Meditations 6.13

[Earleen Statham]

Whenwe retire at night, we constructively review our day. Were we resentful, selfish, dishonest or afraid? Do we owe an apology? Have we kept something to ourselves which should be discussed with another person at once? Were we kind and loving toward all? What could we have done better? Were we thinking of ourselves most of the time? Or were we thinking of what we could do for others, of what we could pack into the stream of life? But we must be careful not to drift into worry, remorse or morbid reflection, for that would diminish our usefulness to others.

On awakening let us think about the twenty-four hours ahead. We consider our plans for the day. Before we begin, we ask God to direct our thinking, especially asking that it be divorced from self-pity, dishonest or self-seeking motives. Under these conditions we can employ our mental faculties with assurance, for after all God gave us brains to use. Our thought-life will be placed on a much higher plane when our thinking is cleared of wrong motives.

The Stoic wise man (or woman) views alcohol itself with studied indifference and focuses instead on the use he makes of it. Everything can be used either well or badly, according to the Stoics. So the wise man pays attention to the present moment and whether he is acting wisely or foolishly, with self-discipline or recklessness, in a healthy manner or an unhealthy one, and so on. To help ourselves make progress in this direction, we should actually set aside time to study how people we admire cope with temptation, trying to learn from their attitude and emulate their behaviour.

When Marcus Aurelius gazed upon a bottle of the exquisite Falernian wine, therefore, he would remind himself that it was merely fermented grape juice, and that the fine meat dishes set before him were just the corpses of fish, birds, and pigs (Meditations, 6.13). We should strip away all the verbal embellishments that cloud our judgement of the things we desire and view the naked truth with total objectivity. Napoleon employed the same down-to-earth strategy by saying that a throne is merely a bench covered in velvet.

Most importantly, though, Stoicism is a philosophy that contains a call to action. The Stoics wanted us to apply reason to our lives, and engage in philosophical discussions about the meaning of life, but only insofar as it actually helps us to improve our characters. We also have to make decisions, arrive at conclusions, and put wisdom into practice. As Marcus Aurelius said:

My mother was an alcoholic. She died at 47 when I was in my late teens. I had no idea how to cope. Much of my childhood was hellish, as she was erratic at the best of times. I wish that I had known about the "Meditations" back then. Marcus Aurelius would have changed my life.

Every so often I receive emails from people who have struggled to cope with their own alcoholism or that of their loved ones. They tell me how they\u2019ve found great support and consolation in the writings of ancient Stoic philosophers, such as The Meditations of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius. Those who are familiar both with the Stoics and the Twelve Step Program often recognize connections between them. The Serenity Prayer, for instance, made famous by Alcoholics Anonymous, neatly encapsulates one of the most characteristic doctrines of Stoic philosophy.

There are countless other references in the Stoic literature to making a firm distinction between what\u2019s under our control and everything else: what we do versus what merely happens to us. We should take greater responsibility for what\u2019s up to us, according to Stoicism, and get less upset about what is not. Wisdom consists largely in bearing this simple\u200A\u2014\u200Aalmost commonsense\u200A\u2014\u200Adistinction in mind and being clearer about its practical and emotional implications for us in daily life.

Modern Stoics tend to call this idea the \u201Cdichotomy of control\u201D or \u201CStoic fork\u201D. However Stoicism offers much more than just this wise maxim\u200A\u2014\u200Ait\u2019s a complete philosophy of life. One person who contacted me about alcoholism and Stoicism therefore described it as \u201Cthe Serenity Prayer on steroids\u201D.

That became the inspiration for modern cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT), the leading evidence-based approach to psychotherapy today. Both Stoicism and CBT are based on the idea that our emotions are largely\u200A\u2014\u200Aif not exclusively\u200A\u2014\u200Adetermined by our underlying beliefs. From that shared premise they draw similar conclusions about how best to change feelings by changing our voluntary thoughts (cognitions) and actions (behaviour).

For the Stoics, the beliefs that upset us ultimately take the form of strong value judgments about things outside our direct control being either extremely bad or extremely good, leading to excessive fear or desire respectively. The Stoics argued that it was irrational\u200A\u2014\u200Aa veritable recipe for neurosis\u200A\u2014\u200Ato have a strong desire to get or avoid external things insofar as they are beyond our direct control. It\u2019s healthier to focus on our own voluntary actions instead and take more responsibility for the way we respond to the situations that befall us.

We need to learn to do our own work, in a sense, by focusing more attention on what we can do rather than worrying about the things fate throws at us. When we can\u2019t change something we need to learn to accept that fact with Stoic indifference. As Shakespeare put it:

\u201CAfter making our review\u201D, the authors say, \u201Cwe ask God\u2019s forgiveness and inquire what corrective measures should be taken.\u201D This obviously resembles an influential technique described in The Golden Verses of Pythagoras, which was adopted by the Stoics. We find it in the writings of Epictetus, Seneca, and also in a book by Galen, Marcus Aurelius\u2019 court physician, about Stoic therapy practices. Before retiring to sleep each night, it advises us to review the events of the day three times asking ourselves three questions: What we did well? What we did badly? What we omitted to do?

So how did the Stoics view alcohol? The historian Diogenes Laertius, a \u201Cdoxographer\u201D who recorded the views of Greek philosophers, says that the Stoics typically drank wine in moderation, but would not allow themselves to get drunk. Stobaeus, another doxographer, tells us that the Stoics classified excessive love of wine as a disease, although curiously they considered hating it too much to be one as well. Although the Stoics typically appear to have favoured moderation, they may perhaps have agreed with the Twelve Step Program\u2019s abstinence approach for individuals who struggle to limit their drinking.

Stoics had to be careful they were abstaining for the right reasons, though. Epictetus seems to assume that his students have sometimes become \u201Cwater drinkers\u201D, presumably abstaining from wine, for the purposes of training in Stoicism (Discourses, 3.14). He criticizes them for telling everyone they meet \u201CI drink water\u201D, as if the goal is to show off. He says that if what they\u2019re doing is good for them they should be satisfied with that and shut up instead of going on about it to the annoyance of others.

Marcus Aurelius\u2019 most important role model was his adoptive father the emperor Antoninus Pius. Marcus writes in his notes that what was traditionally said of Socrates could be said of Antoninus: he was able to abstain from or enjoy those things that the majority of us are either too weak to abstain from or enjoy over-indulgently (Meditations, 1.16). Marcus says that Antoninus showed strength, endurance, and restraint whether he chose to abstain from something or partake in it, and that this is \u201Cthe mark of someone who possesses a well-balanced and invincible character\u201D.

In my recent book, How to Think Like a Roman Emperor, I used stories from the life of Marcus Aurelius to illustrate ways Stoicism can be applied in practice to help us deal with psychological problems today. However, we can also learn from other people\u2019s mistakes. Marcus\u2019 temperance stood in contrast to the notorious self-indulgence of his adoptive brother and co-emperor, Lucius Verus. From the way Roman historians describe him it appears likely that he was an alcoholic. We\u2019re told that when he was meant to be commanding the legions in the Parthian war instead he would spend his time throwing parties, gambling, and drinking. He was obsessed with the chariot races and had a huge crystal goblet made, named Volucer after his favourite horse, which we\u2019re told \u201Csurpassed the capacity of any human draught\u201D.

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