Summary: Enchiridion
Epictetus' Enchiridion is an excellent introduction to Stoicism. Readily accessible, it presents the fundamental idea that we should seek only those goods that depend entirely on us. The work was not written by Epictetus himself but compiled from his teachings by his disciple Arrian.
How can we achieve happiness?
Happiness comes through freedom. To be happy is to be free—but this does not solve the problem: how do we become free?
Epictetus introduces his famous distinction between things that do not depend on us (such as our bodies, reputation, or power) and things that do (our judgements, desires, aversions, and so on).
To be free is to focus on what depends on us and to stop attaching importance to what does not. The latter rest not on our will alone but on chance and external circumstances. The fame we aspire to, for instance, depends not only on our talent but also on whether others are willing to take the time to recognise it.
In such matters, we have no absolute control; we are not the sole cause of the outcome. We therefore expose ourselves to misfortune and disappointment, which inevitably lead to unhappiness.
Many things, on the other hand, depend solely on our own will. I can decide whether or not to work this evening. I can decide what judgement to make about any given matter. We are free—and therefore happy—when we direct our attention towards these things. Hence:
If you believe to be yours that alone which is yours, and foreign that which is indeed foreign to you, no one will ever be able to constrain you, no one will hinder you; you will attack no one, you will accuse no one, you will do nothing in spite of yourself; no one will harm you; you will have no enemy, for you will suffer nothing harmful 1.
What fundamentally depends on us is not the events of our lives, or external things, but the judgements we make about them. As mortal beings, we cannot avoid death; but we can decide what meaning we give to it. We may see it as something terrifying, and spend our whole life in distress; or we may see it as the natural end of a cycle, or a rest that brings relief from the suffering of old age—and so give it a positive value.
What troubles us are not things, but the judgments we make about things. Thus death is nothing to be dreaded [...] but the judgment we pass on death by declaring it dreadful, that is what is dreadful 2.
Many of our judgements are negative, expressing anxiety, hatred, or rejection of one thing or another. All we need to do is work on these judgements through reflection and reshape them so that they express a full and wholehearted acceptance of the world—of life as it is. In this way, happiness is attained:
Do not seek to have events happen as you wish, but wish for events to happen as they do, and you will be happy 3.
Once we understand that things themselves cannot affect us—only our judgements about them can—we become invincible, for our judgements are entirely within our power. Nothing can therefore harm us without our consent: Illness is an obstacle to the body, but not to the will—unless we allow it to be. Lameness is a hindrance to the legs, but not to the will. Apply this to everything that befalls you, and you will find that it may be an obstacle to something, but never to you
4.
We must train our judgements so that we remain unmoved and free from sorrow in the face of misfortune—we may even learn to view such events in a positive light. For example: my television no longer works. Excellent! Now I have time to read a good book instead.
This is the famous Stoic serenity (ataraxia), which allows us to remain unshaken whatever the circumstances.
1 Enchiridion, in Marc Aurèle, Pensées pour moi-même, GF-Flammarion, Paris, 1964, p.207
2 p.209
3 p.210
4 p.211