Misinformed critics and practitioners of Stoicism alike often assert that it preaches internal tranquility as a way of coping with constant external turbulence from the world around us. The tree that sways with the wind in order to survive. The rock that weathers relentless waves crashing upon it—unaffected.

The world is ordered, chaos is inner

But the Stoics did not strive for order in their lives to combat the chaos beyond them. They did so because at the core of traditional Stoicism lay the belief that the world around us is ordered. They argue that the chaos we perceive is really a chaos within ourselves. The tree does not sway with the wind because it is trying to avoid snapping. It sways because it’s following the order of the cosmos.

The Stoics believe in an order all the way from the very fundament of the universe and up to the incredibly complex lives we live today. And because everything around us adheres in one way or another with that order, the Stoics argue that it is a perfectly logical system. They then argue that a system which is perfectly logical cannot ever be wrong or chaotic, which means that the cosmos as a whole is fundamentally good.

So, the Stoics sought tranquility as a means of embracing and coming to understand the order of the cosmos and our place in it. When we confuse the seemingly turbulent events in our lives or the wider world around us for chaos, the Stoics say we simply lack enough understanding of the underlying pattern to see how everything that is unfolding, does so in accordance with nature itself.

And in a way, that’s comforting. But the point of the tranquility is not the comfort, as those misinformed critics and adherents would claim—it is the connection we feel with each other and the cosmos at large. We find comfort not in weathering or being shielded from a turbulent existence, but in knowing that there is a grand order to the cosmos, of which we are a part.

So, when chaos swirls around you and everything seems lost, don’t shy away from it as an external toward which you must be indifferent. Find where you fit into it, and it fits into you. Those who embrace life, thrive. Those who endure life, wither.

Reality is what it is

When we think we see chaos around us and judge it as bad—bad for us, bad for our loved ones, bad for our people, whatever— we make what the Stoics would call a fundamental mistake. What happens cannot be bad; not because the only good and evil are within us, but because what happens outside us follows a pattern of behaviour that is orderly and consistent with itself. Reality cannot be other than it is. And indeed, even our misjudgement about what constitutes good and bad is really just the result of the way we have been raised in the world. It is not until you can recognize, accept, and embrace reality as it is that you can be free of that misunderstanding.

And until you do, you will go watch the news and see a scandal or an economic crash or a tragedy of some kind and think “this is going to be bad.” Or, you will pick up the phone and hear about a medical issue or the death of a loved one and think “this is it, nothing matters now.” But calling that mistake a moral error—saying that it makes you unvirtuous? That is myopic and reductive. An awareness of reality does not equate to an embracing of it. Getting to that point is a long journey that most of us, myself included, will likely never complete before we die.

So, where is the optimism here? Where is the silver lining for us poor fools who will never be able to divine the consistent order of the cosmos in its near-infinite complexity? It is in recognizing that we are a part of this system, not apart from it. It is in understanding that what seems like chaos is an opportunity for us to deepen our connection with people and do more good in the world.

Unsurprisingly, Marcus said this eloquently:

Accept whatever comes to you woven in the pattern of your destiny, for what could more aptly fit your needs? - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 4.26

Find where you fit in

But what comes to us is not just woven into our fate—we are being woven into the tapestry of the cosmos. So, when chaos swirls around you and everything seems lost, don’t shy away from it as an external toward which you must be indifferent. Find where you fit into it, and it fits into you. Those who embrace life, thrive. Those who endure life, wither.

John Kuna is a Stoic prokopton, writer, and dog lover. He likes digging deep into Stoic theory, but also writing accessible and inspiring Stoic content.

---