The second part of the second volume of the Harvard Classics involved two important pieces of Stoic philosophy, Epictetus' The Golden Sayings (or the Enchiridion) and Marcus Aurelius' Meditations.
The Stoic school of thought is basically the equivalent of The Dude in The Big Lebowski. I think it could be best described as accepting you can't control external actions, but only your reactions to them. For example, I can't control whether or not I'll get laid off at work, or other bad things, but I can control my reaction to them. For the Stoics, disturbing the soul was a grave sin. Shit, as it were, happens. You can sit there and cry and get stuck in pity or go "ok, so that event happened, let's move past it." I like it.
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus was a collection of handy phrases that were collected by one of his students. It's also referred to as the Enchiridion, or "ready at hand." It was a practical compilation and it made a lot of sense. I liked it. It's a good solid code to help. In fact, I was laid off my job in August of 2012. I took it better than I thought, mainly because of Epictetus' words.
I was dealt a bad hand. It was my job to deal with it.
The more the words resounded to me, I decided to do some more research on Stoics and Epictetus himself. Epictetus was a slave with a bad leg, making him a cripple. But he found a way to deal with it, and took the lessons he learned from being smart and having the opportunity to study from another Stoic named Musonius Rufus (which would make a great name for a future child).
Another name came up - Admiral James Stockdale. For people who follow politics, he was Ross Perot's Vice Presidential pick in the 1992 campaign. He came across as an old man who required hearing aids, and wasn't as polished as Al Gore or Dan Quayle. And naturally, in this age of vindictive media, he was treated like a dottering old fool.
Stockdale spent over 7 years as a POW in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. He was the most senior pilot, which means he had the shit beaten out of him the most for information and propaganda purposes. Years of solitary confinement and more than a few broken bones at the hands of his captors. It would have broke a lot of better men than I. So how does a man survive that and walk out with his head held high? Epictetus' works. Stockdale knew going in that if he was shot down, there goes 5 years of his life. He was one of the most brilliant men to wear the uniform, and if a philosopher who died nearly 1900 years ago helped him survive, then there has to be valuable lessons. In fact, I highly recommend Stockdale's book Courage Under Fire: Testing Epictetus' Doctrines in a Laboratory of Human Behavior. It's a practical book written by a fighter pilot/philosopher. I can't recommend it enough. And after I read Courage Under Fire, I felt a sense of shame. I wish I knew about how amazing he was when he was alive, and could fully appreciate him better. His legacy deserves better than what people remember from 1992.
The final part of the second volume was Marcus Aurelius' Meditations. Marcus was a Roman Emperor, and a damn good one. He was raised well and well educated. He seemingly reluctantly took power and realized that being a good Stoic, that being Emperor was his duty, and thus, had to "play the part" to the best of his abilities.
While on a military campaign, Marcus started to write down notes to himself - reflections on a long military career, being a leader and a philosopher. They weren't intended for publication, so the style is a bit rough. But Marcus' words still hold meaning. He embraced death, realized life was a struggle and being and acting like a great man was more important than saying you had virtues. In a way, it was more of a valuable collection of lessons than Epictetus since it was "applied" philosophy. One quote from Meditations stands out:
The Stoic school of thought is basically the equivalent of The Dude in The Big Lebowski. I think it could be best described as accepting you can't control external actions, but only your reactions to them. For example, I can't control whether or not I'll get laid off at work, or other bad things, but I can control my reaction to them. For the Stoics, disturbing the soul was a grave sin. Shit, as it were, happens. You can sit there and cry and get stuck in pity or go "ok, so that event happened, let's move past it." I like it.
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus was a collection of handy phrases that were collected by one of his students. It's also referred to as the Enchiridion, or "ready at hand." It was a practical compilation and it made a lot of sense. I liked it. It's a good solid code to help. In fact, I was laid off my job in August of 2012. I took it better than I thought, mainly because of Epictetus' words.
Remember that you are an actor in a drama, of such a kind as the author pleases to make it. If short, of a short one; if long, of a long one. If it is his pleasure you should act a poor man, a cripple, a governor, or a private person, see that you act it naturally. For this is your business, to act well the character assigned you; to choose it is another's.
I was dealt a bad hand. It was my job to deal with it.
The more the words resounded to me, I decided to do some more research on Stoics and Epictetus himself. Epictetus was a slave with a bad leg, making him a cripple. But he found a way to deal with it, and took the lessons he learned from being smart and having the opportunity to study from another Stoic named Musonius Rufus (which would make a great name for a future child).
Another name came up - Admiral James Stockdale. For people who follow politics, he was Ross Perot's Vice Presidential pick in the 1992 campaign. He came across as an old man who required hearing aids, and wasn't as polished as Al Gore or Dan Quayle. And naturally, in this age of vindictive media, he was treated like a dottering old fool.
Stockdale spent over 7 years as a POW in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. He was the most senior pilot, which means he had the shit beaten out of him the most for information and propaganda purposes. Years of solitary confinement and more than a few broken bones at the hands of his captors. It would have broke a lot of better men than I. So how does a man survive that and walk out with his head held high? Epictetus' works. Stockdale knew going in that if he was shot down, there goes 5 years of his life. He was one of the most brilliant men to wear the uniform, and if a philosopher who died nearly 1900 years ago helped him survive, then there has to be valuable lessons. In fact, I highly recommend Stockdale's book Courage Under Fire: Testing Epictetus' Doctrines in a Laboratory of Human Behavior. It's a practical book written by a fighter pilot/philosopher. I can't recommend it enough. And after I read Courage Under Fire, I felt a sense of shame. I wish I knew about how amazing he was when he was alive, and could fully appreciate him better. His legacy deserves better than what people remember from 1992.
The final part of the second volume was Marcus Aurelius' Meditations. Marcus was a Roman Emperor, and a damn good one. He was raised well and well educated. He seemingly reluctantly took power and realized that being a good Stoic, that being Emperor was his duty, and thus, had to "play the part" to the best of his abilities.
While on a military campaign, Marcus started to write down notes to himself - reflections on a long military career, being a leader and a philosopher. They weren't intended for publication, so the style is a bit rough. But Marcus' words still hold meaning. He embraced death, realized life was a struggle and being and acting like a great man was more important than saying you had virtues. In a way, it was more of a valuable collection of lessons than Epictetus since it was "applied" philosophy. One quote from Meditations stands out:
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts; therefore guard accordingly.”The Stoic school appealed to me in a lot of ways, and I wish I had this "code" ingrained in me from an earlier age. Life could have been a lot different. It also made me realize that people (bloggers and others) who used quotes cherrypicked from Stoic philosophers without actually reading the texts were pretty irritating because they never read any of the texts. But I'm trying to be a good student of the Stoics, and not let that bother me because I can't control their lack of understanding. And being a good student of the Stoics isn't a destination you get to, but it's a continual process.
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