The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control. Where then do I look for good and evil? Not to uncontrollable externals, but within myself to the choices that are my own…
Epictetus, Discourses, 2.5.4–5
This quote explains the core of stoic philosophy, that you must separate out what you can control, from what you cannot control. To divide between internal and external, and to start from there. If we focus on that, we will have a chance at happiness, instead of fighting a battle against things we cannot control.
What is the fruit of these teachings? Only the most beautiful and proper harvest of the truly educated—tranquility, fearlessness, and freedom. We should not trust the masses who say only the free can be educated, but rather the lovers of wisdom who say that only the educated are free.
Epictetus, Discourses, 2.21-23a
Education is freedom. It allows us to cultivate positive behaviors and change ourselves from within. Learning allows us to be free in a way that others who aren’t educated cannot be.
How many have laid waste to your life when you weren’t aware of what you were losing, how much was wasted in pointless grief, foolish joy, greedy desire, and social amusements—how little of your own was left to you. You will realize you are dying before your time!
Seneca, On the Brevity of Life, 3.3b
To begin to reclaim your life, start by saying no. No to
all the things that other people are doing, things that don’t matter,
addictions, impulses, and emotions.
All you need are these: certainty of judgment in the present moment; action for the common good in the present moment; and an attitude of gratitude in the present moment for anything that comes your way.
MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 9.6
Perception, Action, and Will are the three parts of Stoicism. They can be boiled down thusly:
Let all your efforts be directed to something, let it keep that end in view. It’s not activity that disturbs people, but false conceptions of things that drive them mad.
SENECA, ON TRANQUILITY OF MIND, 12.5
Having an end in mind is the first step of a journey. To begin on a never ending journey, you must never have an end in mind. To complete a goal, you must define it.
A person who doesn’t know what the universe is, doesn’t know where they are. A person who doesn’t know their purpose in life doesn’t know who they are or what the universe is. A person who doesn’t know any one of these things doesn’t know why they are here. So what to make of people who seek or avoid the praise of those who have no knowledge of where or who they are?
MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 8.52
To live your life meaningfully, you must have a purpose to define, and goals to make it there. You must whittle down the things that don’t matter to understand the things you value in order to make your life worth living.
The proper work of the mind is the exercise of choice, refusal, yearning, repulsion, preparation, purpose, and assent. What then can pollute and clog the mind’s proper functioning? Nothing but its own corrupt decisions.
EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 4.11.6–7
The mind exercises these things:
We must give up many things to which we are addicted, considering them to be good. Otherwise, courage will vanish, which should continually test itself. Greatness of soul will be lost, which can’t stand out unless it disdains as petty what the mob regards as most desirable.
SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 74.12b–13
What might seem at first to be trivial indulgences can become an addiction. These little things chip away at our courage to do the right thing, as we relinquish control to either our id or others. To be able to make choice means one must also have the freedom to abstain.
Some things are in our control, while others are not. We control our opinion, choice, desire, aversion, and, in a word, everything of our own doing. We don’t control our body, property, reputation, position, and, in a word, everything not of our own doing. Even more, the things in our control are by nature free, unhindered, and unobstructed, while those not in our control are weak, slavish, can be hindered, and are not our own.
EPICTETUS, ENCHIRIDION, 1.1–2
That which we can control are free, able to do the right thing, while that which we can’t control cannot. We only decide how we see events outside of our purview, which ultimately lets us decide what is and isn’t just.
The essence of good is a certain kind of reasoned choice; just as the essence of evil is another kind. What about externals, then? They are only the raw material for our reasoned choice, which finds its own good or evil in working with them. How will it find the good? Not by marveling at the material! For if judgments about the material are straight that makes our choices good, but if those judgments are twisted, our choices turn bad.
EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 1.29.1–3
The stoics believe in steadiness, stability, and tranquility. We can live a life unchanged by external living, as hermits, or we can eliminate the influence of the outside on our judgment. We can take the unorderly events of the external world and make them orderly in a way we can understand. Those without clear judgment of the external world will have a crooked perception of both themselves and others, and lose the ability to steady themselves.
For if a person shifts their caution to their own reasoned choices and the acts of those choices, they will at the same time gain the will to avoid, but if they shift their caution away from their own reasoned choices to things not under their control, seeking to avoid what is controlled by others, they will then be agitated, fearful, and unstable.
EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 2.1.12
This passage believes that you can lead a chaotic life and be peaceful, as long as you sharpen your sense of reason. Those who do not can not lead a peaceful life regardless of the circumstances.
Keep this thought at the ready at daybreak, and through the day and night—there is only one path to happiness, and that is in giving up all outside of your sphere of choice, regarding nothing else as your possession, surrendering all else to God and Fortune.
EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 4.4.39
Remember that the way to happiness is to understand what you do and don’t control, and that reason and the ability to make choices can never be taken away from you. Realize that, and leave the rest to chance, as unchanging.
We control our reasoned choice and all acts that depend on that moral will. What’s not under our control are the body and any of its parts, our possessions, parents, siblings, children, or country—anything with which we might associate.”
EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 1.22.10
The only thing we truly control is our mind – we might lose control over our body, with old age, or illness. We allow that to simplify our responibilities – We only need to manage our choices, our will, and our mind.
Understand at last that you have something in you more powerful and divine than what causes the bodily passions and pulls you like a mere puppet. What thoughts now occupy my mind? Is it not fear, suspicion, desire, or something like that?
MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 12.19
We are always tempted by things outside of our control, but we must realize that our values are more important – if we want to avoid being mere pawns, we must understand that it is important to follow them and avoid temptation.
Tranquility can’t be grasped except by those who have reached an unwavering and firm power of judgment—the rest constantly fall and rise in their decisions, wavering in a state of alternately rejecting and accepting things. What is the cause of this back and forth? It’s because nothing is clear and they rely on the most uncertain guide—common opinion.
SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 95.57b–58a
Tranquility can be found by having a strong belief in oneself. Those who don’t have a strong belief in onself are constantly wavering between one stance and another, and always concerned about what people think. Common opinion is a weak sentiment.
So in the majority of other things, we address circumstances not in accordance with the right assumptions, but mostly by following wretched habit. Since all that I’ve said is the case, the person in training must seek to rise above, so as to stop seeking out pleasure and steering away from pain; to stop clinging to living and abhorring death; and in the case of property and money, to stop valuing receiving over giving.
MUSONIUS RUFUS, LECTURES, 6.25.5–11
It is important to think about why we do things – out of habit is sometimes the worst response. What we do out of habit, or fear of the unknown shrinks our mind and leaves us retreating into our cave. The only way to subvert this is to step outside and challenge our assumptions about the world.
I am your teacher and you are learning in my school. My aim is to bring you to completion, unhindered, free from compulsive behavior, unrestrained, without shame, free, flourishing, and happy, looking to God in things great and small—your aim is to learn and diligently practice all these things. Why then don’t you complete the work, if you have the right aim and I have both the right aim and right preparation? What is missing? … The work is quite feasible, and is the only thing in our power. … Let go of the past. We must only begin. Believe me and you will see.
EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 2.19.29–34
It is important to begin the work of learning for life – those who don’t exert themselves will never start the path to improvement. It is important to realize that the first step is to gain the means with which to start, and then to begin.
Pass through this brief patch of time in harmony with nature, and come to your final resting place gracefully, just as a ripened olive might drop, praising the earth that nourished it and grateful to the tree that gave it growth.
MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 4.48.2
See the world through an artist and a poet’s lens – life is a brief lapse of time in harmony with nature, before ending quickly. It is important to be grateful through the process, and shed all things that don’t matter.
A podium and a prison is each a place, one high and the other low, but in either place your freedom of choice can be maintained if you so wish.
EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 2.6.25
The stoics came from different upbringings in life, but they realized that no matter where one’s station in life is, choice of thought can never be taken away.
Your principles can’t be extinguished unless you snuff out the thoughts that feed them, for it’s continually in your power to reignite new ones. … It’s possible to start living again! See things anew as you once did—that is how to restart life!”
MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 7.2
Sometimes we have a tough stretch of life where things don’t go well – but it is important to realize that we have the ability to always restart thinking about them – to retreat back to our values and start anew, no matter the circumstances.
Ask yourself the following first thing in the morning:
- What am I lacking in attaining freedom from passion?
- What for tranquility?
- What am I? A mere body, estate-holder, or reputation? None of these things.
- What, then? A rational being.
- What then is demanded of me? Meditate on your actions.
- How did I steer away from serenity?
- What did I do that was unfriendly, unsocial, or uncaring?
- What did I fail to do in all these things?
EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 4.6.34–35
The stoics always carved out time for quiet meditation for themselves, whether in the day or night, every day. Consider a routine for yourself, where you reflect on actions passed and how to see them differently, or to become a better person in the future.
I will keep constant watch over myself and—most usefully—will put each day up for review. For this is what makes us evil—that none of us looks back upon our own lives. We reflect upon only that which we are about to do. And yet our plans for the future descend from the past.”
SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 83.2
Seneca kept a journal to review the day – it is important because every decision in the future is predicated by some decision in the past. Learn to reflect, to improve, and think about each day atomically. This helps you improve.
Let’s pass over to the really rich—how often the occasions they look just like the poor! When they travel abroad they must restrict their baggage, and when haste is necessary, they dismiss their entourage. And those who are in the army, how few of their possessions they get to keep …”
SENECA, ON CONSOLATION TO HELVIA, 12. 1.b–2
Money is important because it aids one until one has a livable amount of money. Afterwards, it only helps marginally – external assets cannot solve internal questions. We admire the rich, as in some form of idol worship, when the rich are just people.
From Rusticus … I learned to read carefully and not be satisfied with a rough understanding of the whole, and not to agree too quickly with those who have a lot to say about something.
MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 1.7.3
It is important to learn deeply instead of shallowly – to understand the whole of a system rather than to have a weak understanding of the system. It is also important to not jump to conclusions before an entire picture has been painted, as that is a quick path to confusion.
What’s left to be prized? This, I think—to limit our action or inaction to only what’s in keeping with the needs of our own preparation … it’s what the exertions of education and teaching are all about—here is the thing to be prized! If you hold this firmly, you’ll stop trying to get yourself all the other things. … If you don’t, you won’t be free, self-sufficient, or liberated from passion, but necessarily full of envy, jealousy, and suspicion for any who have the power to take them, and you’ll plot against those who do have what you prize. … But by having some self-respect for your own mind and prizing it, you will please yourself and be in better harmony with your fellow human beings, and more in tune with the gods—praising everything they have set in order and allotted you.
MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 6.16.2b–4a
One important lesson to prize is to limit our wants to what is within our means – if not, we fester jealously and envy for others material possessions. It is of no use to be jealous of material possessions, as they are subservient to the most useful of all – the mind. To see only the mind as a useful vessel, and all other things as distractions is the way to begin true thought.
Erase the false impressions from your mind by constantly saying to yourself, I have it in my soul to keep out any evil, desire or any kind of disturbance—instead, seeing the true nature of things, I will give them only their due. Always remember this power that nature gave you.
MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 8.29
Marcus Aurelius used this mantra – to erase the false impressions of his mind, and to keep out evil, desire, and other disturbances, seeking only to see the true nature of things.
There are three areas in which the person who would be wise and good must be trained. The first has to do with desires and aversions—that a person may never miss the mark in desires nor fall into what repels them. The second has to do with impulses to act and not to act—and more broadly, with duty—that a person may act deliberately for good reasons and not carelessly. The third has to do with freedom from deception and composure and the whole area of judgment, the assent our mind gives to its perceptions. Of these areas, the chief and most urgent is the first which has to do with the passions, for strong emotions arise only when we fail in our desires and aversions.
EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 3.2.1–3a
There are three areas to consider training oneself in:
Without practicing these three areas daily, you fall into the trap of being swayed by common opinion, and not being resolute with your values, and being left with nothing to lead your life.
Take a good hard look at people’s ruling principle, especially of the wise, what they run away from and what they seek out.
MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 4.38
It is important to learn from those who are wiser than us – to judge our actions in comparison to theirs and to learn – without understanding how a principled person would act towards daily life, how are we to begin the process of improvement?
At every moment keep a sturdy mind on the task at hand, as a Roman and human being, doing it with strict and simple dignity, affection, freedom, and justice—giving yourself a break from all other considerations. You can do this if you approach each task as if it is your last, giving up every distraction, emotional subversion of reason, and all drama, vanity, and complaint over your fair share. You can see how mastery over a few things makes it possible to live an abundant and devout life—for, if you keep watch over these things, the gods won’t ask for more.
MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 2.5
Keep an unwavering focus on the tasks at hand – to peform them with simplicity and tact, with simple dignity, giving yourself a break from all other considerations. Give up all distractions to pursue your daily tasks. Mastery over a few things allows one an abundant life of prosperity.
If you wish to improve, be content to appear clueless or stupid in extraneous matters—don’t wish to seem knowledgeable. And if some regard you as important, distrust yourself.
EPICTETUS, ENCHIRIDION, 13a
One of the most important things to say is “I don’t know”, followed by “I don’t care”. Ruthlessly prioritize what really matters to you, and rid yourself of distractions that plague the world. Distrust yourself if you regard yourself as important, as that mindset prevents you from improvement.
Don’t return to philosophy as a task-master, but as patients seek out relief in a treatment of sore eyes, or a dressing for a burn, or from an ointment. Regarding it this way, you’ll obey reason without putting it on display and rest easy in its care.
MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 5.9
Philosophy is not a task-master, it does not allow us to absolve our responsibility to ourself. Instead, it is a treatment with which to correct ones course, as philosophy always reminds one to follow the teachings of reason.