20:48 Dec 09 2021
Times Read: 230
Stoicism was a school of philosophy founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early third century BC. Its
name is derived from the Greek stoa, meaning porch, because that’s where Zeno first taught his students.
The philosophy asserts that virtue (meaning, chiefly, the four cardinal virtues of self-control, courage,
justice, and wisdom) is happiness, and it is our perceptions of things—rather than the things themselves—
that cause most of our trouble. Stoicism teaches that we can’t control or rely on anything outside what
Epictetus called our “reasoned choice”—our ability to use our reason to choose how we categorize,
respond, and reorient ourselves to external events.
-from The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday
True thousands of years ago and still relevant now. My life turned around big time when I realized this.
'“The proper work of the mind is the exercise of choice, refusal, yearning, repulsion, preparation,
purpose, and assent. What then can pollute and clog the mind’s proper functioning? Nothing but
its own corrupt decisions.”
—EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 4.11.6–7
Let’s break down each one of those tasks:
Choice—to do and think right
Refusal—of temptation
Yearning—to be better
Repulsion—of negativity, of bad influences, of what isn’t true
Preparation—for what lies ahead or whatever may happen
Purpose—our guiding principle and highest priority
Assent—to be free of deception about what’s inside and outside our control (and be ready to accept
the latter)
This is what the mind is here to do. We must make sure that it does.. '
Good stuff..
COMMENTS
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LORDMOGY
05:44 Dec 10 2021