Clinging and Aversion

“The person in training must seek to rise above, so as to stop seeking out pleasure and steering away from pain; to stop clinging to living and abhorring death…” Musonius Rufus, Lectures, 6.25.5-11 Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday

When you feel you are suffering from a pain or situation that won’t go away — stand back for a moment and imagine others going through the same thing (or something similar – there is no way understand/feel others’ pain exactly), but you can say a prayer – I see your pain, I know that pain myself, may we all be freed from it at a time to come. This helps us “rise above it”, knowing all beings suffer… Ask yourself can I have compassion for the suffering? Yes, because I have suffered. 

Who are you around?

“From good people you’ll learn good, but if you mingle with the bad, you’ll destroy a such a soul as you had.”

Musonius Rufu, Quoting Theognis of Megara, Lectures, 11.53.21-22

Geothe’s maxims: “Tell me with whom you consort, and I will tell you who you are.”

The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday & Stephen Hanselman