Daily reminder to adopt the white man's outlook on life and philosophy by reading Meditations. >letting the thoughts and actions of other people affect your spirit/mind >not being true to yourself and your beliefs at all times >not being confident enough in yourself that you don't need to "act confident" for people to notice that you stand firm >not living in the present, learning but not dwelling on the past, and not fearing a future which you likely cannot control or predict with enough accuracy to be worried about it >not performing all actions and deeds with a specific purpose in mind, no matter how basic and insignificant it seems >not always acting based on reason and logic
Stop sperging out and being angry/depressed when the redpill or blackpill hit! Enjoy life and accept death without completely cucking to a god or gods!
>logic is the most important thing, not feelings... btw Commodus your my heir bro have fun destroying the Empire by LARPing as Hercules! what a hypocrite
Cameron Robinson
Stoicism can be a depressing way to go through life for most. You cant be happy about being happy. No thanks.
Jace Morales
Meditations is one of the greatest books ever written. It's the bible of manhood.
Daniel Morales
It's a nice and even noble but extreme philosophy practically no one else but Marcus Aurelius himself and a few Buddhists can live. You're far better of reading Dao De Jing or the Bible or the Gita on average as a western male. Or just loving something really much and seeing everything as having at least some of those qualities and wisdom as the object of your love and then wondering about that until you get transformed. At least that's what I would do if I was suffering from existential anxiety.
Connor Miller
>You cant be happy about being happy. You CAN be happy about living in harmony with nature, though?
What does that actually mean? Marcus Aurelius uses the example of animals to get the point across. Think of bees pollinating flowers and making honey. Do the bees ever stop and ask for thanks? Does a bee ever decide that it's too tired to wake up in the morning and go to work? Does a bee complain to its coworkers about the work it has to do? Live like that. Do what you need to do, what's expected of you, and ignore any thanks or compliments that come your way. If you do that, then you will realize how easy it is to also ignore undue criticism or rudeness from others.
You don't need anyone to tell you that you are doing good; you are a rational being and can be sure of that yourself. Be content with this feeling and carrying it with you in everything you do.
>there has never been a bad ruler before or after commodus >he's solely responsible for roman adventures in the sand with sassanids that bankrupted the economy of fighting a stalemate war >commodus brought atilla and thrax
When will this meme end
Jayden Ward
That would be okay as an idea except there is no such thing as a white man. There are European men of differences nations.
Kayden Lee
>afro >white man
Ayden Brown
Go even before Marcus Aurelius and curb sexual degeneracy first. White man isn't saving himself while's he's still a slave to his passions.
There's nothing extreme about Stoicism besides the "all of us will die, at any moment" stuff. It's just a logical reason for why you should believe in yourself and not let things worry you too much.
These things are taught to us as kids, but we never get a reason why that's better than trying to fit in and caring how others think of you since that seems to obviously provide more benefit.
It's a newer translation that foregoes the overblown THY THOU THOUST language of the earlier translations. Meditations is a journal, it's meant to be down to earth.
Liam Wilson
Meditations are ego centric pagan baloney. Only in Christ will you find peace
Leo Moore
He sure was a wise person, but as , stoicism is something for people who live "outside the world", like monks, kings, rich people. It's easy to preach what he preaches when you don't suffer the actual world. I can get that you shouldn't worry for what you shouldn't worry for something that's not in your control, but it's not that easy when you're a regular person.
>dude, why are you pissed ? This guys raped your wife on her road to get the kids, you had no control on this. >your son was hit by a car driven by a drunk driver ? Come on, it's not like you had control on this These are extreme example, but you got me. It's easy to not bother about the few things that aren't in your control when you have everything in control because either you rule, or you're part of castes that don't suffer common problems.
Nathan Phillips
hehe...never said he was perfect, femfag.
Camden Green
Thank you
Brody Lopez
Damn I missed this philosophical discussions on Jow Forums
Jaxson Lopez
Marcus Aurelius was a Roman Emperor who spent nearly his entire rule fighting on Rome's frontiers as a general. Constant warfare and having to deal with saving the lives of the men you are fighting with while also carefully maintaining the lives of the millions of citizens is pretty fucking stressful, don't know why you think he somehow had it easy unless you think rich=carefree...
David Ramirez
anyone who talks down on Marcus Aurelius is a fucking nigger. this man had absolute power, absolute exposure to wealth, therefor to decadence, and yet he remained humble, focused. the absolute Übermensch, a god among men.
he didn't say that he had it easy, he said he had control. Major difference. We're not putting down Marcus Aurelius here, he did quite well as having been born to upper castes but it's insane to give the royal duties to lower castes as an average example of how to live because they are not royals and do not deal with the problems of royalty but with those of labourers or merchants or the poor or just plain maintaining a relationship etc. That's why books written for wider audiences are better for wider audiences.
Blake Powell
He was a ruler, who delegated to a whole administration and sent soldiers to fight. So yeah, it's easy when you're not the one being being taxed, or the person whose dad/brother/son is killed in a campaign. Don't get me wrong, he was a wise person, but even with those responsibility, he was in charge. So yeah, it rains today, what can Marc Aurelius do about it, hu ?
Ian Flores
I agree with that. He didn't seem corrupted by power at least for the short version of his meditations I read. And that I can respect. Better Marcus Aurelius than the vast majority of rulers.
David King
>OPic >white
choose uno
Robert Walker
Marcus Aurelius was the nu-male of his time. I as an "intelligent person" have thrown away my label and have instead sought strength.
Connor Ross
the whole separation between feelings and logic is a Greek invention that doesn't hold up to close scrutiny
Adam Morales
hierarchy
Gavin Turner
good,go to wash foots now.and share all your properties.
John Morgan
pretty much, it conditions the growing monkey according to the telos of whatever hierarchy you find yourself within
My issue with stoicism is it tells you how you should be, the ideal state. How do you actually get there? I cannot rationalize away emotions, I cannot deny that other people's opinions influence me.
Charles Myers
>. How do you actually get there? self-observation...gurdjieff
Elijah Nelson
Marcus doesn't talk about separating feeling from logic, but rather using logic to dispel feeling from your mind/soul. Total control over your own mind, total confidence.
There's nothing wrong about feeling any emotions or being influenced by others as long as it is reasonable or logical to do so. The problem is when you let things dwell in your mind that you can't change or when you allow your beliefs to be changed against your will; none of these needs to happen and they ONLY happen because you let it happen. Your own mind should always be a safe space for you to find comfort in regardless of any outside situation, so long as you don't waste time daydreaming or thinking useless thoughts.
Stoicism is all about reaching happiness with yourself and the world around you. You may be confusing real Stoics with Vulcans.
Justin Howard
Is there anything more beautiful than ancient statues?
>Stoicism is all about reaching happiness with yourself and the world around you yup, making it indistinguishable from self-hypnosis or Nietzsche's notion of amor fati. Don't get me wrong, stoicism has some useful advice but in relation how you should deal with the social hierarchy there are more productive ways
Stoicism is good to have to give to betas and edgefags since it will make them more principled. But when you grow beyond that then stoicism is for stubborn fags. After that you read Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics, and the Church Fathers which have universal acclaim
Michael Butler
besides musonius rufus who should I read for this? there are no surviving writings from pythagoras
Brandon Ross
i'm a huge fan of stoicism but I can't get over my jealousy of the ancient philosophers in which there was no doubt that they would have wives that they could procreate with. I don't envy their wealth (marcus apparently slept on the floor of his parents house so he wouldn't get used to luxury) but I envy their ability to secure their genetic line with relatively little effort as compared to today.
Thomas Cruz
>After that you read Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics this is true. Aristotle is much less demanding to follow than pure stoicism since he acknowledges good things besides just virtue. unfortunately Aristotle is really tedious to read compared to the meditations but I guess that depends on the translaton
Zachary Sanchez
but he was
Robert Kelly
It's true Aristotle is a higher reading level. But if you want to read philosophy being able to read at level is necessary. Men like cicero, buddha, st Thomas aquinas, are all far more difficult to read our of being tedious or difficult to understamd, or just extremely information dense. Marcus Aurelius is a minimal reading level for a classical work esp for philosophy. I highly recommend Tusculan disputations bk v by cicero and nichomachean ethics by aristotle. Buddha btw was not an atheist he only disputed the existence of Brahman the Hindu God that's literally the universe itself arguing if the world was God then man wpuld lack free will. also the Buddhist doctrine that "there is no self" comes from Buddha saying that a man's self is not his own knowledge or conciousness. he's right you would still be you wether you forgot everything or blacked out or fell asleep . Buddha was a theist and was refilled its just some sex cults (Tibetan buddhists) and Gnostics (kabbalist stuff) try to re interpret or fake some of his work I recommend Buddha bc stoicism is just based off eastern mysticism. Proper ancient Buddhism was right and compatible with catholicism.
