Marcus Aurelius · Meditations §6.31.1

Awakening from Dreams to Look upon Reality

Passage 168 of 486 · Greek

Summary

He urges himself to sober up as if waking from a dream, and to look at the realities of life with a wakeful mind just as he looked at those dreams.

§6.31.1Ἀνάνηφε καὶ ἀνακαλοῦ σεαυτὸν καὶ ἐξυπνισθεὶς πάλιν καὶ ἐννοήσας ὅτι ὄνειροί σοι ἠνώχλουν, πάλιν ἐγρηγορὼς βλέπε ταῦτα, ὡς ἐκεῖνα ἔβλεπες.

Sober yourself and recall yourself, and having been awakened again and having understood that it was dreams that were troubling you, look at these things again, being awake, as you used to look at those.

Notes

6.31.1ταῦτα, ὡς ἐκεῖνα — Contrast of demonstrative pronouns. `ταῦτα` ("these things") refers to the actual realities of the waking state, while `ἐκεῖνα` ("those things") refers to the preceding `ὄνειροι` ("dreams"). He advises himself to view the troubling matters of the world with the same detachment as one looks back on a dream after waking.
6.31.1ἐγρηγορὼς — Perfect active participle masculine singular nominative of the verb `ἐγείρω` ("to awaken"). The perfect form `ἐγρήγορα` has a present meaning "to be awake". It emphasizes that one should look at reality in a state of fully awake consciousness after waking from a dream.

Cite this passage

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations §6.31.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0562.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:6.31.1

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