The Seven Ancient Stoic Tenants

As I’ve been re-reading Eckhart Tolle’s books recently, I’ve noticed the ancient Roman Stoics noted as being a major influencing force for his work. Besides some slight word choices, the Seven Ancient Stoic Tenents are still feel powerful to this day. When I consider the current political climate, I think we all should be pasting these on our mirrors and reciting as we brush our teeth each morning and night. I may just do that myself. Perhaps I’ll focus on one for each day of the week, on repeat, in this upcoming year of 2025.

• Momento Mori— Live each day as if it were your last.

“Let us prepare our minds as if we’d come to the very end of life. Let us postpone nothing. Let us balance life’s books each day. The one who puts the finishing touches on their life each day is never short of time.”

• Amor Fati— Go with the flow.

“Don’t seek for everything to happen as you wish it would, but rather wish that everything happens as it actually will— then your life will flow well. This is the art of aquiescence- to accept rather than fight every little thing.”

• Premeditatio Malorum— Prepare for the worst, expect the best.

“We don’t always get what is rightfully ours, even if we’ve earned it. Not everything is as clean and straightforward as we think they may be. Psychologically we must prepare ourselves for this to happen.” The Stoics call this a “premeditation of evils”

• Sympatheia— We are all one.

“Meditate often on the interconnectedness and mutual interdependence of all things in the universe. All things are mutually woven together and therefore have an affinity for each other…”

• Sunmum Bonum— Do the right thing.

“Do the right thing, the rest doesn’t matter. Cold or warm. Tired or well rested. Despised or honored. Dying or busy with other assignments.”

• The Obstacle is the Way— The things that test us make us who we are.

“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”  We can’t control when things get hard, but we always control how we respond.

• Ego is the Enemy— Be aware of the insidious grip of egoic delusion.

“Zeno would also say that nothing is more hostile to a firm grasp on knowledge than self deception. It is impossible for a person to begin to learn what he thinks he already knows.”