Exploring Encheiridion 4 – Episode 34

Whenever you are about to start on some activity, remind yourself what the activity is like. If you go out to bathe, picture what happens at a bathhouse—the people there who splash you or jostle you or talk rudely or steal your things. In this way you will be more prepared to start on the activity, by telling yourself at the outset: “I want to bathe, and I also want to keep my will in harmony with nature.” Make this your practice in every activity. Then, if anything happens, that gets in the way of your bathing, you will have the following response available: “Well, this was not the only thing I wanted; I also wanted to keep my will in harmony with nature. I shall not do that if I get angry about what is happening.”

The meaning of this profoundly important passage may be more relevant and applicable to us in modern times than it was to the young students of Epictetus almost two thousand years ago. Nevertheless, to fully appreciate and apply this passage to our modern lives, we must overcome one cultural hurdle to understand and appreciate its meaning entirely. Epictetus relies on the experiences of a Roman bathhouse to drive this lesson home for his students. However, few moderns have ever been to anything like a Roman bathhouse to bathe. Therefore, when Epictetus begins his list of things that occur at a Roman bathhouse—splashing, jostling, rude talk, stealing of clothing—we might be inclined to think of a modern public pool setting and consider it similar. However, that is not a good comparison, and it leaves us with an inadequate appreciation of the point Epictetus is making. Let’s take a closer look at Roman bathhouses and the types of activities that occurred there.

In Encheiridion 4, Epictetus is relatively brief with his description of a Roman bathhouse because he did not need to elaborate further. His students related to his example immediately because these bathhouses were a standard part of Greek and Roman life. On the other hand, Seneca provides a more detailed picture of these bathhouses in a Letter to Lucilius. He writes:

Call to mind every sort of awful noise that grates on the ears. When the stronger men do their exercises, swinging their hand weights about and straining with the effort (or pretending to), I hear the grunts each time they exhale, their rasping and gasping for breath. When I get some idle fellow who’s happy with an ordinary man’s massage, I hear the hands slapping his shoulders and the change of sound when they strike with the cupped hand or with the palm. Then if a ballplayer shows up and starts counting how many he catches, I’m done for! Now add the quarrelsome type—and the one caught stealing—and the one who likes to hear himself sing in the bath chamber—and also the ones who jump into the swimming pool with a great splash. Besides all these, who are at least using their normal voices, imagine the tweezer man screeching over and over in his shrill falsetto, just to attract attention: he is never silent unless he is plucking someone’s armpits and making him cry out instead. Now add the cries of the drink man, the sausage man, the bakery man, and all the different sellers of cooked foods, singing out their wares in their distinctive tones. (Letters 56.1-2)

It’s hard to imagine a similar combination of distractions today. We would have to combine a Florida beach during spring break with an outdoor gym, some people playing catch, a bar full of quarrelsome drinkers, an open-air hot wax station, and food vendors shouting over the crowd to sell hotdogs and beer. Then, we might have a similar experience. If you do not relate to that, imagine a crowded shopping mall during the holiday season, a “Black Friday” sale at an electronics store, etc. You get the idea. Epictetus is trying to get his students and us to imagine environments where we typically get frustrated and angry with people and events. Why should we imagine these? Because this type of active imagination in advance of an event (premeditatio malorum) trains us to deal with these events appropriately. It prepares us to keep our will in harmony with nature even during events that might otherwise disturb our tranquil mind and make us angry.

Scenarios:

Family gatherings
1. Derogatory remarks or criticism
2. Regurgitating or replaying an old family drama
3. Sibling rivalries extended into adulthood
Trip to the shopping mall
1. Rude drivers in the parking lot who take the spot you were waiting for
2. Unsupervised children screaming and bumping into you in the stores
3. Slow checkout lines
Commute on the highway
1. The driver who cuts you off
2. The man who misses the first 10 seconds of the green light because he focused on his smartphone while driving
3. The woman who does the same because she is putting on eye makeup while driving
Commute on train, subway, or bus
1. The people who push and plow their way to the front when the door opens
2. The healthy young person who will not give up his seat to someone who appears to need it.
3. The person singing aloud to the music playing in her earphones
A day at the office
1. The backbiting and backstabbing
2. The grumpy boss
3. Incompetent or lazy employees
4. The political games played for promotion

In this lesson, Epictetus teaches us to use the practice of premeditatio malorum for every situation where we may encounter people and events that can disturb us and put us in a state of disharmony with nature. He teaches us to remind ourselves what happens at the shopping mall, on the freeway and subway, at the office, family gatherings, etc., before we engage in those events. What is the ultimate goal of this practice? It enables us to participate in these activities without becoming irritated or angry. It thereby allows us to keep our prohairesis, the Greek word for our moral purpose, will, or faculty of choice in harmony with Nature. In this passage, A.A. Long translates the Greek word prohairesis as “will” and defines it as “a human being’s power of self-determination and mental disposition.” In the glossary of his translation of the Encheiridion, he further argues:

The word is sometimes translated by choice, purpose, volition, or decision, but in my opinion “will” is the most natural English expression for what Epictetus seeks to convey with it.^[1]

Some people may balk at the idea of premeditatio malorum because it is a form of negative visualization. This practice appears to contradict some New Age teaching that suggests our thoughts directly create and control things and events external to us. On the other hand, Stoicism teaches us that all external things and events are outside of our control. Of course, that does not imply that our thoughts and intentions do not affect things and events external to us. However, as we learned in the lesson on Encheiridion 2, Nature does not grant us the authority or permission to control things and events that are external to us. Stoicism teaches these externals are not up to us. Premeditatio malorum does not create what some people call a self-fulfilling prophecy for two reasons. First, the Stoic practitioner learns these events are not indeed “bad.” Instead, the Stoic trusts that these events, which are brought about by a providentially ordered cosmos, are “good” for the whole of the cosmos even though they may be dispreferred indifferents to us. Again, I repeat Marcus Aurelius’ beautiful expression of radical acceptance toward the things and events that Nature:

Everything suits me that suits your designs, O my universe. Nothing is too early or too late for me that is in your own good time. All is fruit for me that your seasons bring, O nature. All proceeds from you, all subsists in you, and to you all things return. (Meditations 4.23)

Second, Stoics do not visualize the possibility of adverse events because they fear them and want to avoid them. Instead, they envision them to develop the realization there is nothing about these events we should fear. As we will see in the next lesson, these seemingly adverse events cannot harm us. Instead, it is only our beliefs about those events that can and do bring us genuine harm.

Therefore, Encheiridion 4 teaches us to keep our “will” in harmony with nature while engaging in activities where events might otherwise irritate us and make us angry. While the events themselves are not bad, the irritation or anger we allow to well up inside us is morally bad because it places our will in a state of disharmony with Nature. But what does it mean to be in a state of disharmony with Nature? To understand that, we must understand what it means to live in harmony with Nature. A. A. Long provides a succinct and poignant definition in the translation’s glossary I am using here. He suggests that living in harmony with Nature means:

To behave in conformity both to one’s human nature as a rational animal and to one’s predetermined and god-given circumstances.^[2]

Please notice that he did not stop with human nature. That is the mistake many moderns make in their practice of Stoicism. Without cosmic Nature, Stoic theory and practice lose their profound spiritual significance, and life lived in agreement with Nature loses its inherently moral purpose.

So, how do we apply this practice of premeditatio malorum in our daily life? The applications are endless, but here are a few examples. Before your morning or evening commute, remind yourself how other drivers behave during rush-hour traffic. Then, when another driver cuts you off or causes you to miss a green light because they were not paying attention, you can look beyond the immediate goal of getting home or to another location and remind yourself:

Well, this was not the only thing I wanted; I also wanted to keep my will in harmony with nature. I shall not do that if I get angry about what is happening. (Ench 4)

When you decide to go shopping at the mall, remind yourself that another driver may take the parking spot you were waiting to take. Remember what it is like to stand in a long checkout line because the clerk is slow or a customer creates a problem. Then, you can look beyond the immediate goal of shopping and remind yourself:

Well, this was not the only thing I wanted; I also wanted to keep my will in harmony with nature. I shall not do that if I get angry about what is happening. (Ench 4)

As you get dressed for a family gathering, remind yourself that your rude and obnoxious brother or sister will be there. Remember that someone will probably bring up an old family controversy and start an argument. Then, you can look beyond the immediate goal of spending time with your family and remind yourself:

Well, this was not the only thing I wanted; I also wanted to keep my will in harmony with nature. I shall not do that if I get angry about what is happening. (Ench 4)

On your way to work, remind yourself that your boss may be in a bad mood, someone you supervise may be having family problems they will bring to work, and your coworker may stab you in the back to get the promotion you both seek. Then, you can look beyond project deadlines and career goals and remind yourself:

Well, this was not the only thing I wanted; I also wanted to keep my will in harmony with nature. I shall not do that if I get angry about what is happening. (Ench 4)

Ultimately, no matter what we intend to do or what our goal may be, we will do well to remind ourselves:

Well, this was not the only thing I wanted; I also wanted to keep my will in harmony with nature. I shall not do that if I get angry about what is happening. (Ench 4)

This simple practice helps us maintain control over the only thing that is up to us, our will or faculty of choice (prohairesis), and teaches us to trust the rest to providentially ordered Nature because those externals are not up to us. This is the life of the Stoic practitioner—a life lived in accordance with our rational human nature and cosmic Nature.

Glossary^[3]

HARMONY WITH NATURE Technical phrase for the Stoic’s goal—to behave in conformity both to one’s human nature as a rational animal and to one’s predetermined and god-given circumstances.

WILL A favorite term in Epictetus (Greek prohairesis) for a human being’s power of self-determination and mental disposition. The word is sometimes translated by choice, purpose, volition, or decision, but in my opinion “will” is the most natural English expression for what Epictetus seeks to convey with it.