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June 7 - June 29, 2023
“The power of philosophy to blunt the blows of fate is beyond belief. No missile can settle in her body; she is well-protected and impenetrable. She spoils the force of some missiles and wards them off with the loose folds of her dress, as if they had no power to harm; others she dashes aside, and throws them back with such force that they rebound upon the sender. Farewell.” – Seneca
“How long are you going to wait before you demand the best of yourself?”
You’re no longer a child but a full-grown person, and yet you procrastinate, Epictetus reminds himself. “You will not notice that you are making no progress but you will live and die as someone quite ordinary.” From now on, he warns himself, and all of us, to live like a mature human being and never set aside what you think is best to do. And whenever you encounter anything difficult, remember that the contest is now, you are at the Olympics, you cannot wait any longer. We don’t have the luxury of postponing our training, because unlike the Olympic Games, the contest we participate in every
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“If it is not right, do not do it, if it is not true, do not say it.” – Marcus Aurelius
No tree becomes deep-rooted and sturdy unless strong winds blow against it. This shaking and pulling is what makes the tree tighten its grip and plant its roots more securely; the fragile trees are those grown in a sunny valley. “Why then,” asks Seneca, “do you wonder that good men are shaken in order that they may grow strong?” Just like for the trees, heavy rain and strong winds are to the advantage of good people, it’s how they may grow calm, disciplined, humble, and strong.
“First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.” – Epictetus
“[the philosopher] is the one who knows the fundamental thing: how to live.”
A “philosopher” literally translates from the Greek into a “lover of wisdom,” someone who loves to learn how to live, someone who wants to attain practical wisdom concerning how to actually live their life.
“Dig within. Within is the wellspring of Good; and it is always ready to bubble up, if you just dig.” – Marcus Aurelius
Emotional Resilience “To bear trials with a calm mind robs misfortune of its strength and burden.” – Seneca
Stoics, most of us are enslaved to passions—strong negative emotions such as irrational fear, grief, or anger. This is why so many of us are miserable, we’re far away from being a tower of strength, we’re far away from being at good terms with our ideal self. Our passions cause us to act far beneath of what we’re capable of.
Stoicism has nothing to do with suppressing or hiding one’s emotions or being emotionless. Rather, it’s about acknowledging our emotions, reflecting on what causes them, and learning to redirect them for our own good. In other words, it’s more about unslaving ourselves from negative emotions, more like taming rather than getting rid of them.
Stoic author Donald Robertson explains it well: “A brave man isn’t someone who doesn’t experience any trace of fear whatsoever but someone who acts courageously despite feeling anxiety
What’s tranquility anyway? Seneca talks about the power of euthymia in his classic letters. He tells us that euthymia, which gets translated as tranquility, is all about knowing your path and walking that path. It’s the feeling we get when we truly and utterly trust ourselves. You’re confident that what you’re doing is right, and you don’t need to listen left and right for what others have to say. You don’t need to second guess and compare yourself to others all the time. You trust in what you’re doing because you’re trying your best, and you’re living accordingly to your values and know it’s
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“I made a prosperous voyage when I suffered shipwreck.” – Zeno of Citium
Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BCE – 65 CE) “If a man knows not which port he sails, no wind is favorable.” – Seneca
According to author Nassim Taleb, who devoted a whole chapter to Seneca in his book Antifragile, “his fortune was three hundred million denarii (for a sense of equivalence, at about the same period in time, Judas got thirty denarii, the equivalent of a month’s salary, to betray Jesus).” This extreme wealth while being a philosopher that promoted the indifference of external possessions is a reason why Seneca sometimes gets called a hypocrite. The other fact that raises questions is that he was the tutor and advisor of Emperor Nero, who was a self-indulgent and cruel ruler and had his mother
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Musonius Rufus (c. 30 CE – c. 100 CE) “Since every man dies, it is better to die with distinction than to live long.” – Musonius Rufus
Rufus advocated for a practical and lived philosophy. As he put it, "Just as there is no use in medical study unless it leads to the health of the human body, so there is no use to a philosophical doctrine unless it leads to the virtue of the human soul."
Epictetus (c. 55 CE – c. 135 CE) “Don’t explain your philosophy. Embody it.” – Epictetus
Epictetus was born a slave in Hierapolis (present-day Pamukkale in Turkey). His real name, if he had one, is unknown. Epictetus simply means “property” or “the thing that was bought.”
Marcus Aurelius (121 CE – 180 CE) “It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”
“The blazing fire makes flames and brightness out of everything thrown into it.” – Marcus Aurelius
This is crucial in Stoicism, it’s not events that make us happy or miserable, but our interpretation of those events.
“A good character is the only guarantee of everlasting, carefree happiness.” – Seneca
The ultimate goal of Stoicism is positioned in the center of the triangle: eu-daimon-ia, to live a happy and smoothly flowing life. To achieve this goal, we need to be on good terms (eu) with our inner daimon, the highest version of ourselves, our natural inborn potential. In whatever you do, imagine there are two lines: the higher line indicating what you’re capable of and the lower line what you’re actually doing. Living with areté is about trying to reach the higher line and express what you’re capable of in this very moment. That’s actualizing the highest version of yourself, that’s being
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Alright, virtue is about trying to be the best you can be in every moment. And if you’re able to do that, then you’ll have a good relationship with your highest self and will live a happy and smoothly flowing life.
“attention” (prosochê). In the words of Marcus Aurelius, we should pay “vigorous attention . . . to the performance of the task in hand with precise analysis, with unaffected dignity, with human sympathy, with dispassionate justice.” We can achieve such a mind free of other thoughts by performing “each action as if it were the last of your life.”
A person cannot attain anything good for himself, says Epictetus, “unless he contributes some service to the community.”
That’s the nature of the social and rational animal we are. We’re designed to live among other human beings, very much like bees, says Musonius Rufus: “A bee is not able to live alone: it perishes when isolated.” And Marcus conveniently adds, “What brings no benefit to the hive brings none to the bee.” Our actions must benefit the common welfare, or they won’t benefit ourselves. We’re like a massive organism: all depending on one another.
If we seek the very best in ourselves, we will actively care for the wellbeing of all other human beings. The best for others will be the best for you.
we seek the very best in ourselves, we will actively care for the wellbeing of all other human beings. The best for others will be the best for you.
“What is it then to be properly educated? It is learning to apply our natural preconceptions to the right things according to Nature, and beyond that to separate the things that lie within our power from those that don’t.” – Epictetus
“This is wholly up to you—who is there to prevent you being good and sincere?” Marcus Aurelius often reminded himself of the power he was granted by nature—the power to choose his actions and craft his own character. He said people can’t admire you for what’s been granted to you by nature, but there are many other qualities to cultivate. “So display those virtues which are wholly in your own power—integrity, dignity, hard work, self-denial, contentment, frugality, kindness, independence, simplicity, discretion, magnanimity.”
“God, grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change, The Courage to change the things I can, And the Wisdom to know the difference.”
Imagine a dog leashed to a moving cart. The leash is long enough to give the dog two options: (1) either he can smoothly follow the direction of the cart, over which he has no control, and at the same time enjoy the ride and explore the surroundings, (2) or he can stubbornly resist the cart with all his force and end up being dragged alongside anyway—for the rest of the ride.
Epictetus’ advice to heart: “Seek not for events to happen as you wish but rather wish for events to happen as they do and your life will go smoothly.”
The only good, then, is living in accordance with nature, fulfilling our natural potential, and thus living by the virtues of wisdom, justice, courage, and self-discipline.
Whenever virtue is involved, all else needs to give way. “Love conquers all” might be romantic and make good films, but it’s precisely the opposite of the Stoic priorities—not even love should be traded if the price is the compromising of your character. So go ahead and seek friendship, as long as it doesn’t need you to break with virtue. It’s better to endure loneliness, sickness, and poverty in an honorable manner than to seek friendship, health, and wealth in a shameful one. The good person will always pursue virtue and avoid vice at all costs.
Seneca eloquently expressed something similar, “Life is neither good nor bad; it is the space for both good and bad.” Life and all its various situations can be used wisely or foolishly, it’s our actions that make it good or bad. That’s important. Although external things are indifferent, how we handle them is not. It’s exactly the way of use of indifferent things that makes a happy or crappy life.
“If you want anything good, you must get it from yourself.” – Epictetus
As Seneca puts it, “The wise man looks to the purpose of all actions, not their consequences; beginnings are in our power but Fortune judges the outcome, and I do not grant her a verdict upon me.”
“There are three things in your composition: body, breath, and mind,” Marcus Aurelius reminds himself. “The first two are yours to the extent that you must take care for them, but only the third is in the full sense your own.” Only the mind is truly yours. Only the mind is within the Stoic circle of control. All else is not or only partially within our control.
Viktor Frankl, who says in his book A Man’s Search for Meaning, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing; the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.”
The freedom of choice, or how the Stoics call it, reasoned choice, is really about actively choosing our response rather than reactively going with the default response. In order to be able to do that, we need to bring awareness into the situation so we can spot our first impression and avoid getting carried away by it and respond reactively. The reactive response could be unvirtuous behavior and cause further unhealthy emotions such as anger, fear, or desire. Instead, if we’re able to step back from the initial impression, we can evaluate that impression rationally, look at other possible
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Donald Robertson says it well in his book Stoicism and the Art of Happiness, “The majority of ordinary people lack fulfillment and peace of mind because their values are confused and internally conflicted. We waste our lives chasing after an illusion of Happiness, based on a mixture of hedonism, materialism and egotism—crazy, self-defeating values absorbed from the foolish world around us.”
“You are silly,” Epictetus says, “[if] you would have the things which are not in your power to be in your power, and the things which belong to others to be yours.” If we could carefully separate between the things which are up to us and the things which are not, and focus on those up to us and let the rest happen as it will, then we’d get much less jerked around by the negative emotions caused by faulty judgments.
We should endure what we irrationally fear and dislike with courage and perseverance. We should renounce (or abstain from) what we irrationally crave through discretion and self-discipline.
“Let philosophy scrape off your own faults, rather than be a way to rail against the faults of others.” – Seneca.
