210817 What I learned in my studies this morning

Liable.  Obliged.

My responsibility.

My duty.  My life.

Daily Stoic:

Nothing is harmful if it does not harm my virtue.

Nothing is shameful if it does not debase my virtue.

If my virtue remains intact, all else may fall.

My reaction makes things bad or good. 

My thoughts make things good or bad.

If I control my thoughts about things, I control their import.

No one can take credit but me.

No one is to blame but me.

I am the arbiter of my mental and spiritual states.

Today's Meditation:

#BeKind

From Letters from a Stoic by Seneca, Letter LVI:

Seneca begins with a rambling discussion of concentration. He contrasts those who must have silence in order to think and those who can focus regardless of the noise around them.  As he writes, he is practicing this discipline at a public bathhouse.

Only a mind governed by reason, reason bolstered through the practice of philosophy he tells us, can offer surcease of sorrow even when the body is at rest.

When restlessness, boredom, or anxiety beckon, action can offer a reprieve from the progression of intrusive thoughts that come calling.  And if we control and train our mind, our thoughts shall not be interrupted.