If You Are Studying Philosophy, It Is Well | The One Path To Serenity

In one of his letters, Seneca tells us of an old Roman pleasantry that friends would exchange when greeting each other: “If you are well,” one would say after inquiring how someone was doing, “it is well and I am also well.”It’s a nice little custom, isn’t it? If you’re good, I’m good, and everything is good. Nothing else matters. Well, Seneca took it one step further.---In today's Daily Stoic excerpt, Ryan examines Epictetus's assertion that the one path to serenity is in "giving up all else outside of your sphere of choice."🎧 For a limited time, you can purchase The Daily Stoic ebook for only $1.99 on Kindle✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more, including the Premium Leather Edition of the Daily Stoic Journal.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. 📢 Share | ⚙️ Manage Subscription

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:03Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to another episode of the Daily Stoic Podcast. On Thursdays, we do double duty, not just reading our daily meditation, but also reading a passage from the book The Daily Stoic, 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living, which I wrote with my wonderful co-author and collaborator, Stephen Hanselman. And so today, we'll give you a quick meditation from one of the Stoics, from Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, then some analysis from me. And then we send you out into the world to do your best to turn these words into works.

• 0:47Ryan Holiday?

  In one of his letters, Seneca tells us of an old Roman pleasantry that friends would exchange when greeting each other. "If you are well," one would say after inquiring how someone was, "it is well, and I am also well." It's a nice little custom, isn't it? "If you are good, I'm good, and everything is good. Nothing else matters." But of course, because this was Seneca, he couldn't just leave it there. In fact, telling us about this old expression was just a device to make a point. "A better way to say it," he writes, "is, 'if you are studying philosophy, it is well. For this is just what being well means. Without philosophy, the mind is sickly in the body too,

• 1:30Ryan Holiday?

  though it may be very powerful, is strong only as that of a madman or a lunatic is strong.'" The point is that, to the Stoics, the practice and study of philosophy was the only way to make sure all was well, no matter what was happening in the world. At war, like Marcus Aurelius, study philosophy in your tent at night. Unable to submit to Caesar's tyranny like Cato, weed a little Socrates before your dramatic suicide. Shot down over Vietnam like James Stockdale, say to yourself, as he did, "I am leaving the world of technology and entering the world of Epictetus." As in, "even in a POW camp,

• 2:14Ryan Holiday?

  I can still practice and pursue philosophy and be well for it." Nobody knows what the day or the week has in store for us. As much as we take care of ourselves and eat well, so much of our health is outside of our control. But the one way we can make sure that we are always well and that we are always getting better mentally, spiritually, if not physically, is by the books we read, the questions we ponder, and the conversations we have. Now get studying.

• 2:48Speaker 01

  Today is January 12th. The one path to serenity is our entry in the Daily Stoic. As I was telling you, just, I think, three more days or two more days to get the Daily Stoic for $1.99 as an ebook in the US and the UK. I'll link to it below. Obviously, we have the cloth edition. I'm holding one that I got here at Target. It's got a Target sticker on it, which is pretty funny. But you can also get the leather bound edition at store.dailystoic.com. Should hopefully stand the test of time. But here's the entry. "Keep this thought at the ready at daybreak." This is Epictetus's Discourses. "And through the day and night, there is only one path to happiness, and that is in

• 3:33Speaker 01

  giving up all outside your sphere of choice, regarding nothing else as your possession, surrendering all else to God and fortune. This morning, remind yourself what is in your control and what is not in your control. Remind yourself to focus on the former and not the latter. Before lunch, remind yourself that the only thing you truly possess is your ability to make choices and to use reason and judgment when doing so. This is the only thing that can never be taken from you completely. In the afternoon, remind yourself that aside from your choices you make, your fate is not entirely up to you. The world is spinning, and we spin along with it, whichever direction, good or bad.

• 4:15Speaker 01

  In the evening, remind yourself again how much is outside of your control and where your choices begin and end. And as you lie in bed, remember that sleep is a form of surrender and trust, and how easily it comes. And then prepare to start the whole cycle over again."

• 4:32Speaker 01

  Epictetus is just the best, man. He is just the best. And, you know, he's not just writing this little prescription for our fortunate, luxurious, modern times. You think about this guy who was waking up as a slave. He had so little control. He was waking up, he was disabled, he walked with his limp. You know, he lived in a time you could be exiled, you could be killed, you could die of disease at any moment, right? He lived in a time of political corruption, time of violence, time of, you know, manifest injustice, his own status in that sphere being quite clear. What Epictetus

• 5:13Speaker 01

  was saying is that the path to serenity was in focusing on what you control, in limiting your view towards those things, not emoting at or being resentful or angry about the things that are outside your sphere, about being able to practice surrender. He calls it the art of acquiescence, which I've always found to be a beautiful phrase, remembering that you don't possess anything, that even, that all the things are yours in trust only. Even your own body, even the life that you have, eventually that gets taken back from you. And this can feel a little sad or resigned, but I actually find it quite empowering and quite beautiful. And it's just a reminder that there's only one path to serenity today.

• 5:56Speaker 01

  It's a simple, it's a clear, it's a straightforward path. It's not easy, but that's it. And we could do well to remind ourselves of this quote, "Morning, day, and night." And don't forget to grab The Daily Stoic 199 as an ebook right now. I'll link to it in today's show notes.

• 6:25Ryan Holiday?

  Thanks for listening to the Daily Stoic Podcast. Just a reminder, we've got signed copies of all my books in the Daily Stoic store. You can get them personalized, you can get them sent to a friend. The obstacle is the way, he goes the enemy's stillness is the key. The leather-bound edition of The Daily Stoic, we have them all in the Daily Stoic store. Which you can check out at store.dailystoic.com.

• 7:01Ryan Holiday?

  You