Citizens Prerogative / Common Good

S3 E43 | Something About Stoicism

Citizen Do Goodby Citizen Do Good

S3 E43 Something About Stoicism

Discussion topics in this episode:

  • Stoicism? Really? Why you may wonder?

    • It holds valuable timeless wisdom from our ancient ancestors. Being a human is pretty much a universal struggle for all humans throughout time. Who would have thought?
    • It provides practical steps and methods for being a better, less anxious, and happier human.
    • It aims to provide tools for you to become the best version of yourself based on your own measure.
    • Practicing the methods will make you a better citizen of our republic.
    • How does self-rule translate into the economy? How do we leave behind the concrete plantation that was built by the owners of the system?
  • So what is it? A fad diet? A religion? Where did it come from? Do I need to attend a church or go to meetings?

    • According to the College of Stoic Philosophers is a complete philosophy informed by an integrated system of Logic, Physics, and Ethics.
    • The ethics part helps it feel like religion – guidance on making decisions and physics as the nexus of all things, and logic helps you in the process of considering things. It’s a philosophy all about being human and more specifically about you being you and having agency in a world outside of your control.
    • During its heydays, it was a religion with ideas originating back in Greece circa Socrates. Actually, it was a lot more than what religion is today because it included other areas like cosmology, physics, psychology, and of course philosophy. We must note that much of what the Greeks taught had come from other peoples and times before them. We just don’t have a lot of records today.
    • It lived on through many thousands of years from Greece to the Romans who picked it up after.
    • No church nor extraordinary socializing is required for you to study and practice this philosophy. It’s practical as you are and where you are right now with whoever is normally in your life. No change, unless you seek it out.
    • Meditation, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and other mental health practices of our modern time draw from ancient stoic wisdom and you will notice more of it as you study it. But this practice is arguably beyond those in the capacity for it to affect your life in a positive way. For perspective, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is good for treating symptoms of mental health conditions (fear, anger, foreboding, self-loathing, etc.), but practicing Stoicism will help remove the disease from your life thus reducing or eliminating symptoms altogether.
  • Why is it called Stoicism? It got named from the Greek word stoa, which was a covered open area where Zeno (last name), the attributed founding father of “Stoicism”, began his public lectures. Zeno was calling it something else, but the people called it based on the building, and alas we have Stoics practicing Stoicism.
  • So what’s this thing all about?

    • Stoicism is a set of ancient practices born out of our ancestors’ struggle with the human condition.
    • Most of all the teachings and writings have been lost to destruction, from Alexandria to the fall of Rome.
    • What we have are journals and accounts from a small number of philosophers who documented accounts of stoic thinking. They range from Greece to Rome in time and space and life experiences ranging from a former slave to an emperor and many in-between, all stoics.
    • They all struggled in ways that Stoicism helped them overcome. Our struggles are remarkably similar to theirs. This system works for our lives too.
    • There are many flavors of this thing because each of us makes it our own.
    • This is why the writings from the ancients are used as a stable foundation of reference, like a Tora, Bible, Koran, or other, for learning and growing the philosophy.
  • How might it help me better myself and my community?

    • It offers practical guidelines for you to implement in your life in your way. You do you. With practice it can become useful for anyone’s situations in life, it’s that’s flexible.
    • It consists of concepts around how to apply a set of virtues and disciplines in making decisions about things that are under your control.
    • We learn about how they operate through understanding the wisdom we’ve received from the ancients, through their stories, experiences, and even their thoughts in letters and in journals.
    • A practicing stoic is always challenging themselves to be a better person to themselves and to others. The philosophy teaches that the natural and happy state for humans to be in is a cooperative one.
  • Here are some quotes from Emperor Marcus Aurelius‘ Meditations

    • “The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”
    • “Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.”
    • “Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”
  • Some quotes from Lucius Annaeus Seneca, a Roman philosopher, statesman, orator, and tragedian, who lived during the time of Christ:

    • “Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.”
    • “As is a tale (story), so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.”
    • “Hang on to your youthful enthusiasms — you’ll be able to use them better when you’re older.”
    • “If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favorable.”
  • Some quotes from Epictetus, who was born as a slave to a master that allowed schooling so that when he earned his freedom, he become a philosopher:
    • “There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.”
    • “If anyone tells you that a certain person speaks ill of you, do not make excuses about what is said of you but answer, “He was ignorant of my other faults, else he would not have mentioned these alone.”
    • “It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”
    • “Any person capable of angering you becomes your master…”
    • “The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.”
    • “He who laughs at himself never runs out of things to laugh at.”
  • Calls to Action:
    • Check out these foundational documents from the ancients (translated) at Daily Stoic for 3 Must-Read Books To Get You Started. They might all be free from one e-book service or another, so look around by name.
    • Give practicing it a try! Even if at first you don’t succeed, keep trying and you will succeed with time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

“On Ones Mind” image by Serge Shop.

Voices

  • Michael V. Piscitelli
  • Raymond Wong Jr.

More info

  • If you want to connect with others in the stoic community near you, so far the only national network we’ve found is The Stoic Fellowship whose mission is, “Building, Fostering, and Connecting Communities of Stoics Around the World.” Otherwise, check on MeetUp.com maybe.
  • We have transcripts located at the end of each podcast episode’s page on our site. Check it out, but know this: It’s all AI and not us. So thank you in advance for forgiving any and all errors.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed on this podcast are for listener consideration and are not necessarily those of the show or its sponsors.

Special thanks to

  • Our ongoing supporters, thank you!
  • Our sponsor CitizenDoGood.com .
  • Intro music sampled from “Okay Class” by Ozzy Jock under creative commons license through freemusicarchive.org.
  • Other music provided royalty-free through Fesliyan Studios Inc.

Transcript

The following transcript was taken using AI technology. We cannot vouch for its accuracy. Read at your own risk. These are time-stamped from the day we recorded and unfortunately not name stamped.

Citizens Prerogative Podcast Closed Caption Transcript
S3 E43 Something About Stoicism

13:21:16 In times like these, being a citizen is a big job. Thank you for joining us to celebrate the virtues of self rule and debate the state of our republic.
13:21:25 Welcome to the citizens prerogative podcast. This is the voice of your nerdy host Michael Pisco Telly and we are blessed with a co host whose passion for our republic precedes him everywhere he goes Ramin one Jr.
13:21:40 Thank you. Thank you. And I’m so happy to be here to introduce episode, 43, something about stoicism really stoicism I, I’ve never heard of it except for maybe a porch, Michael.
13:21:56 What is this, what’s bringing us to this stoicism.
13:22:01 I know we have, we tend to get a little antsy or whatnot, about isms, and here we are bringing you a whole episode about an ism, but we hope that by the end of this that you see the value in it.
13:22:15 I hope right you see the value in it, I can do a convincing argument here to win some people over at least to be a little bit more curious about it if nothing else.
13:22:27 So, yeah, let’s go ahead and jump into it.
13:22:31 What is, what is stoicism, it’s a lot more than just being stoic.
13:22:35 And it’s funny when people talk about stoic I think we’ll cover that in a bit, but it’s not related to not having emotions, it’s not related to becoming Volkan or any of that thing.
13:22:46 It is really about becoming a better person, a better human through reflection and reliance on the wisdom of our ancients who have come before us and have the same thoughts that we do as humans.
13:23:01 So, This.
13:23:03 I guess philosophy philosophy will be the term we lean on in here it is a it is an.
13:23:09 It is a branch of philosophy, from the ancients there’s other flavors of this out there on other under other names, but this is the one that comes to us pretty intact.
13:23:22 And it’s, it has a lot of timeless wisdom, like I said from our ancient ancestors So, being a human. Surprising enough is pretty much a universal struggle for all humans throughout time.
13:23:35 Who would have thought of that.
13:23:37 I really didn’t think there would be as much truth to that statement is there actually is. So, let’s carry on.
13:23:46 One of the things that stoicism can provide us as well as practical steps and methods for being a better less anxious and happier human.
13:23:56 And I think for me personally, that is one of the most important pieces or the biggest draws that attracts me to it, the idea that here is, here’s a philosophy that offers us practical ways that we can do in our daily lives to help us as individuals each
13:24:13 of us meet us where we are and help us become better person, by our own measures, not by someone else’s measure, nobody somebody else’s book or ideology.
13:24:24 But based on being a good person.
13:24:29 aims to provide people with tools to become the best version of yourself that you can, and and based on your own measure what does it mean to you to be successful to be a good person right to be in line with your core values.
13:24:49 The minute you said based on your own, measure, which I don’t think we’re used to that I’m used to the fad diets, the religions, they’re all telling me what I need to do so how does this even operate.
13:25:03 If there’s no basically head of state what we’re so used to with all these, you know next fad diets and this is the next craze or the head of the church, if you will.
13:25:22 Right. But I guess I could say it was born out of religion, probably was originally considered a religion, among other religions.
13:25:31 I’m going to quote here the College of Stoic philosophers, and they say it’s a complete philosophy informed by an integrated system of logic physics and ethics.
13:25:45 And it’s interesting because like the early days so back in Greece, Greece and Rome and before that and whatnot. The physics part was always a little iffy because they hadn’t really come up with the scientific method or anything like that but they were
13:25:57 still concerned with what the heck are stars. You know what’s in the sky. What is all this stuff and they they saw everything is connected so from a religious perspective, when you read the writings of the ancients.
13:26:09 They do refer to religious ideas and the connectedness of all things. Zeus is a name, I believe in the Romans used to describe the energy of the universe, not just the creator of the universe but everything in the universe is made out of Zeus.
13:26:28 Which is funny because science is pointing to the idea that everything’s just made out of energy anyway so it’s not funny. Everything is the same even though it looks different, made of the same things.
13:26:38 Anyway, I digress.
13:26:39 So you can see where you know even today coming through today it’s hard to say, Okay, well, you know, is it, it’s less of a religion. Yeah, I think it’s what we study the parts of stoicism we study today are heavier on the logic and the ethics.
13:26:53 It’s about how to think and how to be a better person, which is really great. So, you know, the ethics part makes it maybe feel a little bit more like a religion.
13:27:07 Because you’re concerned with making the best decisions that you can.
13:27:12 So it provides guidance on making decisions. And then, you know, all the other stuff there’s essentially a compliment to that. So, it’s a philosophy, all about being human, and more specifically about you being you, and having agency in a world that is
13:27:31 outside of your control.
13:27:35 I hear you I hear the religion and I see the religion so right but there’s no church. I mean there’s no, I don’t see that that that authority I’m so used to maybe I’m just damaged goods because I grew up as a Catholic but tell me.
13:27:50 Yeah.
13:27:52 Yeah. It’s kind of crazy because once I started going down this rabbit hole to I was like whoa, this seems so useful so practical so approachable for anybody right doesn’t matter what your religious background or non religious background is to arrive
13:28:07 at this thing and I’m like, is there is there no Stella Stella is the stoicism the route comes from Stella which is Greek for porch and it’s the place where they would go and preach the ideas of stoicism back in the day.
13:28:23 And they had followers people would actually listen it’s not like the guy in the corner with the bullhorn and the Bible is yelling at everybody and nobody stopping to listen, these people actually had wisdom to offer and took questions and challenges
13:28:35 from people who showed up to listen.
13:28:38 Right. So, when I look out there, there is no church, like it, as far as so as ago There are few and far in between.
13:28:45 There’s a lot of online communities and whatnot and really what it is is you read the books, this thing is for each, each and every one of us to practice for ourselves, no church required.
13:28:57 No priests required. No, I mean technically you don’t even have to, you know, listen to any philosophers that are alive today, because you can just read the books of the ancients.
13:29:10 They’re very approachable surprisingly and then there’s a bunch of other people who’ve written things that try and put it into context. Right.
13:29:16 But I would say another religious piece of this is that it, it requires you to constantly study and challenge your understanding of stoicism, so it’s like, it’s a whole bunch of principles virtues disciplines, things that need to be applied to your life
13:29:34 in every situation.
13:29:36 And it guides you through the decision making that’s necessary to get through it.
13:29:41 And, you know, sometimes you’re better at it and sometimes your worst but it’s a practice.
13:29:46 It’s very much a practice more than a church, which is a very different concept I think from what most at least Americans consider from a church. Right.
13:29:57 Yeah, yeah you You definitely surprised me because when you originally said the, even the topic of stoicism and I thought stoic I thought there is nothing interesting that’s like a statue that’s boring.
13:30:11 That’s how I described people I don’t want to hang out with sometimes, so it really it’s really shocking to me so if I can kind of see if I understand this, it’s basically, it’s this idea that anyone has a place on this platform, if you will, is it, Is
13:30:27 it kind of the same forum thought that you and I go with but is it more basic that a simple porch. Will do. I want to better understand, you know, and where did, where did it come from How come I’ve not heard about it, you know, that’s why that’s the
13:30:40 biggest things I do not like to be completely shocked by anything historical and you did that in this instance, so what happened.
13:30:50 No, It’s a great point and it’s a funny thing, haven’t quite gotten to the bottom of that yet I’m still digging into it, it’s like, it’s almost like it’s always been here, but because there’s no church because there’s no power structure because there’s
13:31:05 no group of humans that have a financial or other vested interest in creating a power structure out of this thing. It just happens to be there the wisdom is like hiding behind the scenes of every curtain.
13:31:23 From every practice you probably have already heard of and it’s really fascinating and I haven’t gotten to the root of why why we don’t recognize stoicism as a standalone much less, many of the other philosophical traditions that can really help us understand
13:31:37 our place and purpose in the universe.
13:31:39 So let me just throw out some of the areas where there, there are bits of stoicism you’ve already heard of our practice in your life like meditation.
13:31:50 There’s a lot of focus and energy in meditation practices that you that come through the ideas of meditation and the benefits and stuff that come through when you study stoicism and in your studying stoicism by studying the teachings and the quotes, you
13:32:06 know, and and the lessons of the ancients that had come before us I had pondered these things you know what is the purpose of life Why don’t I want to get out of bed.
13:32:14 Why do I have to get out of bed today, you know, like these very human struggles.
13:32:19 So you see it in meditation, you see it in cognitive behavioral therapy CBT, one of the books I was reading about this in the intro, you know the guy wrote it’s like you know CBT is great for treating something in the moment, like getting you through
13:32:39 crisis in the moment, but it doesn’t do anything to guide your life.
13:32:43 It doesn’t do anything to guide your decisions or your choices for the future for what you want to bring to fruition for yourself and for your family.
13:32:51 So, you know, cognitive, CBT is great as an emergency it’s like going to the hospital, you know, treating your symptom and then getting released but you’re not actually treating the disease, so to speak.
13:33:02 So there’s a lot of other mental health practices and stuff that draw on, you know, ancient wisdom stoic practices.
13:33:09 But this practices arguably beyond those and its capacity to affect your life in a positive way. And when I say that I mean stoicism has an amazing capacity to affect your life into the future in a positive way so
13:33:26 you know I mentioned that something like CBT is really good for treating symptoms of mental health conditions so you’re experiencing in the moment, fear, anger foreboding self loathing etc.
13:33:37 and and that’s pinning you down in the moment, CBT and those types of practices, you know, you know, you’re questioning the thoughts that you’re having to bring you out of that moment but practicing stoicism will help remove the disease from your life,
13:33:53 thus reducing or eliminating the symptoms all together. So you have fewer days of anger or fear debilitating self loathing by naturally practicing this on a essentially a daily basis because it helps you to think about life in a much more positive and
13:34:10 productive way.
13:34:18 So where did it come from.
13:34:20 I know that was embedded in the question here asking earlier how come we haven’t heard of it.
13:34:27 I mean, the Bible is, as I take away younger.
13:34:31 And it’s everywhere right so this thing’s been around a while longer than the Bible itself yet the Bible is extremely successful but you’ve kind of explained there’s a power structure behind it but there’s gotta be something.
13:34:44 Yeah.
13:34:45 Yeah, that’s a good point. So it is a set of its ancient practices born out of our ancestors struggling through the human condition and this is going back to Greece, you know, the original one of the original philosopher Socrates.
13:34:57 A lot of people might be familiar with that name. He’s one of one individual who set of ideas you can see pass through into Rome, along with a stoic but even before Greece, there were ideas that arrived there that came from other places we don’t necessarily
13:35:12 know where Mesopotamia wherever you know, Greece, didn’t create all known philosophy they inherited again they were on the shoulders of otherwise people that had come before them.
13:35:23 And we’re paying it forward stoicism is of that lineage and so there were thousands of writings from Greece that were lost due to war you know the library and Alexandria being destroyed, things like that.
13:35:37 And then, Rome picked it up because more than it being written it was spoken thing, you know the Steaua was a place where people would go the porch and they would listen and discuss these ideas, but we do have some writings and this is where all of our
13:35:52 training today comes from is from the writings we have survived from both, you know creations and Romans, and maybe even some others but those are the primary documents, we use and these are documents that were not written for the purpose of establishing
13:36:07 a religion.
13:36:09 These were documents written for the purpose of improving themselves like in some cases we have Marcus Aurelius his personal journal writings, to himself, so we understand his internal struggle that he put in his journal, and others wrote letters espousing
13:36:25 the ideas of stoicism and stuff but one of the big quotes is about living in not preaching it like so part of the reason why we’ve never heard about this thing is because it’s it’s built in just you choose stoicism for yourself and for your life to improve
13:36:37 you. It’s not for each of us to sell it to everyone else, you know.
13:36:42 So I think that’s part of the reason.
13:36:45 Maybe we haven’t heard about it, even though it’s so ancient, and it’s imbued in in so many things. So, there is a focus for the holy on self is that the problem or does it do anything for the community like how does it actually benefit the community
13:37:01 as a whole as a person, because I’ve heard a lot of self practice I’ve heard a lot of that but that’s what the church would preach is that there a community and they they embed or the community to enrich it.
13:37:24 Let’s put that on pause let’s come back to that one. Can you make a note.
13:37:28 I think we’re going to do, Let’s do the break really quick edit this.
13:37:36 Go ahead.
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13:39:28 I feel like the.
13:39:31 This is talked a lot about how it can apply to me day to day how to kind of stabilize myself.
13:39:38 But when it comes to the community. I think that’s something that the church tries to preach I think that’s what some organizations would say is that that sense of community.
13:40:06 yeah right thank you for bringing that up. So there. There are some religious communities that like to think that they own you know the corner or whatnot on community building or giving people a place in a sense of community and stoicism doesn’t leave
13:40:25 us behind part of the practice is to encourage people to figure out how best they can contribute to their communities.
13:40:34 And in stoicism when they’re talking about the community, they’re not talking about only the people in their church, so there is no church right so when they’re talking as stuff Hicks, and that’s how one refers to oneself once they begin practicing stoicism
13:40:51 you don’t go through a ritual you don’t do anything like that right you just, you read the books, you understand the philosophy and you start practicing, now you’re stoic.
13:41:01 So, you know, DOXR are concerned with improving themselves not just for the sake of being rich or anything like that, it’s actually so that you are able, you’re in a position to know what you can contribute and how best you can contribute to your community
13:41:17 at large.
13:41:18 And again community not being just the members of your church there’s no church so your community is literally where you live, and the people you interact with on a daily basis, whether that be, you know, people you work with, or people in your neighborhood,
13:41:36 people at your grocery store.
13:41:39 People that are located in the places that you like to vacation. Wherever, wherever, whenever you find yourself stoicism is there to help you be a better person for that community because wherever we go on earth were among humans and humans are our community.
13:41:58 I know that’s it’s know it’s hard for me it’s hard for me to be but it almost seems like this is an answer to mental health that if we all are the in the best state of mind you’re saying that it works itself out right if we’re all focused on being in
13:42:16 the best.
13:42:16 I guess in the best strength, mental strength, physical strength and mental strength, if you will, you you are in a position to help others right when when things do go wrong.
13:42:29 It’s exactly right, a practicing stoic is always challenging themselves to be a better person, not to themselves, but also to others, and the philosophy teaches us that the natural and happy.
13:42:41 The opposite of sadness that natural state is for humans in order to achieve that is to be in a cooperative relationship with one another. Humans by their very nature achieve their greatest accomplishments, either individually or together, but always,
13:43:03 as a community, nobody does anything necessarily by themselves or can be completely successful without some help. Generally speaking, I mean if you sit there and write a book, unless you’re going to be the publisher and the marketer and you know you’re
13:43:16 going to do everything you’re going to do vertical integration, you know, chances are you relying on other people and now in that case I’m talking about, you know, groups of professionals, coming together for some profit motive.
13:43:27 But stoicism begs us to be more intrinsically tied to one another and the fact that anything in our community society, whenever anything good to come out of it or useful or productive is something we’ve done together.
13:43:44 Collaboration is is a requirement and it’s a natural state for humans to survive in the world, always has been, you know, only communities of humans only tribes if you can survive to create cities and civilizations and everything.
13:43:58 It was not one lone human off in the mountain by themselves. that’s never.
13:44:03 That’s never created anything monumental, right, it’s always when we work together.
13:44:10 It seems interesting that this is something that is actually na and present in everyone. And something that you can kind of bring to the forefront of your mind or, or where your brain goes first right here reactionary measure.
13:44:25 I almost think of driving in traffic, frankly, as something, one of those situations where we all come together, we all actually agree on a large percentage, almost 100% daily we have accidents, but accidents happen right we all understand that, and we
13:44:41 migrate past it. And we all consider with frankly, one of the most stoic routines I can think of is driving in traffic every day, through that system.
13:44:52 Yeah and I wouldn’t push into that and say the actual this the most stoic part about that is when you’re sitting in your car and you’re choosing how to think about the situation or how to feel about the situation, because that’s where you know that’s
13:45:06 where stoicism comes to play in your mind and your perception and in saying well, am I going to get upset about this, because that’s just going to cost me my energy and my life for us.
13:45:17 And then it’s going to yield know resolve screaming at the windshield.
13:45:23 Because I’m frustrated about traffic you know it’s. That’s where stoicism really comes home to roost is literally practically in our everyday interactions with ourselves in our minds and with others.
13:45:36 It’s trying to make us consider our choices before reacting to any situation.
13:45:44 Ultimately, I mean, that sounds like meditation, I mean, in general, when you hear about you know the adverts for the benefits of meditation.
13:45:53 Yeah, that’s one of them and meditation is one practice, but stoicism gives you a logical set of exercises to conduct with yourself in any moment to try and achieve the best result for yourself and for others like you way that you actually are considering
13:46:12 these things and in these moments in your life and it’s it’s a fascinating and effective framework for thinking, especially if you want to be happy. I mean, because ultimately that’s kind of the result is figuring out how not to be angry, how not to have
13:46:28 hate you know how not to have all of those emotions that are real, and they’re there for a purpose. but sometimes we become overwhelmed and controlled by them.
13:46:40 And it’s not a natural.
13:46:43 The stoic would say that’s that’s unnatural or natural place to be as happy cooperative, you know, in comfort with ourselves.
13:46:55 Well that’s, that is actually very interesting and you took my whole traffic analogy further and it is it’s how you react like that state of being in the car, because I know I’m not nearly as angry as most people I see driving beside me, and I’ll say
13:47:11 that, you know, I have to go back to so you threw out a quote thrown out by I believe it was, Marcus.
13:47:20 Marcus or something. Who is that, where did that come from. Yeah.
13:47:26 So, yeah, it’s interesting, we’ll go through some quotes here because I think they’re really helpful for people to anchor on some of the wisdom, you know, so to speak, and they’re probably things you may have heard in one way or another and so and just
13:47:40 to illustrate the point that you know this kind of humming below.
13:47:44 You know below the surface of everything you’ve ever felt was kind of right.
13:47:48 So, there’s three primary philosophers, that modern stoicism today modern stoic tend to reflect on the most but there are many there are.
13:48:03 There are many philosophers in the, in the lifespan or chain of stoicism and whatnot but the three primary ones we tend to refer most to are Marcus Aurelius, who was a very.
13:48:16 I don’t know what the word is productive or well regarded emperor of the Roman Empire. One of them during the 450 or 500 years that it existed.
13:48:28 So we had Marcus Aurelius and that’s basically the top of the pile right as that individual as the emperor of the kingdom. And then we have Seneca, I don’t know how to Lucy.
13:48:39 And this individual was a statesman also Roman was a statesman orator basically like a senator but with second in command to one of a different Roman Emperor at another time so here we have two different views kind of from the upper echelon of society
13:48:56 and how these people are applying so practices in their lives.
13:49:01 And then one of the third primary ones that we pull from quite often.
13:49:05 I’m going to mess up his last name.
13:49:09 epic tennis.
13:49:11 Episode Episode tennis, tennis, awful. I’m gonna have to learn it.
13:49:16 But it’s interesting because this individual was born as a slave.
13:49:22 And, I mean, I’m not going to say lucky or whatnot because slavery and rooms very different than the slavery that was implemented in the United States.
13:49:37 In Rome, you had the ability to earn pay off whatever your debt was and earn your freedom. In this case, this individual was a slave, but their master allowed them to go to school until they earn their freedom, so he ended up studying philosophy, things
13:49:46 like that. And by the time he did earn his freedom he became a philosopher.
13:49:51 And part of the reason why it’s so valuable and this is just a few like just three of many people even going back to Greece like Xena we’re not talking about you know who’s like the original, father of Steaua stoicism.
13:50:05 But just to show that, from the top of society to relatively the bottom of society.
13:50:13 And the assumption there is everywhere in between these practices are valuable useful and practice simple.
13:50:21 These are things that individuals throughout the society’s found useful and helpful in their lives.
13:50:29 So all of us can learn from this you know you don’t have.
13:50:32 It’s not just for the top of the house or the bottom in the house it’s for all, all humans.
13:50:39 And I, I’d like to go through just a few other quotes, so that we can start maybe inspiring folks to look into this a little bit more on their own.
13:50:49 And we’re going to provide some calls to action but first I have a few from Marcus Aurelius again he is the Roman Emperor. So, first one up.
13:50:59 The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts.
13:51:06 Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact.
13:51:16 Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.
13:51:16 Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be be one.
13:51:25 Here’s a few from Seneca.
13:51:30 And interestingly enough, you mentioned earlier right before I go into that you’re like, Oh, this thing is older than like Christianity and stuff like that.
13:51:37 That’s true. Yeah, it started like that throughout Greece, I just want to remind everybody, you know, Greece existed long before Christianity, and Seneca actually was essentially he lived during the time of Christ.
13:51:51 This particular, you know, Roman philosopher who was a statesman, and so the first quote I have from him, cuz like this.
13:52:03 Religion is regarded by the common people is true.
13:52:08 But the wise as false.
13:52:28 And by rulers, as useful
13:52:17 as is a tale. So is life, not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.
13:52:27 Hang on to your youthful enthusiasms, you’ll be able to use them better when you’re older.
13:52:35 If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favorable.
13:52:45 Last, let’s talk about the quotes.
13:52:52 Oh, I’ll never get his name from our philosopher who was formerly a slave.
13:53:01 There is only one way to happiness, and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.
13:53:12 If anyone tells you that a certain person speaks a love you. Do not make excuses about what is said of you.
13:53:22 But answer. He was ignorant of my other faults. Else, he would not have mentioned these alone.
13:53:31 It is not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.
13:53:37 Any person capable of angering you becomes your master.
13:53:42 He can anger you only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by him.
13:53:48 The key is to keep company, only with people who uplift you whose presence calls forth your best.
13:53:59 And lastly, he who laughs at himself, never runs out of things to laugh at.
13:54:10 One of the things I’ll just get back to quickly before we do the calls to action is this thing you mentioned that quote about.
13:54:22 The only way to be happy is to stop worrying about things out of your power.
13:54:28 And there’s this concept called the dichotomy of control, and it’s, it’s like one of the first things you need to figure out among all the things that are bothering you are weighing on you.
13:54:37 What are the things in your control and what are the things out of your control, like this is one little snippet of at all it’s called dichotomy of control, because everything in stoic philosophy virtues principles to help you make decisions, really only
13:54:48 applies to the things that are in your control.
13:54:52 And it’s actually really really amazing it really reduces the amount of energy it takes from you to make decisions you become significantly more efficient when you immediately start recognizing what is not in your control in your life, we are, we’re the
13:55:07 things that it doesn’t matter what decision you make it will never come to bear on this thing.
13:55:11 You can only hope, or, you know, wonder what’s going to come next. So those things you don’t have control over, you shouldn’t spend too much time on them.
13:55:22 So it’s, you know, that’s just one of the, one of the several principles that are contained in there but I think it’s very very powerful and I think it’s something people forget to kind of go through consciously is like, Do I really have power over this.
13:55:34 Otherwise I’m wasting my life in this moment worrying about it.
13:55:43 Right. We’re only a few minutes over but let’s go ahead and jump into calls to action.
13:55:49 So we’ve got a, just a few simple things today, because we’re introducing everyone to stoicism mostly because it’s a great way to train yourself to think like a human.
13:56:01 So get wiser. Our first call to actions get wiser, there are few resources you can explore on your own.
13:56:08 We don’t have a complete list right now. Just some on ramps that seemed a little bit more accessible to us as we also begin our journey down this rabbit hole.
13:56:19 So I’ll include some links to some other resources in that section, and we highly encourage people to go and just start perusing, like, the easiest way to get into this thing is like find some lists of these quotes.
13:56:32 There’s some books out there that have like 366 stoic sayings or whatnot and every day you just when you get up in the morning, or before you go to bed.
13:56:41 Either way, I like it when I get up.
13:56:43 Don’t look at the news. Don’t look at anything, I just open this book on quotes and and some, some have analysis, and I read it and I just ponder in the moment, in the, in the morning, and I try to carry that forward with me throughout the day and see
13:56:57 how it comes up.
13:56:59 So it’s one way to like a very simple way to practice stoicism, you don’t have to go anywhere. It’s about thinking.
13:57:07 So we’ll give you some, some resources to dig in there.
13:57:10 We also want to mention that there’s, there’s some foundational documents, and we’re going to give a link to, you know, just, again we’re talking about the on ramp here so we’re looking for things that are accessible, things that are going to give you
13:57:21 an overview What is this where did it come from who did it. And how do I do it right.
13:57:27 And then you go to source documents right then you go to Marcus Aurelius as meditations you go to, you know, Senecas writings and letters you know you do that after you get oriented to it because otherwise going straight to the writings, without context,
13:57:43 may not be as useful to you.
13:57:47 So we’ll give you. I’ll share a link of three must read books to get you started.
13:57:51 And then give it a practice, you know, give it a try.
13:57:58 See how it feels just for yourself I mean I think once you start reading some of the quotes and understanding some of the context of them.
13:58:06 It should make you feel a little bit differently. And if you want to connect with others in the stoic community, there may be an opportunity to do that there may be a store, a store near you will include a link to the Stoke fellowship, which.
13:58:21 Their mission is to try and connect all the stores in the world. There’s several in the US, And then, there may even be some meetups online so even if it’s not physically near you.
13:58:31 there may be a group you can join online.
13:58:34 So, we’ll provide that to you but again it’s you know it’s not a religion, it’s not a church.
13:58:42 There isn’t necessarily anywhere you have to go to practice it’s a it’s a personal practice.
13:58:46 And for self improvement.
13:58:49 So we want to encourage everybody to start thinking about this just because it’s a great means to be become a better citizen for ourselves and for our community.
13:59:05 Think that’s gonna do it Ray.
13:59:11 We have been your host, thank you to Mr. Raymond warm Jr.
13:59:16 And thank you mr is good Sally, it’s truly been a porch, full of new ideas and information. Well, I guess not new ideas, but information.
13:59:29 Ancient Wisdom, that’s for sure.
13:59:33 information on this and other episodes head over to citizen do get calm and click on podcast. While you’re there, hit up the Contact Us page and leave a comment, we’d love to hear from the community. Special thanks to you our listeners we saved the best for last. You are the best and you have been for years. Thank you for your support we know it’s painful and we love you.
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