| How many books have been published since the time of Zeno? Hundreds of thousands? Millions? We know that Chrysippus, a later scholar of the Stoic school, himself wrote something like 700 little books and essays. How many books of philosophy, how many memoirs, how many books of self-help, how many books on leadership have there been through the centuries? Literally too many to even estimate. And yet, Meditations stands more or less alone from them all. Nearly every other book was written to be published. Even the diaries and journals—which Meditations is sometimes described as—of other famous or powerful people are far more about what those people were doing or were written with some kind of affect, hoping to be seen by later generations. David Hernández de la Fuente, a Spanish classist and translator of Marcus Aurelius (and wonderful Daily Stoic podcast guest), explains that Meditations "was not conceived for us to read, but rather as the vehicle that this cultured man—who had a contemplative attitude—found to question himself." In other words, it was a book for the author not for the reader. What we see in Meditations is not the finished product of a philosopher but the process of philosophy—we are watching Marcus philosophize to himself about right and wrong, about his temper, about his fears, about death, about power, about the meaning of life in a dark and painful world. In Pierre Hadot's fascinating book on Meditations called The Inner Citadel, he describes this as "spiritual exercises." Philosophy then wasn't a thing Marcus read about or wrote about, it was a thing he did—that just happened to manifest itself into a book that survived after his death. This makes Meditations a remarkable and peerless work. It makes it authentic and raw. It somehow manages to make an otherwise utterly inaccessible life (that of a Roman emperor) accessible to generation after generation, even thousands of years later. He'd probably be mortified to know we were reading it—and would have written and edited very differently if he knew people would ever see it. It's like we get to eavesdrop on one of the world's greatest singers giving the most earnest performance of their lifetime, totally to themselves. To not avail yourself of this work? To not dip in and out of its accidental wisdom is crazy. History and circumstances have blessed us beyond comprehension. Let's not let it go to waste. | 
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