Stoicism for a Better Life – Weekly exercise (October 31, 2021)

Hello there,

First off, happy Halloween cause…why not!

This week, let us look towards the emperor philosophers words of urgency in his Meditations IV 37:

“You will soon die, and you are not yet simple, not free from perturbations, nor without suspicion of being hurt by external things, nor kindly disposed towards all; nor do you yet realize that acting justly is the only true wisdom.”

You are Here, right Now. We simply do not know how many more “Here and Nows” we will have. And we are all far from perfect. To use the iconic Stoic analogy of the drowning man, regardless of how far we have swum up the murky waters, we still have a while to go before rising to the surface. Although we know we will never quite get to the surface (this is reserved only for the hypothetical sage who can be virtuous all the time without error), we should work with a sense of urgency to swim further up the murky waters while we CAN.

Virtue, for us non sages then, is not perfection. We are not perfect, nor can we be. Therefore virtue is merely our efforts in reducing errors as much as we can. But if we make this our primary goal and put everything else as secondary, then we will make a strong effort to become more virtuous right now – NOT in the hypothetical future. So this week, find something that you wish you would do less often (or not do at all) and work adamantly in a focused manner, with a sense of urgency, to reduce it (perhaps it is smoking less, or drinking less, or being less selfish, or using profanity less, or seeking a luxury or comfort less, etc…). For one week make this your primary objective life, and put all else as secondary. Work may seem like the most important thing in the world (this is what we are taught in our modern Western society), but these are responsibilities of our roles in the Human Society. Improving humanity (including ourselves) is our responsibility to the Human Community which is our highest level of connection with our contemporaries and our highest calling in this very short and fleeting temporal existence.

As always, much love to you all and I wish you a wise, tranquil and productive week. If you can, let everyone know what you are working on and how it’s going on your preferred social media platform. Your journey may very well inspire others.

Anderson Silver, Stoicism for a Better Life

(Author of “Your User’s Manual”, “Vol 2: Your Duality Within” & “Vol 3: Your Dichotomy of Control”)