The obstacle will activate creativity in devising a new way to help people-a new way 'to live as nature requires' and achieve our goal rightly oriented toward the logos.Īs Marcus states, 'The impediment to action advances action. When we have proper intentions, or when we're disposed to act virtuously, our mind will 'accommodate and adapt' to the hindrance. But, they cannot block 'our intentions or our dispositions.' People might block our attempts to live out our purpose. When they 'obstruct our proper tasks, they become irrelevant to us' ( Meditations 5.20).

We aren't to try to control them or change them. …progress for a rational mind means not accepting falsehood or uncertainty in its perceptions, making unselfish actions its only aim, seeking and shunning only the things it has control over, embracing what nature demands of it-the nature in which it participates, as the leaf’s nature does in the tree’s. Action in alignment with what nature requires working for the good of others.Īgainst this backdrop we get Marcus's explanation of the mind's progress: We must help people because our basic nature is unselfish. We must actively participate in serving others. As part of the natural order, we need to make good use of reason to align with the rational and coherent order of the universe-the logos.

Marcus often uses the phrase 'to live as nature requires' to refer to our duty as human beings. This prompted me to dig deeper and offer a possible explanation. Several people were perplexed by the quote.

How, then, can an obstacle to a goal become the way to the goal. What stands in the way becomes the way.' It is from his Meditations, Book 5.20. The impediment to action advances action. The quote from Marcus Aurelius read, 'The mind adapts and converts to its own purposes the obstacle to our acting. I came across a quote by Marcus Aurelius that sounded paradoxical. When the Obstacle Becomes the Way Forward - Marcus Aurelius' Meditations 5.20Įvery once in a while you come across a quote that sounds deep but it leaves you scratching your head.

Stoicism the obstacle is the way