(독서) Daily Stoic-11월9일 ALL IS FLUID

"Remember that you are an actor in a play, playing a character according to the will of the playwright-if a short play, then it's short; if long, long. If he wishes you to play the beggar, play even that role well, just as you would if it were a cripple, a honcho, or an everyday person. For this is your duty, to perform well the character assigned you. That selection belongs to another."-EPICTETUS, ENCHIRIDION, 17 (“당신은 연극에서 한 인물을 연기하는 배우임을 기억하십시오. 작가의 뜻에 따라 짧은 연극이면 짧게, 길다면 길게 합니다. 작가가 당신에게 거지 역할을 맡기면, 그 역할을 잘 수행해야 합니다. 그 역할이 불구자이건, 중요한 인물이건, 평범한 사람이건 상관없습니다. 왜냐하면 당신의 의무는 맡겨진 배역을 잘 연기하는 것이기 때문입니다. 역할을 정하는 것은 당신이 아닌 다른 이의 몫입니다.” -에픽테토스, 《엥케이리디온》, 17장)   Marcus Aurelius didn't want to be emperor. He wasn't a politician as we can tell from his letters and from history, what he really wanted was to be a philosopher. But the powerful elite in Rome, including the emperor Hadrian, saw something in him. Groomed for power, Marcus was adopted and put in line for the throne because they knew he could handle it. Meanwhile, Epictetus lived much of his life as a slave and was persecuted for his philosophical teachings. Both did quite a lot with the roles they were assigned.   Our station in life can be as random as a roll of the dice. Some of us are born into privilege, others into adversity. Sometimes we're given exactly the opportunities we want. ...

"Don't trust in your reputation, money, or position, but in the strength that is yours-namely, your judgments about the things that you control and don't control. For this alone is what makes us free and unfettered, that picks us up by the neck from the depths and lifts us eye to eye with the rich and powerful." -EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 3.26.34-35 (“명성, 돈, 지위를 믿지 말고 자신의 힘, 즉 자신이 통제할 수 있는 것과 통제할 수 없는 것에 대한 판단을 믿어야 합니다. 이것만이 우리를 자유롭고 자유롭게 만들고, 깊은 곳에서 우리의 멱살을 잡고 부자와 권력자와 눈을 맞출 수 있게 해주기 때문입니다.” -에픽테토스, 담론, 3.26.34-35)    In a scene in Steven Pressfield's classic novel about Alexander the Great, The Virtues of War, Alexander reaches a river crossing only to be confronted by a philosopher who refuses to move. "This man has conquered the world!" one of Alexander's men shouts. "What have you done?" The philosopher responds, with complete confidence, "I have conquered the need to conquer the world."   We do know that Alexander did clash with Diogenes the Cynic, a philosopher known for his rejection of what ...

"If the breaking day sees someone proud, The ending day sees them brought low. No one should put too much trust in triumph, No one should give up hope of trials improving. Clotho mixes one with the other and stops Fortune from resting, spinning every fate around. No one has had so much divine favor That they could guarantee themselves tomorrow. God keeps our lives hurtling on, Spinning in a whirlwind."-SENECA, THYESTES, 613 (“만약 새벽에 누군가가 자만한다면, 하루가 저물 때에는 그가 낮아진 것을 보게 됩니다. 누구도 승리에 지나친 신뢰를 두어서는 안 되며, 누구도 시련이 개선될 희망을 포기해서는 안 됩니다. 클로토는 둘을 섞어가며, 운명의 여신 포르투나가 한곳에 머무르지 않도록 하고, 모든 운명을 뒤바꿔 놓습니다. 그 누구도 자신이 내일을 보장받을 만큼의 신의 총애를 받은 적이 없습니다. 신은 우리의 삶을 소용돌이치며 몰아가고, 운명을 회오리 속에서 회전시킵니다.”-세네카, 티에스테스, 613) "The novelist Cormac McCarthy was living in a motel room when he heard the knock at the door. It was a messenger- he’d been awarded the MacArthur "genius" grant and ...

"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. ...