Humanitext Reader

Marcus Aurelius · Meditations §7.29.1

Eliminating Impressions and Focusing on the Present

Passage 225 of 486 · Greek

Summary

The author directs himself to practice rational disciplines, such as eliminating impressions, focusing on the present, analyzing things into cause and matter, contemplating death, and leaving others' errors where they arose.

§7.29.1Ἐξάλειψον τὴν φαντασίαν.
Wipe out the impression.
στῆσον τὴν νευροσπαστίαν.
Stop being pulled like a puppet.
περίγραψον τὸ ἐνεστὼς τοῦ χρόνου.
Circumscribe the present moment of time.
γνώρισον τὸ συμβαῖνον ἢ σοὶ ἢ ἄλλῳ.
Recognize what is happening either to you or to another.
δίελε καὶ μέρισον τὸ ὑποκείμενον εἰς τὸ αἰτιῶδες καὶ ὑλικόν.
Analyze and divide the subject matter into the causal and the material.
ἐννόησον τὴν ἐσχάτην ὥραν.
Keep in mind the last hour.
τὸ ἐκείνῳ ἁμαρτηθὲν ἐκεῖ κατάλιπε ὅπου ἡ ἁμαρτία ὑπέστη.
Leave the wrong committed by that person there where the wrong arose.

Notes

  1. §7.29.1τὴν νευροσπαστίαν — Meaning 'being pulled by strings', referring metaphorically to the state of mind being involuntarily dragged around by external impulses or passions.
  2. §7.29.1τὸ ἐνεστὼς τοῦ χρόνου — Meaning 'the present of time'. Together with the verb περίγραψον ('circumscribe'), it refers to the Stoic practice of isolating consciousness to the present moment, freeing it from worries about the past or the future.
  3. §7.29.1τὸ ἐκείνῳ ἁμαρτηθὲν — ἐκείνῳ is a dative of agent accompanying the passive participle ἁμαρτηθέν, meaning 'the wrong committed by that person'.

Cite this passage

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations §7.29.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0562.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:7.29.1

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