Welcome to Stoic Snippets,
The philosophy track that is short in length but not in depth.
Today we're going to hear from Musonius Rufus.
He was known as the Roman Socrates,
Who in turn was known as the philosophy goat,
The greatest of all time.
So pretty cool guy to be compared to.
Here's what Rufus had to say.
In our control is the most beautiful and important thing.
The thing because of which even God himself is happy,
Namely the proper use of our impressions.
We must concern ourselves absolutely with things that are under our control and entrust the things not in our control to the universe.
If this sounds a lot like Epictetus,
That's because this was his teacher.
There are so many great elements to this short piece.
It starts with this gratitude towards this amazing capacity we have to be aware of our experience.
As he says,
It makes even the gods happy.
And what he's referring to here is the use of our impressions.
This is effectively our ability to see the world around us for what it truly is.
Noticing our thoughts,
Noticing how we feel,
Noticing what our body feels.
These are all impressions.
But he goes further and says that actually what's really incredible is the proper use of our impressions.
And what he's referring to here is the fact that as humans,
We are not just victims to the impressions that come to us.
Just because we feel an itch,
We don't have to scratch.
You see,
As a human,
We can decide which impressions need more of our attention and which ones we can ignore.
As it happens,
A lot of what your brain does is actually override our impressions.
It inhibits our actions.
So at any given point,
You're feeling many thousand bits of information coming at you,
But you choose to focus in on just a few,
The ones that you deem most important.
You see,
As humans,
We have this capacity to contextualize,
Discern and frame our experience.
This stems from an interesting part of the brain called the medial prefrontal cortex,
If you care.
The Stoics believed that if we used our rational mind,
Then we could handle any situation.
We could do this by recognizing what is in our control and what is not.
And we would ascend the impressions that are in our control.
And by ascent,
What they meant was,
We'd bring them to the forefront and pay attention to them above all else.
Epictetus beautifully described this when he said,
Everything has two handles,
By one of which is ought to be carried,
And the other not.
Those things in our control,
We should dedicate our time and energy to.
But those things not in our control,
We should,
As Rufus says,
Entrust to the universe.
This is a concept of amor fati,
Or love of fate.
And here is humility,
As well as confidence to accept how things outside our control pan out.
It's the ultimate in trust and letting go.
So as you go about your day,
Can you begin to exercise gratitude firstly for the amazing ability of your mind to have these impressions?
And then can you go further and choose the appropriate reaction to your situation?
Can you put all your effort into the things that are under your control and leave to the universe all those things that are not?
Do whatever you can to make the most out of your situation and leaving the rest for the world to sort out.
Finding harmony between thought,
Action,
And faith.
Best of luck with that.
If you enjoyed this,
Please check out my new course on Stoicism,
7 Days to Stoic Strength.
You're going to really like it if you like stuff like this.
It's a 21-day journaling challenge,
But I think you're the type of person that is up for a challenge.
I'll see you in there.
