Reading 1 of 5 Practice Without an End

The first cut

Epictetus opens the Enchiridion with the only sentence a practice can begin from.

The reading — Epictetus, Enchiridion (c. 125 CE)

What Is in Our Power

Some things are in our control and others not. Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and whatever are our own actions. Things not in our control are body, reputation, command, and whatever are not our own actions.

Now, the things in our control are by nature free, unrestrained, unhindered; but those not in our control are weak, slavish, restrained, belonging to others.

Seek not that the things which happen should happen as you wish; but wish the things which happen to be as they are, and you will have a tranquil flow of life.

Stoicism c. 125 CE Open this teaching on the Map →

The framing

Some things are up to us, and some are not. That is the whole first chapter. Epictetus is doing in Greek what later Buddhist traditions would do in Pali: separating the field of your effort from the field of your worry.

He is not telling you to become indifferent to the world. He is telling you that you have been spending your one finite life trying to control what was never yours to control, and ignoring the one thing that always was, your response. The first practice of any contemplative tradition is this cut, made cleanly. Make it once and most of what follows becomes obvious.

Carry with you

Name one thing you have been trying to control today that is not up to you.

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