The Daily Stoic - All The Stoics Were Kings | Following The Doctor’s Orders

Episode Date: November 3, 2023

Marcus Aurelius was a true philosopher king, but he wasn’t the first or the last amongst the Stoics. The first emperor, Octavian, studied under Athenodorus and Arius Didymus. Hadrian took classes from Epictetus and Antoninus was a kind of natural Stoic.--And in today's excerpt from The Daily Stoic, Ryan reminds us to to stop fighting against the thing and use it as a prescription, that it is unfortunate that it happen but its fortunate that it happen to me.✉️ 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.📱 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.

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today, we'll give you a quick meditation from the Stoics with some analysis from me, and then we'll send you out into the world to turn these words into orcs. All the Stoics were kings. Marcus Aurelius was a true philosopher king, but he wasn't the first or the last among the Stoics. The first emperor, Octavian, studied under Ath Doris, an area stitumus. Hadrian took classes from Epictetus, and Antoninus was a kind of natural Stoic. But actually all the Stoics were of the same mold. Clienthys was a manual labor, but he carried himself

like his work mattered, like he mattered. Cato, a man in command of himself, had no desire for the power that Caesar so destructively sought. Epic Titus was a slave, but he knew he was freer than most of the men in Nero's court, perhaps even more so than Hadrian. As Epic Titus' teacher Musonius Rufus would say, I believe a good king is from the outset and by necessity a philosopher, and the philosopher is from the outset, a kingly person. For the Stoics, it didn't matter what one did for a living.

It mattered how they did it. Yes, sure, there was the job, King, but far more important was being a kingly person. It was conquering the greatest empire, the one that cynical laid out, command of one's self. If we are to aspire to power this is the type to aspire to. If we want to lead, let us start by leading ourselves. If we want accolades and privileges, let us seek to deserve them

rather than to lust after and acquire them. And by the way, some of the names in today's message, Athena Doris and Clientes and Wussoni's Rufus. Maybe that's not as familiar to you as Marcus and Seneca and Epicetus, the so-called Big Three. But they're actually just as fascinating, and in some cases better examples of what stoicism is supposed to be than the more famous ones. And they're actually who I profile in lives of the stoics, the art of living from Marcus who really is to Zeno, to Zeno being the founder of stoicism, which also might not have totally landed with you. The book came out in 2020, it showed right at the depths of the pandemic, so maybe it got lost for you, but I really wanted to look at who the stills were, what they did, how they lived, where they lived up to the philosophy, where they fell short, that's what lives of

the stills is about. When I sign it, I usually sign copies in the daily stillokes Store. I usually write Acta non-verbal, which means deeds not words, which I think is a really important thing when it comes to Stokes is how do you practice the stuff? How do you live up to it? That's what the book's about, and I'd love for you to check it out if you haven't already. Following the doctor's orders, this is today's entry in the Daily Stoic. Just as we commonly hear people say that the doctor prescribed someone particular riding exercises or ice baths or walking without shoes, we should in the same way that nature prescribed someone to be diseased or

disabled or to suffer any kind of impairment. In the case of the doctor prescribed means something ordered to help aid someone's healing, but in the case of nature it means that what happens to each of us is ordered to help aid our destiny. Marcus Aurelius' Meditations 5, 8. It's funny, right? Think about it. In the Roman days, someone being prescribed to walk without shoes or to ride a horse, also, I guess, better than being prescribed bleeding. But we'll get to today's meditation. The Stokes were masters at analogies

and used them as a tool to help strengthen their reasoning. Here, Marcus Aurelius observes how willingly we will put up with unpleasantness if commanded by the magic words, doctors, orders. The doctor says that you've got to take this nasty medicine and you'll do it. The doctor tells you that you have to start sleeping, hanging upside down like a bat. You'll feel silly, but soon enough, you'll get to dangling, because you think it will make you better. On the other hand, when it comes to external events, we fight like hell if anything happens contrary to our plans. But what if, Marcus asked, the doctor had prescribed the exact same thing

as a part of our treatment? What if it's as good as taking our medicine? Well, what if? What's so magical about those words, the doctor orders, is that feel like we don't have a choice. Of course, you don't have to listen to the doctor. I guess some people don't listen to their doctors.

You go, oh, well, they know better. They chose this for me. That's what the treatment of this disease sickness is. Who am I to object? I will accept it and I will go along with it because I want to get better. But then when you're stuck in traffic or a job turns out to be harder than you thought or relationship turns out to be more difficult than you thought,

you have to do anything that you didn't expect, you didn't want because you feel like you have a choice at the matter, you don't want to do it. But what if Marcus is saying, actually this too is chosen to make you better. In a sense, that's what the obstacle is the way as a philosophy is really about. It's this idea that these things aren't things. We have to do their things. We get to do things that were chosen for us. You can see it as some sort of higher power if you want. You can see it as fate if you want.

You can just simply see it as a thing, but that it is something that's going to make you better. In Meditations, Mark Suryo's talks about how, he goes, it's unfortunate this happened, that this happened, and then it catches him, but if no, it's fortunate that it happens to me, right? He's saying, oh, no, wait, this was chosen for me. I am right for this, this was chosen for me. I am right for this. This

is right for me. So stop fighting. Stop pushing against the thing and see it as a prescription. See it as part of the process. See it as an assignment you've been given. How will you handle it? Are you going to be a good patient or a bad patient, a good student or a bad student? This is everything. These things were chosen for you and all you have to do in turn is choose them back. Hey, Prime Members, you can listen to the Daily Stoic early and ad-free on Amazon Music, download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen early and ad-free with Wondery

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