Last time we travelled to Japan to learn how Ikigaican help us to find our life
purpose. This week,we take another look at our purpose as we time-travel back to
Ancient Rome to meet one its pre-eminent philosophers, Emperor Marcus Aurelius.
Known as
the last of the ‘Five Good Emperors,’ his death in 180AD ended the Pax Romana,
a time of relative peace and prosperity and when Rome power and prestige was at
its zenith.
For the Switched ON Community, there’s much to admire about Marcus Aurelius, and about the Stoic school of philosophy, for which he’s a leading proponent.
The word ‘stoic’has entered the language as a synonym for dour, dogged, a person who accepts her fate without complaint and without emotion.
But there’s so much more to Stoicism than imagined by our modern usage. For practitioners such as Marcus Aurelius, their philosophy lauds living in the moment, free from desire which corrupts our innate pursuit of virtue and distractsus from a life reflection and self-control.
Historical sources say that Marcus Aurelius was unaffected by his exalted office, and that he continued to study and to learn up to his death at age 58.
What we know of his philosophy comes from his 12-volume set of personal notes, known as the Meditations. Not intended for publication, the Meditations were his thoughts collected over a lifetime, and often written while he was on tour to the furthest corners of the Empire.
This video from the Philosophies for Life series offers us the briefest introduction to Marcus Aurelius and his world.
Looking at the video with our Switched ON mindset, there’s lots for us to takeaway and consider. For me, I really like the idea of putting all my focus on the present. It gives me a strong sense of agency over my fate, andreinforces that my future will be happier and better and closer to my dreams because I succeeded in the present.
There was also a strong echo of Ikigai in several of his ideas – to be truly happy, we need to follow our hearts and we need to add value to the world, beyond our immediatebubble.
Added to that is the extra kicker for which the Stoics are especially known, that without self- discipline our dreams are dust.
I sincerely hope you find this video as interesting as I do, and that like me, it prompts us to learn more about Emperor Marcus Aurelius and his philosophy of Stoicism.
