The Stoic Magazine Library

https://amzn.to/2SswfJ1The ancient Stoic philosophers were very interested in food. They talk both about what we should eat and how we should eat it, if we want to live wisely and gain strength of character. 

Being busy 

I’ve been very busy lately. Getting up early, facilitating philosophical workshops and training sessions, preparing proposals, net-working. After the children are in bed, I’ve been getting back to work to finish all the things I couldn’t do during the day. I am now in the situation in which most of my corporate clients are: snowed under, or as we say in French “under water”, “head in the handlebar.” 

Everyday insults 

I’ve taken up a philosophy course this year and every three weeks, we spend a whole day with a group of twelve fellow adult students and our teacher. 

I play an instrument I call “The Thing.” It is an imposing trapezoidal five octave one-of-a-kind fusion of a hammered dulcimer and cymbalom a gifted luthier designed and built for me years ago. 

The Stoic skill of being grateful arises out of the realization that we are a part of a larger whole which extends to our family, friends, society, and the world. 

Stoicism isn’t an easy-to-follow road. There are many principles to keep in mind and to live by. 

Traveling is a good learning experience 

Growing up, I thought that traveling somewhere else would turn me into a different person—a more interesting, cooler person. 

The essence of Stoicism 

Epictetus says that the chief thing in life is to distinguish carefully between things that are up to us and things that are not. 

The Golden Rule 

The Golden Rule, “Treat others as you would like to be treated by them” is one of the simplest and most influential of all ethical principles. Although the Golden Rule is most commonly associated with Christianity, it was arguably also implicit in many traditions, including Stoicism. 

When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: The people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly.

Remember that you are an actor in a play determined by the author: if short, then short; if long, then long. If he wants you to act as a beggar, then act even that with excellence, just as a cripple, a ruler or a citizen. Because that is your objective: to act the role that is given to you well. To select the role is up to someone else. 

Epictetus, Enchiridion 17 

There are no shortcuts in Stoicism 

I am sorry to break it to you, but there are no Stoic shortcuts. There are just choices to be made. And the vehicle you buy, the food or drink you choose to put in your mouth, the phone you place in your pocket, and the clothes you wear on your back all express your values. 

Meditate often on the interconnectedness and mutual interdependence of all things in the universe. 

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.38 

When Marcus’ health started failing, he sent for his son. Mar-cus told him not to neglect the ongoing war because it would seem he was betraying the State. 

Have you had the good fortune to read the innovative polymath Edward DeBono? One of his key ideas he called “Po.”