Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXX.1 (Graver) This reminds me of the gatekeeping I see in many Stoic groups online. Be it FB, Reddit, or what have you, some contemporary Stoics feel that if you don't accept everything the ancient Stoics said, even the nonsensical ideas they have for cosmology and physics, then you aren't a Real Stoic™ . Seneca seems to disagree here. If something doesn't work, we are free to abandon it or modify it as necessary. We should be reluctant to get rid of even part their guidance, however; only giving it up after thorough investigation shows it to be hopelessly incorrect. These are the well-executed thoughts of people much wiser than we are and have been tested through the ages by countless adherents. None should be tossed aside out of hand. But that doesn't mean that we must take all of it as gospel. Just like most people recognize that we shouldn't take all the words in the Bible or the Torah or the Koran or t...

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXIX.18 (Graver) Virtue is its own reward. I should never do something for praise or recognition or other ego-gratifying ephemeral indifferents. Do it because it is the right thing to do, not because someone else will like me for it.

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXIX.10-12 (Graver) Getting closer to excellence, to virtue, is my goal. It's a threshold event: hit the mark? Change. Boom. " Suddenly I see.... " What would a state like that be like?

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXVIII.28 (Graver) Premeditatio malorum . Again. Perhaps it's important? Perhaps Seneca wasn't just a poor philosopher, repeating himself and repeating himself? I know the shock and involuntary inaction of encountering the worst. I know how it can leave me incapable of most anything. I also know that I don't fall into that pit nearly as readily if I've considered my options before and roughed out a plan of what to do in such a crisis. Who knew 2000 year old advice works?

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXVIII.27 (Graver) Pleasure always attenuates. If I pursue it, the race is never ending. If I eschew it, abjure it explicitly, consciously seek the better path, I make headway toward being wise. I find lasting answers and solid understanding.

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXVIII.17 (Graver) Face the world as it is. Don't shy away from the truth. Denying reality has never once provided me a better plan than admitting what's really going on and acting accordingly. So do it.

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXVIII.16 (Graver) Iron sharpens iron. Tough opponents toughen me. I win if I shoot the arrow as strait as I can, whether or not it hits the target.

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXVIII.14 (Graver) It never occurred to me I could also 'borrow reouble' from the past. How silly of me. Guilty as charged.

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXVIII.13 (Graver) If I decide the pain doesn't matter, it doesn't matter. The other day I was cutting up sone peppers for chili and managed to cut into my fingernail and nail bed. It bled a lot and surprised my daughter. I felt like Dan Aykroyd on SNL as Julia Child. It hurt. I reacted in pain when it happened. Then I controlled myself. I dismissed the pain, nandaged up my finger, put on some gloves, and finished making the chili. No complaints. I know it was minor, but that's what I've got recently....

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXVII.20 (Graver) Be virtuous. Follow Nature. Do the right thing. For as long as I am here

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXVII.18 (Graver) Am I alive? Now? Yes. I'm doing philosophy! Often? No. I'm an automaton plodding through my paces, up the hill and down again every day. I tolerate the circumstances as they are not yet intolerable, though nothing but lucre comes my way because of it.

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXVII.12 (Graver) Amor fati . A lesson I work on often. It's not only acceptable this happened: it's good this happened. Mine is to figure out why and how it is good. This part still eludes me all too often. Yet I persist.

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXVII.10-11 (Graver) Seneca has come back to the topic of not fearing death several times in recent letters. I wonder if anything was going on with Lucillius or if this was instruction for future use? Thrice now, I have killed myself in my dreams. The first time, I had a sword and the only way to handle the situation was to plunge it through my heart. Knowing it would kill me, I immediately made the thrust and the dream ended. No hesitation. Decision became action in the same moment. The next, I leapt from a cliff. Again, once the signs were satisfied — the die cast, 'Caesar, the river crossed' — I went. The need was urgent and my life unimportant cf what was at stake. It was an easy choice. (I remember of the third only that it happened. No details survive.) I hope I am as steadfast when my time comes.

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXVI.34-35 (Graver) ... Premeditatio malorum : thinking about possible misfortune before it happens so as to inure my soul against the passions that naturally arise from such events. Misplacing my wallet. Wrecking the car. Losing my job. The death of a loved one. The more I anticipate these adversities, the more I accustom myself to the idea. I train my mind to remain calmer, more rational, more capable during stress and calamity. The better I do this, the more effective I will be when misfortune threatens my tranquility. This doesn't mean I will be unaffected, I am no Sage, but it does mean that I will be more capable of helping during challenging times and less likely to bugger it all up.

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXVI.31-32 (Graver) It's all personal. Either my person is worthy or not; the rest is window dressing. Cars, houses, positions, money, admirers, vacations, travel, stuff . . . if I'm a jerk, if I live an unworthy life, what does it matter? Especially to anyone I should care about or call my friend?

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXVI.29 (Graver) Do the right thing. That's all that matters. Come hell or high water . . . do the right thing. Everything else is a not up to me. Do the right thing.

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXVI.6 (Graver) Gotta make the effort. If I am not actively being good, being honorable and seeking virtue, it will not happen. Onky a Sage is so in rune with Nature and themself that virtue is the default state of being. But it is worth the trouble. I want aife of tranquility and goodness. That's the goal. This is the way.

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXV.18 (Graver) To fear neither god nor man. To want neither poison nor pleasure. To own myself thoroughly.

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXV.16 (Graver) I should read my philosophy more. I should live it more intensely, more honestly, and more often.

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXV.4 (Graver) I gotta mean it. I wanna mean it. I often do. I need to more.

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXIV.34 (Graver) Grieving the past is pointless: it cannot be changed. Accepting it, internalizing it, letting it pass through me. This is how I can process it and find tranquility about it. Grieving the future is borrowing trouble. It hasn't happened. I suffer more in my imagination, says Seneca, than I do in reality. How many sleepless nights does this represent? How many self-destructive acts? How many foolish, irrational, emotional, chances-smothering reactions that could have been handled with wisdom, justice, courage, or temperance, according to Nature?

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXIV.32-33 (Graver) "Dont borrow trouble."* My mom has told me this many times since I was a child.  She means two things: 1. Don't create problems for no reason. 2. Don't fret about things that haven't happened. It's a lesson I've tried to use in my life, with varying degrees of success over the years. ===== * See also " And which of you by  worrying can add a single hour to his life? " and  " Sufficient unto the day are the evils thereof. " (Matthew 6:27, 34)

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXIV.28 (Graver) Virtue remains. Virtue is as practiced. Regardless of the situation.

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXIV.22 (Graver) The inner citadel. That unassailable bastion of holy purpose and contentment, sacred goals and unbreakable armor. While it stands, nothing can stand against it. Plus amor fati . The joyful acceptance of reality, regardless of whether the situation is traditionally good, bad, or indifferent. Not acceptance . Satisfied acceptance. Willing , deliberate acceptance. Loving acceptance. With these, what could upset such a saint?

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXIII.3 (Graver) No sooner gained than forgotten, surpassed. The memory has no flavor. The next cookie does. (Even if I ignore it for the next.) Give me the cookie!