It is not accurate to say that an event itself is disturbing or bad or terrible.
Okay?
Many of us go through life thinking that we are here in ourselves,
This is us,
And then out there there's this world full of objectively good or bad things.
Right?
So like a certain event is certainly good or bad,
And that's an objective truth,
And the cause of our misery is directly related to the negative element of that objective external event.
But this is actually not true.
Okay?
So whenever we get upset,
The cause is not the event as being objectively good or bad,
But it's our judgement about the event.
When I explain it like this,
It might sound kind of obvious.
Right?
Because like it's obvious that how we respond to certain things,
The very act of being upset,
Must have an element that is a judgement in it.
But many of us don't actually live like this.
Many of us just believe that the world is full of these good or bad things,
These good or bad experiences,
These good or bad events,
And it's objective,
And there's no necessary judgement that we are overlaying onto the world.
So the correct view is that there's us,
Then there's the event,
Then we have a judgement,
And then we have an emotion.
So for example,
Most people have a fear of death.
Okay?
This is like a very common fear.
But we can see that the wisest people who ever lived,
Like Socrates,
Didn't fear death.
So this is a great example that proves it's our judgement about death that is scary,
Not the event of death itself.
So there's us,
There's the impending death that awaits us,
Which is neither good nor bad,
It's completely neutral.
Then there's a judgement we have about that death,
Which is very rarely neutral,
It's usually good or bad.
And then there's the emotion that comes from it,
Typically fear.
And it makes sense,
Right?
Because if you look at the way that an unwise,
Non-rational person thinks about death,
You can see why they'd be frightened.
They choose to believe the inaccurate and terrifying story about death.
And this model applies to fear of death,
But also applies to other events and emotions,
Especially ones that contain frustration and anger and misery.
So the idea here is that the wise stoic understands that emotions,
And especially unpleasant emotions,
Are not caused by other people,
They're not caused by the world as being this set,
Objective,
Good or bad thing,
But instead it's our own judgements,
Which are the things that disturb us.
You could say that there are three levels,
Three basic levels,
Of wisdom in stoicism when it comes to interpreting the outside world.
So the ignorant person goes through life blaming others and the world for their misery.
They don't see that it's their own judgements about other people and the world that causes them the negative emotion.
They go through life convinced that it's clearly this thing outside of themselves that's causing them misery.
The training stoic,
The stoic in training,
Blames himself,
Right?
So he internalizes the issue.
So they're going through life feeling these emotions,
Happy,
Sad,
Upset,
Frustrated,
And they're going,
Hmm,
That's my judgment that's causing me this misery,
Therefore I'm to blame.
And this is clearly not the place that we want to end up,
But it's a phase that we have to go through when we start taking responsibility for our judgements.
But in the end,
The goal that we want to aspire to,
The goal of wisdom,
Means that we experience an event.
Then we form an unconscious judgment about that event in the moment that often gives rise to a disturbing emotion,
Right?
So we're going for a walk,
There's a loud noise,
We feel fear,
Right?
Disturbing emotion.
But then we recognize that it's our judgment about the event,
We explore the unconscious judgment,
And we consciously correct it into something that makes more sense.
And this is how a wise person goes through life,
And there's never a need to blame other people,
To blame the world,
Or to blame ourselves.
The wise person recognizes that there will be unconscious judgments that give rise to negative emotion,
That's perfectly normal.
But then the goal is to examine these unconscious judgments,
Bring the light of reason to them,
And then reformulate them in a way that is more true,
And rational,
And wise.
And so in the end,
Yes,
It is not events or other people that disturb us,
It is our own judgment.
But likewise,
There is no need to blame ourselves for these judgments.
Instead,
We can just practice the skill,
And stoicism is a skill,
Of consciously correcting our judgments when they lead to disturbing emotions that don't serve us best.
