6 ideas from a slave who lived 2,000 years ago that could change your life
You are as unhappy as you wish because suffer it’s optional, and no one can harm you. At least that’s what Epictetus (50–120? AD) would tell you, the Stoic philosopher who lived more than 40 years as a slave in Rome.
Today, some cognitive psychologists reclaim Epictetus ideas to improve our mental health. After 2,000 years, some of them still seem novel and, above all, practical.
Epictetus’s master, Epaphrodites (who became Nero’s secretary), have been so cruel that he caused Epictetutus a chronic limp. Epictetus, calm, said to him while he tortured his leg: “you are going to break it.” Finally, the day it broke, Epictetus said smiling: “See? You break it”.
For Epictetus, the philosopher was the one who practised his principles in his daily life. The theory wasn’t enough. Most of the philosophical schools of antiquity (Epicureans, Cynics, Academics, Stoics, Megarics, among others) were concerned with human happiness. That is why they were also lifestyles.
Epictetus did not write a single line. He was released before 93 AD. Then he founded his school at Nicopolis. There they were prominent citizens of Greece and Rome to follow his teachings. What we know of his philosophy derives from his pupil’s annotations, Arrian of Nicomedia: Enchiridion and Dissertations with Arrian (Discourses).
The ideas of Epictetus must be taken as the training of an athlete. The more you exercise in them, the more they could change your life and improve your mental health.
1. What depends on us
The ideas we handle (opinions, wishes, rejections) depend on us. We can choose them. On the contrary, wealth, health or success do not rely entirely on us. For Epictetus, most people are chained to external objects they cannot control, so “we are oppressed and dragged by them.”
We are not affected by what happens to us, but what we think about what happens to us . Epictetus.
It is Epictetus’ key idea for modern emotional health. Our suffering depends on the pictures we handle. Cognitive psychology defends that there is no direct relationship between an insult and our anger. There is a bridge between the two facts: thoughts. That is why John may be angry when David insults him, but Eli will be indifferent.
For Epictetus, “free will” is our ability to choose what and how we think: pure freedom in each moment. No one can take away your reasoning, not even the gods. If you know yourself, you will be happy.
2. Complaining is useless (and self-defeating)
The stoic world is deterministic. Stoic Physics defends that everything is the consequence of a previous movement. The man who complains about his circumstances has not understood the world (which the gods have arranged and is written) nor his nature. We can only change our ideas. A wise man knows this truth, and it is up to him to adapt himself to the circumstances: this is what has been called the “stoic ataraxia”, being unflappable.
That is why Epictetus smiled when Epaphrodites tortured him. Illness, fortune, death, reputation or success are indifferent to the wise. The ataraxia derives from the control of his thoughts. The world, as for Buddhists, is mental. That is why it is the best possible world.
Stephen Hawking, a brilliant scientist with a degenerative disease (his wife had to feed him and clean him daily), said something similar in an interview for Spanish media: he decided not to complain one day, and life is better since then.
3. Life is a feast
Epictetus compares his life to a banquet. He does not set the tables, or cook the meat, or choose with who he sits. But he decides how to behave.
“Some food comes to you, reach out and serve yourself moderately. Pass by: do not hold it back. It has not come yet: do not display your desire and wait for it to come.”
The metaphor extends to his family life, to his public office, to his wealth. For Epictetus, it is enough to admire the banquet and take a few bites. Life is an unexpected gift.
4. There is nothing to lose
Stoic philosophy is full of consolations. For Epictetus, man has to behave in life like a traveller. A traveller is always passing through: he only carries what he needs, and he does not own the hotels where he sleeps.
“Inner peace begins when we stop saying ‘I’ve lost it’ and instead say ‘it has returned to where it came from,’” suggests the Epictetus. It is a bright idea that promotes detachment. Maybe he was the first documented minimalist. What would you do if you lost your smartphone? You could train yourself and think that he has returned to where he came from.
5. Others’ problems are contagious
Say a friend tells you that his boss has humiliated him in public, and you show him angrily that you are with him to support him against injustice like that. For Epictetus, this attitude shows neither friendship nor empathy. Also, it hurts you.
Epictetus proposes to remind your friend that he suffers because of what he thinks about humiliation (which is unfair), not because of the humiliation itself. The stoic warns: you can only control your own opinions, but it is impossible to control those of others. If you don’t protect your thoughts, they will infect you.
6. Nobody is evil
It is, perhaps, the most optimistic idea of the Stoics and derives from their Physics. For the Stoics and for the contemporary philosopher Emilio Lledó, evil is the fruit of ignorance.
For Epictetus, human goodness goes with knowledge. If humans tend to know by nature (like “the horse tends to run and the dog to sniff”), man tends to goodness.
The task of the philosopher is to teach men the correct use of their ideas. Channel the goodness of men.
If you have trouble forgiving someone, remember that that person acted out of ignorance, not out of evil for the Stoics. Would you get mad at a drunk man? “If you take care of reason”, says Epictetus, “you will not stumble over obstacles, nor will you be distressed, nor will you reproach, nor will you flatter anyone.”
Everything depends on you, even your happiness.
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