Admittedly, I have long admired Marcus Aurelius and, to alter words from Ben Jonson, have honoured him “this side of idolatry”. The ‘Meditations’ was not written for others: it was a kind of “stock taking” of himself, his reactions and behaviour. Though I am in no way a specialist in either, I am struck by important similarities between Stoicism and Buddhism. So much of our attitude to life and death depends on our eschatology, our ideas and beliefs about death and the afterlife. I draw attention to what I wrote in ‘Colombo Telegraph’ (1 February 2018) under the caption ‘Religious doctrine and religion’.

Source: The Nation December 02, 2020 01:03 UTC