(독서) Daily Stoic 11월 6일 SOMEONE ELSE IS SPINNING THE THREAD

"This is the very thing which makes up the virtue of the happy person and a well-flowing life-when the affairs of life are in every way tuned to the harmony between the individual divine spirit and the will of the director of the universe." -CHRYSIPPUS, QUOTED IN DIOGENES LAERTIUS,                                                               LIVES OF THE EMINENT PHILOSOPHERS, 7.1.88 (“이것이 바로 행복한 사람의 덕과 잘 흐르는 삶을 이루는 요소입니다. 즉, 삶의 일들이 모든 면에서 개인의 신성과 우주의 지도자의 뜻 사이의 조화에 맞추어질 때 이루어집니다.” - 크리시푸스, 디오게네스 라에르티우스의 저명한 철학자들의 삶 7.1.88 중에서) In undergoing a twelve-step program, many addicts struggle most with step 2: acknowledging a higher power. Addicts often fight this one. At first they claim it's because they're atheists or because they don't like religion or because they don't understand why it matters. But they later realize that this is just the addiction talking-it's another form of selfishness and self-absorption. The actual language of the step is pretty easy to swallow: "[We] came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity." Subsequent steps ask the addict to submit and let go. The second step really has less to do with "god" than those other steps-the letting go. It's about attuning to the universe and discarding the toxic idea that we're at the center of it. It's no wonder that the Stoics are ...

"There is no evil in things changing, just as there is no good in persisting in a new state."-MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 4.42 ("변화에 악이란 없으며, 새로운 상태에 머무르는 것이 선함이란 없다." - 마르쿠스 아우렐리우스, 명상록, 4.42)   When people say change is good, they're usually trying to reassure someone (or themselves). Because instinctively we view change as bad-or at least we're suspicious of it.   The Stoics want you to do away with those labels altogether. Change isn't good. The status quo isn't bad. They just are.   Remember, events are objective. It's only our opinion that says something is good or bad (and thus worth fighting against or fighting for). A better attitude? To decide to make the most of everything. But to do that you must first cease fighting. 사람들이 변화가 좋다고 말할 때, 보통 그 말은 누군가(혹은 자신)를 안심시키려는 시도입니다. ...

"Just as we commonly hear people say the doctor prescribed someone particular riding exercises, or ice baths, or walking without shoes, we should in the same way say that nature prescribed someone to be diseased, or disabled, or to suffer any kind of impairment. In the case of the doctor, prescribed means something ordered to help aid someone's healing. But in the case of nature, it means that what happens to each of us is ordered to help aid our destiny."-MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 5.8. (“우리가 흔히 사람들이 의사가 특정한 승마 운동이나 얼음 목욕, 혹은 맨발 걷기를 처방했다고 말하는 것을 듣듯이, 우리도 똑같이 자연이 누군가에게 병에 걸리거나 장애가 생기거나 어떤 형태의 고통을 겪도록 처방했다고 말해야 합니다. 의사의 경우, 처방은 누군가의 치유를 돕기 위해 명령된 것을 의미합니다. 하지만 자연의 경우, 각자에게 일어나는 일은 우리의 운명을 돕기 위해 명령된 것입니다.” - 마르쿠스 아우렐리우스, 《명상록》 5.8)   The Stoics were masters at analogies and used them as a tool to help strengthen their reasoning.   Here, Marcus observes how willingly we will put up with unpleasantness if commanded to by the magic ...

"But I haven't at any time been hindered in my will, nor forced against it. And how is this possible? I have bound up my choice to act with the will of God. God wills that I be sick, such is my will. He wills that I should choose something, so do I. He wills that I reach for something, or something be given to me--I wish for the same. What God doesn't will, I do not wish for."-EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 4.1.89 (“하지만 나는 언제라도 내 의지가 방해받지 않았고, 내 의지에 반하는 행동을 강요받지 않았습니다. 어떻게 그게 가능했을까요? 나는 내 선택을 신의 뜻과 함께 묶어 두었습니다. 신이 내가 병들기를 원하신다면, 나 역시 그렇게 원합니다. 신이 내가 무언가를 선택하길 바라신다면, 나도 그렇게 합니다. 신이 내가 무언가를 바라거나 받기를 바라신다면, 나 역시 같은 것을 원합니다. 신이 원하지 않는 것을 나는 원하지 않습니다.” -에픽테토스, 담화록, 4.1.89)   When General Dwight D. Eisenhower wrote to his wife on the eve of the invasion of Normandy, he told her, "Everything we could think of has been done, the troops are fit, everybody is doing his best. The answer is in the lap of the gods." He'd done everything he could— and now, what would happen would happen and as Epictetus might say, he was ready to bear whatever that was. In fact, Eisenhower had written another ...

"Don't seek for everything to happen as you wish it would, but rather wish that everything happens as it actually will-then your life will flow well."-EPICTETUS, ENCHIRIDION, 8 ("일어난 모든 일이 내가 원하는 대로 되기를 바라지 말고, 오히려 모든 일이 실제로 일어나는 대로 되기를 바라십시오. 그러면 당신의 삶은 순조롭게 흐를 것입니다." - 에픽테토스, 엔케이리디온 8)   "It is easy to praise providence for anything that may happen if you have two qualities: a complete view of what has actually happened in each instance and a sense of gratitude. Without gratitude what is the point of seeing, and without seeing what is the object of gratitude?"-EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 1.6.1-2 ("어떤 일이 일어나든 섭리를 찬양하는 것은 쉽습니다. 단, 두 가지 조건이 필요합니다. 바로 각 경우에 실제로 일어난 일을 완전하게 이해하는 것과 감사의 마음을 갖는 것입니다. 감사함이 없다면 이해하는 것의 의미는 무엇일까요? 그리고 이해가 없다면 감사의 대상은 무엇이겠습니까?" - 에픽테토스, 담화록 1.6.1-2)   Something happened that we wish had not. Which of these is easiest to change: our opinion or the event that is past?   The answer is obvious. Accept what happened and change your wish that it had not happened. Stoicism calls this the "art of acquiescence"- to accept rather than fight every little thing.   And the most practiced Stoics take it a step further. Instead of simply accepting what happens, they urge us to actually enjoy what has ...