December 31st Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - Get Active In Your Own Rescue

"Stop wandering about! You aren't likely to read your own notebooks, or ancient histories, or the anthologies you've collected to enjoy in your old age. Get busy with life's purpose, toss aside empty hopes, get active in your own rescue - if you care for yourself at all - and do it while you can."

~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 3.14

Happy New Year!

November 15th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "Everything Is Change"

"Meditate often on the swiftness with which all that exists and is coming into being is swept away by us and carried away. For substance is like a river's unending flow, its activities continually changing and causes infinitely shifting so that almost nothing at all stands still."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 5.23

Sounds very much like Heraclitus, right?

November 14th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "You Choose the Outcome"

"He was sent to prison. But the observation 'he has suffered evil,' is an addition that comes from you."
~ Epictetus, Discourses, 3.8.5b-6a

Many Stoics use being incarcerated as an example of an indifferent event perceived to be a great evil, but it has weight coming from Epictetus, who actually was a prisoner, I believe.

November 13th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "Never Complain, Never Explain"

"Don't allow yourself to be heard any longer griping about public life, not even with your own ears!"
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 8.9

November 12th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "The Strong Accept Responsibility"

"If we judge as good and evil only those things in the power of our own choice, then there is no room left for blaming gods or being hostile to others."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.41

November 6th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "Someone Else Is Spinning The Thread"

"If the breaking day sees someone proud,
The ending day sees them brought low.
No one should put too much trust in triumph,
No one should give up hope of trials improving.
Clotho mixes one with the other and stops
Fortune from resting, spinning every fate around.
No one has had so much divine favor
That they could guarantee themselves tomorrow.
God keeps our lives hurtling on,
Spinning in a whirlwind."
~ Seneca, Thyestes, 613

November 5th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "A Higher Power"

"This is the very thing that makes up the virtue of the happy person and a well-flowing life - when the affairs of life are in every way tuned to the harmony between the individual divine spirit and the will of the director of the universe."
~ Chrysippus, quoted by Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, 7.1.88

November 4th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "Not Good, Nor Bad"

"There is no evil in things changing, just as there is no good in persisting in a new state."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 4.42

September 26th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "What Time Off Is For"

"Leisure without study is death - a tomb for a living person."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 82.4

This has been my philosophy for most of my life! I enjoy my entertainments, but I let no day pass without some study!

September 25th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "The Vulnerability of Dependence"

"Show me someone who isn't a slave! One is a slave to lust, another to greed, another to power, and all are slaves to fear. I could name a former Consul who is a slave to a little old woman, a millionaire who is the slave of the cleaning woman . . . No servitude is more abject than the self-imposed."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 47.17

September 24th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "It Could Happen To You"

"Being unexpected adds to the weight of a disaster, for being a surprise has never failed to increase a person's pain. For that reason, nothing should ever be unexpected by us. Our minds should be sent out in advance to all things, and we shouldn't just consider the normal course of things, but what could actually happen. For is there anything in life that Fortune won't knock off its high horse if it pleases her?"
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 91.3a-4

The principle here is what Stoics are calling praemeditatio malorum - the mental rehearsal of apparent evils in advance, in order to be prepared should they arrive. Of course, it is the Stoic position that these apparent evils are not evils at all - only our own reasoned choice can ever be that - but they give the impression of harm, and acceptance of that impression is hard to resist, at first. 

September 23rd Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "The Most Secure Fortress"

"Remember that your ruling reason becomes unconquerable when it rallies and relies on itself, so that it won't do anything contrary to its own will, even if its position is irrational. How much more unconquerable if its judgments are careful and made rationally? Therefore, the mind freed from passions is an impenetrable fortress - a person has no more secure place of refuge for all time."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 8.48

A mighty fortress is our mind!

September 22nd Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "No Pain, No Gain"

'Difficulties show a person's character. So when a challenge confronts you, remember that God is matching you with a younger sparring partner, as would a physical trainer. Why? Becoming an Olympian takes sweat! I think no one has a better challenge than yours, if only you would use it like an athlete would that younger sparring partner."
~ Epictetus, Discourses, 1.24.1-2

I could wish that my trainer were not setting me quite such difficult challenges, and so many at once, but so it goes . . .

September 21st Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "Maintain Composure, Maintain Control"

"When forced, as it seems, by circumstances into utter confusion, get a hold of yourself quickly. Don't be locked out of the rhythm any longer than necessary. You'll be able to keep the beat if you are constantly returning to it."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.11

This has been my guiding principle this week - trying to get back to the rhythm . . .

September 20th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "Life Isn't A Dance"

"The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing, because an artful life requires being prepared to meet and withstand sudden and unexpected attacks."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 7.61

September 19th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "Flexibility of the Will"

"Remember that to change your mind and to follow someone's correction are consistent with a free will. For the action is yours alone - to fulfill its purpose in keeping with your impulse and judgment, and yes, with your intelligence."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 8.16

I have trouble taking constructive criticism at times, I admit. But I try to correct myself in accordance with reason.

September 18th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "Dealing With Pain"

"Whenever you suffer pain, keep in mind that it's nothing to be ashamed of and that it can't degrade your guiding intelligence, nor keep it from acting rationally and for the common good. And in most cases you should be helped by the saying of Epicurus, that pain is never unbearable or unending, so you can remember these limits and not add to them in your imagination. Remember too that many common annoyances are pain in disguise, such as sleepiness, fever and loss of appetite. When they start to get you down, tell yourself you are giving in to pain."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 7.64

September 17th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "Dealing With Haters"

"What if someone despises me? Let them see to it. But I will see to it that I won't be found doing or saying anything contemptible. What if someone hates me? Let them see to that. But I will see to it that I'm kind and good-natured to all, and prepared to show even the hater where they went wrong. Not in a critical way, or to show off my patience, but genuinely and usefully."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 11.13

Not a lot of haters in my life at the moment, but always good to remember . . .

September 16th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "Anyone Can Get Lucky, Not Everyone Can Persevere"

"Success comes to the lowly and to the poorly talented, but the special characteristic of a great person is to triumph over the disasters and panics of human life."
~ Seneca, On Providence, 4.1

I'm fighting my way back to this mindset, even if it is a naked crawl through broken glass, inch by bloody inch. I was clinically depressed in the last weeks, my brain simply not chemically functioning as it ought to. I could see the illogic of my despair, but I couldn't seem to get free of it. Until I did. Daily Stoic meditations, daily Stoic exercises, daily work, for weeks . . . until I reached a state of equilibrium again. Somehow. Now I'm trying to maintain it, and trying to continue my crawl, because while I may be better than I was, I'm still not well. And I have to be.

September 15th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "A Garden Is Not For Show"

"First practice not letting people know who you are - keep your philosophy to yourself for a bit. In just the manner that fruit is produced - the seed buried for a season, hidden, growing gradually so it may come to full maturity. But is the grain sprouts before the stalk is fully developed, it will never ripen . . . That is the kind of plant you are, displaying fruit too soon, and the winter will kill you."
~ Epictetus, Discourses, 4.8.35b-37

September 14th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - A Different Way To Pray

"Try praying differently, and see what happens. Instead of asking for 'a way to sleep with her,' try asking for 'a way to stop desiring to sleep with her.' Instead of 'a way to get rid of him,' try asking for 'a way to not crave his demise.' Instead of 'a way to not lose my child,' try asking for 'a way to lose my fear of it.' "
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 9.40.(6)

September 13th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "Protecting Our Inner Fortress From Fear"

"No, it is events that give rise to fear - when another has power over them or can prevent them, that person becomes able to inspire fear. How is the fortress destroyed? Not by iron or fire, but by judgments . . . here is where we must begin, and it is from this front that we must seize the fortress and throw out the tyrants."
~ Epictetus, Discourses, 4.1.85-86, 87a

September 12th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "Be Down to Earth, Or Be Brought Down"

"Zeno always said that nothing was more unbecoming than putting on airs, especially with the young."
~ Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, 7.1.22

Small worry of that right now. Right now, my self-esteem is nearly non-existent.

September 11th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - What Would Less Look Like?

"Let us get used to dining out without the crowds, to being a slave to fewer slaves, to getting clothes only for their real purpose, and living in more modest quarters."
~ Seneca, On Tranquility of Mind, 9.3b

I've always been reasonably good at doing this. In fact, I generally live far more simply than I have to, so when it is time to tighten the belt, I generally have little problem doing so. I find it hard to give up books, however. That's my weakness. I can't imagine giving up my library nor my reading.

Today was a hard day for me on many levels. My own issues. My son in trouble at school. The anniversary of the 9/11 attack in 2001. Stoicism helps. But it was still a hard day.

September 10th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "Preparing on the Sunny Day"

"Here's a lesson to test your mind's mettle: take part of a week in which you have only the most meager and cheap food, dress scantily in shabby clothes, and ask yourself if this is really the worst that you feared. It is when times are good that you should gird yourself for tougher times ahead, for when Fortune is kind the soul can build defenses against her ravages. So it is that soldiers practice maneuvers in peacetime, erecting bunkers with no enemies in sight and exhausting themselves under no attack so that when it comes they won't grow tired."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 18.5-6

The rehearsal of evils in advance of their arrival seems counter to our entire culture of "positive thinking," but it really does help, like a boot camp for the soul to make it a soldier who can endure the rigors of war, or life.

September 9th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "Nothing to Fear But Fear Itself"

"But there is no reason to live and no limit to our miseries if we let our fears predominate."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 13.12b

Please let me remember this in the days ahead!

September 8th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "Do Not Be Deceived By Fortune"

"No one is crushed by Fortune, unless they are first deceived by her . . . those who aren't pompous in good times, don't have their bubbles burst with change. Against either circumstance, the stable person keeps their rational soul invincible, for its precisely in the good times they prove their strength against adversity."
~ Seneca, On Consolation to Helvia, 5.4b, 5b-6

Trying to remember this, every moment of every day, second after second, over and over . . .

September 7th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "Our Hidden Power"

"Consider who you are. Above all, a human being, carrying no greater power than your own reasoned choice, which oversees all other things, and is free from any other master."
~ Epictetus, Discourses, 2.10.1

September 6th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "They Can Throw You In Chains, But . . ."

"You can bind up my leg, but not even Zeus has the power to break my freedom of choice."
~ Epictetus, Discourses, 1.1.23

I have pointed out before that the Stoic absolute belief in the power of human reason to make rational choices does not account for the many things that can, in fact, affect the human mind. But the point is generally well made. Human choice is powerful.

September 5th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "Focus on What is Yours Alone"

"Remember then, if you deem what is by nature slavish to be free, and what is not your own to be yours, you will be shackled and miserable, blaming both gods and other people. But if you deem as your own only what is yours, and what belongs to others as truly not yours, then no one will ever be able to coerce or to stop you, you will find no one to blame or accuse, you will do nothing against your will, you will have no enemy, no one will harm you, because no harm can affect you."
~ Epictetus, Enchiridion, 1.3

Last night, my beloved cat Scintilla died. She was young, about 5 years old, but she had been sick for months, and then got severely ill this last week. She passed away with some pain and suffering, though I tried to make sure she suffered as little as possible, and that she knew she was loved. I've been having a hard enough time in my life right now, and this would be absolutely devastating, but I've been trying to reach that radical acceptance that even though she was "my" pet, she didn't belong to me, nor did the power of life and death for her. When it was her time, it was her time, and nothing I could do could much alter that. I loved her while she was here, and I let her go when it was time to let her go. The impression that this is pain still sneaks up on me, and I acquiesce briefly to the impression, feeling pain and sorrow. Then I remember the truth, that this is not mine, not in my control. And the pain recedes a bit, leaving only the love I felt and still feel for my beloved companion.

Ave atque vale, Scintilla. Terra tibi sit levis. 

September 4th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "How Can You Know Whether You've never Been Tested?"

"I judge you unfortunate because you have never lived through misfortune. You have passed through life without an opponent - no one can ever know what you're capable of, not even you."
~ Seneca, On Providence, 4.3

Small comfort to the man in the arena, but we do, in fact, need challenges to meet our potential. One may perhaps be forgiven for wishing one were challenged a little less, or a little differently, but not for wishing there were no challenges. Still, wishing doesn't change things, and the Sage would not wish to change the challenges.

September 3rd Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "First, A Hard Winter Training"

"We must undergo a hard winter training and not rush into things for which we haven't prepared."
~ Epictetus, Discourses, 1.2.32

Part of the reason I returned to this program of daily readings is exactly this - I'm out of training, out of shape, and ill-prepared for the hammer-blows my soul is suffering.

September 2nd Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "The Philosopher's School Is a Hospital"

"Men, the philosopher's lecture-hall is a hospital - you shouldn't walk out of it feeling pleasure, but pain, for you aren't well when you enter it."
~ Epictetus, Discourses, 2.23.30

Psyches Iatreion - the healing-place of the soul . . .

September 1st Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "A Strong Soul Is Better Than Good Luck"

"The rational soul is stronger than any kind of fortune - from its own share it guides its affairs here or there, and is itself the cause of a happy life or a miserable life."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 98.2b

August 31st Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "Consider Your Failings Too"

"Whenever you take offense at someone's wrongdoing, immediately turn to your own similar failings, such as seeing money as a good, or pleasure, or a little fame - whatever form it takes. By thinking on this, you'll quickly forget your anger, considering also what compels them - for what else could they do? Or, if you are able, remove their compulsions."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 10.30

A couple of common themes with Marcus Aurelius, the combination of being resigned to meeting flawed people in every day (for what other kind of people are there?), and the recognition of the beam in one's own eye before worrying of the motes in the eyes of others . . .

August 30th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "When You Feel Lazy"

"Anything that must yet be done, virtue can do with courage and promptness. For anyone would call it a sign of foolishness for one to undertake a task with a lazy and begrudging spirit, or to push the body in one direction and the mind in another, to be torn apart by wildly divergent impulses."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 31.b-32

This speaks to me right now - I feel a distinct lack of motivation, probably as a result of battling a creeping depression that is trying to find any crack in my armor through which it can pierce me . . .

August 29th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "Want Nothing = Have Everything"

"No person has the power to have everything they want, 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."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 123.3

Today's reading is meant to be about wealth and material things, but I find right now it is applicable to me mainly for things I find myself wanting, like more time, more help, fewer obligations, fewer stressors, etc. Since right now I really can't have any of the things I really want, I need to change my perspective and not want for things I cannot have, and use what I do have well.

August 28th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "The Opulent Stoic"

"The founder of the universe, who assigned to us the laws of life, provided that we should live well, but not in luxury. Everything needed for our well-being is right before us, whereas what luxury requires is gathered by many miseries and anxieties. Let us use this gift of nature and count it among the greatest things."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 119.15b

August 27th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "Laugh, or Cry?"

"Hearclitus would shed tears whenever he went out in public - Democritus laughed. One saw the whole as a parade of miseries, the other of follies. And so, we should take a lighter view of things and bear them with an easy spirit, for it is more human to laugh at life than to lament it."
~ Seneca, On Tranquility of Mind, 15.2

If you don't know whether to laugh or cry, why not choose to laugh?

August 26th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "Seeking Out Shipwrecks"

"I was shipwrecked before I even boarded . . . the journey showed me this - how much of what we have is unnecessary, and how easily we can decide to rid ourselves of these things whenever it's necessary, never suffering the loss."

~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 87.1

This speaks to me very literally right now, as we declutter our house in preparation for a possible move to a new home - how much of what we have is unnecessary! How easily we can decide to rid ourselves of these things!

August 25th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "Respect the Past, But Be Open to the Future"

"Won't you be walking in your predecessors' footsteps? I surely will use the older path, but if I find a shorter and smoother way, I'll blaze  a trail there. The ones who pioneered these paths aren't our masters, but our guides. Truth stands open to everyone, it hasn't been monopolized."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 33.11

August 24th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "Pillage from All Sources"

"I'll never be ashamed to quote a bad writer with a good saying."
~ Seneca, On Tranquility of Mind, 11.8

Take wisdom wherever it may be found. Seneca quoted Epicurus often, and he was far from Epicurean in philosophy - but he had to admit, Epicurus had a way with words, and sometimes made great sense.

August 23rd Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "It's In Your Self-Interest"

"Therefore, explain why a wise person shouldn't get drunk - not with words, but by the facts of its ugliness and offensiveness. It's most easy to prove that so-called pleasures, when they go beyond proper measure, are but punishments."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 83.27

The best appeal is not to reason or to virtue, but to self-interest . . . and what is in one's self-interest is usually in accord with reason and virtue . . .

August 22nd Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - Don't Sweat the Small Stuff

"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 things beyond what should be allowed."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 4.32b

Holiday and Hanselman reference the book Don't Sweat the Small Stuff . . . And It's All Small Stuff by Richard Carlson. I've never read it, but I have read Marcus Aurelius (many times), so I'm guessing that I'm doing all right.

This is usually one of my strengths, though not for the last month. I don't think my obsession with what I've lost was sweating "small stuff" - as Holiday and Hanselman note, it's about not wasting your most precious resource - time - and that is precisely what I feel is being wasted, and what I've lost. But . . . I can't be worried about that. Because we now have exactly 90 days after today to get done what must be done.  

August 21st Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - Don't Be Miserable In Advance

     For about a month now, I've been battling depression. That is not an admission that comes easily to me, but I have to face it. I'm feeling overworked and overwhelmed, and things just keep getting harder. Last night, I resolved to return to my practice of spending some time every day studying Stoic teachings. It has helped tremendously in the past, and I think it is perhaps the best thing I can do for myself now. Today I got some more bad news about some impending difficulties - about 3 months out - and it means I won't be able to visit home in 2 months as I had planned. I've waited about 6 years to visit home, and to have it snatched away now could be very upsetting . . . if it were not a thing indifferent, having no direct part in virtue nor vice. See? It's helping already!
     So, among my resolutions is to return to reading The Daily Stoic every day. Blogging the classical quotations from the core of each daily teaching was my way of keeping myself accountable, so I thought I might return to this as well. It seems a little weird - having already posted the quotations, is there really any point to posting them again? Well, the quotations obviously haven't changed, but my reactions and thoughts will have. So the project has value, if only to me. I hope that anyone who may stumble across this blog may find them valuable as well.
     Today's quote, which was just what I needed to read today:

"It's ruinous for the soul to be anxious about the future and miserable in advance of the misery, engulfed by anxiety that the things it desires might remain until the very end. For such a soul will never be at rest - by longing for things to come it will lose the ability to enjoy present things."

It does me no good to dwell on the things that I have lost, sacrificed, or given up over the last month or so, and no good to dwell upon losing a visit to home that was never mine to begin with, nor still to dwell overmuch on what must be done within the next three months - the matters themselves are things indifferent, though much dispreferred indifferents, and suffering for them now is foolish at any rate. As long as I can focus upon these truths, I do not suffer.