Here's another fascinating snippet from Marcus Aurelius (a day late, I might add): "How quickly things disappear, bodies into the universe, memories of them in time" (Meditations, II.12). Meditate on these things!
Showing posts with label Meditations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Meditations. Show all posts
8/25/08
Mondays Are For Meditating (With Marcus Aurelius), Pt. 3
In II.7 of his work Meditations, Marcus Aurelius comments: "Do things external which happen to you distract you? Give yourself time to learn something new and good, and cease to be whirled around. But then you must also avoid going astray the other way. For those too are triflers who have worn themselves out by activity, and yet have no goal to which they direct their movements or their thoughts."
Once again, I find some similarities of what Aurelius says here, to things the Apostle Paul said. I am thinking of the passage where Paul uses nautical imagery in Ephesians 4.14-7: "Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming...So, I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking."
Meditate on these things.
Once again, I find some similarities of what Aurelius says here, to things the Apostle Paul said. I am thinking of the passage where Paul uses nautical imagery in Ephesians 4.14-7: "Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming...So, I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking."
Meditate on these things.
8/11/08
Mondays Are For Meditating (With Marcus Aurelius), Pt. 1
Here's a portion from chapter 2 of Marcus Aurelius's Meditations. I'm citing it here because it sounds uncannily familiar, kind of like, oh, let's say, Paul of Tarsus. Here's the text: "For we are made for cooperation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth. To act against one another then is contrary to nature; and it is acting against one another to be vexed and to turn away."
-Marcus Aurelius, Meditations II.2
I like here, how Aurelius goes a step further than Paul in a passage like the one located in 1 Cor. 12 and talks about how, when the parts are not working together, it is not only self-defeating but contrary to nature. In other words, had Paul gone a bit further, he could have suggested that the "nature" of the Body of Christ has to do with both unity and diversity. That implication may be buried in Paul's metaphor but because it is not explicity, it may often be overlooked. Good stuff!!!
-Marcus Aurelius, Meditations II.2
I like here, how Aurelius goes a step further than Paul in a passage like the one located in 1 Cor. 12 and talks about how, when the parts are not working together, it is not only self-defeating but contrary to nature. In other words, had Paul gone a bit further, he could have suggested that the "nature" of the Body of Christ has to do with both unity and diversity. That implication may be buried in Paul's metaphor but because it is not explicity, it may often be overlooked. Good stuff!!!
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