"Right from the first sentence [Enchiridion], Epictetus was the first person I had ever encountered who challenged this entire structure. The distinction is sharp, "harsh"--things not in our control are enslaved, things in our control are free. And almost everything is not in our control, including our own bodies--but that's ok, because those things are not who we really are. We are enslaved to those externals things only because we _enslave ourselves_. It is never the events that happen that upset us--the Vikings losing, a friend dying--it is our own judgements about those events, and those judgements are in our control. Change our judgements and we will be free of all grief, all sadness, all fear, all psychological pain. _Free_. Not "you'll still feel grief, but not as much". Not "you'll be sad, but you won't let your pain get too strong". Not "you'll be tempted to steal, lie, commit adultery, etc., but you won't act on those temptations as often as you do now." No, Epictetus says "you'll be free". The harshness is part of the beauty--we will never achieve eudaimonia by holding on to the old view and making some little modifications--that will only make the chains more comfortable, and tempt you even more strongly to stay enslaved.
"All of this happens within the first 5 sections ... " -- Grant C. Sterling.
The Harshness and the Beauty of Epictetus
Epictetus' Enchiridion 1, and part of Keith Seddon's commentary on it
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