240608 What I learned in my studies this morning 4

Today's Meditation(s):

Discourses, 2.18.24-25 (Waterfield)

I love this section, 2.18. So clear, so clever, so concise. I could read it over and over again. (It was much better than Cats.)

Donald Robertson uses Marcus's version of 24 so often in How to Think Like a Roman Emperor, you'd think it was a mantra.

“You are just an impression and not at all the things you claim to represent,” or “It is not things that upset us but our judgments about them.” (p. 65, Kindle version)

"Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom." ~ Viktor E. Frankl

Delay, stop, interrupt the process and a new world opens up to me. It's about recognizing the stimulus for what it is: an ill-formed, uninformed impression which carries strong emotional weight, but unknown true import; ignorant of all examination; untested and frequently lying; urgent and insistent, almost always without cause.

Stop. Look. Act.

Simple plan. Difficult too execute.