(독서) Daily Stoic-11월24일TRAIN TO LET GO OF WHAT'S NOT YOURS

"In short, you must remember this-that if you hold anything dear outside of your own reasoned choice, you will have destroyed your capacity for choice."-EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 4.4.23 (“간단히 말하자면, 당신이 자신의 이성적 선택 이외에 다른 어떤 것을 소중히 여긴다면, 당신의 선택 능력을 스스로 파괴한 것이 됩니다."- 에픽테토스, 담화집 4.4.23)   According to Anthony de Mello, "there is one thing and only one thing that causes unhappiness. The name of that thing is Attachment." Attachments to an image you have of a person, attachments to wealth and status, attachments to a certain place or time, attachments to a job or to a lifestyle. All of those things are dangerous for one reason: they are outside of our reasoned choice. How long we keep them is not in our control.   As Epictetus realized some two thousand years before de Mello, our attachments are what make it so hard to accept change. Once we have them, we don't want to let go. We become slaves to maintaining the status quo. We are like the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland-running faster and faster to stay in the same place.   But everything is in a constant state of change. We have certain things for a while and then ...

"Fortune falls heavily on those for whom she's unexpected. The one always on the lookout easily endures." -SENECA, ON CONSOLATION TO HELVIA, 5.3 ("운명은 그것이 예상치 못했던 사람들에게 더 무겁게 닥칩니다. 늘 경계하는 사람은 쉽게 견뎌냅니다." - 세네카, 헬비아에게 보내는 위로의 글, 5.3)   There is a story of a Zen master who had a beautiful prized cup. The master would repeat to himself, “ The glass is already broken.” He enjoyed the cup. He used it. He showed it off to visitors. But in his mind, it was already broken. And so one day, when it actually did break, he simply said, "Of course."   This is how the Stoics think too. There is supposedly a true story about Epictetus and a lamp. He never locked his house, and so his expensive lamp was stolen. When Epictetus replaced it, he replaced it with a cheaper one so he could be less attached to it if it were stolen again.   Devastation-that feeling that we're absolutely ...

"A good isn't increased by the addition of time, but if one is wise for even a moment, they will be no less happy than the person who exercises virtue for all time and happily passes their life in it." -CHRYSIPPUS QUOTED BY PLUTARCH IN MORALIA: "AGAINST THE STOICS ON COMMON CONCEPTIONS," 1062 (LOEB, P. 682) (“선(善)은 시간의 추가로 인해 증가하지 않습니다. 단 한 순간이라도 지혜로운 사람이 있다면, 그는 모든 시간 동안 덕을 실천하며 행복하게 인생을 보낸 사람보다 결코 덜 행복하지 않을 것입니다.” - 크리시포스, 플루타르코스 모랄리아: 스토아주의자들에 반대하여 중에서)   Perhaps wisdom and happiness are like winning a medal in the Olympics. It doesn't matter whether you won a hundred years ago or ten minutes ago, or whether you won just once or in multiple events. It doesn't matter whether someone beats your time or score down the road, and it doesn't matter whether you never compete again. You'll always be a medalist, and you'll always know what it feels like. No one can take that away-and it would be impossible to feel more of that feeling.   The Juilliard-trained actor Evan Handler, who not only survived acute myeloid leukemia but also severe depression, has talked about his decision to take ...

"If you've seen the present, you've seen all things, from time immemorial into all of eternity. For everything that happens is related and the same."-MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 6.37 (“현재를 본 사람은 모든 것을 본 것입니다. 태초부터 영원까지, 모든 일은 서로 연관되어 있으며 같은 것입니다.” - 마르쿠스 아우렐리우스, 《명상록》 6.37) The events that will transpire today are the same as the things that have always occurred. People living and dying, e as mats living and dying, clouds rolling in and rolling out, air sucked in and sucked out, as it has for aeons. This moment right now, to paraphrase Emerson, is a quotation of the moments that have come before and will come ever after. This idea is expressed nowhere more beautifully than in the Chris- tianity hymn Gloria Patri. "As it was in the beginning, and now, and always, and to the ages of ...

"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....