The Daily Stoic - Stoicism Is Not A Form Of Self-Flagellation

Episode Date: October 26, 2022

Seneca was a very rich man. He had nice stuff. Critics at the time, and ever since, have found this to be indisputable proof of his hypocrisy. How can a Stoic have expensive ivory tables? Isn’t it unphilosophical to have multiple houses? Or servants?✉️ Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email at https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Get Stoic inspired books, medallions, and prints to remember these lessons at the Daily Stoic Store: https://store.dailystoic.com/📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey, prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stood Podcast early and add free on Amazon Music. Download the app today. Hi, I'm David Brown, the host of Wondery's podcast business wars. And in our new season, Walmart must fight off target. The new discounter that's both savvy and fashion forward. Listen to business wars on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. on music or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, where each day we bring you a passage of ancient wisdom designed to help you find strength, insight, and wisdom every day life. Each one of these passages is based on the 2000 year old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us dailystoweth.com. Sanika was a very rich man.

He had nice stuff. Critics at the time and ever since have found this to be indisputable proof of his hypocrisy. How can Estoa have expensive ivory tables? Isn't it unfilisophical to have multiple houses, servants? In Seneca's view, the answer was no. Nobody said that Stoic is a meant of vow of poverty or needless deprivation. As he wrote, philosophy calls for plain living not for penance. Our life should observe a happy medium between the ways of the sage and the ways of the world

at large. Plain living is, to a certain degree, relative. A hundred dollar stake dinner to one person is an insane luxury. To a person with a much larger salary and an indifferent social set, having dinner at the same restaurant might be an unassuming, convenient choice, especially if all their friends are chasing reservations at somewhere fancier and even more expensive. That Mercedes they bought in cash, that's really safe and gets great gas mileage, might

actually be planar living that it is for the person driving a brand new Nissan on a lease when really they ought to be taking the train. Stoicism is not, as Sennaka said, a form of self-flagilation. It's about responsibility and sobriety. It's possible to be sober and rich just as it's possible to be middle-class and reckless. You only live once, money is earned to be spent. Just make sure you're spending it smartly and philosophically, and living as best you can, plainly. You know, the Stoics in real life met at what was called the Stoa, the Stoa, Pocule, the Painted Porch in ancient Athens. Obviously, we can all get together in one place, because this community is like hundreds of thousands of people and we couldn't fit in one space

but we have made a special digital version of the stove we're calling it daily stoic life. It's an awesome community you can talk about like today's episode you talk about the emails ask questions that's one of my favorite parts is interacting with all these people who are using stoicism to be better in their actual real lives. You get more daily stoked meditations over the weekend just for the daily stoked life members, quarterly Q&As with me, cloth bound edition of our Best of Meditations, plus a whole bunch of other stuff including discounts and this is the best part all our daily stoked courses and challenges totally for free hundreds of

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