Meditations: Book II
Morning ReflectionsBook II of the Meditations is one of the most frequently quoted and most immediately applicable sections of the entire work. It opens with a passage that has inspired countless readers to face their day with courage and equanimity. The book is short — fewer than twenty entries — but it contains some of Marcus' most memorable and powerful formulations.
The Dawn Meditation (2.1)
When you wake up in the morning, remind yourself that the people you will deal with today will be meddlesome, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly. They are like this because they cannot tell good from evil. But I have seen the beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil, and have recognized that the wrongdoer has a nature related to my own — not of the same blood or birth, but the same mind, possessing a share of the divine. And so none of them can hurt me. No one can implicate me in ugliness. Nor can I feel angry at my relative, or hate him. We were born to work together, like feet, hands, and eyelids, like the rows of upper and lower teeth. To obstruct each other is unnatural. To feel anger at someone, to turn your back on them — these are obstructions.
This is perhaps the single most practical passage in all of Stoic literature. Marcus does not instruct us to hope for better people, or to try to change them. He instructs us to expect difficult behaviour and to prepare ourselves not to be disturbed by it. The key insight is that the wrongdoer acts from ignorance — "they cannot tell good from evil" — and that our kinship with them is deeper than any surface conflict. We are "born to work together."
The Inner Citadel (2.2–2.4)
The book continues with reminders that the body and its sensations are not the self. "This thing called the body," Marcus writes, "is not part of you. It is only a temporary wrapping, a covering." What we truly are is the mind, the ruling faculty, which is capable of standing apart from the impressions that bombard it.
Marcus urges himself to "retreat into this little territory of your own" — the mind — and to avoid being dragged along by external events. The metaphor of the inner citadel, developed more fully in Book IV, appears here in embryonic form.
The Fragility of Life (2.5–2.7)
The second half of Book II turns to the theme of mortality. Marcus reminds himself that "you could leave life right now" and that everything we value — reputation, fame, even breath itself — is fleeting. The famous comparison of the transience of all things to a river appears here: "Time is a river, a violent current of events, glimpsed once and already carried past us."
The purpose of this meditation on death is not to depress but to liberate. If we truly internalised that we could die at any moment, we would stop wasting time on trivial concerns and focus on what matters: living virtuously, now.
You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think. — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 2.11
Modern Relevance
Book II is perhaps the best starting point for anyone new to the Meditations. Its opening passage is a practical exercise that can be performed every morning. The discipline of reminding ourselves that we will encounter difficult people, and that we can choose how to respond, is the foundation of emotional resilience. The awareness of mortality, far from being morbid, can be the engine of a purposeful life.
In the language of modern cognitive-behavioural therapy, Marcus is describing a technique called cognitive reappraisal: he does not change the external situation, but he changes his interpretation of it. The people he will meet are not "bad" but ignorant. The shortness of life is not a tragedy but a call to attention. This is the essence of the Stoic art of living.
The Text of Book II
The following is a modernised adaptation of the George Long translation.
2.1
When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: the people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly. They are like this because they can't tell good from evil. But I have seen the beauty of good and the ugliness of evil, and I know that the wrongdoer is still related to me — not by blood or birth, but by sharing in the same mind and a portion of the divine. So none of them can hurt me. No one can make me ugly or angry. We were born to work together, like feet, hands, eyelids, or the rows of teeth. To obstruct each other is unnatural. To turn away from someone in anger is to obstruct them.
2.2
Whatever this is that I am, it is flesh and a little breath and the ruling part. Throw away your books; stop letting them distract you. They are not for you. As if you were dying, despise the flesh — blood and bones and a network of nerves and veins and arteries. Consider what the breath is: a puff of air, not the same, but every moment expelled and drawn in again. The third part is the ruling faculty. Set aside your opinions about things that cause you distress, and the mind itself will be at peace.
2.3
Do not waste the remaining part of your life in thoughts about others, unless you are reflecting on the common good. Why do you occupy yourself with what someone else is doing or saying or thinking? You are not concerned with yourself, but with others. Focus your attention on your own ruling faculty, and purify it from all aimless thought.
2.4
You will soon die, and you are not yet simple, free from disturbance, or free from the suspicion that externals can harm you. You are not yet kindly disposed to all, nor have you grasped that wisdom consists in acting justly.
2.5
Look at the governing principles of others, and see what they avoid and pursue. And consider how many troubles they cause themselves in their pursuit of what they think is good. It is not necessary to feel pity for them, but you should bear with them patiently.
2.6
If it is not right, do not do it. If it is not true, do not say it. Let your determination be fixed in this.
2.7
Look within. Let neither the peculiar quality of anything nor its value escape you.
2.8
The universe is transformation; life is opinion.
2.9
If someone can prove and show to me that I am wrong in thought or action, I will gladly change. For I seek the truth, and no one was ever harmed by the truth. The person who continues in self-deception and ignorance is harmed.
2.10
Do not despise death, but be content with it, since it too is one of the things that nature wills. For what is it to be born, to live, to change, to grow, to decay, and to die? A man cannot be a man without these things.
2.11
You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.
2.12
If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.
2.13
Everything is soon covered by forgetfulness, and the void of infinite time swallows it all.
2.14
Whatever happens to you has been waiting for you since the beginning of time. The thread of causation was spun from the very start.
2.15
Everything is opinion, and opinion is within your power. Take away your opinion of anything, and it ceases to trouble you. What is it that troubles you? Your own judgment. Remove it, and you are at peace.
2.16
The mind of the universe is social. It has made the lower things for the sake of the higher, and has fitted the higher to one another. See how it subordinates and coordinates and assigns to each its proper sphere.
2.17
How have you behaved so far toward the gods, your parents, your brothers, your wife, your children, your teachers, and those who reared you? And what have you done to them? And what have you refrained from doing? Record all this in your mind.