Plain
Marcus Aurelius — The Emperor

Think about what causes everything to happen. Think about the real purpose behind all actions. Consider what pain actually is. What pleasure is. What death is. What fame or honor really means. Remember that each person is the source of their own peace and calm. No one else can truly get in your way. All of this is just thoughts and opinions in your head.

Meditations, Book 12, Section 6 Book 12 · 11 of 41
Freedom & Control Calm Your Mind
Marcus Aurelius — The Emperor Original

Again, to consider the efficient causes of all things: the proper ends and references of all actions: what pain is in itself; what pleasure, what death: what fame or honour, how every man is the true and proper ground of his own rest and tranquillity, and that no man can truly be hindered by any other: that all is but conceit and opinion.

Meditations, Book 12, Section 6 Book 12 · 11 of 41
Marcus Aurelius — The Emperor

Let these be the things you think about regularly: What kind of person you should be in both soul and body when death comes suddenly. How short this life is. The vast stretch of time before you were born and after you die. How fragile all worldly things are. Think about all these clearly, stripped of their surface appearances.

Meditations, Book 12, Section 6 Book 12 · 10 of 41
Death & Mortality What Matters Most
Marcus Aurelius — The Emperor Original

Let these be the objects of thy ordinary meditation: to consider, what manner of men both for soul and body we ought to be, whensoever death shall surprise us: the shortness of this our mortal life: the immense vastness of the time that hath been before, and will he after us: the frailty of every worldly material object: all these things to consider, and behold clearly in themselves, all disguisement of external outside being removed and taken away.

Meditations, Book 12, Section 6 Book 12 · 10 of 41
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Ancient philosophy, in plain English.

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