Stoicism used the
understanding of perception, action, and will to create an operating system for
life. Marcus Aurelius was the last famous Stoic philosopher of antiquity. And Meditations, is largely a
record of Marcus’ attempt to live according to three rules of life. And these three
rules of life are summarized by Darius Foroux as below:
1.
Discipline of Assent: Aim for pure judgment of events
People
make judgments about everything. But Marcus realized that instead of making
pure judgment, we usually make value-judgments.
We
add a personal twist to our judgment. For instance, when something bad happens
to you, you may say, “So and so happened to me. And that hurt me.” The last
sentence is the value-judgment part.
“If you suffer pain
because of some external cause, what troubles you is not the thing but your
decision about it, and this is in your power to wipe out at once. But if what
pains you is something in your own disposition, who prevents you from
correcting your judgement?” (Meditations, Book VIII, 47)
If someone has spoken
evil of you, you cannot control that. You also cannot erase it, deny it, or
prevent it. But the assertion that you have, as a result of this, being
injured, is entirely dependent
on your judgment of the fact. As Marcus wrote, “Choose not to be harmed and
you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed and you haven’t been.” Learn to separate
events from judgments.
2. Discipline of Desire:
Only desire what’s inside your control
Most things in life are
outside of our control. Marcus realized that life is unpredictable. If life
gives you lemons, make a lemonade. Focus on the good in a bad situation and
take action accordingly. Marcus takes it one step further, instead of making
the best of what happens to you, LOVE it.
He knew that most of the
things we desire are outside of our control. Look at what we desire. More
money? A social media following? A better job? A new car? Or maybe that your
partner will always love you? Or you always keep your friends? We should only
desire what’s inside our control. What happens to us is for a reason, accept
it.
“Love only the event
which comes upon us, and which is linked to us by Destiny.” (Book VII, 57)
3. Discipline of Action:
Act according to the common good
“In the first place:
nothing at random, and nothing unrelated to some goal or end. Second, don’t
relate your actions to anything except an end or goal which serves the human
community.” (Book XII, 20)
Since we are part of
universal nature, and all are part of the human community, our duty must be to
act in service to the community, in whatever large or small way. We are
destined to contribute, as fate would have it. Discipline of actions tells us that actions should be
purposeful and meaningful. Do something to make the world a better place. We
are here for a reason: To make things
better.
In
Man’s Search For Meaning, legendary psychiatrist and Holocaust-survivor
Viktor Frankl, writes: “Everything can be taken from man but one thing: the
last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of
circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” Attitude is everything.
In
short, from stoicism, we learn to distinguish events from judgments; desire
only what’s inside our control, accept the outcome even when we have failed;
and pursue goals in the service of the community.
Apply these three disciplines from Marcus Aurelius,
an Emperor of Rome, to make your life better!
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