Prototype for a Constant Practice

Prototype for a Constant Practice

Paying Attention

"What are the things, then, to which I ought to pay attention?—First, these general principles, and you ought to have them at your command, and without them neither go to sleep, nor rise up, nor drink, nor eat, nor mingle with men; I mean the following: No man is master of another's moral purpose; and: In its sphere alone are to be found one's good and evil. It follows, therefore, that no one has power either to procure me good, or to involve me in evil, but I myself alone have authority over myself in these matters. Accordingly, when these things are secure for me, what excuse have I for being disturbed about things external" (Discourses, 4.12.7--9, trans. Oldfather)?


Circumscribing the Present

"Everything other than its own activity is indifferent to the faculty of reflection

(dianoia). Everything that is its own activity, however, is within its power. Moreover, even among these latter activities, the reflective capacity concerns itself only about the present; for even its past or futue activities are now indifferent to it" (Hadot, IC,  pp. 131--2 ).



Making Correct Use of Impressions

"Straightaway then, train yourself to say to every unpleasant impression,
‘You are an impression, and by no means what you appear to be.’ Then examine it and test it by the rules that you have, first (in this way especially) by asking whether it concerns things that are in our power or things that are not in our power: and if it concerns something not in our power, have ready to hand the
answer, ‘This is nothing to me" (Handbook 1.5; trans. Seddon, pg. 31).


Pierre Hadot (1998). The Inner Citadel

Keith Seddon (2005). Epictetus' Handbook and the Tablet of Cebes.