(독서) Daily Stoic-8월19일CORRALLING THE UNNECESSARY

"A good person is invincible, for they don't rush into contests in which they aren't the strongest. If you want their property, take it-take also their staff, profession, and body. But you will never compel what they set out for, nor trap them in what they would avoid. For the only contest the good person enters is that of their own reasoned choice. How can such a person not be invincible?"-EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 3.6.5-7 ("선한 사람은 무적입니다, 왜냐하면 자신이 가장 강하지 않은 싸움에 서둘러 나서지 않기 때문입니다. 만약 그들의 재산을 원한다면 가져가십시오 - 그들의 지팡이도, 직업도, 육신도 가져가십시오. 그러나 그들이 추구하는 것을 결코 강요할 수 없으며, 그들이 피하려는 것에 결코 가둘 수 없을 것입니다. 왜냐하면 선한 사람이 참여하는 유일한 싸움은 그들이 스스로 이성적으로 선택한 싸움이기 때문입니다. 어떻게 그런 사람이 무적이지 않을 수 있겠습니까?" -에픽테토스, 담론, 3.6.5-7)   One of the most fundamental principles of martial arts is that strength should not go against strength. That is: don't try to beat your opponent where they are strongest. But that's exactly what we do when we try to undertake some impossible task we haven't bothered to think through. Or we let someone put us on the spot. Or we say yes to everything that comes our way. Some people think that "choosing your battles" is weak or calculating. How could reducing the ...

"For nothing outside my reasoned choice can hinder or harm it- my reasoned choice alone can do this to itself. If we would lean this way whenever we fail, and would blame only ourselves and remember that nothing but opinion is the cause of a troubled mind and uneasiness, then by God, I swear we would be making progress."-EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 3.19.2-3 (“나의 이성적인 선택 외에는 그 어떤 것도 그것을 방해하거나 해칠 수 없으며, 나의 이성적인 선택만이 스스로 그렇게 할 수 있습니다. 우리가 실패할 때마다 이런 식으로 의지하고, 오직 자기 자신만을 탓하며 마음이 괴롭고 불안한 것은 오직 의견뿐이라는 것을 기억한다면, 신이시여, 맹세컨대 우리는 발전할 것입니다."-에픽테토스, 담화, 3.19.2~3.)   Today, see if you can go without blaming a single person or single thing. Someone messes up your instructions-it's on you for expecting anything different. Someone says something rude-it's your sensitivity that interpreted their remark this way. Your stock portfolio takes a big loss-what did you expect making such a big bet? Why are you checking the market day to day anyway?   Whatever it is, however bad it may be, see whether you can ...

"Just as the nature of rational things has given to each person their rational powers, so it also gives us this power-just as nature turns to its own purpose any obstacle or any opposition, sets its place in the destined order, and co-opts it, so every rational person can convert any obstacle into the raw material for their own purpose."-MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 8.35 ("이성과 이성적 본성이 각 사람에게 이성적 힘을 부여한 것처럼, 자연이 어떤 장애물이나 반대를 자신의 목적으로 돌리고, 운명적인 질서 속에서 자신의 자리를 정하고 그것을 받아들이는 것처럼, 모든 이성적인 사람은 어떤 장애물도 자신의 목적을 위한 원료로 바꿀 수 있습니다." – 마르쿠스 아우렐리우스, 명상록, 8.35)   At five feet three inches tall, Muggsy Bogues was the shortest player ever to play professional basketball. Throughout his career, he was snickered at, underestimated, and counted out.   But Bogues succeeded by turning his height into the very thing that made him nationally known. Some people looked at his size as a curse, but he saw it as a blessing. He found the advantages contained within it. In fact, on the court small size has many advantages: speed and quickness, the ability to steal the ball from unsuspecting (and significantly taller) players, to say nothing of the fact that players just plain ...

"This can be swiftly taught in very few words: virtue is the only good; there is no certain good without virtue; and virtue resides in our nobler part, which is the rational one. And what can this virtue be? True and steadfast judgment. For from this will arise every mental impulse, and by it every appearance that spurs our impulses will be rendered clear."-SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 71.32(“덕은 유일한 선이고, 덕이 없는 선은 존재하지 않으며, 덕은 우리의 고귀한 부분, 즉 이성적인 부분에 존재한다는 것을 몇 마디로 간단히 설명할 수 있습니다. 그렇다면 이 미덕은 무엇일까요? 진실하고 확고한 판단력입니다. 이것으로부터 모든 정신적 충동이 일어나고, 그것에 의해 우리의 충동을 자극하는 모든 모습이 분명해질 것입니다."-세네카, 도덕편지, 71.32쪽) Think about someone you know who has character of granite. Why are they so dependable, trustworthy, excellent? Why do they have a sterling reputation? You might see a pattern: consistency. They are honest not only when it's convenient. They are not only there for you when it counts. The qualities that make them admirable come through in every action ("arise with every mental impulse").  Why do we revere people like Theodore Roosevelt, for example? It isn't because he was brave once, ...

"Philosophy isn't a parlor trick or made for show. It's not concerned with words, but with facts. It's not employed for some pleasure before the day is spent, or to relieve the uneasiness of our leisure. It shapes and builds up the soul, it gives order to life, guides action, shows what should and shouldn't be done-it sits at the rudder steering our course as we vacillate in uncertainties. Without it, no one can live without fear or free from care. Countless things happen every hour that require advice, and such advice is to be sought out in philosophy."-SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 16.3 (“철학은 속임수나 보여주기 위한 것이 아닙니다. 철학은 말이 아니라 사실과 관련이 있습니다. 하루를 보내기 전의 즐거움을 위해, 또는 여가의 불안을 해소하기 위해 사용하는 것이 아닙니다. 영혼을 형성하고 세우고, 삶에 질서를 부여하고, 행동을 안내하고, 해야 할 일과 하지 말아야 할 일을 알려주며, 불확실성 속에서 흔들릴 때 우리의 항로를 조종하는 방향타 역할을 합니다. 이 없이는 누구도 두려움 없이 살거나 걱정으로부터 자유로울 수 없습니다. 조언이 필요한 수많은 일들이 매시간 일어나고 있으며, 그러한 조언은 철학에서 찾아야 합니다."- 세네카, <도덕 편지>, 16.3)   There is a story about Cato the Elder, whose great-grandson Cato the Younger became a towering figure in Roman life. One day Cato witnessed a fine oration from Carneades, a Skeptic philosopher, who waxed poetically on the importance...