Parallels to Christianity and the Gospel teachings of Jesus suggest the influence Stoicism might have had on Christian writers. Other Stoic thinkers include Seneca (4 BC–65 AD) and Marcus Aurelius (121–180).
I have taught the Encheiridion for many years now. It is a very useful text; it’s philosophy you can apply to your life.
The Stoics emphasized “living in accordance with nature” and taught the importance of being honest about what you can control and what you cannot. By imposing our wills on what we cannot control, we increase the suffering in our lives. One thinks of the Serenity Prayer used by Alcoholics Anonymous:
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
This is a piece of Stoic philosophy. One needn’t be a recovering alcoholic to find value in it. Again, you can apply it to your life.
A typical sample of Epictetus’s thought is this: “It is not the things themselves that disturb men, but their judgments about these things.” That about sums Stoicism up.
Life will deliver all kind of things; the universe and the birds do not much care how you feel about those things. So, you can make peace with it or not. There’s a simple Buddhist principle: Pain is not your fault, suffering is. Quite right.
“Disease is an impediment to the body, but not to the moral purpose.” This one hits home. I was diagnosed with MS about a year ago. MS is ludicrous. It’s annoying. Some days I can barely walk. I went from no cane, to cane, to walker. They do not define me. I tell my students, “If you’re dealing with serious health issues, do not go down the ‘Why me?’ road. There is nothing down there.”
My approach to MS has been two middle fingers. I have found this works well (for me). And it’s an approach I recommend. Epictetus would approve.
“Be not elated at any excellence which is not your own. If the horse in his elation were to say, ‘I am beautiful,’ it could be endured; but when you say in your elation, ‘I have a beautiful horse,’ rest assured that you are elated at something good which belongs to a horse.”
This passage is not about a horse, it’s about middle-aged guys buying sports cars to look cool and regain their youth. Yes, the car is cool, you are not. There is no transference. Fancy clothes, the trappings of wealth: they say zero about the owner. What matters is character and moral purpose. That’s all that matters. Nothing else.
I’ve been to so many wakes and funerals, I couldn’t even count them. And I know for a fact that people at your wake will not talk about your big house, or your shoes, or your watch, or your cars, or your credit rating. They will talk about what kind of person you were. And if you were a crap person, those wakes are eerily quiet. No one has anything to say, no one is crying, no one is telling funny stories, there’s no energy in the room.
Read some Epictetus.
Some of the Oldfather translation can be found here:
https://en.wikisource.org/.../Epictetus,_the.../Manual
