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Subject: Lifescope TIPs & QUIPs [29] "Reality According to Epictetus"

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In this issue:
     *** WiseWords
     *** This Issue's Theme
     *** Suggested Resources
     *** Thrive On! Recommended Site


*** WiseWords ***                                     [TOP]
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"Only the educated are free."
  --Epictetus

"Men are disturbed, not by the things that happen, 
 but by their opinion of the things that happen."
  --Epictetus

"First say to yourself what you would be; 
 and then do what you have to do."
  --Epictetus

(For a collection of some of our favorite WiseWords, see our web page at
<http://www.lifescope.com/pages/WiseWords.html>.)


*** This issue's theme: Reality According to Epictetus        [TOP]
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How does a person live a happy, meaningful, and flourishing life?
How can one be both noble AND effective?

Answering these questions was the single-minded passion of Epictetus,
the venerable slave-cum-philosopher who lived about 55 C.E. on the
eastern edge of the Roman Empire. Although his writings are not
mainstream, they have influenced leading thinkers on the art of living
for almost two millennia.

Epictetus believed that the primary job of philosophy is to help
ordinary people effectively meet the everyday challenges of daily
life, and to deal with life's inevitable losses. His was a moral
teaching stripped of sentimentality, piousness, and metaphysical
mumbo-jumbo. What remains is the West's first primer for living the
best possible life.
 
However, Epictetus's notion of the good life is not a matter of
following a laundry list of precepts, but of bringing our actions and
desires into harmony with nature. The point is not to perform good
deeds to win favor with the gods or the admiration of others, but to
achieve inner serenity and thus enduring personal freedom. Goodness is
an equal opportunity enterprise, available to anyone at any time: rich
or poor, educated or simple, holy or heathen.

You will find that his teachings have an uncanny contemporary
relevance. At times, his philosophy sounds like the a good blend of
contemporary and new age psychology. Whereas our mainstream society
(practically, if not always explicitly) still regards professional
achievement, wealth, power, and fame as desirable and admirable,
Epictetus viewed these as incidental and irrelevant to true happiness.
What matters most is what sort of person you are becoming, and what 
sort of life you are living.


THREE OF EPICTETUS'S LESSONS ON PERCEPTIONS OF REALITY

*** Call Things by Their Right Names

    When we name things correctly, we comprehend them correctly,
    without adding information or judgments that aren't there. Does
    someone bathe quickly? Don't say he bathes poorly, but quickly.
    Name the situation as it is; don't filter it through your
    judgments. Does someone drink a lot of wine? Don't say she is a
    drunk, but that she drinks a lot. Unless you possess an
    understanding of her life, how do you know if she is a drunk?
    
    Do not risk being beguiled by appearances and constructing
    theories and interpretations based on distortions through
    misnaming. Give your assent only to what is actually true.

*** See Things for What They Are

    Circumstances do not rise to meet our expectations. Events happen
    as they do. People behave as they are. Embrace what you actually
    get. Open your eyes -- see things for what they really are,
    thereby sparing yourself the pain of false attachments and
    avoidable devastation.
    
    Think about what delights you -- the tools on which you depend,
    the people whom you cherish. But remember that they have their own
    distinct character, which is quite a separate matter from how we
    happen to regard them.
    
    As an exercise, consider the smallest things to which you are
    attached. For instance, suppose you have a favorite cup. It is,
    after all, merely a cup; so if it should break, you could cope.
    
    Next build up to things -- or people-toward which your clinging
    feelings and thoughts intensify. Remember, for example, when you
    embrace your child, your husband, your wife, you are embracing a
    mortal. Thus, if one of them should die, you could bear it with
    tranquility.
    
    When something happens, the only thing in your power is your
    attitude toward it; you can either accept it or resent it. What
    really frightens and dismays us is not external events themselves,
    but the way in which we think about them. It is not things that
    disturb us, but our interpretation of their significance.
    
    Stop scaring yourself with impetuous notions, with your reactive
    impressions of the way things are!

*** Events Are Impersonal and Indifferent

    When considering the future, remember that all situations unfold
    as they do regardless of how we feel about them. Our hopes and
    fears sway us, not events themselves. Undisciplined people, driven
    by their personal antipathies and sympathies, are on the lookout
    for signs that or reinforce their unexamined views and opinions.
    Events themselves are impersonal, though judicious people
    certainly can and should respond to them in beneficial ways.
    
    Instead of personalizing an event "This is my triumph" or "This
    is my bitter misfortune" and drawing misleading conclusions about
    yourself or human nature, watch for how you can put certain
    aspects of the event to good use. Is there some less-than-obvious
    benefit embedded in the event that a trained eye might discern?
    Pay attention; be a sleuth. Perhaps there is a lesson you can
    extract and apply to similar events in the future.
    
    But to seek out the opportunity in situations requires a great
    deal of courage, for most people around you will persist in
    interpreting events in the grossest terms: success or failure,
    good or bad, right or wrong. These simplistic, polarized
    categories obscure more creative -- and useful interpretations of
    events that are far more advantageous and interesting!
    
    The wise person knows it is fruitless to project hopes and fears
    on the future. This only leads to forming melodramatic
    representations in your mind and wasting time. At the same time,
    one shouldn't passively acquiesce to the future and what it holds.
    Simply doing nothing does not avoid risk, but heightens it.

From "The Art of Living" by Epictetus; intro & translation by Sharon Lebell 
[Exerpted under auspices of Copyright Act of 1976, Section 107]



*** Suggested Resources ***                                       [TOP]
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THE ART OF LIVING: The Classic Manual on Virtue, Happiness, and 
Effectiveness.  by Epictetus, Sharon Lebell (translator).
In the Western counterpart to the Tao Te Ching, Lebell provides a
contemporary presentation of the best of Epictetus's Enchiridion
and Discourses, which offer aphorisms of stunning insight and
simplicity, emphasizing realistic progress rather than perfection
for an attainable, down-to-earth life of virtue.

   (hardcover book, 128pp) 
      SRP$16.00 -- (see link below for special price)
   BUY this item online NOW at AMAZON.COM.



*** Thrive On! Recommended Site ***                              [TOP]
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"Philosopher Central" (My name, not theirs. --ed.)
<http://www.philosophypages.com/>
Summaries of the life and work of thirty-nine major figures in Western
philosophy. On these pages you'll also find, courtesy Garth Kemerling:
   A Dictionary of Philosophical Terms and Names;
   A History of Western Philosophy, from ancient Greece to the present;
   A Timeline listing all of the intellectual figures discussed; 
   Individual discussions of many of these philosophers, with further 
      links to e-texts and other resources;
   Summary treatment of the elementary principles of Logic;
   A generic Study Guide for prospective students of philosophy. 


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