- The Universe simply existing as itself has its own charm. Learn to appreciate this to also appreciate life as a whole.
If all life and sense shall cease, then shalt thou cease also to be subject to either pains or pleasures, and to serve and tend this vile [body]; so much the viler by how much that which ministers unto it doth excel; the one being a rational substance, and a spirit, the other, nothing but earth and blood.
Spend not the remnant of thy days in thoughts and fancies concerning other men […] spend not thy time in thinking what such a man doth, and to what end: what he saith, and what he thinks, and what he is about, and other things […] which make a man to rove and wander from the care and observation of that part of himself, which is natural and overruling.
-
Avoid thinking certain things: everything random, everything irrelevant, everything self important or malicious. Make such a curated thought process feel natural and unstraightforward. Aim to think like an unselfish, dispassionate person, not caring what other people think.
-
Consider what the world has in store, do one’s best and trust that it is all for the best.
-
Curate your audience. Listen to people in tune with nature, care not for the praise of men who can’t meet their own standards.
-
Live:
- Not under compulsion or selfishness.
- Not with honeyed words.
- Not with unnecessary actions.
- A disciplined life. A disciplined mind is a pure mind undaunted by death.
- Cheerfully—without needing the help of others.
- Standing up straight, not straightened.
- Best—best is what benefits me. One cannot help others without being whole first.
-
See things for what they are, unmodified. Analyze one’s experiences and what one sees. Nothing is so conducive to spiritual growth as the capacity for logical and accurate analysis.
-
Know what you want. Act on what you want. Treat all things the way they deserve to be treated.
Whatsoever thou dost, even in the smallest things, though must ever remember the mutual relation and connection between these two — things divine, and things human. For without relation unto God, thou shalt never speed in any worldly actions, nor on the other side in any divine, without some respect had to things human.
- Sprint for the finish. Stop drifting.
Hasten, therefore, to an end, and giving over all vain hopes, help thyself in time if thou carest for thyself, as thou oughtest to do.
- Both man and beast can give in to sensations and desires. Yet, only man can reason—and reason towards accepting what is sent by the Universe. 1
Links
Footnotes
-
This showcases the fatalistic approach that the Stoics had. ↩