Stoicism

Stoicism began in Athens around 300 BCE when Zeno of Citium began teaching in the Stoa Poikile, the Painted Porch, giving the school its name. It became the dominant philosophy of the Roman world and counted among its practitioners a freed slave (Epictetus), a statesman (Cicero), and an emperor (Marcus Aurelius), suggesting its teachings could be applied across every station of life.

At Stoicism's center is the Logos, the rational principle that pervades and structures all reality. This Logos is the same as John's Word, the same as the Tao, the same as the Dharma in Buddhist cosmology. To live well, for the Stoic, is to live in alignment with the Logos, to act according to reason and nature, to distinguish between what is in our power and what is not.

Epictetus's fundamental distinction, between what is up to us and what is not, is perhaps the most practically useful teaching in the entire perennial tradition. Desire, aversion, judgment, intention, these are up to us. Everything else, health, reputation, wealth, others' behavior, the outcome of our actions, is ultimately not. Suffering arises from the confusion of these two categories. The Gita's teaching on action without attachment to fruits is structurally identical. The Buddhist teaching on releasing craving and aversion is the same diagnosis and prescription.

Epictetus was a slave for most of his life. His teaching is therefore not theory but tested reality, the result of applying the philosophy to the most extreme possible conditions. That a slave could achieve inner freedom by this means is the Stoic tradition's most powerful proof of concept.