The Daily Stoic - This Is How a Wise Man Responds to Triggers | Focus On the Present Moment

Episode Date: February 1, 2021

“There’s a story in the Talmud about a man betting his friend four hundred zuzim that he couldn’t provoke the famous rabbi Hillel into anger. The friend accepted the wager and settled on an ingenious and failproof strategy for pissing someone off: Asking really, really dumb questions.”Ryan discusses the practice and humility that it takes to control your temper, and reads this week’s meditation from The Daily Stoic Journal, on today’s Daily Stoic Podcast.This episode is brought to you by Athletic Greens. Athletic Greens is a custom formulation of 75 vitamins, minerals, and other whole-food sourced ingredients that make it easier for you to maintain nutrition in just a single scoop. It tastes great and gets you the nutrients you need, whether you're working on the go, fueling an active lifestyle, or just maintaining your good health. Visit athleticgreens.com/stoic and receive 5 free travel packs with your first purchase.***If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podcast, the more we can invest into it and make it even better.Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/signupFollow Daily Stoic:Twitter: https://twitter.com/dailystoicInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailystoic/Facebook: http://facebook.com/dailystoicYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/dailystoicSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey, prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stood Podcast early and add free on Amazon Music. Download the app today. Hi, I'm David Brown, the host of Wundery's podcast business wars. And in our new season, Walmart must fight off target. The new discounter that's both savvy and fashion forward. Listen to business wars on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. on music or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast. Each day we bring you a meditation inspired by the ancient Stoics, illustrated with stories from history, current events, and literature to help you be better at what you do. And at the beginning of the week, we try to do a deeper dive, setting a kind of stoic intention for the week, something to meditate on, something to think on, something to leave you

with, to journal about whatever it is you happen to be doing. So let's get into it. This is how a wise man responds to triggers. There is a story in the Talmud about a man who bet his friend that he couldn't provoke the famous Rabbi Halal into anger. The friend accepted the wager and settled on an ingenious and failproof strategy for pissing someone off. Ask really, really dumb questions. Halal was washing his hair when the man arrived and asking what he could do for him, Haleel was hit with the first question. Why are the eyes of some foreign group blurried? My son, you have asked a great question, Haleel replied, it's because they live in sandy places.

The man left, waited an hour and came back for another question. Why are the heads of the Babylonians round? He left and returned once more. Why are the feet of Africans wide?" He'll answer it, each question like it was the first. Over and over the man returned, each question more pointless and weirder than the last. But Hillel only sat down and said, ask all the questions you have to ask, are you the Hillel who is called Nassie of Israel? The man finally asked, if that is you, may there not be many like you in Israel?"

And then he explained that Hillel's patience had cost him the money of the bet. Be careful with your moods, Hillel warned, it is worth it that you should lose money and then more money, but Hillel shall not become angry, he said. Hillel believed what the Stokes believed that losing one's temper was a vice and that other people could not make us angry. We choose to get upset. A little knew that there were obnoxious people in the world and that letting them get to us solve nothing. The only proper response was patience, good humor, and good faith. If someone asked you to write your name, Marcus Aurelia said, would you cleanse your teeth and spit out the letters one by one? If you lost his temper, would you lose yours as well? Would you just

spell out the individual letters, without getting stirred up or meeting anger with anger? That's what Hillel did well. He answered every question even though they were dumb, and he didn't let the situation trigger him or upset him. He tamed his temper just as you can, with practice, with humility, with graciousness. Focus on the present moment. Marcus Aurelius ruled at a particularly turbulent time. War is erupted on multiple fronts. Terrible plagues ravaged Rome. His rule was certainly one of constant, unrelenting pressure, but he never let it overwhelm him.

From the Stoics and from the example of his adopted father, the Emperor Antoninus Pius, Marcus found a coping strategy in always sticking close to the present moment in the duties at hand. When our own stress boils over, we can remember his practices and exercises to stick with what is in front of us. Not everything that it might mean. At every moment, keep a sturdy mind on the task at hand as a Roman and as a human being. Stick doing it with strict and simple dignity, affection, freedom and justice, giving yourself

a break from all other considerations. You can do this if you approach each task as if it is your last, giving up every distraction, emotional subversion of reason and all drama, vanity and complaint over your fair share. You can see how a mastery over a few things makes it possible to live an abundant and devout life. That's Marcus, really, is in meditation. We deliver 3000 years or even a countless multiple of that. Keep in mind that no one ever loses a life other than the one they are living and no one ever lives a life other than the one they are losing. The longest and the shortest life then amount to the same. For the present moment lasts for all and is all anyone possesses. No one can possess either the pastor, the future, for how can someone be deprived of what is not theirs?" And that's Mark's realises, meditations again. And then this is one of my favourite quotes from Mark. He says, don't let your reflection

of the whole sweep of life crush you. Don't fill your mind with all the bad things that might still happen. Stay focused on the present situation and ask yourself, why it is so unbearable and can't be survived. You know, that's pretty good advice for 2020. You know, the people who are, when is this going to be over? What's going to happen next? I'm scared. What's the news? Those are the people that had trouble making it, right? But those of us who sort of locked in and just what do we have to do to day? That's where we made progress. That's how we endured and survived. I remember I was sitting

on the porch with Richard Overton, who died, you know, almost two years ago now. And he was at that time one of the the oldest men in the world. There's like 112. I remember asking, I said, Richard, how do you do it? You go day by day, and he says, oh no man, he says day by night. For him, if he survived the night, that was a successful day. And it was touch and go.

There's a great poem that says, I'm forgetting who it's by. Oh, Dylan Thomas, he says, every night it's touch and go. There's a great poem that says, I'm forgetting who it's by Odil and Thomas. He says, you know, every night it's touch and go. Look, the future is uncertain. That's by definition. The future is unknown. It unfolds before us. And because of all the directions it could go, some of them are inevitably not what we want. And they're scary and intimidated and worrisome. And yes, Ennicka talks about pre-Medititashio molorum thinking of the evils in advance. I think he means that specifically and generally, but that's about being prepared for what might happen.

Once you've done that, saying you got to zoom in and focus on what's in front of you, that's today, right? You know, 2020, as far as what happened to 2020, I mean, there's been decades where fewer things happened, right? Or centuries, in some cases, it feels like. But, you know, the way you get through that is you wake up and you do what you got to do. I mean, I think kids have helped me with this where it's like, look, all right, got them up, got to do the morning routine. And I'm going to go to work. I'm going to do what I have to do, then I come home, then we're going to play. Then it's dinner, you know, then it's the after dinner chores and then it's starting

the bedtime routine and then you get them to bed and then, you know, everything that happens from there if you survived is a bonus. And so I think just that routine is helpful for focusing on the present moment, but I think Marcus's point of concentrating on the task before you like a Roman. It's just, you know, it's beautifully said. And if we could do that today, who knows what's what was in the news yesterday, you know, what the speculation about what's going to happen next is nobody knows. Nobody knows not even me. And, and, you know, as I'm, as I'm recording this, if

you, you know, weeks in advance, I know even less. But I'm not worried about it. Marcus Rios has another great quote. He goes, yeah, you're worried about the future. He says, but you'll meet the future with the same weapons that you have now. So let's focus on what's in front of you right now. Let's use those weapons where they're most effective. Let's have the most impact where we can right now.

Let's tackle this problem. Let's not work on this problem with our eye towards the next problem and the next problem and the next problem and then what's going to happen when that next one doesn't work and blah blah blah. You know, it's so easy to start spiraling and it doesn't help. It doesn't make you happier. It doesn't make things better. So let's zoom in and look, do the stoics sometimes talk about zooming way out and seeing the big picture yes. But right now we're talking about in, because zooming in is an effective tool. That's what I want you to be thinking about today.

So get out there, get after it, but stay focused, concentrate like a Roman. Keep your mind at the task at hand. Do it with strict and simple dignity, affection, freedom, justice. Give yourself a break from all other considerations. As Marcus says, approach this task as if it is your last. Giving up every distraction, emotional subversion of reason. Give up the drama and the vanity, all the complaints. Master these few things, and that will give you a good life.

Talk soon. We say here at Daily Stoic Lake, you might not have an anger problem, but anger is a problem for all of us. And the idea of controlling our tempers, not losing our tempers is a constant theme throughout the stoic writings. You built this teaming your temper challenge. It's ten or so days of really great stoic exercises that will help you from losing your cool, help you tame your temper, conquer your anger.

It's really great. I love it. Something we're really proud of. You can check it out at dailystoke.com slash anger. It's great stuff in there. We've heard from so many people who've gotten a bunch out of it. Peter Atiyah, who I'm a big fan of, shot me a note somewhat recently about how much he enjoyed it.

So anyways, check it out at dailystoke.com slash temper. And remember, if you're a daily stoke life member, you get all the challenges of courses for free. You can sign up there at dailystokelife.com. Hey, prime members, you can listen to the daily stoke early and ad free on Amazon Music, download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen early and add free with Wondery Plus in Apple podcasts. Celebrity feuds are high stakes. You never know if you're just gonna end up on Page Six

or Du Moir or in court. I'm Matt Bellesai. And I'm Sydney Battle, and we're the host of Wondery's new podcast, Disantel, where each episode we unpack a different iconic celebrity feud from the buildup, why it happened, and the repercussions. What does our obsession with these feuds say about us? The first season is packed with some pretty messy pop culture drama, but none is drawn out

in personal as Britney and Jamie Lynn Spears. When Britney's fans form the free Britney movement dedicated to fraying her from the infamous conservatorship, Jamie Lynnins lack of public support. It angered some fans. A lot of them. It's a story of two young women who had their choices taken away from them by their controlling parents, but took their anger out on each other. And it's about a movement to save a superstar, which set its sights upon anyone who failed

to fight for Britney. anyone who failed to fight for Brittany. Follow Disenthal wherever you get your podcast. You can listen ad-free on Amazon Music or the Wondering App.