(독서) Daily Stoic-9월27일 WHAT WILL PROSPERITY REVEAL?

"Leisure without study is death-a tomb for the living person." -SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 82.4 ("공부 없는 여가는 죽음이다 - 살아있는 사람을 위한 무덤이다." - 세네카, 『도덕 서신집』, 82.4)   You deserve a vacation. You work hard. You sacrifice. You push your- You deserve a vacation. You wop a plane, check into your hotel, and head to the beach-but tuck a book under your arm (and not a trashy beach read). Make sure you enjoy your relaxation like a poet-not idly but actively, observing the world around you, taking it all in, better understanding your place in the universe. Take a day off from work every now and then, but not a day off from learning.   Maybe your goal is to make enough money so that you can retire early. Good for you! But the purpose of retirement is not to live a life of indolence or to run out the clock, as easy as that might be to do. Rather, it's to allow for the pursuit of your real calling now that a big distraction is out of the way. To sit around all day and do nothing? To watch endless amounts of television or simply travel from place to ...

"Show me someone who isn't a slave! One is a slave to lust, another to greed, another to power, and all are slaves to fear. I could name a former Consul who is a slave to a little old woman, a millionaire who is the slave of the cleaning woman.... No servitude is more abject than the self-imposed."-SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 47.17 (“누구든 노예가 아닌 사람을 보여주시오! 어떤 이는 욕망의 노예, 또 다른 이는 탐욕의 노예, 또 다른 이는 권력의 노예이며, 모든 사람은 두려움의 노예입니다. 나는 작은 할머니에게 노예가 된 전직 집정관을, 청소부에게 노예가 된 백만장자를 예로 들 수 있습니다... 어떤 예속도 스스로 부과한 것만큼 비참하지는 않습니다.” - 세네카, 『도덕 편지』, 47.17)   We're all addicts in one way or another. We're addicted to our routines, to our coffee, to our comfort, to someone else's approval. These dependencies mean we're not in control of our own lives-the dependency is.   "Anyone who truly wants to be free," Epictetus said, "won't desire something that is actually in someone else's control, unless they want to be a slave." The subjects of our affection can be removed from us at a moment's notice. Our routines can be disrupted, the doctor can forbid us from drinking coffee, we can be thrust into uncomfortable situations.   This is why we must strengthen ourselves by testing these dependencies before they become too great. Can you try ...

"Being unexpected adds to the weight of a disaster, and being a surprise has never failed to increase a person's pain. For that reason, nothing should ever be unexpected by us. Our minds should be sent out in advance to all things and we shouldn't just consider the normal course of things, but what could actually happen. For is there anything in life that Fortune won't knock off its high horse if it pleases her?"-SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 91.3a-4 ("예상하지 못한 일은 재앙의 무게를 더하고, 뜻밖의 일은 사람의 고통을 증가시키는 법입니다. 그 이유로, 우리는 어떤 일도 예상하지 못해서는 안 됩니다. 우리의 마음은 미리 모든 일에 대비해야 하며, 정상적인 일의 흐름뿐만 아니라 실제로 일어날 수 있는 일에 대해 생각해야 합니다. 인생에서 운명이 마음만 먹으면 굴복시키지 않을 일이 있겠습니까?" - 세네카, 도덕 편지, 91.3a-4)     In the year 64, during the reign of Nero, a fire tore through the city of Rome. The French city of Lyons sent a large sum of money to aid the victims. The next year the citizens of Lyons were suddenly struck by a tragic fire of their own, prompting Nero to send an equal sum to its victims. As Seneca wrote about the event to a friend in one of his letters, he must have been struck by the poetry-one city helping another, only to be struck by similar disaster not long after.   How often does that happen to us? We comfort a friend during a breakup, only to be surprised when our own relationship ends. We must prepare in our minds for the possibility of extreme reversals of fate. The next time you ...

"Remember that your ruling reason becomes unconquerable when it rallies and relies on itself, so that it won't do anything contrary to its own will, even if its position is irrational. How much more unconquerable if its judgments are careful and made rationally? Therefore, the mind freed from passions is an impenetrable fortress-a person has no more secure place of refuge for all time. -MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 8.48 ("당신의 지배하는 이성이 스스로 결집하고 의지하게 되면, 자신의 의지에 반하는 어떤 것도 하지 않게 되어 무적이 됩니다. 설령 그 입장이 비합리적일지라도 말입니다. 그렇다면 판단이 신중하고 합리적으로 이루어진다면 얼마나 더 무적이 되겠습니까? 그러므로 마음이 감정에서 해방되면 그것은 난공불락의 요새가 됩니다. 사람에게 그보다 더 안전한 피난처는 영원히 없을 것입니다." - 마르쿠스 아우렐리우스, <명상록> 8.48)   Bruce Lee once made an interesting claim: "I fear not the man who who has practiced ten thousand kicks once," he said, "but I fear the man who has practiced one kick ten thousand times." When we repeat an action so often it becomes unconscious behavior, we can default to it without thinking.   Training in the martial arts or combat is a deeply thoughtful study of movement. We sometimes think of soldiers as automatons, but what they've actually built is a steady pattern of unconscious behaviors. Any of us can build these.   When Marcus says that a mind can get to a place where "it won't do anything contrary to its own will, even if its position is irrational," what he means is that proper training can change your default habits. Train yourself to give up anger, and you won't be angry at every ...

"Difficulties show a person's character. So when a challenge confronts you, remember that God is matching you with a younger sparring partner, as would a physical trainer. Why? Becoming an Olympian takes sweat! I think no one has a better challenge than yours, if only you would use it like an athlete would that younger sparring partner."-EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 1.24.1-2 ("어려움은 그 사람의 본성을 드러냅니다. 그러니 도전이 다가올 때, 신체 트레이너가 젊은 스파링 파트너를 붙여주듯이, 신께서 당신에게 맞는 상대를 주고 있다는 사실을 기억하세요. 왜냐하면 올림픽 선수가 되기 위해선 많은 땀을 흘려야 하기 때문입니다! 운동선수가 젊은 스파링 파트너와 함께 훈련하듯, 당신도 그 도전을 그렇게 받아들인다면, 이보다 더 좋은 기회는 없을 것입니다." - 에픽테토스, 담화, 1.24.1-2)   The Stoics loved to use metaphors from the Olympics, especially wrestling. Like us, they saw sports as a training ground to practice for the challenges one will inevitably face in the course of living. As General Douglas MacArthur once said, in words later engraved at the gymnasium at West Point:   UPON THE FIELDS OF FRIENDLY STRIFE ARE SOWN THE SEEDS THAT, UPON OTHER FIELDS, ON OTHER DAYS WILL BEAR THE FRUITS OF VICTORY.   Everyone has found themselves...