STOIC WISDOM FOR THE DAY: January 25, 2016
"If you work hard to do what is right, do not be upset by roadblocks; think about how many of the things in your life haven't turned out as you wanted them to, but as they should have."
--Musonius Rufus (Fragment 27)
I shudder to think what I would be like if I had received everything I desired, and I shamefully admit that the most unpleasant things I have ever experienced were necessary to make me better. And I'm absolutely certain that will continue today.
STOIC WISDOM FOR THE DAY: January 26, 2016
"There is a true law, a right reason, conformable to nature, universal, unchangeable, eternal, whose commands urge us to duty, and whose prohibitions restrain us from evil. Whether it enjoins or forbids, the good respect its injunctions, and the wicked treat them with indifference."
--Cicero (Of the Republic, Book 3)
I find myself tempted to neglect the natural dignity of others persons, good in their own right, when it inconveniently conflicts with my own selfish desires. It is all too easy to close one's eyes and ears to the needs of others out of vicious arrogance.
But right and wrong don't change because of our fleeting preferences or shallow social trends. Cicero understood that as well as Martin Luther King did in his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," two thousand years later.
STOIC WISDOM FOR THE DAY: January 27, 2016
"We have two ears and one mouth, so we should listen more than we say."
--Zeno of Citium (as quoted by Diogenes Laërtius)
My father used to say this when I was a young pup. I should have known he got it from Zeno of Citium, the founder of Stoicism.
Yet it is far more than a clever saying to help children to simmer down. It's a reflection of the very foundation of Stoicism: a happy life is a life of harmony, balance, and contentment with whatever may befall us. We find peace most fully when we listen, and embrace things as they are. Our own words and actions need to follow from that essential act of listening, of opening ourselves. To listen is to accept others, to show respect, to understand, to act only with compassion.
I have an inborn Irish temper. I have slowly but surely tried to learn to use it only when absolutely necessary, and very sparingly. When it comes to words, less is more.
STOIC WISDOM FOR THE DAY: January 28, 2016
"Wise people are in want of nothing, and yet need many things. On the other hand, nothing is needed by fools, for they do not understand how to use anything, but yet they are in want of everything. "
--Chrysippus (as quoted by Seneca the Younger)
'Want' and 'need' are such wonderful terms, seemingly so close yet so far apart. The Rolling Stones had it right, just like Chrysippus, the student of Cleanthes.
"If you work hard to do what is right, do not be upset by roadblocks; think about how many of the things in your life haven't turned out as you wanted them to, but as they should have."
--Musonius Rufus (Fragment 27)
I shudder to think what I would be like if I had received everything I desired, and I shamefully admit that the most unpleasant things I have ever experienced were necessary to make me better. And I'm absolutely certain that will continue today.
STOIC WISDOM FOR THE DAY: January 26, 2016
"There is a true law, a right reason, conformable to nature, universal, unchangeable, eternal, whose commands urge us to duty, and whose prohibitions restrain us from evil. Whether it enjoins or forbids, the good respect its injunctions, and the wicked treat them with indifference."
--Cicero (Of the Republic, Book 3)
I find myself tempted to neglect the natural dignity of others persons, good in their own right, when it inconveniently conflicts with my own selfish desires. It is all too easy to close one's eyes and ears to the needs of others out of vicious arrogance.
But right and wrong don't change because of our fleeting preferences or shallow social trends. Cicero understood that as well as Martin Luther King did in his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," two thousand years later.
STOIC WISDOM FOR THE DAY: January 27, 2016
"We have two ears and one mouth, so we should listen more than we say."
--Zeno of Citium (as quoted by Diogenes Laërtius)
My father used to say this when I was a young pup. I should have known he got it from Zeno of Citium, the founder of Stoicism.
Yet it is far more than a clever saying to help children to simmer down. It's a reflection of the very foundation of Stoicism: a happy life is a life of harmony, balance, and contentment with whatever may befall us. We find peace most fully when we listen, and embrace things as they are. Our own words and actions need to follow from that essential act of listening, of opening ourselves. To listen is to accept others, to show respect, to understand, to act only with compassion.
I have an inborn Irish temper. I have slowly but surely tried to learn to use it only when absolutely necessary, and very sparingly. When it comes to words, less is more.
STOIC WISDOM FOR THE DAY: January 28, 2016
"Wise people are in want of nothing, and yet need many things. On the other hand, nothing is needed by fools, for they do not understand how to use anything, but yet they are in want of everything. "
--Chrysippus (as quoted by Seneca the Younger)
'Want' and 'need' are such wonderful terms, seemingly so close yet so far apart. The Rolling Stones had it right, just like Chrysippus, the student of Cleanthes.
STOIC WISDOM FOR THE DAY: January 29, 2016
"bad people obey their lusts as servants obey their masters."
--Diogenes of Sinope
Diogenes was properly a Cynic ('dog-like') philosopher, a school that shared much in common with their Stoic brothers (besides having names that now mean something negative!) I'd suggest the Cynics differed only in the more radical nature of their asceticism and iconoclasm.
Note how the quote not only points out that evil men are ruled by their passions, but also HOW they are ruled by their passions: like a servant or slave, who neither chooses or understands what he does or why he acts, but does so simply out of obedience. So too, I throw away my freedom and judgment when I'm swept away by feelings alone.
When Diogenes, who lived in a barrel on the street, was insulted for being a "dog," he apparently said: "other dogs bite their enemies, I bite my friends to save them."
"bad people obey their lusts as servants obey their masters."
--Diogenes of Sinope
Diogenes was properly a Cynic ('dog-like') philosopher, a school that shared much in common with their Stoic brothers (besides having names that now mean something negative!) I'd suggest the Cynics differed only in the more radical nature of their asceticism and iconoclasm.
Note how the quote not only points out that evil men are ruled by their passions, but also HOW they are ruled by their passions: like a servant or slave, who neither chooses or understands what he does or why he acts, but does so simply out of obedience. So too, I throw away my freedom and judgment when I'm swept away by feelings alone.
When Diogenes, who lived in a barrel on the street, was insulted for being a "dog," he apparently said: "other dogs bite their enemies, I bite my friends to save them."
STOIC WISDOM FOR THE DAY: January 30, 2016
"When any person treats you ill or speaks ill of you, remember that he does this or says this because he thinks that it is right. It is not possible, then, for him to follow that which is right for you, but only that which seems right to himself. Accordingly, if he is wrong in his judgment, he is the person who is hurt, for he is the person who has been deceived."
--Epictetus (Enchiridion, 42)
This is one of the most valuable life lessons I have learned, though I often struggle to follow it. When I'm wronged, I need to recognize that an ignorance of the good, deliberate or not, is the root cause. I'm only hurt if I allow it, while another has hurt himself by his choice. That calls for just compassion, not anger or condemnation.
STOIC WISDOM FOR THE DAY: January 31, 2016
"Imagine every man who is grieved at anything or discontented to be like a pig which is sacrificed and kicks and screams. Like this pig also is he who on his bed in silence laments the bonds in which we are held. And consider that only to the rational animal is it given to follow voluntarily what happens; but simply to follow is a necessity imposed on all. "
--Marcus Aurelius (Meditation 10)
The necessity of things beyond my choice doesn't change if I complain or sulk. They will happen whether I wish them to or not. But unlike the beast, that cannot help but submit to its circumstances or instincts, I can learn to freely and joyfully choose to follow nature, to find the right and the good even in those things I didn't ask for.
Below: Eugene Delacroix, "The Last Words of Marcus Aurelius", 1844
STOIC WISDOM FOR THE DAY: February 1, 2016
"No man can live a happy life, or even a supportable life, without the study of wisdom; you know also that a happy life is reached when our wisdom is brought to completion, but that life is at least endurable even when our wisdom is only begun. This idea, however, clear though it is, must be strengthened and implanted more deeply by daily reflection; it is more important for you to keep the resolutions you have already made than to go on and make noble ones."
--Seneca the Younger (Letter 16 to Lucilius)
Seneca's appeal here isn't simply to a vague life of study, but to the ordered daily practice of reflection and meditation on meaning. I ran headlong into this exact problem yesterday, and needed his advice.
Stoicism suggests fixing one's thinking in order to direct one's feelings.
Well, here I was wondering why a single deeply disturbing set of passions has still been gnawing at me. They don't seem to want to go away, and, in fact, seem to get more intrusive daily. I'd thought I'd figured out what those emotions were, where they had come from, and why they were illusory and harmful to me.
But see, there's the rub! I hadn't done that at all. As I was facing the emotions, trying to grapple them with a clear judgment, I realized my judgments weren't guiding the feelings at all. Both were adrift. And I had rushed ahead, based on a quick assumption that I understand a previous part of my thinking. My passions were chaotic because my mind was still chaotic. So time to go back, start over with the building blocks, and handle the simple things before I tackle the nobler ones.
STOIC WISDOM FOR THE DAY: February 2, 2016
"If one accomplishes some good, though with toil, the toil passes, but the good remains; if one does something evil with pleasure, the pleasure passes, but the evil remains."
--Musonius Rufus (Fragment 51)
That should help put our priorities in perspective!
Image: Thomas Couture, "The Romans of the Decadence," 1847
STOIC WISDOM FOR THE DAY: February 3, 2016
Zeno's remark about the vain man showing himself off: "With good reason," said Zeno, "he looks askance at the mud because he can't see his face in it."
--Zeno of Citium (as quoted by Diogenes Laertius)
It's easy to think that a lust for sex, power, wealth, or status is at the root of vice. I've seen too much of that, thank you. But maybe behind all that is something as simple as vanity, wishing to see ourselves as the center and measure of all things?
T.S. Eliot said it better than I ever could:
“Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm; but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.”
It makes me sad when I see old friends use past "achievements" as tools for their vanity. Dear friend, I was there. You didn't do anything at all, and neither did I. But apparently it looks good on paper.
The other day a colleague and friend was shocked to find I was a member of some sort of honors society.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because it doesn't matter."
"It matters to me!"
"And that makes me sad," I said, "precisely because it matters to you."
Image: Narcissus, by Caravaggio, 1597
"No man can live a happy life, or even a supportable life, without the study of wisdom; you know also that a happy life is reached when our wisdom is brought to completion, but that life is at least endurable even when our wisdom is only begun. This idea, however, clear though it is, must be strengthened and implanted more deeply by daily reflection; it is more important for you to keep the resolutions you have already made than to go on and make noble ones."
--Seneca the Younger (Letter 16 to Lucilius)
Seneca's appeal here isn't simply to a vague life of study, but to the ordered daily practice of reflection and meditation on meaning. I ran headlong into this exact problem yesterday, and needed his advice.
Stoicism suggests fixing one's thinking in order to direct one's feelings.
Well, here I was wondering why a single deeply disturbing set of passions has still been gnawing at me. They don't seem to want to go away, and, in fact, seem to get more intrusive daily. I'd thought I'd figured out what those emotions were, where they had come from, and why they were illusory and harmful to me.
But see, there's the rub! I hadn't done that at all. As I was facing the emotions, trying to grapple them with a clear judgment, I realized my judgments weren't guiding the feelings at all. Both were adrift. And I had rushed ahead, based on a quick assumption that I understand a previous part of my thinking. My passions were chaotic because my mind was still chaotic. So time to go back, start over with the building blocks, and handle the simple things before I tackle the nobler ones.
STOIC WISDOM FOR THE DAY: February 2, 2016
"If one accomplishes some good, though with toil, the toil passes, but the good remains; if one does something evil with pleasure, the pleasure passes, but the evil remains."
--Musonius Rufus (Fragment 51)
That should help put our priorities in perspective!
Image: Thomas Couture, "The Romans of the Decadence," 1847
STOIC WISDOM FOR THE DAY: February 3, 2016
Zeno's remark about the vain man showing himself off: "With good reason," said Zeno, "he looks askance at the mud because he can't see his face in it."
--Zeno of Citium (as quoted by Diogenes Laertius)
It's easy to think that a lust for sex, power, wealth, or status is at the root of vice. I've seen too much of that, thank you. But maybe behind all that is something as simple as vanity, wishing to see ourselves as the center and measure of all things?
T.S. Eliot said it better than I ever could:
“Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm; but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.”
It makes me sad when I see old friends use past "achievements" as tools for their vanity. Dear friend, I was there. You didn't do anything at all, and neither did I. But apparently it looks good on paper.
The other day a colleague and friend was shocked to find I was a member of some sort of honors society.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because it doesn't matter."
"It matters to me!"
"And that makes me sad," I said, "precisely because it matters to you."
Image: Narcissus, by Caravaggio, 1597
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