EPICTETUS. DISCOURSES. Book ii. §24. ¶2.
Monday
January 21
THE school of a philosopher is a surgery. You
are not to go out of it with pleasure, but with
pain: for you come there not in health; but one
of you had a dislocated shoulder, another an
abscess, a third a fistula, a fourth the headache.
And am I, then, to sit uttering pretty trifling
thoughts and little exclamations that, when you
have praised me, you may each of you go away
with the same dislocated shoulder, the same
aching head, the same fistula, and the same
abscess that you brought? And is it for this
that young men are to travel? And do they
leave their parents, their friends, their relations,
and their estates that they may praise you while
you are uttering little exclamations?
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Unless our philosophy affects people's lives for the better and changes them, fixes their "ills", then it is worthless. All of the great and high sounding phrases in the world are nothing if we don't actually help people to see what is wrong with their lives and give them tools to fix it.
ReplyDeleteAs always, "the proof of the pudding is in the tasting".
Unless we first acknowledge that we are in need of healing, we are unlikely to seek a physician. It is telling that over half of the students who register Harvard's Positive Psychology 1504 (which amounts to 400 student per semester) have indicated that they attend because the want to heal from depression, hearbreak and anxiety. It seems that the sick are still flocking to the doctors.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this reading on two levels. First,we need to acknowledge we are sick/have problems/are unhappy before we can get better and getting better is hard work that only we can do.
ReplyDeleteSecond, when we encounter others, we need to know that they too may be struggling, in pain or are unhappy, and we need to try and have patience with them.