Meditations Session 10: Know that in Time Those Things Toward Which We Move Come to Be

Going through life with our mind filled with thoughts of blame, justifying our emotions, is like ignoring the check engine light in our car.

Last week, Jim cited 6:47: "Only one thing is important: to behave throughout your life toward the liars and crooks around you with kindness, honesty, and justice."

Recognizing the challenge of living by this principle, Jim added, “I'm afraid that the older I get, the more broken and evil the world seems to me.”

I’m sure many of you feel the same way, as I do. And yet, as Marcus reminds us, evil has always been present in the world and always will be.

Remember, Marcus wrote his Meditations in the final years of his life while battling barbarians along the Danube, freezing with his legions. Plague, too, was spreading through the Empire. Notice that Marcus refers to none of this in Meditations. He knows that death can come at any time, but he shares nothing about the pressing and consequential events he faced.

Remember, too, he acted his part with honor. He didn’t shirk from his duties even when his inner calling was to study philosophy. Despite being physically weak, he defended the Empire vigorously while treating most of his vanquished internal and external enemies with mercy. (The record of his treatment of Christians is unclear.)

On any day, had you asked Marcus how he was feeling, he may have answered not so great. And that’s OK. As we will see in Man’s Search for Meaning, there is no direct means to happiness.

Despite the harsh conditions he often lived under, Marcus had the discipline to take his mind off his personal “movie screen” to look inside at what was projecting his experience.

You might say I don’t see the projector. I only see life.

Fair enough, but Marcus demonstrates a way of being in the world that helps us see the projector.