Stoicism for a Better Life – Weekly exercise (December 20, 2020)
Hello there,
Another year has come and gone. I would like to use the next few exercises to help guide you in rounding up the year and beginning the new one in a new light. To that end, next week I will end the year with a picture as opposed to a quote, so this week I would like to seek inspiration from the first and foremost Stoic teacher to be studied.
In my opinion, each and every Stoic philosopher has important teachings. As Seneca says, it is the forest of wisdom that is to our benefit. How can we distinguish one tree from the other when we are looking to absorb the fresh air of the entire forest? We can’t. However, if I were somehow limited to only one master to study for the rest of my life, or just one teacher to recommend to Prokoptons new and old, it would undoubtedly be Epictetus. Not just because he’s funny (seriously…out of 30-40 original philosophical works I have read, there are only two other ones that made me laugh out loud the way the Epictetus’s Discourse and Enchiridion did), but because Epictetus cuts right to the heart of what Stoicism is about: Control what you can as ardently as you can, and forget about the rest. This is from his Discourses II 16.2:
“Where is Good? In our reasoned choices. Where is Evil? In our reasoned choices. Where is that which is neither Good or Evil? In the things outside of our own reasoned choice.”
2020 has objectively been one of the harshest years in our modern history. Between political turmoil, huge forest fires on two continents, civil unrest in many western countries (USA and France leading the way) and…oh yeah that COVID thing, 2020 has impacted everyone in the world to varying degrees. We have all faced challenges, and even the most stoic (adverb, not philosophy) of us felt a deluge of negative emotions, depression, anxiety, fears, etc.
Having feelings, anxieties etc is a normal part of being human. As much as we try to focus on the rational mind, we exist in these imperfect and all too easily fallible vessels that react emotionally to external stimuli. So we can’t be upset over what we felt during the year…what we did when we were emotional…times we were not virtuous. We can’t control these anymore than we can control blinking. Moreover, all these moments of ignobility are in the past. Both the body’s reactions and our past choices are in the domain of that which is not dependent on us: externals.
By definition (as Epictetus reminds us so succinctly) things outside of our control cannot possibly be good or bad. How can it? It’s just luck of the draw. It may be preferred or not, but it cannot be good or bad. What can be good or bad is the judgments and choices we make now. And in the next present moment. And in the next one…ad infinitum until we have no more present moments. Life…a good life is really that simple.
So as an exercise this week, when you are reflecting on the past year, remind yourself that everything that happened (including YOUR judgments and choices) have no impact on you today and in your future present moments, other than being a potential lesson learnt. Look back, by all means, as we can learn from the past. Look externally, by all means, for we can only make the best possible judgments and choices with all the information available to us, which includes all externals (like our emotions and what’s happening around the world). But always recall that these are data points to learn from in helping you make good decisions now. They are not good or bad in their own right. Just data sets.
I wish you all happy holidays and the strength to view things the way you know them to be, not the way you feel them to be.
Anderson Silver
(Author of “Your User’s Manual”, “Vol 2: Your Duality Within”, and Vol 3: Your Dichotomy of Control)