The Daily Stoic - Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living
Day 42
November 23rd - Attachment are the Enemy
"In short, you must remember this - that if you hold anything dear outside of your own reasoned choice, you will have destroyed your capacity for choice."
-Epictetus, Discourses, 4.4.23
From the Author:
"According to Anthony De Mello, 'there is one thing and only one thing that causes unhappiness. The name of that thing is attachment.'
Attachments to an image you have of a person, attachments to wealth and status, attachments to a certain place or time, attachments to a job or to a lifestyle. All of those things are dangerous for one reason: they are outside of our reasoned choice. How long we keep them is not in our control."
The Author goes on to talk about Epictetus having realised this some two thousand years earlier, and that once we have them we don't want to let them go; 'we become slaves to maintaining the status quo.'
We have one thing in our control, that is 'prohairesis'; our capacity for reasoned choice.
We cannot keep the attachments to things, unless we are willing to accept that the object of attachment, whether physical or conscious, is already broken. As was talked about in the last post. Neither the Author, nor Epictetus talk about this, but I think it is apt to combine the two. The Zen Master in the last post had an attachment to his cup. Epictetus had an attachment to a lamp. But only once we accept these attachments are not forever, nor are they anything but a certain projection of our own wants to an object or situation, can we demonstrate reasoned choice.
Shevacai
npub19u…wgppv
2023-11-24 07:12:53
Author Public Key
npub19ut4lep53ax69ks406zdzxd4zewgg4v3trnyw20lqzck89r33wls3wgppvPublished at
2023-11-24 07:12:53Event JSON
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"content": "The Daily Stoic - Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living\n\nDay 42\n\nNovember 23rd - Attachment are the Enemy\n\n\"In short, you must remember this - that if you hold anything dear outside of your own reasoned choice, you will have destroyed your capacity for choice.\"\n\n-Epictetus, Discourses, 4.4.23\n\nFrom the Author:\n\n\"According to Anthony De Mello, 'there is one thing and only one thing that causes unhappiness. The name of that thing is attachment.' \nAttachments to an image you have of a person, attachments to wealth and status, attachments to a certain place or time, attachments to a job or to a lifestyle. All of those things are dangerous for one reason: they are outside of our reasoned choice. How long we keep them is not in our control.\"\n\nThe Author goes on to talk about Epictetus having realised this some two thousand years earlier, and that once we have them we don't want to let them go; 'we become slaves to maintaining the status quo.'\n\nWe have one thing in our control, that is 'prohairesis'; our capacity for reasoned choice.\n\nWe cannot keep the attachments to things, unless we are willing to accept that the object of attachment, whether physical or conscious, is already broken. As was talked about in the last post. Neither the Author, nor Epictetus talk about this, but I think it is apt to combine the two. The Zen Master in the last post had an attachment to his cup. Epictetus had an attachment to a lamp. But only once we accept these attachments are not forever, nor are they anything but a certain projection of our own wants to an object or situation, can we demonstrate reasoned choice.\n",
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