LEÇONS DU STOÏCISME POUR DEVENIR PUISSANT | MARC AURÈLE

Do not torture yourself by worrying about things that are not under your control. Leave it in the hands of God, leave it in the hands of nature. Do your best to control the things you have control over. Yourself, your behavior, your intentions and your actions. You may have already wondered how to live your life well. After all, isn't there a universal code that could guide us through the ups and downs of life, without having to die with a heart full of regrets? In this episode, you will discover why the man who literally owned the whole world, slept on the floor. Be careful, because his philosophy of life may well change yours. Before starting, I wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your comments on our last video. You also missed me a lot and I am happy to be back with Ludo, but we decided to focus mainly on the creation of our last training to help as many people as possible financially and it was a huge success. So thank you for your trust and thank you for always being present at the rendezvous. We love you. To madness. Passionately. Tenderness. Stoicism is characterized by a rejection of pleasure as a criterion for happiness and human well-being. Stoicism supports that the wise man, the good man, the philosopher, is a man who lives in harmony with nature. He only fears to give up his moral responsibility. He is not afraid of pain. He is not afraid of death. He is not afraid of poverty. He is not afraid of the hazards of the human condition. He only fears to be disappointed and that he is less than a complete human being. The only concern of a wise and philosophical individual is what is entirely under his control. You cannot control the movements of the sun and the planets. You cannot control whether a ship that takes the water flows or arrives at a good port. You cannot control time. You cannot control others. You cannot control the society around you. There is only one thing and only one thing that you control. And it's you. Your will. Your intentions. Yourself. In other words, the wise man, the truly philosophical man, is the man who fully controls his soul. Who assumes the total moral responsibility of his actions. And who is indifferent to everything else. Not because he has no interest in others. Not because he does not care about the well-being of the entire human species. But because it is not under his control. There is no need to worry or wonder what tomorrow will bring. Because tomorrow is not under your control. Do what is right today and let tomorrow take care of itself. The Stoic philosopher is the man who has freed himself from fear. He is not afraid of death. He is not afraid of pain. He is not afraid of being rejected and taken for a fool. The only thing that matters to him is that he fulfills his moral obligations. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that the greatness and the perception that virtue is sufficient. An elegant and magnificent sentence. And he could very well have stolen it from one of the Stoics. Because all Stoics fundamentally believe that virtue, moral virtue, an organized soul that rationally pursues the ends that are good for all human beings. This is the Stoic conception of virtue. They finally understood that their greatness lies in the fact that they perceive that virtue is sufficient. We do not need wealth. We do not need sexual satisfaction. We do not need life itself. It is moral virtue that tells us that we must die in pursuit of a good end. The protection of our family. The protection of our home. The protection of the innocent. In the accomplishment of good. Nothing should be spared. Not even our lives. There are many things on which we have no control. There is one thing, I would even say a superpower, on which we all have absolute control. And it is the power of decisions. Your ability to make decisions quickly and effectively will make the difference between the you who succeeds and the you who does not succeed. No matter your definition of success. But then, how to make the difference between a good decision and a bad decision? It's not very complicated. Often a good decision is difficult to make. And a bad decision is easy to make. And it is important not to forget that not making a decision or postponing a decision later is often a bad decision. Personally, I consider a good decision as a step forward and a bad decision as a step back. No matter the importance of the decision in question. We must not forget that the devil is hidden in the details and that even micro decisions are important. Imagine you are at home after a day of work and suddenly you think about going to do sports. Now that the idea has come to you. What is the good and what is the bad decision? In other words, what is the difficult decision and what is the easy decision? Many people make efforts and feel like they are not moving forward. And the reason why they find themselves in this situation is because they take a step forward and a step back. The wise man is a man who has trained his soul, trained his mind so that he is not afraid of apparent words. He is only afraid of real words. He is afraid of losing control of his soul. He is afraid of being a slave to lust, desire, emotions. The Stoic man is the honorable philosopher. The man who sticks to his duty, is firm and serious in mind. By living according to nature, what the Stoic philosopher does is to examine the nature of the human condition and the nature of the world around us. He discerns his position in nature. He discerns the kind of creature he is. And he lives in a way not to dishonor himself, not to be less than what he could really be. He wants to be, if not a god, certainly not less than a human. He will not be an animal either. He will live fully the potentials that a human being has to offer. Now among the Roman Stoics, two are particularly remarkable. One is Epictetus and the other is Marcus Aurelius. It is one of the wonderful ironies of the history of philosophy. Epictetus was a slave and Marcus Aurelius was an emperor. And philosophy is the great equalizer. The slave and the emperor can at the same time participate in the philosophy that is accessible to all human beings as human beings. There is nothing less conscious of the social status than philosophy. A wise man, a man who is disciplined, who masters his emotions and follows the way of nature. He can be a good man, no matter his position in the social structure. He is not responsible for the social structure and this is not his problem. If the gods, or nature, or whatever controls the world makes you a slave, then be a good slave. If God, nature, or whatever controls the world makes you an emperor, then be a good emperor. Your mission is not to dishonor yourself and to live according to the highest potentials of the human being. Martin Luther King said, If you were given to sweep the streets, sweep the streets like Michelangelo painted, like Beethoven composed, like Shakespeare wrote. Sweep the streets so well that all the others of heaven and earth will stop and say, Here lived a great sweeper who did his job well. This is also what the poet Douglas Malock meant when he wrote, Be powerful, it can be a tree. It can be a road, it can be a path. It can be a sun, it can be a star. It is not by size that you will win. Be the best you are. However, if you do not like your current situation, despite everything, be the best person you can be and a better opportunity will be offered to you. The most interesting of the Stoics is Mark Orel. Lord Acton, the great English philosopher and historian, once said that power corrupts and that absolute power corrupts absolutely. And this is generally true. The difficulty with this generalization is Mark Orel. Mark Orel was an absolute leader. He was the leader of the Roman Empire. He was emperor. He had the absolute power of life and death over all the inhabitants of the known world. I am not talking about the world as we know it today, but the world as the Romans would have known it. They did not know China. They had a very subdued conception of the Eskimos. For them, the world is the Mediterranean basin and Rome is its owner. And Mark Orel owns Rome. Essentially, his word is law. Now, for almost all Roman emperors, they led scandalous lives and were dishonored. They were much more concerned about the satisfaction of their sensual appetite, the satisfaction of their passions and their outbursts of anger. Mark Orel was the exception to this. And the exception to the generalization of Lord Acton. In his case, the power did not corrupt. The absolute power did not corrupt at all. On the contrary, the absolute power allowed us to see what really is the man under the body. It allowed us to discover what the soul of Mark Orel looks like. Imagine a man for whom all the constraints of the law, customs and political orders are raised. He can have everything he wants. If a man behaves well in these circumstances, it tells you something about the soul that is in him. Because no external constraint makes him do what he does. And Mark Orel is the only example of an absolute leader who behaves in such a way as not to dishonor himself. It's an incredible temptation. Imagine what it is. Stop and put yourself in his place for a moment. Mark Orel ascends the throne in 161 AD and dies in 180 AD. That is, 19 years to lead the whole world. He can have all the money in the world. It's not an exaggeration. All the money in the world, if he wants it, he just has to collect it. He can sleep with whoever he wants, when he wants it, in any circumstance. If he wants to get drunk, he can be brought wine. Endlessly. Without limitation. He can start drinking now and remain drunk for the next 19 years until his death. Imagine anything that the emotional and irrational parts of your soul desire. And now imagine that you can have it. In these circumstances, imagine that you are forced to endure these conditions for 19 long years. How many of you would fail not to dishonor yourself? Imagine all the things you could want. And now ask yourself, why don't you have them? Is it because the world is unfair? Is it because you don't have a chance? Or is it simply because God is good? Because the universe is well made? Personally, I like to say that if I don't have some things I want, it's not because I don't have a chance or because life is hard. But it's simply because I'm not ready to receive these things in my life and that they would hurt me more than good. With this idea in mind, the only thing I have to do is to increase my discipline and my ability to control my emotions. If you increase your discipline and your ability to control yourself, somewhere, all the things you want, once you have them, will not end up controlling you. The wise Stoic man made his life in accordance with nature and nature is universal and everywhere. It exists everywhere and at all times. In this way, the Stoic man is never elsewhere than at home. His palace is the cosmos. This is what makes him a cosmopolitan. In ancient Greek political theory, you were a citizen of a political police and a particular city-state. You were Athenian or Spartan. The wise Stoic man is cosmopolitan. Wherever he is, he lives in accordance with nature. Whatever he does, he does what he knows is right. What difference does it make whether it is in a prison cell or in a palace? As Mark Orel said so well in a beautiful epigram of his book, even in a palace, it is possible to live well. But Mark would be just as happy to be a slave as to be an emperor. He would be just as happy to be a Gaul or an Egyptian as a Roman, as long as there is a nature where he is and that there is a human spirit that can be in accordance with nature. The external facts of life have no importance. And now, for the first time, we can perhaps see why Roman Stoics have a reputation, to a certain extent deserved, to be rather hard, cold and insensitive men. Because there is absolutely nothing to fear. And it is difficult for them to sympathize with the fact that other people care about things they consider futile or not worth worrying about at all. Many of us are worried about illness. Well, Mark Orel used to emphasize that all people get sick. And once you get sick, since you are a rational human being, you want to go to the doctor, do what he prescribes and take care of your body. There is no point in complaining at any time because you know what you are supposed to do. So do it! Stop asking someone else to help you. If you don't help yourself, how can you expect someone else to help you? Which is a fair criticism. It would be much less persuasive and much less impressive if it was a kind of hypocrite philosophy where Mark Orel enjoyed himself and told everyone to be Stoic. What makes this philosophy full of life, persuasive, moving, important, is that he lives this life. So, he doesn't complain. When he gets sick, he doesn't complain. When he encounters military returns, he doesn't complain about anything. To whom would he complain? There is a virus through which we are all contaminated. And this virus is fear, anxiety, worry. Call it whatever you want. But knowing that your birth was nothing more than a death sentence, I don't see what to be afraid of except death. But even death shouldn't scare us because we spent most of our lives not existing. And for those who say I'm not afraid of death but I'm afraid of suffering. But death will erase your suffering. Personally, I consider that anxiety is a mental illness. In any case, it is really the precursor of a real mental illness. And you should know that Mark Orel faced a lot of real problems. Like, for example, war where he fought himself for several years. He also had to face the disease due to his access to power. He lost his wife and his children. And yet, he wrote sentences like this one in his journal Think for Myself in English Meditation. Accept what happens to you as if you had chosen it yourself because nothing happens without nature wanting it. Or everything that contradicts you comes from your wrong judgment and not from the event itself. He also wrote that you should not let yourself be carried away by the patients but dominate them and use them as stimulants to lead a virtuous life. You can get rid of many difficulties without judging things as being insurmountable. And to finish one of my favorites be careful not to be mistaken by considering yourself as wiser than you really are. The secret of Mark Orel in my opinion is not to be naturally strong but it is his ability to access reason when he faces difficult moments. By the way, I suggest you to write in the comments your favorite quote of all time. Whether it's Mark Orel or yourself tell us in the comments what is your favorite quote. Now Mark Orel is the only person the only example of this in Roman culture. There are not many people we can compare him to. If we had to say that there was someone to compare it would be Epictetus the slave. And Epictetus and Mark Orel could meet at an equal level even if the social distinctions between them are huge and deep. The reason why they would meet at an equal level is because they could share a mutual respect because they both understand that having an ordained soul is a key thing in human life. And that's why life deserves to be lived. Whether you are a slave or an emperor it doesn't matter. Whether you are sick or in good health it doesn't matter. Whether you were born and have 100 years in front of you or whether you are on your deathbed it doesn't matter. Mark says when it comes to death because a lot of people are afraid of death and they don't understand they don't really know what the problem is with everyone. He says look everyone dies so you're going to die so what's the point of complaining? I can understand that we try to avoid it I mean health is a good thing but when you're going to die you're going to die. Don't give in to fear don't give in to irrational rumination don't let your imagination take over control your feelings control your emotions control this part of you which is you the flesh your body it's less important the other things around you in the world are indifferent to you as long as you follow the way of nature as long as you act rationally as long as you live according to the best potential of the human soul then you're a good man and you don't have to worry about anything else the key idea behind Mark Orel is really something like this this is part of the human condition of having troubles worries anxieties and problems don't torture yourself by worrying about things that are not under your control leave it in the hands of God leave it in the hands of nature do your best to control things on which you have control yourself your behavior your intentions and your actions if you do this you will live a blessed life happy virtuous and wise you will be a real human being if you fail to do this gradually the inclination towards the debauch the evil the vice the sin to say it in theological terms will become bigger and bigger if you stop this descent towards self-indulgence you will hurt yourself and you will hurt the people around you Mark Aurel reminds us that everyone suffers but that everyone does not complain about their fate Mark Aurel simply reminds us that all men die but that all men do not die alone while climbing something to meditate on go home with this thought and think if you liked this video one of these videos