162 sats \ 2 replies \ @Se7enZ OP 27 Feb \ parent \ on: Stoic Book Club: Meditations by Marcus Aurelius #3 - In Carnuntum BooksAndArticles
Great post, Sensei! It's great that you post the pictures and full quotes for context. That really make it easy to get involved with your commentary. And it's really interesting to see the differences between the translations / editions. Seems like they used warrior in place of athlete -- I think I like the warrior idea better also.
This is a cool share. I read this great book a few years ago called Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg. One of the big takeaways for me was learning the importance of getting in touch with my own needs and wants to be able to communicate more clearly. Turns out that is rather difficult for me. Sometimes I feel like I have a better grasp on the "big picture view" of myself that you mention, but being in touch with the more embodied things of life, like what to eat for lunch, how to spend the day and such are more elusive. So yeah, I agree with you that both are important, essential even.
Thanks for sharing.
I’m back!
Thanks for the book recommendation. It reminds me of another book, in which the author recommends tailoring one’s message to the preferred intelligence of his interlocutor. For instance, with a person whose dominant intelligence is auditory, I may say, “I hear you, and…”
Communication is really an art.
Back to Meditations
Chose a modern translation and read Book 3 while sipping my afternoon coffee.
Like you, I was struck by #2. I think the idea of noticing the beauty of the odds and ends which are typically rejects and leftovers is quite high-brow because it means that the person is benevolent and observant:
This time round, I paid more attention to his idea of nurturing the divinity within us. It’s paradigm-shifting for me. I mean, we often talk about divine intervention, as if it were an external entity that only existed outside us. But what if we think that we are divine beings ourselves? But I don’t know how to make of this idea because I am not schooled in mediation.
Since I found the concept of divinity novel, I really liked Book 3’s ending.
More later!
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I'm admiring your meditative practice of reading Meditations :)
Communication is really an art.
Indeed. Reading that book came with a dawning understanding that actually practicing communication in the way it describes is a heroic effort. It's pretty easy to read and understand the concept, but to really practice it in daily life take so much patience and self awareness. The sort of dedication Marcus is describing all over this book...
This time round, I paid more attention to his idea of nurturing the divinity within us.
Yeah, this is a fascinating topic. In my other posts on the religious history ideas, my interpretation was essentially that the emergence of this idea of divinity existing within humans has been a long, slow and very painful collective investigation. I tend to relate to this idea through a perspective based in meditation because I've immersed myself in that the last few years, but that grounding isn't necessary. Everybody is bringing unique experience and perspective to the collective table, and I'm often inspired, excited and humbled to see that.
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