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A brief note from Epictetus, on facing hard times:

To God you ought to swear such an oath as the soldiers do to Caesar. For they, in order to receive their pay, swear to prefer before all things the safety of Caesar; and will you not swear, who have received so many and so great favors; or, if you have sworn, will you not fulfil the oath? And what must you swear? Never to distrust, nor accuse, nor murmur at any of the things appointed by him; nor to shrink from doing or enduring that which is inevitable.

Back to Sun Tzu tomorrow. Today, a brief but powerful bit of advice from that old master of the magical arts:

For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you;

but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Forgiveness is not some empty moral platitude. Understood correctly, it's like the ultimate cheat-code to existence.

Consider:

Whatever you do will return to you, no matter what.

If you spend your time blessing others and doing charitable works, you will receive blessing and charity in return.

If you spend your time cursing others and doing hateful deeds, you will receive cursing and hate in return.

But what if you spend part of life time cursing, and then realize the error of your ways, and try to change things?

Well, you're still going to have to deal with the consequences of your earlier actions, and that's probably going to suck quite a bit...

Unless you have a way out.

And that's where forgiveness comes in. What you do will return to you; what you sew, you will reap. Sew barley, reap barley; sew brambles, reap brambles.

Sew forgiveness, and receive forgiveness.

When you forgive others, you release them from their debt to you. (You also free up a great deal of psychic energy that was locked up in staying mad at them, but that's a different topic.) At the same moment and by the same means, you are released from your own debts.

Couldn't this be abused? Couldn't you go out and do some monstrous crime, and then ensure you get away with it by forgiving someone who hurt you?

Well, let's think about that. If we reap as we sew; and we sew forgiveness only in an attempt to get away from a crime, what is it that we will reap?

Epictetus tells us,

Remember never to say that you are alone; for you are not alone, but God is within, and your genius is within; and what need have they of light to see what you are doing?

The thing to keep in mind always is this:

Some things are in our control and others not. Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever are our own actions. Things not in our control are body, property, reputation, command, and, in one word, whatever are not our own actions.

That which is under our control can never be taken from us without our consent. That which is not under our control never comes under our control, even if it appears to for a time.

You can never go wrong by looking to Epictetus, though the following saying is a very difficult one.

Never say of anything, “I have lost it,” but, “I have restored it.” Has your child died? It is restored. Has your wife died? She is restored. Has your estate been taken away? That likewise is restored. “But it was a bad man who took it.” What is it to you by whose hands he who gave it has demanded it again? While he permits you to possess it, hold it as something not your own, as do travelers at an inn.

None of the external things of life are ours. Not our homes or our possessions, not our spouses or our children, not even our bodies, and not even our minds. All of them are on loan. If we can keep this in mind, then, instead of being overcome when we lose them, we will be grateful for the time when we have them.

More from Epictetus:

Men are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of things. Thus death is nothing terrible, else it would have appeared so to Socrates. But the terror consists in our notion of death, that it is terrible. When, therefore, we are hindered or disturbed, or grieved, let us never impute it to others, but to ourselves—that is, to our own views. It is the action of an uninstructed person to reproach others for his own misfortunes; of one entering upon instruction, to reproach himself; and one perfectly instructed, to reproach neither others nor himself.

As recently as a year ago, if you had told me about the events of 2020 I would have seen it as an imaginative parody of the modern American's cowardice and germophobia. But here we are.

If we have any wisdom remaining in us, we will take a moment to listen to the voices of our ancestors, who faced a far harsher world than we with a level of grace and courage that we cannot begin to approach. Death is coming for all of us, without exception.

A reminder from Epictetus:

There are things which are within our power, and there are things which are beyond our power. Within our power are opinion, aim, desire, aversion, and, in one word, whatever affairs are our own. Beyond our power are body, property, reputation, office, and, in one word, whatever are not properly our own affairs.

Now the things within our power are by nature free, unrestricted, unhindered; but those beyond our power are weak, dependent, restricted, alien. Remember, then, that if you attribute freedom to things by nature dependent and take what belongs to others for your own, you will be hindered, you will lament, you will be disturbed, you will find fault both with gods and men. But if you take for your own only that which is your own and view what belongs to others just as it really is, then no one will ever compel you, no one will restrict you; you will find fault with no one, you will accuse no one, you will do nothing against your will; no one will hurt you, you will not have an enemy, nor will you suffer any harm.

Aiming, therefore, at such great things, remember that you must not allow yourself any inclination, however slight, toward the attainment of the others; but that you must entirely quit some of them, and for the present postpone the rest. But if you would have these, and possess power and wealth likewise, you may miss the latter in seeking the former; and you will certainly fail of that by which alone happiness and freedom are procured.

Seek at once, therefore, to be able to say to every unpleasing semblance, “You are but a semblance and by no means the real thing.” And then examine it by those rules which you have; and first and chiefly by this: whether it concerns the things which are within our own power or those which are not; and if it concerns anything beyond our power, be prepared to say that it is nothing to you.

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