Time is a Flat Circle

It’s unlikely, given his feelings about the Christians, that Marcus Aurelius ever read any of the books in the Old Testament, but if he had read Ecclesiates he might have liked what he saw. Because like the Stoic observations that fill Meditations, over and over again, this book of the Bible comments on the timeless repetition of history. “The thing that hath been,” we read in one part, “it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” In another: “The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits.” In another: “That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past."Whatever happens has always happened,” Marcus Aurelius wrote, “and always will, and is happening at this very moment, everywhere. Just like this." So maybe he did read Ecclesiates? Or maybe that’s actually the point? Which is that we are constantly discovering the things we forgot and thus independently coming to the same conclusions over and over again. Marcus wanted to remind himself that his reign was not any different than the reign of Vespasian. It was filled with people doing the same things: eating, drinking, fighting, dying, worrying, and craving. And the future, even with its magnificent technological advancements, would be much the same. Forever and ever. "Time is a flat circle,” Rustin Cohle says in the first season of True Detective. “Everything we have done or will do we will do over and over and over again forever." And so it was that another generation found out about Nietzche's idea of "eternal recurrence," which is itself that same idea we find in Marcus Aurelius, which is the same idea in the Bible, which probably, and humblingly, goes back even further than that. But that’s life, the same thing happening again and again, always and forever. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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  Welcome to The Daily Stoic, where each day we read a short passage designed to help you cultivate the strength, insight, wisdom necessary for living the good life. Each one of these passages is based on the 2,000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us at DailyStoic.com. "Time is a flat circle." It's unlikely, given his feelings about the Christians, that Marcus Aurelius ever read any of the books in the Old Testament. But if he had read Ecclesiates, he might have liked what he saw. Because like the Stoic observations

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  that fill meditations over and over again, this book of the Bible comments on the timeless repetition of history. "The thing that hath been," we read in one part, "it is that which shall be, and that which is done is that which shall be done, and there is no new thing under the sun." In another, "the wind goeth towards the south and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits." In another, "that which hath been is now, and that which is to be hath already been, and God requireth that which has passed."

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  "Whatever happens has always happened," Marcus Aurelius wrote, "and always will, and is happening at this very moment everywhere, just like this." So maybe he did read Ecclesiates? Or maybe that's really the point, which is that we are constantly discovering and forgetting and independently coming to the same conclusions over and over again. Marcus wanted to remind himself that his reign was not any different than the reign of Vespasian, and that it was filled with people doing the same things: eating, drinking, fighting, dying, worrying, and craving, and that the future, even with its magnificent technological advancements, would be much the same forever and ever.

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  "Time is a flat circle," the character says in the first season of True Detective. Everything we have done or will do, we do over and over and over again forever. And so it was that another generation found out about Nietzsche's idea of eternal recurrence, which is itself that same idea we find in Marcus Aurelius, which is the same idea in the Bible, and probably and humbly goes back even further than that. But that's life, the same thing happening again and again, always and forever. Hey, everyone. Remember Marcus Aurelius said that you could leave life right now, and that's why you must let that thought determine what you do and say and think.

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  He wanted you to constantly be meditating on your mortality, so you lived life to the fullest and you never wasted a moment. That's why we made our Memento Mori Pendant, so you can wear it, you can have that thought close to your heart at all times. And we actually have a new gold-plated version of the pendant. Our Memento Mori Pendant and our coins are some of our bestselling products. We've got a lot of requests for this. You can check it out in the Daily Stoic store. Just go to dailystoic.com/store.