Difficulties to opportunities

We see athletes, who study only their bodily strength, engage in contests with the strongest of men, and insist that those who train them for the arena should put out their whole strength when practicing with them. They endure blows and maltreatment, and if they cannot find any single person who is their match, they engage with several at once. Their strength and courage droop without an antagonist; they can only prove how great and how mighty [they are] by proving how much they can endure. You should know that good men ought to act in like manner, so as not to fear troubles and difficulties, nor to lament their hard fate, to take in good part whatever befalls them, and force it to become a blessing to them. It does not matter what you bear, but how you bear it.” - Seneca, On Providence

Stoics often used analogies to illustrate their philosophical points, and one of their favourites was that of the gym. It is perhaps no coincidence that two of the most famous schools of philosophy in antiquity, Plato’s Academy and Aristotle’s Lyceum, were both housed in old gymnasia. Here Seneca exploits the metaphor elegantly, as usual, by reminding us that serious athletes – those who want to become better and more competitive – do not skirt challenges; they embrace them, seeking the strongest opponents for their training, and sometimes even more than one opponent at a time. Indeed, they are invigorated by the challenges they face.

So, too, for us in life. Every circumstance we experience is an opportunity to test and improve our virtue – from the minor inconveniences in life, which we can train ourselves to bear with no irritation, to significant obstacles such as divorce. The idea isn’t to go through life with a stiff upper lip, as the incorrect stereotype of Stoics goes. Rather, we learn from our experiences, recognizing the part we may have  played  in  their  occurrence,  and steering ourselves to do better the next time around.

Stoics do not “lament their hard fate,” as Seneca puts it. After all, lamenting something we can no longer change, something that is firmly outside of our control, does us no good. Why add self- inflicted misery to whatever problem we are already facing or trying to recover from?

It’s also important to focus on attitude here. This lesson is about more than just learning from what happens to us and enduring what needs to be endured. By way of the gym analogy, Seneca is prompting us to look forward to the challenges of life. If tackled with the right mindset, our challenges make us into better people. As Seneca puts it on another occasion, every ship pilot is good when the waters are calm, but it is the storm that both tests and improves his skills. And what is the fun in always navigating flat waters?

Preparing for things going wrong

If an evil has been pondered beforehand, the blow is gentle when it comes. To the fool, however, and to him who trusts in fortune, each event as it arrives ‘comes in a new and sudden form,’ and a large part of evil, to the inexperienced, consists in its novelty. This is proved by the fact that men endure with greater courage, when they have once become accustomed to them, the things which they had at first regarded as hardships. Hence, the wise man accustoms himself to coming trouble, lightening by long reflection the evils which others lighten by long endurance. We sometimes hear the inexperienced say: ‘I knew that this was in store for me.’ But the wise man knows that all things are in store for him. Whatever happens, he says: ‘I knew it.’” - Seneca, Letters to Lucilius, 76.34–35

Some modern Stoics refer to this exercise by the Latin term premeditatio malorum, the premeditation of bad stuff happening. It’s not that Stoics are pessimists; on the contrary, they are among the most realistic of people – they know that sometimes things won’t go their way, and are always mentally prepared for that occurrence.

The Stoic philosopher Chrysippus of Soli, the third head of the ancient Stoa (as the Stoic school was called) came up with a good metaphor for dispreferred situations, and, really, for life in general. Imagine a dog that is tied to a cart by way of a leash. The dog is minding his own business, maybe playfully barking at another dog nearby, just for fun. All of a sudden, the cart starts moving. The dog would rather stay a bit longer and keep barking at the other guy, but he has no choice. The leash makes sure that he will have to follow the cart. At this point, the dog could do one of two things: He could take note of the situation, accept what he cannot control, and gingerly start to follow the cart, maybe even hoping that he will meet other dogs down the road. Or, he could get upset, drag himself on the pavement, and try to resist the cart. Which do you think would be the wiser course of action?

As the dog and the cart, so we and the universe. Things will happen that will make it impossible for us to do what we intend to do. We can either approach the unwanted situation with equanimity and do the best we can given the circumstances, or we can drag ourselves kicking and screaming. The end result will be the same, but we can spare ourselves a hell of a lot of suffering.

Massimo Pigliucci is Professor of Philosophy at City College, an evolutionary biologist, student of Greco-Roman practical philosophy, and author of many books including How to Be a Stoic. Subscribe to read more Massimo at https:// thephilosophygarden.substack.com/subscribe

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