What you must practice and have at command is to know what you ought to approach with confidence, and what with caution; all that is beyond the control of the will with confidence and what is dependent on the will with caution.
Discourses of Epictetus
The above quote, to me at least, is stating things in the opposite way I generally think. I tend to fear the unknown, fearing those things I can't control, but am confident about those things around me that are in my control. But, if I think honestly about it, it's clear we are our primary enemy. Looking back over my own life, any real damage that was done to me, whether physical, mental or financial, was the result of poor reasoning and a misapplied will. We are the villain we have to fear, not the villain in the street. Yes, there are horrible things coming to all of us, but most of those things are beyond our control so should not be feared. What we should fear are those things that are within our control.
How do we come to avoid those things that are damaging to us? By using the one power that makes us human: our reasoning ability, our ability to stop, think and determine where we have control and where we do not.
If I think back to problems that have occurred in my life, following the roots to the seed that grew the weed, I find that I planted the seed. At some point I made a choice based upon poor logic or, usually, no logic at all. For example, we spend hours thinking about the upcoming election, but ignore the things within our own houses that we should be working through. This isn't about being "happy," it's about not wasting our lives obsessing over things completely out of our control. For example, I used to read a lot about Nazi Germany and the Holocaust based upon being part German and living in Germany as a child. Historically, not to be trivial, it's an amazing, well documented piece of history. When I lived in Germany, I still saw the scars of war--bomb craters in the woods and ruins. But really, why read a dozen books about it when one would have done the trick. Why fill my mind with those grim stories and images of death and destruction. On a much smaller scale, I think we spend a lot of time with our own tragic stories going round and round in our heads reliving some childhood sadness, adult disappointment or worse. At some point, using our own reasoning power, we have to clear the shelf of those memories. Pull the weed.
This is what we have to fear: the demon within us that will push us to pursue actions that lead to an empty life built upon delusions. In the words of Seneca: A man is as miserable as he thinks he is.
If we work to apply reason to our actions and thoughts, we can tame the beast. Keep well.
How do we come to avoid those things that are damaging to us? By using the one power that makes us human: our reasoning ability, our ability to stop, think and determine where we have control and where we do not.
If I think back to problems that have occurred in my life, following the roots to the seed that grew the weed, I find that I planted the seed. At some point I made a choice based upon poor logic or, usually, no logic at all. For example, we spend hours thinking about the upcoming election, but ignore the things within our own houses that we should be working through. This isn't about being "happy," it's about not wasting our lives obsessing over things completely out of our control. For example, I used to read a lot about Nazi Germany and the Holocaust based upon being part German and living in Germany as a child. Historically, not to be trivial, it's an amazing, well documented piece of history. When I lived in Germany, I still saw the scars of war--bomb craters in the woods and ruins. But really, why read a dozen books about it when one would have done the trick. Why fill my mind with those grim stories and images of death and destruction. On a much smaller scale, I think we spend a lot of time with our own tragic stories going round and round in our heads reliving some childhood sadness, adult disappointment or worse. At some point, using our own reasoning power, we have to clear the shelf of those memories. Pull the weed.
This is what we have to fear: the demon within us that will push us to pursue actions that lead to an empty life built upon delusions. In the words of Seneca: A man is as miserable as he thinks he is.
If we work to apply reason to our actions and thoughts, we can tame the beast. Keep well.
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