Even if the body, the closest companion of the mind, is “cut or burned, or festers or decays,” we can preserve our ruling faculty in a peaceful state as long as we don’t judge bodily sensations as being intrinsically good or bad.18 Marcus also calls this being “indifferent to indifferent things.”19 There’s a particularly important passage where he spells out the subtleties of Stoic psychology in this regard.20 We should keep our ruling faculty undisturbed by external things, including bodily sensations of pain and pleasure. He says this means not allowing it to unite with them but rather
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