#stoicism

“We’re tight-fisted with property and money, yet think too little of wasting time, the one thing about which we should all be the toughest misers.”
– Seneca

It’s not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it.
– Seneca

The Meditations, by a Roman emperor who died in a plague named after him, has much to say about how to face fear, pain, anxiety and loss.

A great article from Donald Robertson, published by The Guardian:

Stoicism in the Time of Pandemic

Book 4

1. Our inward power, when it obeys nature, reacts to events
by accommodating itself to what it faces—to what is
possible. It needs no specific material. It pursues its own
aims as circumstances allow; it turns obstacles into fuel. As
a fire overwhelms what would have quenched a lamp.
What’s thrown on top of the conflagration is absorbed,
consumed by it—and makes it burn still higher.

2. No random actions, none not based on underlying
principles.

Book 3

IN CARNUNTUM

1. Not just that every day more of our life is used up and less
and less of it is left, but this too: if we live longer, can we be
sure our mind will still be up to understanding the world—to
the contemplation that aims at divine and human knowledge?
If our mind starts to wander, we’ll still go on breathing, go
on eating, imagining things, feeling urges and so on. But
getting the most out of ourselves, calculating where our duty
lies, analyzing what we hear and see, deciding whether it’s
time to call it quits—all the things you need a healthy mind
for . . . all those are gone.

I have experimented with other exercises, but journaling is my primary Stoic exercise, although I journal a variety of ways.

One of the better starting points (not historically Stoic, but influenced by Stoicism) is the philosophical meditation routine from the The Philosopher’s Mail , although I personally bring more Stoic elements into it by, in addition to the questions listed there, I ask what the different experiences say about what I value, whether these values concern virtues/vices or externals, and what virtues and vices do apply.

In everything that you do, pause and ask yourself if death is a dreadful thing because it deprives you of this.

– Marcus Aurelius

“True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing. The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not”
– Seneca, De Vita Beata

Sales of works by ancient Roman Marcus Aurelius have seen a sharp uptick in recent months.

According to Penguin Random House, print sales of Meditations are up 28% for the first quarter of 2020 vs 2019, while print sales of Letters from a Stoic are up 42% for the same period. In the last four weeks, its ebook sales rose by 356%"

The Guardian: ‘Dress rehearsal for catastrophe’: how Stoics are speaking to locked-down readers.

Book 2

ON THE RIVER GRAN, AMONG THE QUADI

1. When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: The
people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful,
arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly. They are like this
because they can’t tell good from evil. But I have seen the
beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil, and have recognized
that the wrongdoer has a nature related to my own—not of
the same blood or birth, but the same mind, and possessing a
share of the divine. And so none of them can hurt me. No one
can implicate me in ugliness. Nor can I feel angry at my
relative, or hate him. We were born to work together like
feet, hands, and eyes, like the two rows of teeth, upper and
lower. To obstruct each other is unnatural. To feel anger at
someone, to turn your back on him: these are obstructions.

A New Translation, with an Introduction, by Gregory Hays. THE MODERN LIBRARY
NEW YORK.

Book 1

DEBTS AND LESSONS

1. MY GRANDFATHER VERUS

Character and self-control.

2. MY FATHER (FROM MY OWN MEMORIES AND HIS REPUTATION)

Integrity and manliness.

3. MY MOTHER

Her reverence for the divine, her generosity, her inability not
only to do wrong but even to conceive of doing it. And the
simple way she lived—not in the least like the rich.

“External things are not the problem. It’s your assessment of them. Which you can erase right now.”
– Marcus Aurelius

“Only time can heal what reason cannot.”
– Seneca

Die Selbstbetrachtungen von Marc Aurel sind als kostenloses Reclam Hörbuch auf YouTube verfügbar . Gelesen von Winfried Frey.

Warum sind wir so geizig mit unserem Geld, gehen aber verschwenderisch mit unserer Lebenszeit um? In seinem Traktat „Das Leben ist kurz“ plädiert Seneca für einen verantwortungsvollen Umgang mit der Ressource Zeit.

Lesung mit Reinhard Glemnitz

“The life we are given isn’t short but we make it so; we’re not ill provided but we are wasteful of life.”
– Seneca

“Today I escaped from anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions – not outside.”
– Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“Remember that no one loses any other life than this which he is living, nor lives any other than this which he is losing.”
– Marcus Aurelius

“Loss is nothing but change, and change is nature’s delight.”
– Marcus Aurelius