(독서) Daily Stoic 11월 15일 BEHOLD, NOW AS EVER

"For any challenge we should hold three thoughts at our command:   'Lead on God and Destiny, To that Goal fixed for me long ago. I will follow and not stumble; even if my will  is weak I will soldier on."" -CLEANTHES   "Whoever embraces necessity count as wise, skilled in divine matters." -EURIPIDES   "If it pleases the gods, so be it. They may well kill me, but they can't hurt me." -PLATO'S CRITO AND APOLOGY   -EPICTETUS, ENCHIRIDION, 53 (어떤 도전에 직면하든 우리는 세 가지 생각을 품어야 합니다: "신이시여, 운명이시여, 이끌어 주소서. 오래전에 나에게 정해진 그 목표로. 나는 따르겠나이다. 넘어지지 않으리. 내 의지가 약할지라도 나는 전진하리."– 클레안테스   "필연을 받아들이는 자는 지혜로운 자이며, 신성한 이치를 꿰뚫는 능력을 지닌 자이다."– 에우리피데스   "신들의 뜻이라면, 그렇게 하소서. 그들이 나를 죽일 수는 있을지언정, 나를 해칠 수는 없소."– 플라톤, 크리톤과 변명  -에픽테토스, 엔키리디온, 53쪽)   These three quotes compiled by Epictetus show us-in wisdom across history-the themes of tolerance, flexibility, and, ultimately, acceptance. Cleanthes and Euripides evoke destiny and fate as concepts that help ease acceptance. When one has a belief in a greater or higher power (be it God or gods), then there is no such thing as an event going contrary to plan....

"Our rational nature moves freely forward in its impressions when it:   1) accepts nothing false or uncertain; 2) directs its impulses only to acts for the common good; 3) limits its desires and aversions only to what's in its own power; 4) embraces everything nature assigns it." -MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 8.7 ("우리의 이성적 본성은 다음과 같은 인상 속에서 자유롭게 나아갑니다:   1) 거짓되거나 불확실한 것을 받아들이지 않습니다.  2) 오직 공공선을 위한 행동에만 충동을 이끕니다.  3) 욕망과 혐오를 자신의 통제 안에 있는 것으로만 제한합니다.  4) 자연이 부여한 모든 것을 받아들입니다."  - 마르쿠스 아우렐리우스, 《명상록》 8.7)   If you notice, Marcus repeatedly reminds himself what Stoicism is. years later, but really they were intended to be helpful to him. Maybe that day he had accepted a bad impression or had acted selfishly. Maybe he had pinned his hopes on something outside his control or complained and fought against something that had happened. Or maybe it had just been awhile since he'd thought about these things and wanted a reminder.   Whatever his case was, or ...

"When philosophy is wielded with arrogance and stubbornly, it is the cause for the ruin of many. Let philosophy scrape off your own faults, rather than be a way to rail against the faults of others." -SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 103.4b-5a (“철학이 오만하고 고집스럽게 휘두르면 많은 사람을 파멸로 이끄는 원인이 됩니다. 철학이 다른 사람의 잘못에 대항하는 수단이 되기보다는 자신의 잘못을 긁어내는 도구가 되게 하라.” -세네카, 도덕서, 103.4b-5a)   Remember, the proper direction of philosophy-of all the things we're doing here-is focused inward. To make ourselves better and to leave other people to that task for themselves and their own journey. Our faults are in our control, and so we turn to philosophy to help scrape them off like barnacles from the hull of a ship. Other people's faults? Not so much. That's for them to do.   Leave other people to their faults. Nothing in Stoic philosophy empowers you to judge them-only to accept them. Especially when we have so many of our own. 우리가 여기서 하고 있는 모든 일의 올바른 철학의 방향은 내면에 초점을 맞추고 있다는 점을 기억하세요. 우리 자신을 더 나은 ...

"Hecato says, 'cease to hope and you will cease to fear.'... The primary cause of both these ills is that instead of adapting ourselves to present circumstances we send out thoughts too far ahead." -SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 5.7b-8 (“헤카토는 '희망을 멈추면 두려움도 멈출 수 있다'고 말합니다.... 이 두 가지 병의 주된 원인은 우리가 현재 상황에 적응하는 대신 너무 멀리 내다보는 생각을 하기 때문입니다.” -세네카, 도덕편지, 5.7b-8) Hope is generally regarded as good. Fear is generally regarded as bad. To a Stoic like Hecato (known as Hecato of Rhodes), they are the same-both are projections into the future about things we do not control. Both are the enemy of this present moment that you are actually in. Both mean you're living a life in opposition to amor fati.   It's not about overcoming our fears but understanding that both hope and fear contain a dangerous amount of want and worry in them. ...

"Meditate often on the swiftness with which all that exists and is coming into being is swept by us and carried away. For substance is like a river's unending flow, its activities continually changing and causes infinitely shifting so that almost nothing at all stands still."-MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 5.23 (“모든 존재와 생성되고 있는 것들이 얼마나 빠르게 우리를 지나가고 사라지는지를 자주 명상하십시오. 실체는 마치 끝없이 흐르는 강물과 같으며, 그 활동은 끊임없이 변화하고 원인들은 무한히 이동하기 때문에 거의 아무것도 고정되어 있지 않습니다.”-마르쿠스 아우렐리우스, 명상록, 5.23) Marcus borrows this wonderful metaphor from Heraclitus, who said, "No man steps in the same river twice." Because the river has changed, and so has the man. Life is in a constant state of change. And so are we. To get upset by things is to wrongly assume that they will last. To kick ourselves ...