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- Herausgeber: GAEditori
- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019
A series of meditations, divided into 12 books, written as an inner testament to remember the most important people in his life but with a dominant thought about the meaning of existence and the superficiality of human representations. In these pages, tragically lucid, a fire is ignited and burns which gives consciousness of how, in truth, only what is resolved within us has value. Introduction by Laura Maninchedda.
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Indice dei contenuti
Marcus Aurelius
Originally translated by
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
relegosplende communication
1
Chief English translations of Marcus Aurelius
Introduction
His First Book Concerning himself
3
5
7
9
10
12
THE FOURTH BOOK
14
THE FIFTH BOOK
17
19
THE SIXTH BOOK
22
24
THE SEVENTH BOOK
27
29
31
33
35
THE NINTH BOOK
36
38
40
THE ELEVENTH BOOK
43
45
47
THE TWELFTH BOOK
Marcus Aurelius
The Meditations
Originally translated by
GAEditori
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
The Meditations
© GAEditori
Sede legale: via Basilicata, 15 – 94100 Enna Sicily island
www.gaeditori.it – [email protected]
First edition: march 2019
Graphics:relegosplende communication
https://relegosplendecommunication.tumblr.com/
This work is protected by the Copyright Law.
About this edition
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus was Emperor of Rome from 161 to his death, the last of the “Five Good Emperors.” He was nephew, son-in-law, and adoptive son of Antonius Pius. Marcus Aurelius was one of the most important Stoic philosophers, cited by H.P. Blavatsky amongst famous classic sages and writers such as Plato, Euripides, Socrates, Aristophanes, Pindar, Plutarch, Isocrates, Diodorus, Cicero, and Epictetus.1
This edition was originally translated out of the Greek by Meric Casaubon in 1634 as “The Golden Book of Marcus Aurelius”.
Cf. Blavatsky Collected Writings, (THE ORIGIN OF THE MYSTERIES) XIV p.257
LIVING THE LIFE SERIES MEDITATIONS OF MARCUS AURELIUS
Chief English translations of Marcus Aurelius
Meric Casaubon, 1634;
Jeremy Collier, 1701;
James Thomson, 1747;
R. Graves, 1792;
H. McCormac, 1844; George Long, 1862;
G.H. Rendall, 1898; and
J. Jackson, 1906.
Renan’s “Marc-Aurèle” — in his “History of the Origins of Christianity,” which appeared in 1882 — is the most vital and original book to be had relating to the time of Marcus Aurelius. Pater’s “Marius the Epicurean” forms another outside commentary, which is of service in the imaginative attempt to create again the period.2
[Brought forward from p.xxiii.]
Introduction
Some books can be considered as a constant reference for our life, as friends whose voice may reach us from afar, but that we feel close to our problems and questions. This is the case of the “Meditations” by the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius. Written over 1800 years ago, has always had a remarkable attraction to the most diverse places and people, who recognized themselves in the experience and existential reflections of its author. The book is still very topical for the attitude of research and self-analysis, of touch with inner life, which makes it an exceptional human document, rather than a historical and philosophical one. Within what actually is a spiritual diary, I wanted to find some reading paths that will highlight its fundamental themes. The work, which certainly was not written for publication and that we received divided into 12 short books of notations, notes, loose considerations, looks, at least superficially, unorganized, except for the first book, devoted to recalling the debt of gratitude towards men and gods.
This book can be read as an inner biography of Marcus Aurelius (121-180 AD); it outlines his life remembering the relationships and events that more influenced his education and his conception of the world. At the margin of this and of the next book, that, according to scholars, were the last to be written, two notations allow us to date with good accuracy the composition of the book, dating back to the last decade of Marcus Aurelius’s life. His inclination was to devote himself to philosophy, in the sense of research and practice of truth, but he found himself living in a situation of overwhelming responsibilities in a troubled and dramatic period of continuous wars against the barbarians who threatened the empire, of insurrections and calamities. Taking up the tasks that derived from his position, he always reiterates the primacy of interiority, the choice of what really matters: not glory and approval of others, but the awareness of doing one’s duty and safeguarding one’s soul from any pollution and ugliness.
Precisely because the vicissitudes of life and his responsibilities prevented him from devoting his time to study and meditation, Marco Aurelio feels the need to keep always in mind, by thinking, questioning, recalling the thoughts of philosophers and maintaining contact with his interiority, what the task of human being is, its place in the universe, its relationship with the gods and more specifically what are the duties of a person living, with precise responsibilities, in a society and in a particular historical moment. “ As physicians and chirurgeons have always their instruments ready at hand for all sudden cures; so have thou always thy dogmata in a readiness for the knowledge of things, both divine and human: and whatsoever thou dost, even in the smallest things that thou dost, thou must ever remember that mutual relation, and connection that is between these two things divine, and things human. “ III 13 The regret that often arises from being unable to feed with reading and study his inclination to philosophy as a fundamental resource to orient himself and pursue his task of man and emperor, is almost certainly the reason that induced him to write his reflections as a space devoted entirely to his interiority, in the midst of so many cares and worries. Actually, there is no mention of the dramatic events of the period, but a constant attention and vigilance over his emotions, a continuous asking himself about the rightness of his acts, a constant invitation to awareness and to serene and grateful acceptance of what is happening, because what the gods have established can not be evil. This is a rigorous commitment to what at times he feels unequal to, but that he always reaffirms, in a journey of growth and purification, that we can follow in its difficulties and in the confidence that it is the only thing that makes life worth living.
