelius advises in terms of cooperation. Perhaps the emperor's advice is not merely for the privileged elite who are already well-off and whose “challenges” are but tiny drops in the sea relative to those less fortunate. Aurelius himself encountered a small dose of misfortune first-hand in the form of competition from rivals that plagued his career. Perhaps his Meditations helped him reinvigorate his commitment to cooperation, and could similarly serve anyone else willing to try them on for size.

Stay tuned for more reflections from the contemplative traditions. We intend to provide complementary discussions on these issues from multiple angles, like the many parts that comprise one body of knowledge. May we all find unity in plurality.

Introducing Stoicism - Medicinal Meditations for Movements of the Mind

Introducing Stoicism

Having only scratched the surface so far in terms of contemplative practices, we now find ourselves entering new territory. As we continue to sketch out the vast array of contemplative practices at our hands in this era of increasing uncertainty, a time that demands learning from our past in order to shape a truly sustainable future, we turn now to one of the ancient "Western" traditions: Stoicism.

Most will have heard of the Stoics (or may have even known a Stoic of some sort) at some point or another, even if only through a remark about someone acting "stoic" in the face of adversity or remaining "stoic" despite bad news. So what does Stoicism conjure in the mind?

When we hear of so-called "Stoics" we might imagine a stone-faced, cold-hearted rock of a person, or perhaps someone completely indifferent or apathetic to the world's whims. While these qualities do indeed characterize the Stoics to an extent, they don't quite fully do them justice.



Tracing itself back millennia to the ancient Greeks, then adopted by the Roman empire and carried onward, there is significant territory to cover within Stoicism. Broadly speaking, Stoicism is a tradition that aims to foster a life of virtue. Indeed, the Stoics believed virtue is a skill or form of mastery that leads one to live a fulfilled life. As such, Stoicism typically revolves around four cardinal virtues: justice, truth, moderation, and courage. These qualities are considered wise, thus linking virtue with wisdom, the moral with the intellectual.

The Stoics maintain that our undeveloped moral and intellectual tendencies lead humanity astray, diverting us from true happiness. Emotions such as fear, anxiety, or envy are unruly and result from unwise judgments. Therefore, the goal of the Stoics is self-mastery and transformation so that one does not remain a slave to one's passions and emotions.

By way of introducing Stoicism, we may look to Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Meditations is by far the most well-known of works attributed to Aurelius, written for the emperor's personal contemplations and taking the form of a journal. This private notebook of philosophical reflections reveal a deeply contemplative outlook characterized by concern for humankind. By peering into it, we get a glimpse into the inner workings of its author's mind amidst the day to day stresses of the empire.

Medicinal Meditations

Contemplative traditions, as many will remind us, have a medicinal purpose. Their methods may be utilized as antidotes to treat and purge the poisons of affliction from our systems. The same applies to Stoicism. In fact, much of Greek and Roman philosophy was originally therapeutic in its aims. A great deal of their insights take shape as medicinal meditations. Indeed, the therapeutic and medicinal applications of such contemplative philosophies are clearly traceable to the texts themselves.

Consider Marcus Aurelius when he reflects:

"Through not observing what is in the mind of another, a man has seldom been seen to be unhappy; but those who do not observe the movements of their own minds must of necessity be unhappy."

—Meditations 2.8 (translated by George Long)

...their own minds…

Here we encounter what appears to be an invitation to turn within. So much of our time and energy is channeled outwardly, toward the other, whether through nit-picking their habits and behaviors without living up to the same standards ourselves, finding issue with their way of life, and so on. Quickly we lose sight of our own minds, which instead run riot in judgement and egotism.

In a therapeutic or medicinal context, what better way to treat an illness than to go to its source?

While it may often seem that happiness and unhappiness come from external circumstances (these no doubt play a role in the process, but they do not account for the full picture) the actual source is within the mind.



Rather than obsess over what others think and trying to change them as if we are their sculpters while they are our marble to be moulded, we may set down the chisel and attend to our own minds. Our very well-being is at stake. Thus we turn to one strategy for undertaking medicinal meditations.

Observe the Movements of the Mind

One who attends to one's own mind is able to observe misguided movements or missteps, which we all inevitably undertake in our trial-and-error process of moral development. We may even notice the subtle movements that ripple beneath the surface when we are disturbed by external events. In addition to otherwise unnoticed or unconscious habits of mind, we may discover underlying moods and behaviors that inform our actions, unbeknownst to us.

Without such examination, we are left with no clue as to how to identify the source of affliction and how to ameliorate its effects on us and those around us. After all, "those who do not observe the movements of their own minds must of necessity be unhappy."

When you observe the movements of the mind, what do you see? Is the mind still and at peace, or does it flail wildly from thought to thought, like a monkey grasping from branch to branch while swinging through the forest?

One who is able to observe the movements of the mind, whether the mind is in full throttle or at rest, has gleaned an essential piece of the puzzle. Having a clear understanding of what the mind is up to from moment to moment is the first step toward calming its waves. Indeed, this appears to be what Marcus Aurelius suggests in his Meditations and what the Stoics were aiming at all along.



While it certainly does not occur over night (except for perhaps the luckiest of individuals with remarkable conditions) the commitment to observe the movements of the mind eventually culminates in a mind that may remain unmoved amidst the churning conditions of life.

This is the epitome of Stoicism.

Of course, this serves as a most basic introduction to Stoicism with neither the specifics of technical detail nor any particularly thorough analysis, but it is intended to be rather spartan in the very spirit of Stoicism.

Hopefully this brief overview helps in the way of grounding the reader in practical soil so that whatever seeds of wisdom offered by the Stoics can take root and grow into sustainable solutions to suffering, coming to full fruition as we continue on this path. We will offer more on Stoicism and other contemplative systems in the posts to come.

As always, thanks for venturing alongside us. We welcome your comments. May all beings be at ease amidst the movements of mind.