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A man born into slavery became one of history’s greatest teachers of freedom — not freedom of the body, but of the mind. This lecture from Academy of Ideas turns to Epictetus, the Stoic who insisted that much of our misery is self-made. We cannot control the dice life throws, he said, but we can control how we play them. His program is wonderfully practical: start with small annoyances, loosen your need for approval, and treat every hardship as a chance to grow stronger. And above all — stop putting off the change until a tomorrow that may never come.
Full Video Transcript
Always seek to conquer myself rather than fortune, to change my desires rather than the order of the world, and generally to believe that nothing except our thoughts is wholly under our control, so that after we have done our best in external matters, what remains to be done is absolutely impossible, at least as far as we are concerned.
This passage was written by the 17th century French philosopher René Descartes, but it just as easily could have been written by an ancient Stoic philosopher.
For the Stoics, like Descartes, we’re acutely aware that most people suffer more than necessary due to their inability to control their thoughts.
But uncommon is the individual who takes concerted steps to correct this deficiency, who strives, in other words, to master their inner discourse.
Rather, when we find ourselves in a difficult period in our life, we tend to look outward.
We blame our discontent on other people, the state of society, or a lack of wealth, social status, power, or fame.
But while there is no denying that the external world offers up many challenges,
our environment is not the most fundamental determinant of our well-being.
For as humans, we have a unique power.
We can create misery or joy independent of our surroundings.
By thought alone, we can turn a peaceful environment into the worst of hells,
or find internal peace in the midst of tragedy.
Most people tend toward the former situation, not the latter,
and for this reason, we will turn to the wisdom of Epictetus,
the great Stoic philosopher and former slave,
whose writings provide practical advice for escaping the self-imposed chains of our sometimes torturous thought patterns.
You must be one person, either good or bad, states Epictetus.
You must either work on your ruling principle or work on externals.
Practice the art of either what is inside or of what is outside, that is,
play the role either of a philosopher or of a non-philosopher.
Epictetus believed that we each have a choice.
We can take the common path and structure our life around the pursuit of material good and external values such as social status
Or we can choose the path of the philosopher. For in Epictetus’ day, philosophy was first and foremost a way of life
A philosopher was one who strove to master the art of living and for the Stoics this was analogous to mastery of one’s mind
For a good life according to the Stoics is more likely to be achieved by those who learn to control their thoughts
than it is for those who believe that before they can be content, they must attain some preconceived notion of worldly success.
The reason the Stoics held this view was because they recognized that our control over the external events of our life is limited.
Or as Epictetus famously put it,
If we tether our happiness to things not within our control, be it wealth, beauty, social status, or even our health, we will suffer unnecessarily.
For chance, luck, randomness, or whatever one wishes to call it, plays a massive role in each person’s life.
We can easily lose the external goods or accolades on which, in ignorance, we base our happiness, or even fail to attain them in the first place.
place. But acceptance of this does not have to lead to fatalistic resignation
in the assumption that because some things are out of our control so too is
our well-being. For as Epictetus explained it is not things that trouble
us but our judgments about things and because we can control our judgments the
quality of our life is also within our control. But if we have lived a life
where negative thought patterns have reigned supreme how can we begin moving
in the direction of mastery over our inner discourse? Epictetus suggested that
we start off small. For after years of neglect we need to strengthen inner capacities that
have long lay dormant, and this can effectively be done by practicing on the minor annoyances
of life.
Begin, therefore, with little things, Epictetus advises. A little oil is spilled, a little
wine is stolen, say. This is the price of tranquility, this is the price of not being
upset.
Once we can remain calm amidst small misfortunes and impediments, Epictetus advised that we
strive to diminish our need for social validation.
This advice is especially pertinent as many people in our day judge the value of their
actions almost completely on how others react.
These people, Epictetus would say, are slaves to the opinions of others.
They have relinquished control of their faculty of judgment and in so doing ceded control
of their happiness.
If someone handed your body over to a passerby, you would be annoyed.
Aren’t you ashamed that you hand over your mind to anyone around, for it to be upset
and confused if the person insults you?
After minimizing our need for social validation and taking back control of our inner life,
Epictetus saw it as necessary to begin cultivating the ability to accept those things we cannot
change.
For life, he believed, is best viewed as a game of dice.
The conditions of our existence at any moment are like the die that have been thrown.
They cannot be changed and must be accepted.
But how we react to them, just how we play the die after they have fallen, is up to us.
people, Epictetus realized, do not accept and play the die of life as they have been thrown,
and this is a product of a weak mastery of their inner self. For while they can accept the good,
they try to deny and flee from challenges and hardships. If, however, we have chosen the path
of the philosopher, we will discover that we do not need to view hardships as misfortunes,
but instead can regard them as opportunities to strengthen our inner resolve. It is circumstances
which show men what they are, Epictetus explains.
After learning of the wisdom of the Stoic philosophers,
many people will feel a brief sense of empowerment in the realization
that there are other ways of existing in this world,
ways far more conducive to a fulfilling life.
But fear and laziness often get the upper hand and rather than taking steps to change,
many people persist as they are and tell themselves that tomorrow they will make amends.
But in most cases, this tomorrow will never come and a point will eventually be reached,
sometimes sooner than expected, when there is no tomorrow, or at least not enough of them,
to make up for the vast amount of time that has been wasted.
If you now neglect things, warns Epictetus, and are lazy and are always making delay after delay
and set one day after another as the day for paying attention to yourself,
then without realizing it you will make no progress,
but will end up a non-philosopher all through life and death.
So decide now that you are worthy of living as a full-grown man who is making progress,
and make everything that seems best to be a law that you cannot go against.
And if you meet with any hardship or anything pleasant or reputable or disreputable,
then remember that the contest is now,
and you cannot put things off anymore and that your progress is made or destroyed
by a single day and a single action.
Source: Academy of Ideas