An interesting idea came up last week in a discussion about benefits. The Stoics' belief in self-reliance can interfere with our ability to build a chain of mutual connection with others. If we don't need anyone else, and don't give them a chance to help us, even if we help them, they're never in a position to return the favor.
If we don't give people a chance to help us, how will we know that they care about us? And how will they know that they can count on us in the future?
Benefits and the return of benefits must happen back and forth between us and the people around us, or they won't have their intended effect of binding us all together.
So, while the Stoic Sage possesses perfect self-reliance, they would only use it when necessary, when they were cast into exile on some barren island. If they lived in a society, they would choose to rely on worthy people, even understanding their faults, to build bonds of love and mutual dependence.
I'm going to stop using this site and switch over to a more interactive version at community.stoalogos.com. Please use the link below to join!
Join us this Sunday, December 29th for the forty-sixth Sunday Stoa!
We'll kick things off at 4pm EST with 10 minutes of guided meditation, followed by 15 minutes of reflection journaling or doing a Stoic writing practice. If you'd like to skip the meditation and journaling, please join us at 4:30pm. After that, we'll use a combination of break out groups and larger group discussion to go deeper into a specific topic.
This weeks theme is progress: we'll be listening to Letter 32 from Seneca's Letters from a Stoic, and Book 1, Chapter 4 of the Discourses of Epictetus, and then discussing the ideas they puts forth.
Here's the and text if you want to check it out before Sunday:
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius/Letter_32
Click here to join the event:
If you're all caught up on your meditation and journaling ...
Join us this Sunday, December 22nd for the forty-fifth Sunday Stoa!
We'll kick things off at 4pm EST with 10 minutes of guided meditation, followed by 15 minutes of reflection journaling or doing a Stoic writing practice. If you'd like to skip the meditation and journaling, please join us at 4:30pm. After that, we'll use a combination of break out groups and larger group discussion to go deeper into a specific topic.
This week, we'll be listening to Letter 18 from Seneca's Letters from a Stoic, On Festivals and Fasting, and then discussing the ideas it puts forth.
Here's the video and text if you want to check it out before Sunday:
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius/Letter_18
Click here to join the event:
If you're all caught up on your meditation and journaling and want to skip right to the discussion, please join at 4:30pm
