210824 What I learned in my studies this morning

Thoughts of those days past,

Of quotes and pain and pleasure.

Great are the myths.

Daily Stoic:

Seneca quotes extensively from Epicurus in his letters.  But but but . . . Epicurus wasn't a Stoic!  How can he do such a thing?

Easy: Seneca knew that wisdom is where you find it, source be damned.

If someone told me that The Bad Guy from The Other Side™ (Trump, Clinton, Bush, Obama . . . whoever fits that category) once said "The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts." should I treat it as false because of who (I think) said it?

If Hitler said "Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants." is it suddenly untrue?

Wisdom is where I find it.  That's why My Morning Studies uses selections from many different books on many different subjects.

I would be foolish indeed if I left wise words behind because I disliked their source.

Today's Meditation:

Today's Poem:

Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, Great are the Myths, 3

From Letters from a Stoic by Seneca, Letter LXXVIII (cont.):

Yesterday, we reviewed the first part of this letter, concerning "the three upsetting things about any illness" (fear of dying, physical suffering, interruption of pleasures) and focusing on the second. Today we continue thinking about pain and succeed to examining interruption of pleasures.

"There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so."

Our reason controls our lives.  Even when what is happening seems overwhelming or unfair, we are harmed only in so much as we choose to allow ourselves to be harmed.  If our virtue remains intact, we can still be whole, free, and worthy. 

Another strategy for fighting against pain is to replay in your mind your favorite personal moral victories. When have you done good despite obstacles?  What events allowed you to practice your virtue while overcoming adversity?  Now focus on adding combatting this pain to your list of accomplishments.

Moving on to FOMO-invoking pleasures, Seneca divides them into two types: physical pleasures (eating, drinking, sex, etc.) which can be taken from you at any moment and spiritual pleasures which are yours to treasure forever and cannot be stripped from your arsenal.

These are genuine pleasures.  They are permanent.   They are invulnerable.  They are satisfying in ways mere physical indulgences can never be.

The unexamined life is not worth living.  As true a statement as has ever been spoken.

The question for those who dispute this is, "Are you really living?"