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You Must Change Completely



Excellent passage from Epictetus:

First, in all that pertains to yourself directly you must change completely from your present practices, and must cease to blame God or man; you must utterly wipe out desire, and must turn your aversion toward the things that lie within the province of the moral purpose, and these only; you must feel no anger, no rage, no envy, no pity; no wench must look fine to you, no petty reputation, no boy-favourite, no little sweet-cake. For this you ought to know: Other men have the protection of their walls and their houses and darkness, when they do anything of that sort, and they have many things to hide them. A man closes his door, stations someone at the entrance to his bedroom: “If anyone comes, tell him ‘He is not at home, he is not at leisure.’” But the Cynic, instead of all these defences, has to make his self-respect his protection…







7 Reader Responses

  1. Sean Says:
    September 21st, 2007 at 12:22 pm

    I see.

  2. cadeveo Says:
    September 21st, 2007 at 9:18 pm

    This feels like one of the most frightening things in the world to do. Even if you *get it* *intellectually*–which is to say, you *get it* in fantasy.

    Why is that?

    The simplest and hardest thing. Over and over again, it seems it all comes back to this “you must change your present practices”…and “make” self-respect one’s protection. Rephrased in a million ways by so many wise ones.
    How’s it seem to remain so hard after all this time?

  3. Julia Says:
    September 21st, 2007 at 10:01 pm

    How’s it seem to remain so hard after all this time?

    I bet you and all of the people you respect do this all the time and don’t realize it.

    If my boss wants to choose sides in an office conflict he closes his door to me and says he’s busy. He’s not too busy to give assistance to the person I’m having a problem with.

    You want a reputation for being in charge and not necessarily for making the right decision.

    Someone makes a bad call at work but you have no pity and watch him suffer instead of helping.

    Rage at someone instead of realizing that the roles the two of you are playing don’t allow for good decision making, the system is flawed.

    Do you envy and want to emulate your boss who surrounds him/herself with lovers/flatterers etc. or are you repulsed by it and try to help your coworker who has been mistreated because of this type of situation.

    I’ve had every one of these bosses. A coworker recently pulled away from her old crowd, told her boss what she wanted to say,(after years of sitting on his desk, pulling down her already low cut blouse before going in his office, etc.) stopped being the gatekeeper keeping out truth. All we can say about her is “thank God she finally got some self respect”.

    I know, everything reminds me of work. I draw the line at eliminating sweet cakes though.

  4. Svenson. Says:
    September 21st, 2007 at 10:30 pm

    The problem is whenever I do this, withdraw from the senses and connect with the higher self, I get power. The desires I have released go out like arrows into the universe and manifest in tangible forms, and I get all this stuff offered to me that wasn’t there before. So one has to be like buddha and refuse all the manifesting delights to get anywhere at all, when starting out it was easier because I didn’t have anything to lose in the first place.

  5. Julia Says:
    September 22nd, 2007 at 9:21 am

    refuse all the manifesting delights

    I guess that means sweet cakes too. :(

  6. Tim Boucher Says:
    September 24th, 2007 at 12:41 pm

    The problem is whenever I do this, withdraw from the senses and connect with the higher self, I get power.

    In my experience, it is not about withdrawing the senses whatsoever. In fact, I feel much more alive from a sensory/awareness perspective than I ever have before.

    What Epictetus means by “moral purpose” - as I understand it - is simply recognizing what is inside the sphere of one’s control and what is not. What lies outside of it is simply beyond your control, and therefore cannot be impacted, so it is senseless to call it good or evil. What lies within your control, on the other hand, can be impacted by you, and therefore *should* be. To not improve it consciously is the true root of evil.

  7. Julia Says:
    September 24th, 2007 at 1:55 pm

    SWEET CAKES FOR EVERYONE!!!

    Break out the kitty litter.



SURROUND YOURSELF WITH STRENGTH.