每日斯多葛主義修行25-27

來自專欄 Daily Stoic Quotes

25. 「What』s left to be prized? This, I think—to limit our action or inaction to only what』s in keeping with the needs of our own preparation . . . it』s what the exertions of education and teaching are all about—here is the thing to be prized! If you hold this firmly, you』ll stop trying to get yourself all the other things. . . . If you don』t, you won』t be free, self-sufficient, or liberated from passion, but necessarily full of envy, jealousy, and suspicion for any who have the power to take them, and you』ll plot against those who do have what you prize. . . . But by having some self-respect for your own mind and prizing it, you will please yourself and be in better harmony with your fellow human beings, and more in tune with the gods—praising everything they have set in order and allotted you.」

— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.16.2 b –4 a

那還有什麼是值得珍視的呢？我覺得應該是不要去追求我們生活需求之外的東西。教育的精髓就在於教會我們分辨哪些是我們真正需要的，哪些是不需要的。如果我們能夠把這點牢記於心並在生活中勤加練習，這樣我們不會把精力放在我們並不需要的事情上。如果你做不到這點，那我們就不會獲得真正的自由，不能自足，不能從慾望中解放自己，而且必然會羨慕和嫉妒那些擁有你所沒有的東西的人，並防備別人會從你這裡奪走你所擁有的。但是如果我們對自己的心靈充滿敬重並珍視她，那我們就會發現聽從神的安排對神所給予我們的一切滿足並（不貪求我們其實根本不需要的東西），我們會獲得心靈的喜悅，和身邊人的關係也會更加和諧，也更接近神的心意。

— Marcus Aurelius, 沉思錄, 6.16.2 b –4 a

26. 「Erase the false impressions from your mind by constantly saying to yourself, I have it in my soul to keep out any evil, desire or any kind of disturbance—instead, seeing the true nature of things, I will give them only their due. Always remember this power that nature gave you.」

要記得我們擁有這樣的能力：消除錯誤的觀點，跟自己說，我可以分辨好壞，我可以抵制慾望的干擾，我可以看清事務的本質並理性區別對待他們。

— Marcus Aurelius, 沉思錄, 8.29

27. 「There are three areas in which the person who would be wise and good must be trained. The first has to do with desires and aversions—that a person may never miss the mark in desires nor fall into what repels them. The second has to do with impulses to act and not to act—and more broadly, with duty—that a person may act deliberately for good reasons and not carelessly. The third has to do with freedom from deception and composure and the whole area of judgment, the assent our mind gives to its perceptions. Of these areas, the chief and most urgent is the first which has to do with the passions, for strong emotions arise only when we fail in our desires and aversions.」

要想成為智慧的人必須經歷這三方面的訓練：（1）學會控制自己的喜惡。不能讓慾望和厭惡的情緒控制自己；（2）學會控制自己的衝動作為（或者不作為）。行事必須要有足夠充分理性經過仔細思考的理由，而不是隨隨便便做事；（3）學會理智分析對待我們的感官經驗，不被事物的表象欺騙。其中最重要的是第一個方面。因為當我們無法控制自己的喜惡時，我們會被強烈的情感所困擾，因此失去內心的平靜。

— Epictetus, 對話, 3.2.1-3 a

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