Diaries of a Budding Stoic

Letter II

When faced with anguish, the most important reminder to give yourself is that whatever you suffer from is not what it truly presents itself to be. What you think you're losing or have lost, you did not have to begin with. There is only one thing that anyone may possess at any given moment: the moment itself. We have no right to any object. We have no real control over any person other than our own. Even then, with ourselves governed by our own will, we must sometimes resign to the limitations put on by the inevitable sensations our body experiences.

We are slaves to our bodies. While our mind pilots the deliberation of our actions, much is under the command of subconscious drives. While one might attempt to pay attention to particular tasks, one is always distracted in some way. Thoughts of wanting nourishment, of pleasure, of situational preference - all these physical matters leak into our minds. For this, we must forgive ourselves. This is the way it must be in order for humans to be capable of virtue and thought. Our vital organs were created to allow the existence of greater purposes. In fact, we ought to be thankful for our lower nature - the one concerned with lowly purposes not unique to humans - because it allows the opportunity to express our higher nature instead. Every passing gutteral inclination exemplifies itself as an opportunity. All times are the right times for philosophy, especially when slipping away into self-dehumanization. One simply has to notice.

So here we stand: in a whirlwind of incongruence, constantly battling bodily urges, and faced with troubles that we would rather curl away from, cutting ourselves off from the rest of the world and hiding under the warm blankets of our bed... But this view is abhorrently flawed! We are in constant order. The fight of attaining freedom need not be a conflict, but a series of  chances to express self-control. Finally, one does not face troubles except those that one allows oneself to experience deliberately. A true citizen of the world has nothing to cry about - nothing to turn away from.

Nature gives in everything that it shows to us. There is no 'damage' it would do unto one of its parts unless it brought benefit to the whole. We must accept when there seems to be hardship in our life. Nature simply asks that we increase our devotion to our place within it.

So when you feel anguish at anything, remind yourself of these two thoughts:

1. You have not lost anything, and you will continue to not lose anything, even until death. What you were born with is all that you have ever been given, and all that you need. Right now you're confusing your possessions with what is truly you. Separate yourself from objects, from reputation, from where you think you stand with others.

2. Nothing can happen to you that is unnecessary for you to experience. You have witnessed Nature unfold. It will unfold like this again. At several points in your journey, Nature will act and reveal itself in a way that does not seem convenient to you - and yet every time it does, there is a space it grants within the turmoil. Like a clifface protruding from the mountainside in a desert storm: the environment sends you adversity, and yet it reveals ample shelter as well.

You can remain in harmony with what happens in life. Always. You can allow yourself to be happy and virtuous, unplagued by uneducated perceptions; it only takes the effort to try.