Meditations: A New Translation

https://www.amazon.com/Meditations-New-Translation-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/0812968255

This is the one I own, it was recommended as a very good translation. It's actually in modern English. Effortless to understand.

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

It is written by the man himself and filled with a lot of stoic wisdom that has become the basis for many of today's self help books. As a former military man it might strike a chord with him. It also doesn't come across as a "self-help" book since it is basically Marcus's personal reflections to himself.

I highly recommend this translation and Introduction essay of the meditations by Gregory Hays

https://www.amazon.com/Meditations-New-Translation-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/0812968255

Meandering musings - mostly organizing my own thoughts.

LONG TERM - 6 to 24months

• Crypto markets have a lot more liquidity sloshing around compared to the peak of the last bull, but they still represent a fractional amount of what's present in even tiny legacy finance ones. Substantial violent moves like what we saw on 08/01 are possible when liquidity remains thin. This is likely to slowly change as capital inflows expand liquidity.

• The macro trend is flight from fiat due to BRRRRR. Alternative assets--equities, metals, crypto--are likely to all appreciate. Most of this will be parked in BTC & Ether--witness the gigantic flows into Greyscale's products.

• The above will be compounding what appears to be shaping as the bull market cycle of 2021 - 2022/23, hat tip /u/intothecryptoverse, see: Ether's log-scale valuation from inception, super-imposed to BTC's from inception.

• This will be additionally compounded by DeFi products iterating at break-neck speed and L2 solutions becoming increasingly viable. Shit is janky, but it's undoubtedly the future. Innovation is mushrooming--what's lagging is the attention span & knowledge base of money managers playing in outdated sandboxes. This is where alpha is generated, and we're incredibly lucky to be early on.

TLDR: Overall bullish pending severe RealWorld crises that provoke massive risk-off consolidations. We should be methodically thinking about exit planning, tax issues & the rest of the logistical implications of a successful thesis playing out.

Given the hectic reaction to a price jump of about $150, the most applicable pieces of advice seem to be:

• Find a way to do some goddamn squats
• Read this every other day EDIT: courtesy of u/dashby1 - Meditations.pdf
• Sort the major components of your well-being out: sleeping, diet, relationships

Project: get your emotions in check.

SHORT TERM - 1 to 6 months

• The current consolidation is precisely what we should be looking for if we expect further appreciation through the rest of the year. Choppy trading allows overheated RSIs to cool off & new supports to lock in. Profit taking after substantial run-ups is both expected as well as healthy.
• Attempting to time major ETH or BTC moves here strikes me as brave and/or foolish. Margin plays doubly so. IF you're dabbling, tight stops. I'd recommend instead getting more & more familiar w/ various kinds of yield farming plays & placing small bets on DeFi moonshots if you're looking to increase crypto/ETH exposure.
• I expect a few weeks worth of ranging, followed by another rapid ascent to the $550 - $750 area, where there's quite a bit of resistance & more profit taking is likely.

TLDR: Short-term trading & margin remain dangerous. If you don't know how to use the major DeFi plantforms (Compound, Aave, pooling on Uniswap & Balancer, just to begin with) then you're behind the curve & should consider investing time & resources in catching up.

Good luck to all, & godspeed.

There are subtle differences, but nothing significant. Most people opt for Hays' translation.

It’s from this translation of his Meditations. Definitely worth a read!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0812968255/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_CMddFb08SH6T3

Best $8 you'll ever spend.

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

this version in specific

https://www.amazon.com/Meditations-New-Translation-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/0812968255/

I've only done yoga itself a few times, but very similar concepts appear in mindfulness meditation and in stoicism, both of which I have a bit more experience with.

For guided mindfulness meditation (which isn't "junior" or "beginner" just because it has a guide, by the way - one of the first things people tell you in courses is that tons of people use guides no matter how long they've been doing it) I recommend one of these three:
1. Sam Harris's "Waking Up" App - Sam Harris is a somewhat controversial figure in general, but the stuff on his app is mostly about understanding experience and is largely apolitical.
2. The app "Ten Percent" - lots of different kinds of meditations, some mindfulness and some not.
3. Weldon Green's MAC program - this one is focused on performance in games, but it is fundamentally the same thing. I found it very helpful, both in the way that it promised (I got much better at League) and in general with my mental health.

Source: I have paid for all of the above and have completed the main course on the waking up app, completed the MAC program, and completed several of the courses on Ten Percent.

For Stoicism, I have less personal experience, but I've read through Marcus Aurelius's Meditations and found them extremely helpful. For books like this, it matters a lot which translation you get - Meditations can be pretty impenetrable, or really fun to read. I recommend the Hays translation.

We are all human. We are all beautifully imperfect. Those imperfections are a way for us to see where we can improve. I mean what is the purpose of life if we are all running around completely perfect human beings? We wouldn't need each other. We would have every personality, every thought, every understanding inside of us that we need. What is most important to me is you being yourself. I want to see that person. Let's not be shy because of what people may think. Trust me, I'm very guilty of this too.

I did quote it a few times. Get this version. The person I trust the most who's read a lot of the different translations says this is the best one by far.

From another comment in this thread: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0812968255

If that's not accessible to you in the UK, I am happy to post you a copy at no cost to you.

Gregory Hayes : New translation Meditations: A New Translation https://www.amazon.com/dp/0812968255/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_YUHDFbP6B5M6C

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius is where I started. Personally I like the Gregory Hays translation.

There is no best but this is one of the most recommended. [Hays translation, Amazon link] (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0812968255/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_igG9EbZK3GZ6W)

I'm glad I could help! If you do end up getting it, the translation I have and the one most people end up picking is Gregory Hays' translation.

There is one way through this, and that's changing your attitude to it. I know, you hate it, it's a horrible answer, why the fuck isn't there a cure, etc. I'm with you. But the reality is this is where we're at right now.

I was in your shoes a couple years ago when I first got it. I became a husk of a human. I also had severe hyperacusis, had to wear ear muffs or plugs everywhere I went, lost my girlfriend of 4 years due to the extreme mental anguish and stress. Wanted to die. Almost did.

After months and months -- after my hyperacusis started to subside -- I read this translation of Marcus Aurelius's Meditations and can honestly say the perception shift it granted me saved my life. It gave me the presence of mind to return to my pre-tinnitus meditation practice; to work on accepting it; to see that it was exactly as harmful as I let it be; that my reactions to it are just thoughts, and thoughts can be changed.

I'll buy you a copy if you can't afford it. Just let me know.

I had a couple good years of stability and ultimately started to forget that I even had it. I know, that sounds impossible. It feels that way to me too -- the past few weeks I suffered a setback (not sure why, though I have a couple theories), and I went back to a dark place I thought I had left behind forever. My hyperacusis and tinnitus appear to be irreversibly worse, and I may have to change careers in the middle of a pandemic because of it. But this time, armed with the experience of last time, I already feel myself coming out of it, getting past it, remembering that tinnitus isn't a threat and is as big of a problem as I let it be.

This experience changes you and makes you more resilient. But you've first got to understand that it's possible.

You can wait all your life waiting for FX-322 to work out (and god knows I hope it does), but in the meantime you've got a life to live. Tinnitus is just another thing that's happening, just like the wind outside and the dog breathing on the couch and the hum of the fridge. It's happening whether you like it or not -- how you react to it is up to you.

I would check out

Meditations: A New Translation https://www.amazon.com/dp/0812968255?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

My copy just came in yesterday and will be essential during these uncertain times. Meditation is a great start as well. Good luck friend!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0812968255?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

There you go!

Many members of this sub recommend the Gregory Hays translation. I find it to be easy for modern readers to understand while maintaining the meaning of what Marcus Aurelius intended.

Amazon, though, somehow jumbles up different translations for the same title (based on the reviews), so it wouldn't be my first choice. I bought an eBook copy on Kobo, myself.

Meditations: a new translation by Gregory Hays

https://www.amazon.com/Meditations-New-Translation-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/0812968255

It could also be the translation you're reading. I tried some variations of Meditations but this version is the best I've found. https://www.amazon.com/Meditations-New-Translation-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/0812968255/

You can't control the world, it's this massive ship that is on it's own course out in the open sea. If you try to swim out to it and push it to go a different direction it will not budge. Instead live your own life and focus on the things that you actually can control.

Also, remember that christianity is a millenia-old doomsday death cult that looks forward to a hypothetically conjectured "end of the world" with an emphasis that one does not truly start living until after oneself has died. It revels in the collapse of humanity and physical death, it's predicated on mythology and lies, and you are smarr enough to avoid it.

Marcus Aurelius' "Meditations" might do you wonders at this moment for you and r/Stoicism, I highly recommend.

np, i have this hosted on my wiki - check out openproject, its a blog/ticketing/calendar/wiki, ect. solution you can self host - PM me if you start homelabbing and have questions.

some good books that really helped me that i wish i knew about when i started in IT:
Time management for system administrators - old but really good, helped build gauard rails so i spend less time fighting fires and more time to spend on fun projects
essenitalism - how i learned how to say no
4 hr work week - inspirational and lots of good nuggets
Meditations - how i learned to not sweat the small stuff and keep things in perspective

It’s all a matter of personal preference, but most people here seem to prefer the newer Hays translations as well as the Hicks one.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0812968255/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_imm_t1_.mx2FbNXNEAXE

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0140449469/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_imm_t1_Nox2FbEH43380

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0140442103/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_imm_t1_Cpx2FbAZCRWSQ

https://www.amazon.com/Meditations-New-Translation-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/0812968255 Is it this one ?

https://www.amazon.com/Meditations-New-Translation-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/0812968255/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=meditations&qid=1583685259&sr=8-1

Title - Author

Summary

Number 1 recommendation: War of Art - Stephen Pressfield

Best book on making shit happen. Fight resistance and do something. it's the only way to become something.

Man's Search for Meaning Viktor E. Frankl

"The meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour." "The more one forgets himself - by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love - the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself." Self actualization is only possible as a side effect of self-transcendence." We discover this meaning in life in 3 different ways: 1) by creating a work or doing a deed, 2) by experiencing something or encountering someone, 3) by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering."

The Life You Can Save Peter Singer

Based on our level of income, we should give 10% of our income to the world's poorest people. 15000 children die daily from preventable diseases. 700 million live on less than $1.90 per day.

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck - Mark Manson

Only give a fuck about the important things. Choose very carefully what to give a fuck about. Denial of Death: Death Terror and the physical self vs conceptual self. civilization is just a massive immortality project. like the Gilgamesh project of Sapiens

The Second Mountain - David Brooks

So many successful people quickly arrive at the summit of their first mountain: material success, fame, family, wife and kids, big house, cars, money, travel. They quickly realize that while some of it is nice, not much of it matters. So they look out in the distance and they realize there is a second mountain that they can start climbing. This is the four commitments that define a life of meaning and purpose: to a spouse and family, to a vocation, to a philosophy or faith, and to a community.

A Guide to the Good Life - William Irvine

Stoic philosophy for the modern

Sapiens - Yuval Noah Harari

All of human history in 300 pages. Provides an excellent perspective of where we've been, where we are now, and where we can go as a species.

When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi

Do something meaningful while you're alive. Doctor dying of cancer continues to help others while he's dying.

10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head Dan Harris

ABC News anchor gets hooked on war and drugs. Goes on a spirtual journey from the whackos to scientists. Goes on a 10 day retreat. Discovers meditation/mindfulness can be a powerful tool.

Waking Up - Sam Harris

offers mediation and introspection as an alternative to faith based religion

Meditations Marcus Aurelius

Translation matters here, get this one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0812968255/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_jRMtFbZWMM1HP

“Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”

Letter to a Young Muslim Omar Saif Ghobash

Changed my perspective on Islam and Muslims in general. Great book to read before doing 2 years in the Middle East. Very good primary on being a Muslim in modern times. UAE ambassador to Russia writes letters to his son about growing up Muslim and questioning Islamic authority so as not to become a radical

The Simple Path to Wealth JL Collins

Save 50% of your income, buy VTSAX, get F-You money and do what you want

Digital Minimalism - Cal Newport

Delete all social media. Solitude is important. go for walks. disable notifications on your phone. only conversations count, not connecting digitially.

The Obstacle is the Way - Ryan Holiday

Stoicism. Life only has meaning through challenges and growth, so relish obstacles in your way. Use obstacles to your advantage. Find the advantage to whatever situation you're in. Perception, action and will to succeed.

Stillness is the Key - Ryan Holiday

Be calm amongst chaos to achieve what must be done. Stoic philosophy. Still your mind. Limit your information diet. What is urgent is not always important. A sound mind in a strong body. Get sleep, exercise, find a leisure activity.

The Courage to be Disliked - Fumitake Koga and Ichiro Kishimi

Division of tasks. You can't change anyone else or the world, only yourself. Life has no meaning other than what we assign to it.

How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie

Don't be a dick and give people what they want to get what you want. https://fs.blog/2012/07/how-to-win-friends-and-influence-people/

Hell Yeah or No - Derek Sivers

Do things that are important

And finally, just a good book to read:

East of Eden John Steinbeck

I'd suggest The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, it's actually the untitled personal journal of a Roman Emperor (who happened to be a philosopher) that served more to help him reflect and deal with the bullshit in his life more so than a work intended for publishing, even if you don't jive with the philosophy it's fascinating as a historical document, very short, very readable, and quite affordable (this translation also has a good historical contextualization and introduction to the basics of stoicism).

>“At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: “I have to go to work — as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for — the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?”

>So you were born to feel “nice”? Instead of doing things and experiencing them? Don’t you see the plants, the birds, the ants and spiders and bees going about their individual tasks, putting the world in order, as best they can? And you’re not willing to do your job as a human being? Why aren’t you running to do what your nature demands?

>You don’t love yourself enough. Or you’d love your nature too, and what it demands of you.”

Just to add on to this: I do think it’s natural for men to gradually become “less passionate” as they get older. I just don’t like those words to describe it. I think it’s more of a maturity thing. Rather than framing your mindset as less passionate/depressed, see it more as more stoic or more rational minded. Three things I would recommend the most: meditate, read, and hike. I already stated another comment how hiking as reinvigorated me and given me a new fresh perspective on life. Meditation: I’m not just talking about the cliche sit in lotus position in silence mediation. I’m talking completely changing your perspective on life through mindfulness. It’s so easy to go into autopilot mode and let life blur past you. PAY ATTENTION. Be mindful of everything around you. Look people in the eyes and focus on them when you talk to them. Focus all of your energy on every task you do and find the calm satisfaction that comes with completing a task. Find the little joys in life that seem trivial: how green the grass at the local park is, how blue the sky is, how beautiful the architecture of your local city is. Being present in the moment helps to shut down the monkey chatter in your brain but also helps to wake you up from the autopilot that depression so often causes.

Lastly: reading. Read like crazy. Read everything from the ancient philosophers to the modern day self improvement gurus. Read classical literature. Gain as much wisdom as you can from these works. Embrace getting older and wiser. Some books to start you off: The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living https://www.amazon.com/dp/0735211736/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_QUIBFb3KQFZFW

Meditations: A New Translation https://www.amazon.com/dp/0812968255/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_tVIBFbVHFJHD3

Free PDFs from Tim Ferris - Tao of Seneca

Marcus Aurelius - Meditations (free Kindle, $0.99 audible)

Alan Watts - The Way of Zen

Welcome! As others have said, you’re never too young nor too old to begin studying anything, especially Stoicism!

For starters, be sure to look at the subreddit’s FAQ and reading list. For free resources, Daily Stoic has a good 7 day starter email series. I’ll also recommend all of the episodes of the Good Fortune podcast. If there’s two books you pick up, I suggest this Beginner Guide to Stoicism & this translation of Meditations.

As far as being a Stoic, it’s a consistent & lifelong practice. You’ll never stop learning or growing, and that’s a good thing! Hopefully these replies can get you started & remember this community is here whenever you need help.

Well, let me start by welcoming you to the community! My suggestion is a little complex, as I'm personally a little over a year since I discovered Stoicism. I've read a lot, found a lot of dead-ends, and so I'm going to try to caution you against a few directions. The first thing I recommend is to take it easy: don't burn yourself out. Don't buy a truckload of books, either—contrary to what some authors and videomakers might urge, whether you read one or fifty books on Stoicism, it'll make no difference if you aren't reading the right material and actually utilizing the information to make a decisive, positive change on your life.

Actually, this part is pretty vital. I wasted a lot of time before I learnt this—there are two kinds of authors who write about Stoicism. There's your self-help authors who basically produce self-development books with a small handful of distinctions, like Ryan Holiday, and then there's the more philosophical, scholarly authors who are really hard to get into as a beginner. Ryan Holiday is someone I have a lot of appreciation for, though: he has popularized Stoicism, brought in endless waves of newcomers with his books (this is because he has a career in marketing) but besides marketing Stoicism to the masses, he doesn't actually offer much philosophy in his books. In my experience, you can summarize every book of his with its title, and each chapter is more or less him backing up the title's assertion with popular self-help references (he was mentored by the extremely popular self-help author Robert Greene, and it shows.) Still, now that you're here and trying to learn more about practical usage of the philosophy, I'd caution you against falling in the genre of self-help (that's an endless pit, and there's little reward at the bottom other than a lot of wasted time and money.) Instead, here are some resources I think could help.

• For videos, these in order should get you acquainted well enough with the fundamentals and foundation.
• A solid introduction
• An amendment that goes a little deeper
• An existentialist neighboring view (compare this to what you already know)
• My favorite lecture on the philosophy
• And why videos alone won't do you any good
• For books, these are the best ones to read in my experience (I've read a lot this past year.)
• The Practicing Stoic by Ward Farnsworth—this was, hands down, the best book on the philosophy I'd ever read. I wish I'd found it sooner. Farnsworth adeptly maneuvers you through each core tenet of the philosophy with input from a very large variety of Stoic opinions from antiquity to the modern age, and everything in between.
• Meditations by Marcus Aurelius—this is the Hays translation, which is my favorite, as it is about as succinct and brusquely eloquent as one would imagine Marcus Aurelius was. This is generally the starting place for the original texts—Marcus is the most "personable," because this is a journal to himself, and thus he sounds extremely relatable and not at all preachy.
• After that, tackle Seneca & Epictetus—for the specific texts, this subreddit's FAQ is comprehensive enough to give you some direction there.

If I'm anything to go by, your first year of development will be very fun and interesting. If you follow the resources and acquire a book or two, you'll find yourself captivated by the mindset and history, but... likely little more. Where you have to put in real effort is to, at the end of every philosophical suggestion, ask yourself how you could actually use it to improve your life—and then make a commitment to do so. Otherwise, you're just reading about an ancient philosophy, and not applying its many advantages to you. Anyway, best of luck and enjoy! Hope this helped in some way.

How to be a stoic https://www.amazon.com/How-Be-Stoic-Ancient-Philosophy/dp/0465097952

A guide to the good life https://www.amazon.com/Guide-Good-Life-Ancient-Stoic/dp/1522632735

The stoic challenge https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0393652491/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Mans search for meaning https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0807014273/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=&sr=

How to think like a Roman emperor https://www.amazon.com/How-Think-Like-Roman-Emperor/dp/1250196620

1. The daily stoic https://www.amazon.com/Daily-Stoic-Meditations-Wisdom-Perseverance/dp/0735211736

Stillness is the key https://www.amazon.com/Stillness-Key-Ryan-Holiday/dp/0525538585

Obstacle is the way https://www.amazon.com/Obstacle-Way-Timeless-Turning-Triumph/dp/1591846358

Ego is the enemy https://www.amazon.com/Ego-Enemy-Ryan-Holiday/dp/1591847818

Meditations https://www.amazon.com/Meditations-New-Translation-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/0812968255

Letters from a stoic https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0141395850/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Discourses, fragments and handbook https://www.amazon.com/Discourses-Fragments-Handbook-Oxford-Classics/dp/0199595186