I.12. On Contentment

Epictetus pushes further than the Enchiridion usually does. Contentment is not a mood. It is a relationship with how the world is arranged. This lecture asks the big question: can you accept the universe as it is, and, if so, how? A note for the reader: Epictetus sometimes calls his student "slave" in these lectures. He himself was born a slave. He uses the word to shock the student out of self-pity, not to demean.

There are several views about the gods. Some say the divine does not exist. Some say it exists but is inactive, uncaring, and takes no thought for anything.

Some say God exists and does think, but only about great things and things in the heavens, not about anything on earth.

A fourth class says God thinks about earthly and human things, but only in a general way, and has no care for individuals.

There is a fifth class, including Odysseus and Socrates, who say, "Wherever I move, you see me."

Before anything else, then, we have to examine each of these views, to see whether it is true or not.

If there are no gods, how can following the gods be the end of human life? If there are gods but they care for nothing, then what good is it to follow them?

If there are gods and they do care, but there is no communication between them and people, or, more importantly, between them and me, then following them cannot be a true end either.

The good person, having examined all these questions, has submitted his mind to the one who orders the universe, as good citizens submit to the law of the city.

Anyone being educated should approach education with this purpose in mind: "How can I follow the gods in everything? How can I be content with the divine rule? How can I become free?"

The free person is the one for whom everything happens according to his will, and whom no one can block.

"Is freedom, then, the same as madness?" Heaven forbid. Frenzy and freedom have nothing in common.

"I want everything to happen as I think good, whatever that may be."

Then you are in a state of madness. You are out of your mind.

Don't you know that freedom is a noble thing, and worthy of respect? Merely wanting your chance thoughts to come true is not a noble thing. It comes dangerously close to being the most shameful of all things.

How do we act in matters of writing? Do I want to write the name Dion however I want? No. I am taught the right way of writing it.

How is it in music? Just the same.

So it is in every field of art or science. Otherwise, there would be no point in knowing anything, if everything shaped itself to each person's whim.

Should we say, then, that in this field alone, the greatest and most weighty of all, the field of freedom, I am allowed to follow chance wishes? Not at all.

Education is exactly this: learning to shape one's will to match events.

How do events happen? They happen as the one who arranges events has ordained them. He ordained summer and winter, fruitful seasons and barren ones, goodness and wrongdoing and all such opposites, for the sake of the harmony of the universe. He gave each of us a body, bodily parts, property, and people to be among.

Remembering, then, that things are arranged like this, we ought to approach education, not to change the conditions of life, since that is not given to us, and would not be good for us, but so that, with our circumstances being what they are and what nature makes them, we can shape our mind to events.

I ask you, is it possible to avoid people? How could we? Can we change their nature by our company? Who gives us that power?

What is left for us, then? What way do we have to deal with them? We must act in a way that leaves them to do what seems good to them, while we stay in line with nature.

You, though, are impatient and discontent. If you are alone, you call it a wilderness, and if you are with others, you describe them as plotters and robbers. You find fault even with your own parents and children and brothers and neighbors.

When you are alone, you ought to call it peace and freedom, and count yourself equal to the gods.

When you are in a large company, you should not call it a crowd or a mob or a nuisance. You should call it a high day and a festival, and accept all things in a spirit of content.

What punishment is there, you ask, for those who do not accept things in this spirit? Their punishment is to be as they are.

Is one discontent with being alone? Let him be deserted.

Is one discontent with his parents? Let him be a bad son, and mourn his lot.

Is one discontent with his children? Let him be a bad father.

"Cast him into prison."

What do you mean by prison? He is in prison already. A person's prison is the place he is in against his will.

In the same way, Socrates was not in prison, since he chose to be there.

"So am I to have a lame leg?"

Slave, do you mean to put the universe on trial for one poor leg? Won't you make a gift of it to the whole? Won't you resign it? Won't you joyfully give it up to the one who gave it?

Will you be angry and discontent with the orders of Zeus, laid down and ordained by him with the Fates who were present at your birth and spun the thread of your life?

Don't you know what a small part you are compared to the universe? I mean this about your body. In reason, you are not beneath the gods, nor less than they are.

The greatness of reason is judged not by length or height, but by its judgments.

Will you not, then, set your good in the region where you are equal to the gods?

"Alas, look what a father and mother I have been given."

Why? Did you get to choose, before entering life, and say, "Let such a one marry such a one at this hour, so I can be born"? You were given no such choice.

Your parents had to exist first. Your birth had to follow. Of what parents? Of the ones they were.

Well, then, since your parents are what they are, is no resource left to you?

Surely, if you did not know what your power of sight is for, you would be unhappy and miserable when you shut your eyes as colors were brought near you.

Aren't you even more wretched and unhappy for not knowing that you have a high and noble spirit to face each occasion as it arises?

The objects that match the power you have are brought near you, and you turn that power away at the very moment you ought to keep it open-eyed and alert.

Rather, give thanks to the gods that they set you above the things they put out of your power, and that they made you answerable only for what is within your control.

They left you without responsibility for your parents. The same is true of brothers, body, property, death, life.

For what, then, did they make you answerable? For the only thing in your power, the right handling of your impressions.

Why, then, do you insist on dragging in things you are not answerable for? That only makes trouble for you.