Epictetus, Discourses 1.9.10

For, indeed, it is true that what a man has of himself it is idle and futile for him to receive from another. Am I then, who can get from myself the gift of a noble and lofty spirit, to get from you a field or money or office? 

 

Heaven forbid! I will not be so blind to my true possessions. But when a man is mean and cowardly, for him one must needs write letters as for one that is dead. 

 

“Make us a present of the corpse of so and so and his miserable quart of blood.” For indeed such a one is a mere corpse and a quart of blood and nothing more. If he were anything more, he would have realized that one man cannot make another miserable.

 

We somehow convince ourselves that there are so many things we must “get”, and yet it is not necessary to “get” anything at all, beyond a tender care for what we already possess. 

 

Give completely of yourself, without ever demanding to receive. Love, without ever expecting any further reward. Thrive with what you have, and never harbor a resentment over what belongs to another. Here is the Stoic formula for happiness, the simplest, and the most radical, change you can ever make. 

 

It is most certainly possible to do this, but only with absolute commitment; half-hearted efforts and remaining too attached to circumstances are the great stumbling blocks. Yes, it feels frightening, because we don’t know what will happen to us if we choose this path, though it helps to remember that we never really know what will happen to us. 

 

Should I perhaps also seek wealth, gratification, and fame, in addition to building my character, as a sort of further support? Once I have begun to modify my thinking, however, such diversions seem terribly shallow, and their appeal fades. If I know where my true good lies, I will lose my desire for any glittering prizes. 

 

Is Epictetus being too extreme when he says that a man of poor character might as well be dead? The language is strong because so much is at stake. Even if the body has life in it, when the proper exercise of the mind has been abandoned, the very identity that makes us human has withered. Without a sense of right and wrong, a man may walk and talk, while his soul is, in a sense, as if it were dead. The essential has been lost, and it must be recovered to live fully. 

 

I have known a good number of such people, and I have come far too close to joining them, more often than I care to admit. If only flesh and blood are left, men are just creatures of instinct, at the whim of every urge. Pity them, as you would those zombies you’ve seen in the movies: they don’t know any better, because they are dead to wisdom and virtue. 

 

When I find myself slipping away like that, I must recall the Divine kinship that Epictetus has described. That power of awareness will make the difference between freedom and slavery. 

Written in 11/2000