Stoicism for a Better Life – Weekly exercise (June 14, 2020)
Hello there,
For this week’s exercise, I will seek inspiration from one of the earliest Stoics Chrysippus, who was one of the most paradoxical Stoic thinkers. His syllogisms were often bizarre, but full of insight. This is one of his more famous paradoxical syllogisms, as reported by Diogenes Laertius:
“There is a certain head, and that head you have not. Now this being so, there is a head which you have not, therefore you are without a head.”
Yes…it does sound like a grammatical nightmare at first. And No…you are not the only one who is initially confused by this, without it being put into context. Chrysippus is talking about a head that exists. If it exists you must have it, right? But then he states you do not have this head…as in, it does not belong to you. In this above quote, Chrysippus is, of course, referring to your body’s mind…the “autopilot”…the primitive mind…the non rational mind that is not you.
In my book Your Duality Within, I refer to this other mind as the “autopilot”. This mind, which is your body’s primitive mind, comes with it’s own instincts, survival mechanism and feelings. These inherited features are a result of hundreds and millions of years of evolution, so they were absolutely useful in the past, as your ancestors who possessed these traits survived longer than the ones which did not possess them…long enough to pass on their genes.
However, fast forward to the cognitive revolution about 75K years ago, and our Homo Sapiens ancestors are gifted with consciousness. With this, the second mind emerges: The Rational intelligent mind. This mind is the real you. This mind is the one which is reading these words right now. This mind is the one that knows right from wrong, logic and ethics, morality, etc. And when this mind is in control of your inner discourse, you are more often closer to your definition of virtue than when you are running on the autopilot of the body’s mind.
Why? Because you are not in control of the body’s primitive mind. You never can be. That mind is not you. That mind does not belong to you. In fact, that mind is quite literally part of your external world. Your emotions, for example. lie in the domain of that which is not dependent on you, right? When you’re angry and act some type of way that makes you regret what you thought, said or did after the fact, is not your mind. It is the body’s mind. Your mind is rational, intelligent and ordinary (as in emotionless). As Chrysippus says, when you act with “that” head (the body’s primitive mind), you are not you.
So as a practical exercise this week, take the time at the end of the day to identify at least one event where you acted purely with your animal mind. Once you have identified a case where the primitive autopilot took over, write or reflect about how you (the real you) could have acted differently using your intelligent, logical and rational mind. By doing so, next time you’re in the same situation, you will be much more likely to act virtuously than you did before.
If you feel comfortable, share your examples of when your primitive mind took over. Your story might help inspire others. Reach out on Twitter or Reddit to keep the conversation going.
Anderson Silver
(Author of “Your User’s Manual” and “Vol 2: Your Duality Within”)