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May 19 - July 10, 2019
For one thing, we should not get attached to what can be taken away.
Marcus reminds us, “Receive without pride, let go without attachment.”
We should not hoard stuff. Most is useless and superfluous. We look at things as they’re for free because they come cheap or as gifts, but they cost us dearly. Seneca makes the point that there’s a hidden cost to all accum...
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Epictetus observes, “Freedom is not achieved by satisfying desire, but by eliminating it.”
True wealth lies in wanting less. “No person has the power to have everything they want,” Seneca says, “but it is in their power not to want what they don’t have, and to cheerfully put to good use what they do have.” Our goal should be to “seek riches, not from Fortune, but from ourselves.”
Practice 17
Take Back Your Time: Cut Out News and Other Timewasters
“It is essential for you to remember that the attention you give to any action should be in due proportion to its worth, for then you won’t tire and give up, if you aren’t busying yourself with lesser t...
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Seneca: “Until we have begun to go without them, we fail to realize how unnecessary many things are. We’ve been using them not because we needed them but because we had them . . . One of the causes of the troubles that beset us is the way our lives are guided by the example of others; instead of being set to rights by reason we’re seduced by convention.”
Use reason rather than convention to choose what to spend your time on.
Practice 18 Win at What Matters “You are winning affection in a job in which it is hard to avoid ill-will; but believe me it is better to understand the balance-sheet of one’s own life than of the corn trade.” – Seneca
But what do we do? We invest our working time in getting better at topics necessary for our (future) jobs, and our leisure time in mindless activities to numb ourselves.
We confuse getting better at stuff with learning how to live, and how to be a good person.
There’s nothing harder to learn than how to live, says Seneca.
Your most valuable asset is your character. It will help you win at what matters.
Practice 19 Become an Eternal Student
“Leisure without study is death—a tomb for the living person.” – Seneca
“Take a day off from work every now and then, but not a day off from learning.”
“The value of education (knowledge) like that of gold is valued in every place,” says Epictetus.
You don’t have an excuse. Today it’s easier than ever to learn something new every day. Wisdom is abundant all over the internet. Books are cheap and get delivered to your reading chair. We can learn from the smartest people who ever lived—for a few bucks.
Be humble: As Epictetus teaches us, “It is impossible to learn that which one thinks one already knows.” And Marcus adds, “If anyone can prove and show to me that I think and act in error, I will gladly change it—for I seek the truth.”
2. Put it into practice: Don’t be satisfied with mere learning, Epictetus warns us, “For as time passes we forget and end up doing the opposite.” As warriors of the mind, we must go out and actually live out what we’ve learned.
Practice 20 What Do You Have to Show for Your Years?
We forget we’re mortal.
“You are living as if destined to live forever, your own frailty never occurs to you; you don’t notice how much time has already passed, but squander it as though you had a full and overflowing supply—though all the while that day which you are devoting to somebody or something may be your last. You act like mortals in all that you fear, and like immortals in all that you desire.”
It’s not about not playing video games, not watching TV, not working full-time—it’s about the awareness and purposefulness we bring into these things.
If you look back now at your life, have you lived sufficiently? What do you have to show for your years? What else do you want to experience? Who do you want to be in this world?
Cato the Younger put it beautifully: “The value of good health is judged by its duration, the value of virtue is judged by its ripeness.”
“It’s possible,” Seneca adds, “for a person who has had a long life to have lived too little.”
Practice 21 Do What Needs to Get Done
“On those mornings you struggle with getting up, keep this thought in mind—I am awakening to the work of a human being. Why then am I annoyed that I am going to do what I’m made for, the very things for which I was put into this world? Or was I made for this, to snuggle under the covers and keep warm? It’s so pleasurable. Were you then made for pleasure? In short, to be coddled or to exert yourself?” – Marcus Aurelius
“Putting things off is the biggest waste of life,” Seneca says, “it snatches away each day as it comes, and denies us the present by promising the future. The greatest obstacle to living is expectancy, which hangs upon tomorrow and loses today. You are arranging what lies in Fortune’s control, and abandoning what lies in yours . . . The whole future lies in uncertainty: live immediately.”
It’s time to be the person you want to be. Today, not tomorrow.
Stop monkeying around, live immediately!
CHAPTER 7 SITUATIONAL PRACTICES: HOW TO DEAL WITH YOURSELF WHEN LIFE GETS TOUGH?
Practice 22 Your Judgment Harms You
“If you are pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs you, but your own judgment about it. And it is in your power to wipe out this judgment now.” – Marcus Aurelius
You are disturbed not by what happens, but by your ...
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Keep that in mind: Nothing but opinion is the cause of a troubled mind.
Only you have access to your mind, only you can ruin your life. Take responsibility.
Marcus Aurelius puts it: “Choose not to be harmed—and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed—and you haven’t been.”
It’s obviously not easy, but it’s good to know none the less. Just try this: Don’t whine, moan, or complain.
Practice 23 How to Deal With Grief “It’s better to conquer grief than to deceive it.” – Seneca
The Stoics are stereotyped as suppressing their emotions, but that’s mistaken. Their philosophy intends to deal with emotions immediately rather than running away from them.
For Seneca, the best weapon against grief is reason, because “unless reason puts an end to our tears, fortune will not do so.”
the person you grieve over, would she have wanted you to be tortured with tears? If yes, then she’s not worthy of your tears and you should stop crying. If no, and if you love and respect her, then you should stop crying.
Practice 24 Choose Courage and Calm over Anger
“Keep this thought handy when you feel a fit of rage coming on—it isn’t manly to be enraged. Rather, gentleness and civility are more human, and therefore manlier. A real man doesn’t give way to anger and discontent, and such a person has strength, courage, and endurance—unlike the angry and complaining. The nearer a man comes to a calm mind, the closer he is to strength.” – Marcus Aurelius
“When a man is wandering about our fields because he has lost his way, it is better to place him on the right path than to drive him away.” Seneca
As Marcus says, “The nearer a man comes to a calm mind, the closer he is to strength.”
