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Books, A to Z On 6 of the 12 ideas

Meditations

Marcus Aurelius c. 170 to 180 CE

1 earliest we can find1 Cites4 Echoes

Ideas we have traced through this book

c. 170 to 180 CE

The obstacle is the way

Earliest we can find

This is the earliest source we can find for the idea. Said again in 7 books on our list: Chekawa Yeshe Dorje, The Seven Points of Mind Training (12th century), Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, First Series (1841), Orison Swett Marden, Pushing to the Front (1894), William George Jordan, The Majesty of Calmness (1898), Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning (1946), Dale Carnegie, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living (1948) and Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle Is the Way (2014).

  1. “for the mind converts and changes every hindrance to its activity into an aid; and so that which is a hindrance is made a furtherance to an act; and that which is an obstacle on the road helps us on this road.”

Full text read.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 5.20, tr. George Long (1862).

Project Gutenberg eBook #15877, gutenberg.org/ebooks/15877.

04

What you think, you become

Echoes

Marcus writes that the character of the mind follows its “habitual thoughts”, “for the soul is dyed by the thoughts”, and tells himself to dye it with better ones. He credits no one.

  1. 3rd to 1st c. BCE
    “All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts.”

    Dhammapada. Earliest we can find, more than 100 years earlier.

  2. c. 175
    “Such as are thy habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of thy mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.”

Full text read.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862).

Project Gutenberg eBook #15877, gutenberg.org/ebooks/15877.

08

Keep your death in mind

Echoes

Marcus writes that you may “depart from life this very moment” and should “regulate every act and thought accordingly”, the claim in his own words. He credits no one.

  1. by the 2nd c. BCE
    “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”

    Psalm 90. Earliest we can find, more than 200 years earlier.

  2. c. 175
    “Since it is possible that thou mayest depart from life this very moment, regulate every act and thought accordingly.”

Full text read.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862).

Project Gutenberg eBook #15877, gutenberg.org/ebooks/15877.

03

It’s your view of things that upsets you

Echoes

Marcus writes “Take away thy opinion” and the complaint of being harmed goes with it, and so does the harm. He credits no one, and names the Stoics only on a different point.

  1. 45 BCE
    “The whole cause, then, is in opinion; and this observation applies not to this grief alone, but to every other disorder of the mind”

    Cicero, Tusculan Disputations. Earliest we can find, 219 years earlier.

  2. c. 175
    “Take away thy opinion, and then there is taken away the complaint, ‘I have been harmed.’”

Full text read.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862).

Project Gutenberg eBook #15877, gutenberg.org/ebooks/15877.

10

Live one day at a time

Echoes

Marcus writes not to let your thoughts “embrace all the various troubles” you may expect, since only the present pains. He credits no one for it; Monimus is named for a different point.

  1. 23 BCE
    “A wise deity shrouds in obscure darkness the events of the time to come, and smiles if a mortal is solicitous beyond the law of nature. Be mindful to manage duly that which is present.”

    Horace, Odes. Earliest we can find, about 200 years earlier.

  2. c. 175
    “For the present is the only thing of which a man can be deprived”

Full text read.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862).

Project Gutenberg eBook #15877, gutenberg.org/ebooks/15877.

01

Some things are up to you

Cites Epictetus

What pains you is your own judgment about the thing, Marcus writes, and that judgment is in your power to wipe out. Near the end of the book he credits the rule to Epictetus: show no aversion to what is not in our power (11.37).

  1. c. 125 CE
    “There are things which are within our power, and there are things which are beyond our power. Within our power are opinion, aim, desire, aversion, and, in one word, whatever affairs are our own. Beyond our power are body, property, reputation, office, and, in one word, whatever are not properly our own affairs.”

    Epictetus, Enchiridion. Earliest we can find, about 50 years earlier.

  2. c. 175
    “If thou art pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs thee, but thy own judgment about it. And it is in thy power to wipe out this judgment now.”

Full text read.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862).

Project Gutenberg eBook #15877, gutenberg.org/ebooks/15877.

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