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The Stoics: Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius… and a Buddhist monk
By
Published: Feb 23, 2020
Category:
Philosophy
Let’s be clear: Stoicism will not offer peace of mind. Its emphasis is on virtue, on right conduct, living in harmony with nature. Epictetus: “Work, therefore to be able to say to every harsh appearance, ‘You are but an appearance, and not absolutely the thing you appear to be.’ And then examine it by those rules which you have, and first, and chiefly, by this: whether it concerns the things which are in our own control, or those which are not; and, if it concerns anything not in our control, be prepared to say that it is nothing to you.”
Some useful texts…
Marcus Aurelius (121-180 AD) was a student of the teachings of Epictetus (55-135 AD). One man was an emperor, the other a former slave who lived simply and wrote not a word.
Marcus Aurelius — read my piece about him here — was not the first to see the world as a play in which the characters chase after shadows, forget they are the leading actors of their own dramas and discover too late — if at all — that they have wasted their lives. And he was not the first to know what to do about it. But he was blunt and brief and non-judgmental, and the combination makes him stand out from other philosophers: “Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.”
Almost 2,000 years after his death, you can read Marcus Aurelius as if he published his book last week. [To buy the paperback of “The Essential Marcus Aurelius” from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle download, click here.]
Epictetus, less known, came first. To read my piece about him, click here.
“Remember, when you embrace your child, your husband, your wife, you are embracing a mortal,” Epictetus said. “Thus, if one of them should die, you could bear it with tranquility.”
“The universe we inhabit is the best possible universe. Fix your resolve on expecting justice and order, and they will increasingly reveal themselves in a divine intelligence whose intentions direct the universe.”
“You have been given your own work to do. Get to it right now, do your best at it, and don’t be concerned with who is watching you.”
[To buy the paperback — for $5.99 — click here.For the Kindle, click here.]
Crooked Cucumber: The Life and Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki
Suzuki believed in the importance of whatever you were feeling, in the moment you were feeling it. There were no hard and fast truths. For him, the secret of Zen was: “Not always so.” Which is just another way to say “Everything changes.”
[To buy the paperback from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.]
