This week, I am reading The Art of Living by one of the most essential names in Stoicism, Epictetus. He was born into slavery in present-day Pamukkale, Turkey. His name also means “acquired,” as he was a property under Roman law. As an enslaved person, his leg was tortured and broken by his owner, making him disabled for life. However, his intellect was too big to ignore from an early age. To his luck, his owner permitted him to study different subjects, from which he discovered philosophy, a way of living as he’d later describe.

Upon studying and teaching philosophy under his mentor Musonious Rufus in Rome, his social status increased as he taught philosophy and was set free by his master. Then, in 90 EC, emperor Domitian banned all the philosophers from Rome, where Epictetus was exiled to Western Greece, present-day Preveza. There, he opened another school of philosophy and taught valuable lessons on living a good life for the rest of his life.

Today, I want to give three valuable quotes from his book. I said “his book,” but he didn’t write anything. His pupil Arrian, a historian, transcribed all his discourses into text, but those texts can be challenging to understand, so I chose a new translation (and interpretation) in modern English. This version can be a great way to start learning about the Stoic philosophy. It gives Epictetus’s witty, wise, and razor-sharp instructions … to meet the challenges of everyday life successfully and to face life’s inevitable losses and disappointments with grace.

1- Conform Your Wishes to Reality

Last week, I discussed the two ends of the time-management spectrum: Escaping from time by not assuming any responsibilities or chasing it by scheduling everything. Then I questioned the feeling of freedom, which supposedly is the price of escaping the time. While I stole Eisenhower’s definition of freedom, opportunity for self-discipline, let’s look at how Epictetus defined it:

For good or for ill, life and nature are governed by laws that we can’t change. The quicker we accept this, the more tranquil we can be. You would be foolish to wish that your children or your spouse would live forever. They are mortal, just as you are, and the law of mortality is completely out of your hands. Similarly, it is foolish to wish that an employee, relative, or friend be without fault. This is wishing to control things that you can’t truly control. It is within our control not to be disappointed by our desires if we deal with them according to facts rather than by being swept away by them. We are ultimately controlled by that which bestows what we seek or removes what we don’t want. If it’s freedom you seek, then wish nothing and shun nothing that depends on others, or you will always be a helpless slave. Understand what freedom really is and how it is achieved. Freedom isn’t the right or ability to do whatever you please. Freedom comes from understanding the limits of our own power and the natural limits set in place by divine providence. By accepting life’s limits and inevitabilities and working with them rather than fighting them, we become free. If, on the other hand, we succumb to our passing desires for things that aren’t in our control, freedom is lost.

2- Happiness Can Only Be Found Within

After defining the freedom, he talks about how to find authentic happiness:

 Freedom is the only worthy goal in life. It is won by disregarding things that lie beyond our control. We cannot have a light heart if our minds are a woeful cauldron of fear and ambition. Do you wish to be invincible? Then don’t enter into combat with what you have no real control over. Your happiness depends on three things, all of which are within your power: your will, your ideas concerning the events in which you are involved, and the use you make of your ideas. Authentic happiness is always independent of external conditions. Vigilantly practice indifference to external conditions. Your happiness can only be found within. How easily dazzled and deceived we are by eloquence, job title, degrees, high honors, fancy possessions, expensive clothing, or a suave demeanor. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that celebrities, public figures, political leaders, the wealthy, or people with great intellectual or artistic gifts are necessarily happy. To do so is to be bewildered by appearances and will only make you doubt yourself. Remember: The real essence of good is found only within things under your own control. If you keep this in mind, you won’t find yourself feeling falsely envious or forlorn, pitifully comparing yourself and your accomplishments to others. Stop aspiring to be anyone other than your own best self: for that does fall within your control.

3- Walking the Walk

Ultimately, Epictetus practiced what he preached. He died with simple possessions like a staff, a lamp, a cloak, a bed (and so on).  Interestingly, among these possessions, his lamp became famous:

Something similar happened to me also the other day. I keep an iron lamp by the side of my household gods, and, on hearing a noise at the window, I ran down. I found that the lamp had been stolen. I reflected that the man who stole it was moved by no unreasonable motive. What then? To-morrow, I say, you will find one of earthenware. Indeed, a man loses only that which he already has. “I have lost my cloak.” Yes, for you had a cloak. “I have a pain in my head.” You don’t have a pain in your horns, do you? Why, then, are you indignant? For our losses and our pains have to do only with the things which we possess.

He didn’t cry or complain about his expensive possessions. He didn’t get angry or disturb his inner peace. More importantly, he did not tie his freedom to anything external. His freedom and happiness were worth holding on to, definitely more than a lamp. What are the “lamps” in your life that would cause you much misery if you were to lose it? Your watch? Your car? Your profession? Or that air purifier from Dyson?  How much are they worth to you? Are they worth more than your freedom?

Best regards,

Bugra