Simple Stoic Advice
On using facts, not emotions
On using facts, not emotions
The beautiful thing about Stoic philosophy is the advice contained within it is just as applicable today as it was when it was first written all those many years ago. We can learn a great deal from interpreting the advice provided and using it to our advantage as we go throughout our own lives.
Today’s quote comes to us courtesy of Epictetus, Enchiridion, entry 45:
Quote
“Somebody is hasty about bathing; do not say that he bathes badly, but that he is hasty about bathing. Somebody drinks a good deal of wine; do not say that he drinks badly, but that he drinks a good deal. For until you have decided what judgement prompts him, how do you know that what he is doing is bad? And thus the final result will not be that you receive convincing sense-impressions of some things, but give your assent to others.”
Advice
What sits before us when we strip away the layers of emotion and attachment? That’s what we do when we objectively evaluate what is before us and relinquish the judgments we continually place on things.
Marcus Aurelius wrote in Meditations:
“Nothing is so conducive to spiritual growth as this capacity for logical and accurate analysis of everything that happens to us.”
Objective judgment of what lays before us is needed to remove the emotional pull we feel for external objects. Think about the value-judgments we place on every day items:
‘My car is not just a car, it’s an Audi’
‘My house is in Beverly Hills’
‘My sister is the CEO of a Fortune 500 company’
When we emphasize things like this, we are applying worth to things external, we are saying these things distinguish us and make us better. We’re not saying ‘I have a car’; ‘I have a house’; ‘I have a sister’.
By looking at things through the lens of straight facts, we are able to better limit the emotions associated with them because it helps to remove the judgments we place on those facts.
Epictetus had previously stated this in the Enchiridion when he states:
“You have to be one person, either good or bad. You have to work either on your commanding-faculty or on external things.”
Our opinions are judgments we have created. Our opinions change how we view situations. But by using reason to look at facts and remove judgment, we are better able to remove the emotional pull the external has on us.
Marcus encapsulates this thought in Meditations:
“To live a good life: We have the potential for it. If we can learn to be indifferent to what makes no difference. This is how we learn: by looking at each thing, both the parts and the whole. Keeping in mind that none of them can dictate how we perceive it. They don’t impose themselves on us. They hover before us, unmoving. It is we who generate the judgments — inscribing them on ourselves. And we don’t have to. We could leave the page blank — and if a mark slips through, erase it instantly… If it’s imposed by nature, accept it gladly and stop fighting it. And if not, work out what your own nature requires, and aim at that, even if it brings you no glory. None of us is forbidden to pursue our own good.”
We send a Stoic meditation every Monday morning directly to your inbox. To sign up to receive our Monday Meditations, click here.
Some links contained herein are Amazon affiliate links. Click here for disclosure.