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!

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXIII.2 (Graver) How many times have I been so eager to eat something I knew  would be delicious that I didn't realize I wasn't paying any attention in the slightest to the taste until halfway (or more) through the treat? And I find myself reaching for a second and third while the half-formed memory of the first one is quickly forgotten, replaced by what is to come?

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXII.11 (Graver) Temptations come in bunches. As I let one past my guard, I let half a dozen. As I succumb to another, more come on its heels. And yet I despise  (2) Seneca's advice here and continually fail, continually give in and crush my soul among ever more and more bitter foolishness. You'd think I'd learn.

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXII.7 (Graver) Make a list. What is important to me? What is up to me? Something comes up and I fret. Check the lists. Is it on there? Ok. Then do something about it. Is it not on there? It is nothing. Let it flow on by without a thought. It's not worth the energy. It's not my choice. Let it go.

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXI.36 (Graver) The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak?. More like the spirit in willingly suspect, too.

Today's Meditation(s): Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXI.27, 28 (Graver) ===== Putting the lie to the common misconception of Stoicism as unfeeling. Stoics feel, but we choose our action rather than submit to untamed reaction. It's about acknowledging a passion thrust upon me and yet choosing my path according to Nature and virtue. Yes, that hurt. Yes, that angered. Yes, that betrayed. But that doesn't mean I must wail and gnash my teeth. Others have faced equal tragedy as I — or worse! — and held themselves together. If they have done it, it can be done. If it can be done, I can do it. Whether I am successful in this is an altogether different question.

Today's Meditation: Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXI.11 (Graver) Virtue lies in my response. Because it is wholly internal — otherwise it would not be up to me — it is never farther away than my next judgment.

Today's Meditation: Letters on Ethics  by Seneca, LXXI.7 (Graver) Virtue is enough. It transforms misfortune into fortune. It renders disease and ridicule harmless. It suffices to make all of life not only bearable but preferred. If I am strong enough, wise enough, committed enough.