(독서)Daily Stoic-7월 8일 STOP MONKEYING AROUND

"This is what you should teach me, how to be like Odysseus-how to love my country, wife and father, and how, even after suffering shipwreck, I might keep sailing on course to those honorable ends."-SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 88.7b (“이것이 내가 가르쳐야 할 것이다. 어떻게 하면 오디세우스처럼 될 수 있는지, 어떻게 하면 내 조국, 아내, 아버지를 사랑할 수 있는지, 그리고 심지어 조난을 당한 후에도, 어떻게 하면 그 명예로운 목적을 향해 항해를 계속할 수 있는지.”-세네카, 도덕 편지, 88.7b)   Many schoolteachers teach The Odyssey all wrong. They teach the dates, they debate whether Homer was really the author or not, whether he was blind, they explain the oral tradition, they tell students what a Cyclops is or how the Trojan Horse worked.   Seneca's advice to someone studying the classics is to forget all that. The dates, the names, the places-they hardly matter. What matters is the moral. If you got everything else wrong from The Odyssey, but you left understanding the importance of perseverance, the dangers of hubris, the risks of temptation and distraction? Then you really learned something.   We're not trying to...

"On those mornings you struggle with getting up, keep this thought in mind-I am awakening to the work of a human being. Why then am I annoyed that I am going to do what I'm made for, the very things for which I was put into this world? Or was I made for this, to snuggle under the covers and keep warm? It's so pleasurable. Were you then made for pleasure? In short, to be coddled or to exert yourself?"-MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 5.1 (“아침에 일어나기 힘든 날이 있다면 이런 생각을 떠올려라-나는 인간으로서의 일을 하러 깨어나는 것이다. 왜 내가 이 세상에 존재하는 바로 그 일을 하러 가는 것에 짜증을 내는가? 아니면 내가 이 세상에 존재하는 이유가 이불 속에서 따뜻하게 누워있는 것인가? 그것이 그렇게 즐거운가? 그렇다면 너는 즐거움을 위해 태어났는가? 간단히 말해, 너는 안락함을 위해 태어난 것인가 아니면 자신을 발휘하기 위해 태어난 것인가?”-마르쿠스 아우렐리우스, 《명상록》, 5.1)    It's comforting to think that even two thousand years ago the emperor of Rome (who was reportedly a bit of an insomniac) was giving himself a pep talk in order to summon up the willpower to throw the blankets off each morning and get out of bed. From the time we're first sent off to school until we retire, ...

"Good people will do what they find honorable to do, even if it requires hard work; they'll do it even if it causes them injury; they'll do it even if it will bring danger. Again, they won't do what they find base, even if it brings wealth, pleasure, or power. Nothing will deter them from what is honorable, and nothing will lure them into what is base."-SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 76.18 ("선한 사람은 힘들더라도 명예로운 일을 하고, 부상을 입더라도 그 일을 하고, 위험을 초래하더라도 그 일을 할 것입니다. 다시 말하지만, 사람들은 부, 쾌락, 권력을 가져다주더라도 근거가 없는 일은 하지 않습니다. 그 어떤 것도 명예로운 일에서 그들을 막을 수 없으며, 그 어떤 것도 그들을 비열한 일로 유혹할 수 없다.” -세네카, 도덕편지, 76.18)   If doing good was easy, everyone would do it. (And if doing bad wasn't tempting or attractive, nobody would do it.) The same goes for your duty. If anyone could do it, it would have been...

"Protect your own good in all that you do, and as concerns everything else take what is given as far as you can make reasoned use of it. If you don't, you'll be unlucky, prone to failure, hindered and stymied." -EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 4.3.11 ("모든 일에서 자신의 선함을 보호하고, 다른 모든 일에 대해서는 주어진 것을 합리적으로 활용할 수 있는 한 최대한 활용하세요. 그렇지 않으면 운이 나쁘고 실패하기 쉬우며 방해와 방해를 받게 될 것입니다."-에픽테토스, 담론, 4.3.11)   The goodness inside you is like a small flame, and you are its keeper. It's your job, today and every day, to make sure that it has enough fuel, that it doesn't get obstructed or snuffed out.   Every person has their own version of the flame and is responsible for it, just as you are. If they all fail, the world will be much darker- that is something you don't control. But so long as your flame flickers, there will be some light in the world.   여러분 안에 있는 선함은 작은 불꽃과 같으며 여러분은 그 불꽃을...

"The task of a philosopher: we should bring our will into harmony with whatever happens, so that nothing happens against our will and nothing that we wish for fails to happen."-EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 2.14.7 ("철학자의 임무: 우리는 어떤 일이 일어나든 우리의 의지와 조화를 이루어 우리의 의지에 반하는 일이 일어나지 않고 우리가 바라는 일이 일어나지 않도록 해야 한다."-에픽테토스, 담론, 2.14.7)   A long To-Do list seems intimidating and burdensome-all these things we have to do in the course of a day or a week. But a Get To Do list sounds like a privilege-all the things we're excited about the opportunity to experience. This isn't just semantic playing. It is a central facet of the philosopher's worldview.   Today, don't try to impose your will on the world. Instead see yourself as fortunate to receive and respond to the will in the world.   Stuck in traffic? A few wonderful minutes to relax and sit. Your car broke down after idling for so long? Ah, what a nice nudge to take a long walk the rest of the way. A swerving car driven by a distracted, cell-phone-wielding idiot nearly hit you as you were walking and soaked you head to toe with muddy water? What a reminder about how precarious our existence is and how silly it is to get upset ...