Dive into the deep realms of Stoic philosophy with an exploration into the meaningful essence of temperance, a fundamental virtue within this ancient school of thought. Come along on this journey as we uncover the significance of maintaining mastery over our physicality and deeds, unveiling pragmatic insights for individual evolution and triumph, presenting a comprehensive outlook on the enduring importance of temperance in maneuvering through life's trials and attaining a balanced and serene existence.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Why is temperance seen as one of the four virtues of Stoicism?
(00:07):
Why is self-control, especially in light of ambitious goals and titles and positions of
power, more important?
And why is it important for us to constantly fight to stay in command of our body?
Hello and welcome back to Stoic Spirituality, a podcast where I look through, dissect, and
(00:30):
analyze various quotes, thoughts, and books that I've had over the last few years.
My name is Jagan and I'm a student of the human experience trying to spread some knowledge
out to the rest of the world.
And so through this episode, I hope to discuss the power of discipline, the benefits, and
(00:51):
our own self-interest in cultivating self-control in all that we do, and why we should fight
to constantly stay in command of our body, along with not only the discipline of our
body but the discipline of perception.
Thank you all for tuning in, and let's begin.
(01:12):
So first, I want to go over the four virtues of Stoicism.
Courage, Temperance, Justice, and Wisdom.
Four virtues that Marcus Rulius outlined in Meditations.
So a virtue is kind of as a definition is just something we tend to do, a direction
(01:37):
we can go upon to better ourselves constantly, and each one has its own benefit.
Courage having the benefit of making us take the next step, in Caesar's case cross the
Rubicon, make that leap, take that jump, make that decision using courage as a north star
(02:01):
leading us in the right direction.
Temperance is used kind of to curtail a bit of courage, curtail the ambition, and stay
in moderation with everything we're doing.
May it be our diet, may it be our exercise, and may it be even rest.
Justice refers to knowing the difference between what is right and wrong, and wisdom refers
(02:26):
to kind of a higher scope or a battlefield perspective as a general as opposed to a soldier
fighting in the ranks.
The last two virtues are definitions that I like referring to as of right now, but aren't
necessarily the only ones you're going to find out that.
(02:47):
So going into the second virtue, temperance, which is another word for discipline, it kind
of comes to this idea of not necessarily us moderating and curtailing and self-whipping
ourselves in the pursuit of discipline, but it's rather attempting and creating a sense
(03:09):
of command over ourselves physically, mentally, and spiritually.
Because one like way that Marcus Aurelius kind of looks at this idea of temperance is
through two words that I use on a daily basis to describe Minium Activities, unrestrained
moderation.
(03:31):
Restrained moderation refers to a lens or a view of everything that is being done or
everything that we're doing with the eyes of cultivating command and temperance in everything.
For example, you see a donut, one of the most simple like kind of stimuli that has a quick
(03:59):
dopamine hit, our instinct is to pick it up, eat it, and get that spike of dopamine.
Now there are kind of a few ways to look at this donut.
We can see ourselves completely curtailing any sort of desire or look for it in the guise
(04:19):
of us not wanting to increase our sugar levels.
We can see ourselves cutting it in half to allow ourselves to partake in it and get that
spike but not with all of the intermediate...
(04:49):
So temperance isn't really a self living prophecy that you should not touch anything whatsoever
or you should not do anything for the seeking of happiness or pleasure, but it's rather
allowing yourself to make a conscious decision which will promote the command of your own
self, will promote your physical capacity, your physical command.
(05:14):
For example, taking the same donut example, if this is your fifth one for the week, temperance
has been lost, but if it's your first one in a month, you can make a claim that you've
been moderate this entire month and this donut is not going to change anything because you've
been sticking to your discipline and temperance and everything else.
(05:34):
It just all depends on what promotes and what emphasizes the command of yourself physically,
mentally or spiritually.
It kind of puts a positive light or a positive color on everything you do by being temperate.
(05:56):
And so one thing that, one misconception that kind of leads to this idea of temperance is
the idea of greatness.
So a lot of us when we imagine someone great or really powerful, we kind of almost subconsciously
or sometimes consciously associate qualities such as aggression, ego, ambition, speed,
(06:19):
and stuff like… and qualities similar to that to describe someone who is seen as great.
But rather, something that seems a little bit counterintuitive but yet inherently true
is that greatness isn't found in aggressiveness, it's rather found in simplicity and restraint.
(06:45):
Because what we marvel in people is not really their ambitiousness so much as it is self-mastering.
A lot of people in my workplace have the quality of self-mastery without ambition, and that
is a far more respectable quality in my opinion than any ambition will be.
(07:10):
Because I respect the discipline of people to know when to say no, to choose the right
battles, pick the right fights, and make the right decisions.
An ambitious person will say yes to everything with the purpose of enhancing one's reputation
for the sake of power potentially, but when it's self-mastery, will know his true weaknesses
(07:31):
and strengths and choose what to say yes and no to without ego, pride, or aggressiveness.
Because there is a part of us, part of us like inherently kind of wants this idea of
people getting away with more than what they should be, but do you really think that that
(07:54):
would be something you're really fond of?
My opinion is that it's kind of an illusion.
It's kind of the idea that we like to think that people who get away with more or who
kind of find a loophole in the system or trick the system to kind of get what they want are
seen as high rise, very powerful people, but it's just an illusion.
(08:14):
In the end, our opinion of them, whether subconsciously or consciously, will tend to decrease over
time.
And so one thing we kind of notice throughout society today is that we live in times of
plenty and freedom.
Where we have an abundance, just in the case of social media, a lot of sources of knowledge,
(08:38):
a lot of places for us to rabbit hole ourselves into, and just so much media being thrown
at us on a daily basis, our ancestors would not have been able to process all this.
Back then, the way that a lot of people got their news is through the daily newspaper
every single day.
But for us, our news, our knowledge, and our potential wisdom lies at the tip of our fingers.
(09:07):
But having this overflow of stimuli doesn't really create knowledge so much that it creates
unhappiness.
Curtailing it and allowing a steady stream of knowledge to flow to you can potentially
lead to self-mastery and knowledge, but allowing yourself to be slammed by the constant shorts,
reels, or tik-toks at all times creates more unhappiness and the chasing of a dopamine
(09:34):
spike more than true temperance, true command, and true knowledge.
And so what happens when we have all this freedom, we have all this knowledge accessible
to us, is that we mistake liberty for the ability to do whatever we want.
(09:54):
We mistake liberty and freedom for the ability to do anything and live without restraint
or live without moderation because it is there.
However, true freedom, true liberty comes from self-discipline.
(10:18):
So Ryan Holiday in one of his many videos I've seen talks about the idea of discipline
in the way that freedom and discipline are not so far apart that one may presume.
Because say you have a certain number of tasks to be done on a daily basis, self-imposed
(10:40):
or outwardly imposed.
In the case of self-imposed, maybe going to the gym, maybe eating healthy, it may be taking
care of your kids, and maybe finishing certain tasks at work.
Discipline is about tackling all these and knowing that you will get to these so that
once you finish your necessary tasks for the day, you feel freedom, true freedom.
(11:04):
However, similar to the procrastinator's dilemma, constantly putting it off and thinking
that it will still be there tomorrow or that tomorrow will be the day where everything
will get done does not give you real freedom, it gives you guilt-ridden mind blocks where
you try to escape from your current situation by scrolling through ways while in truth you
(11:29):
are simply running away from your temperance and discipline and giving up your true freedom
to do whatever you would like.
This idea of self-discipline and self-control is not applicable to just a specific cadet
or specific cohort of people.
(11:51):
Everyone in this world can benefit from self-discipline and self-control.
Because if we choose not to master ourselves, you can best bet that something else will
soon get mastery over us, and in many cases with this growing technological world, what
will get mastery over us is our cell phones.
(12:14):
There's a documentary called The Social Dilemma which talks a lot about the idea of internet
algorithms becoming smarter and smarter and grabbing our attention more and more.
And in the world of self-discipline, or lack thereof in this case, the algorithms get smarter
and smarter as you scroll across Facebook and Instagram, hooks you onto reels, shorts,
(12:39):
articles, or any sort of other infographics to cause you to continue reading into the
rabbit hole that the algorithm generates.
And without this self-discipline, we find ourselves on these algorithms for longer periods
of time, unaware of the time shifting around us, becoming slaves, becoming mastered by
(13:02):
something that is not us.
But instead if we choose to work on mastering ourselves, work on cultivating habits to create
a sense of moderation and master over the social media, we find ourselves in a better
(13:22):
mental state, a more disciplined state, and in more command of other habits and other
disciplines.
Because discipline is contagious, not only from one person to the next, you find yourself
being disciplined in one area of your life, you can best bet that this discipline will
carry through and will leak into other parts of your life, straining out all of them together.
(13:48):
And so discipline talks a lot about the idea of can vs should.
It's the idea of liberty and freedom vs discipline.
Because you can spend all day gluttonously eating, scrolling through social media, doing
nothing productive, and allowing yourself to warm your couch seat, or you can get up,
(14:14):
follow through with your habits that you know will make you a better person, and cultivate
a greater command of your own self.
The idea of discipline is never like I said about self-whipping, about imposing restrictions
in order for you to follow through with society around you, but it's rather the attempt to
(14:35):
find command of your own self.
Seneca talks a lot about the idea of training your body so that it obeys the mind, a philosophy
I adhere severely to.
And this is one of the main basis or the most stereotypical ways of discipline, which has
a lot to do with exercising consistently.
(14:57):
But before we go into the discipline of the body, there's a more important discipline
that it's important to touch on, which is the discipline of perception.
A lot of the obstacles, a lot of the things that come in our way only become obstacles,
only become things that stand in our way when we choose to see them as such, when we choose
(15:19):
to react to them as such, and when we lose our composure to such obstacles.
This is not to say that no obstacle is really an obstacle, but it's rather that a lot of
obstacles or perceived obstacles are only those because we have assigned that quality
to them.
(15:40):
There are obviously exceptions to this rule, things we cannot control as much that stand
in our way, but a lot of things more often than not are easily controllable, easily deflectable,
and easily changeable based on our perception.
Because it's not really any obstacle that really makes us feel like we're back into
(16:01):
a corner, losing our self-composure, losing our calm, cool, collected demeanor in a state
of no obstacles, but it's rather the fact that we choose to feel that way, we choose
to give in to those feelings, and we choose to lose our composure and temperance that
makes us as even-minded as we usually are.
(16:22):
So discipline and perception has a unique ability to let you see the advantage and proper
course of action in everything.
It makes you take the impediment, the obstacle, whatever stands in the way, and it makes the
obstacle become the way.
(16:45):
A certain person stands in your way, it's an opportunity for you to develop qualities
of patience, understanding, composure, and empathy, and the discipline to set boundaries
to know when you want to say no, to deal with such characters.
And by perceiving the world in a very specific way, and allowing yourself to see obstacles
(17:10):
not as obstacles, but as opportunities for improvement, growth, and simply just opportunities,
you decide what you will make of each obstacle, each rock in your way, and every situation
that threatens to throw you off balance, and you can choose then to break.
(17:30):
Because obstacles and things that stand in your way can label you, but it cannot control
your reactions, it lies firmly in your head.
Because we cannot control the events that happen to us, but we can control the quality
of thoughts that occur as a result.
Situations, like I said, by themselves, are not ones that threaten to throw us off balance,
(17:58):
but it's our judgments of them.
And I think that idea bears repeating because that is the true discipline of perception.
It is the discipline not to react to a situation with our emotions primarily, but rather being
aware of them, allowing them to suffuse us and not denying them, but rather responding.
(18:21):
And the difference between the two is that one is an objective response that is based
on accepting logic and emotion, the other one is simply an emotional based instinctive
response which is reacting versus the rational part of responding.
(18:45):
So before we go on as well to the discipline of the body, there's another discipline
as well, which is the discipline of the will.
So we kind of have three parts to ourselves to kind of take a step back.
We have our mind, we have our body, and we have our soul, which in this case can be referred
to as the will.
(19:07):
From the Stromelite Archive, one of my favorite quotes comes from the first ideal of the Night's
Radiant, Journey Before Destination.
And the discipline of the will is forged not by the destination, but it is forged by the
journey.
Because every quality that is produced may be your empathy in dealing with someone who
(19:29):
has had a bad day, your patience in dealing with an arrogant coworker, an arrogant friend,
or a misperceived situation.
Or may it be an obstacle that you have transformed into a new direction for your life, every
quality you cultivate throughout your journey prepares you for your future.
(19:54):
And what this requires out of us is allowing ourselves to take the obstacle that we see
and find a greater purpose in it than just the obstacle itself.
We need to find the ability to handle said obstacle, said situation, or said rock in
our way with firmness and a prudent perception and action followed through with the mind
(20:20):
and the body, but will has to do with the soul.
The one thing that we have control over.
And this comes with building kind of like an inner citadel, which is a Stoic thought
that has been discussed a lot.
A lot of us take weakness for granted and assume that our disadvantages, mental disadvantages
(20:44):
in terms of our ego are permanent.
And as Seneca says, we kind of craft our spiritual strength, we kind of craft our strength of
our soul with physical exercise and physical hardness and mental practice, mental accumulation
of knowledge and perception of the world around us.
(21:07):
And that is what makes the walls of our inner citadel.
This is not to be confused with an emotional boundary or emotional wall you put up with
someone, but it is rather the core part of you, the core fortress that is built inside
of you that allows you to take any obstacles and transform them into fodder for your own
(21:28):
life, for your own journey, to reach your eventual destination.
We strengthen our bodies, we strengthen our minds, we strengthen this inner citadel, not
for the good times, but for the hard times.
We strengthen it so that when inevitably hard times fall upon us, we are prepared.
(21:49):
We have a fortress and a series of weapons and an ability to turn any obstacles into
further weapons for the eventual war that can be categorized as life.
Because if you're armor plating, if your walls are not strong enough, or if they don't
have the ability to resist obstacles, anything can throw your fortress off balance, tear
(22:14):
a hole through it, and cause your balance to be shifted, cause you to become someone
who is not in full command of their own self giving into impulses and reacting to situations
that are responding to them.
And the first step has to do with finally the discipline of the body.
(22:36):
Because when you love the work you do, you don't cheat it.
When you love what you do, you don't try to find shortcuts or loopholes, you do the
work as it is required, as it demands of you.
And you respect even the minutiae details of this pursuit.
(22:58):
So while Babe Ruth is seen as a more famous player in baseball, Lou Gehrig is a far more
seen as disciplined player, who almost never if at all never missed a game regardless of
his injuries, regardless of him being knocked out by a pitcher's ball, regardless of whatever
(23:22):
befell him and continued to show up every single day till ALS ravaged him so far that
he could not play a game and he benched himself.
A lot of us have the same voices on our heads that rings constantly, the one that tells
(23:43):
us that it's fine, we don't have to wake up in the morning, we can just stay in bed
for another 10-15 minutes and just enjoy the warmth in our covers.
There is the one that tells us it's okay, you didn't eat anything sweet for the last
few days so it's okay if you indulge slightly.
(24:04):
It's okay, it's fine, you did a lot.
And this voice on our heads, especially when we're tired, rings very loudly.
However, it is our choice whether or not we want to listen to it.
It's not perfectly okay to completely do diligence and discipline and understand that
(24:28):
your body requires rest, but it's also not okay if you understand that this comes from
a sense of laziness as opposed to a sense of temperance and discipline.
The idea of taking care of your body is similar to that of a principle.
A principle is kind of defined by not what we gain out of something but what we give
(24:48):
up because we believe in something greater than ourselves.
One does not take care of the body simply because to abuse it is really a sin, but it's
rather the idea that the body we inhabit right now will be the same one we have in 10, 20,
(25:10):
30 years.
And so is it not something important for us to respect it for what it has given us over
this last set of time and what it will continue to provide for us in a future day?
Would you say it's not important for us to build up our strength, our will, our power
(25:31):
for our own satisfaction so that we know that when suffering does come, and it will come
as a part of human existence, we have not insulted, we have not decreased, we have not
demoralized our chances for success?
Discipline is not really about holding yourself to such a high, rigid way of life.
(25:59):
It's about being flexible.
It's about allowing yourself to take in an obstacle, change it to something else.
It allows you to adapt, to improvise, to overcome over what holds you back.
And as expected, discipline will involve missing out on a few pleasures, but it's also important
that having no discipline, one of the many quotes I have on my wall, has to do with the
(26:25):
idea that you have a life in the future of regret.
Short-term benefits are what we see as a shortcut with the need for release-'pleasure'.
But as soon as you get comfortable with that, as soon as you get comfortable with this quick
(26:46):
dopamine, or comfortable in general, you lose sight of the further goal.
And that's what this idea of discipline comes down to.
Miyamoto Musashi, who was one of the greatest swordsmen from Japan, acknowledged this idea
of staying constantly in this idea of flexibility or formlessness.
(27:11):
And Robert Greene does too, in his book The Four Year Laws of Power.
When we get comfortable with the state we're in, when we get happy or pleased by the state
we're in, we start to lose track of who we actually are.
This does not mean to constantly be unhappy with yourself, but it means that you can accept
(27:38):
that you are good at what you are doing, but you can also acknowledge you can be better.
You can improve 1% every single day and become someone better than you were yesterday.
Because the greatest competitor to yourself should not be another person, it should be
the person you were yesterday, it should be the person you were a few years ago, or it
should be the person that looks back at you in the mirror, the one that challenges you
(28:04):
to be better, and the one who asks you to sit down and take a break even though you
know you've been fully rested, the one that speaks this lazy voice that tells you that
it's okay, it's fine, it's just one day.
(28:25):
That is who you're competing against, not some external force.
You compete against the voice in your head that asks you to get comfortable and asks
you to give up this pursuit of discipline, the pursuit of becoming someone greater than
yourself.
But if you choose to be in control, despite having foregoing some of these pleasures that
(28:46):
you may or may not really see as pleasure in the future, you create more sustainable
coping mechanisms, and you cultivate one of the foremost goals in my opinion of our existence,
which is self-mastering.
And you will see people around you get it with far less, but how are you to know how
(29:12):
people's minds are on the inside, the wars that rage in their minds when they do not
hold themselves to a high standard of self-discipline, for having not trained their body, trained
their mind, trained their inner citadel, to be ready for negative events that are inevitable
in the life that we live.
(29:36):
Sometimes we do it just to remind the body who's in charge.
We hold ourselves to a high standard to know that we are the ones in charge of our body,
not our body in charge of us.
Who really is a person who is thrown around by forces outside of his control?
His body, who he is not kept under control.
(29:58):
Is he really in control of his life?
Or is he living in a world being tossed around like a ragdoll?
That is why we cultivate discipline of perception, discipline of will, discipline of the body,
and cultivate unrestrained moderation in the fight for temperance, self-control, and discipline.
(30:22):
Thank you so much for listening to this episode on the idea of discipline, self-control, and
perceiving the world as what it should be.
Why is temperance seen as one of the four virtues of Stoicism?
(00:07):
Why is self-control, especially in light of ambitious goals and titles and positions of
power, more important?
And why is it important for us to constantly fight to stay in command of our body?
Hello and welcome back to Stoic Spirituality, a podcast where I look through, dissect, and
(00:30):
analyze various quotes, thoughts, and books that I've had over the last few years.
My name is Jagan and I'm a student of the human experience trying to spread some knowledge
out to the rest of the world.
And so through this episode, I hope to discuss the power of discipline, the benefits, and
(00:51):
our own self-interest in cultivating self-control in all that we do, and why we should fight
to constantly stay in command of our body, along with not only the discipline of our
body but the discipline of perception.
Thank you all for tuning in, and let's begin.
(01:12):
So first, I want to go over the four virtues of Stoicism.
Courage, Temperance, Justice, and Wisdom.
Four virtues that Marcus Rulius outlined in Meditations.
So a virtue is kind of as a definition is just something we tend to do, a direction
(01:37):
we can go upon to better ourselves constantly, and each one has its own benefit.
Courage having the benefit of making us take the next step, in Caesar's case cross the
Rubicon, make that leap, take that jump, make that decision using courage as a north star
(02:01):
leading us in the right direction.
Temperance is used kind of to curtail a bit of courage, curtail the ambition, and stay
in moderation with everything we're doing.
May it be our diet, may it be our exercise, and may it be even rest.
Justice refers to knowing the difference between what is right and wrong, and wisdom refers
(02:26):
to kind of a higher scope or a battlefield perspective as a general as opposed to a soldier
fighting in the ranks.
The last two virtues are definitions that I like referring to as of right now, but aren't
necessarily the only ones you're going to find out that.
(02:47):
So going into the second virtue, temperance, which is another word for discipline, it kind
of comes to this idea of not necessarily us moderating and curtailing and self-whipping
ourselves in the pursuit of discipline, but it's rather attempting and creating a sense
(03:09):
of command over ourselves physically, mentally, and spiritually.
Because one like way that Marcus Aurelius kind of looks at this idea of temperance is
through two words that I use on a daily basis to describe Minium Activities, unrestrained
moderation.
(03:31):
Restrained moderation refers to a lens or a view of everything that is being done or
everything that we're doing with the eyes of cultivating command and temperance in everything.
For example, you see a donut, one of the most simple like kind of stimuli that has a quick
(03:59):
dopamine hit, our instinct is to pick it up, eat it, and get that spike of dopamine.
Now there are kind of a few ways to look at this donut.
We can see ourselves completely curtailing any sort of desire or look for it in the guise
(04:19):
of us not wanting to increase our sugar levels.
We can see ourselves cutting it in half to allow ourselves to partake in it and get that
spike but not with all of the intermediate...
(04:49):
So temperance isn't really a self living prophecy that you should not touch anything whatsoever
or you should not do anything for the seeking of happiness or pleasure, but it's rather
allowing yourself to make a conscious decision which will promote the command of your own
self, will promote your physical capacity, your physical command.
(05:14):
For example, taking the same donut example, if this is your fifth one for the week, temperance
has been lost, but if it's your first one in a month, you can make a claim that you've
been moderate this entire month and this donut is not going to change anything because you've
been sticking to your discipline and temperance and everything else.
(05:34):
It just all depends on what promotes and what emphasizes the command of yourself physically,
mentally or spiritually.
It kind of puts a positive light or a positive color on everything you do by being temperate.
(05:56):
And so one thing that, one misconception that kind of leads to this idea of temperance is
the idea of greatness.
So a lot of us when we imagine someone great or really powerful, we kind of almost subconsciously
or sometimes consciously associate qualities such as aggression, ego, ambition, speed,
(06:19):
and stuff like… and qualities similar to that to describe someone who is seen as great.
But rather, something that seems a little bit counterintuitive but yet inherently true
is that greatness isn't found in aggressiveness, it's rather found in simplicity and restraint.
(06:45):
Because what we marvel in people is not really their ambitiousness so much as it is self-mastering.
A lot of people in my workplace have the quality of self-mastery without ambition, and that
is a far more respectable quality in my opinion than any ambition will be.
(07:10):
Because I respect the discipline of people to know when to say no, to choose the right
battles, pick the right fights, and make the right decisions.
An ambitious person will say yes to everything with the purpose of enhancing one's reputation
for the sake of power potentially, but when it's self-mastery, will know his true weaknesses
(07:31):
and strengths and choose what to say yes and no to without ego, pride, or aggressiveness.
Because there is a part of us, part of us like inherently kind of wants this idea of
people getting away with more than what they should be, but do you really think that that
(07:54):
would be something you're really fond of?
My opinion is that it's kind of an illusion.
It's kind of the idea that we like to think that people who get away with more or who
kind of find a loophole in the system or trick the system to kind of get what they want are
seen as high rise, very powerful people, but it's just an illusion.
(08:14):
In the end, our opinion of them, whether subconsciously or consciously, will tend to decrease over
time.
And so one thing we kind of notice throughout society today is that we live in times of
plenty and freedom.
Where we have an abundance, just in the case of social media, a lot of sources of knowledge,
(08:38):
a lot of places for us to rabbit hole ourselves into, and just so much media being thrown
at us on a daily basis, our ancestors would not have been able to process all this.
Back then, the way that a lot of people got their news is through the daily newspaper
every single day.
But for us, our news, our knowledge, and our potential wisdom lies at the tip of our fingers.
(09:07):
But having this overflow of stimuli doesn't really create knowledge so much that it creates
unhappiness.
Curtailing it and allowing a steady stream of knowledge to flow to you can potentially
lead to self-mastery and knowledge, but allowing yourself to be slammed by the constant shorts,
reels, or tik-toks at all times creates more unhappiness and the chasing of a dopamine
(09:34):
spike more than true temperance, true command, and true knowledge.
And so what happens when we have all this freedom, we have all this knowledge accessible
to us, is that we mistake liberty for the ability to do whatever we want.
(09:54):
We mistake liberty and freedom for the ability to do anything and live without restraint
or live without moderation because it is there.
However, true freedom, true liberty comes from self-discipline.
(10:18):
So Ryan Holiday in one of his many videos I've seen talks about the idea of discipline
in the way that freedom and discipline are not so far apart that one may presume.
Because say you have a certain number of tasks to be done on a daily basis, self-imposed
(10:40):
or outwardly imposed.
In the case of self-imposed, maybe going to the gym, maybe eating healthy, it may be taking
care of your kids, and maybe finishing certain tasks at work.
Discipline is about tackling all these and knowing that you will get to these so that
once you finish your necessary tasks for the day, you feel freedom, true freedom.
(11:04):
However, similar to the procrastinator's dilemma, constantly putting it off and thinking
that it will still be there tomorrow or that tomorrow will be the day where everything
will get done does not give you real freedom, it gives you guilt-ridden mind blocks where
you try to escape from your current situation by scrolling through ways while in truth you
(11:29):
are simply running away from your temperance and discipline and giving up your true freedom
to do whatever you would like.
This idea of self-discipline and self-control is not applicable to just a specific cadet
or specific cohort of people.
(11:51):
Everyone in this world can benefit from self-discipline and self-control.
Because if we choose not to master ourselves, you can best bet that something else will
soon get mastery over us, and in many cases with this growing technological world, what
will get mastery over us is our cell phones.
(12:14):
There's a documentary called The Social Dilemma which talks a lot about the idea of internet
algorithms becoming smarter and smarter and grabbing our attention more and more.
And in the world of self-discipline, or lack thereof in this case, the algorithms get smarter
and smarter as you scroll across Facebook and Instagram, hooks you onto reels, shorts,
(12:39):
articles, or any sort of other infographics to cause you to continue reading into the
rabbit hole that the algorithm generates.
And without this self-discipline, we find ourselves on these algorithms for longer periods
of time, unaware of the time shifting around us, becoming slaves, becoming mastered by
(13:02):
something that is not us.
But instead if we choose to work on mastering ourselves, work on cultivating habits to create
a sense of moderation and master over the social media, we find ourselves in a better
(13:22):
mental state, a more disciplined state, and in more command of other habits and other
disciplines.
Because discipline is contagious, not only from one person to the next, you find yourself
being disciplined in one area of your life, you can best bet that this discipline will
carry through and will leak into other parts of your life, straining out all of them together.
(13:48):
And so discipline talks a lot about the idea of can vs should.
It's the idea of liberty and freedom vs discipline.
Because you can spend all day gluttonously eating, scrolling through social media, doing
nothing productive, and allowing yourself to warm your couch seat, or you can get up,
(14:14):
follow through with your habits that you know will make you a better person, and cultivate
a greater command of your own self.
The idea of discipline is never like I said about self-whipping, about imposing restrictions
in order for you to follow through with society around you, but it's rather the attempt to
(14:35):
find command of your own self.
Seneca talks a lot about the idea of training your body so that it obeys the mind, a philosophy
I adhere severely to.
And this is one of the main basis or the most stereotypical ways of discipline, which has
a lot to do with exercising consistently.
(14:57):
But before we go into the discipline of the body, there's a more important discipline
that it's important to touch on, which is the discipline of perception.
A lot of the obstacles, a lot of the things that come in our way only become obstacles,
only become things that stand in our way when we choose to see them as such, when we choose
(15:19):
to react to them as such, and when we lose our composure to such obstacles.
This is not to say that no obstacle is really an obstacle, but it's rather that a lot of
obstacles or perceived obstacles are only those because we have assigned that quality
to them.
(15:40):
There are obviously exceptions to this rule, things we cannot control as much that stand
in our way, but a lot of things more often than not are easily controllable, easily deflectable,
and easily changeable based on our perception.
Because it's not really any obstacle that really makes us feel like we're back into
(16:01):
a corner, losing our self-composure, losing our calm, cool, collected demeanor in a state
of no obstacles, but it's rather the fact that we choose to feel that way, we choose
to give in to those feelings, and we choose to lose our composure and temperance that
makes us as even-minded as we usually are.
(16:22):
So discipline and perception has a unique ability to let you see the advantage and proper
course of action in everything.
It makes you take the impediment, the obstacle, whatever stands in the way, and it makes the
obstacle become the way.
(16:45):
A certain person stands in your way, it's an opportunity for you to develop qualities
of patience, understanding, composure, and empathy, and the discipline to set boundaries
to know when you want to say no, to deal with such characters.
And by perceiving the world in a very specific way, and allowing yourself to see obstacles
(17:10):
not as obstacles, but as opportunities for improvement, growth, and simply just opportunities,
you decide what you will make of each obstacle, each rock in your way, and every situation
that threatens to throw you off balance, and you can choose then to break.
(17:30):
Because obstacles and things that stand in your way can label you, but it cannot control
your reactions, it lies firmly in your head.
Because we cannot control the events that happen to us, but we can control the quality
of thoughts that occur as a result.
Situations, like I said, by themselves, are not ones that threaten to throw us off balance,
(17:58):
but it's our judgments of them.
And I think that idea bears repeating because that is the true discipline of perception.
It is the discipline not to react to a situation with our emotions primarily, but rather being
aware of them, allowing them to suffuse us and not denying them, but rather responding.
(18:21):
And the difference between the two is that one is an objective response that is based
on accepting logic and emotion, the other one is simply an emotional based instinctive
response which is reacting versus the rational part of responding.
(18:45):
So before we go on as well to the discipline of the body, there's another discipline
as well, which is the discipline of the will.
So we kind of have three parts to ourselves to kind of take a step back.
We have our mind, we have our body, and we have our soul, which in this case can be referred
to as the will.
(19:07):
From the Stromelite Archive, one of my favorite quotes comes from the first ideal of the Night's
Radiant, Journey Before Destination.
And the discipline of the will is forged not by the destination, but it is forged by the
journey.
Because every quality that is produced may be your empathy in dealing with someone who
(19:29):
has had a bad day, your patience in dealing with an arrogant coworker, an arrogant friend,
or a misperceived situation.
Or may it be an obstacle that you have transformed into a new direction for your life, every
quality you cultivate throughout your journey prepares you for your future.
(19:54):
And what this requires out of us is allowing ourselves to take the obstacle that we see
and find a greater purpose in it than just the obstacle itself.
We need to find the ability to handle said obstacle, said situation, or said rock in
our way with firmness and a prudent perception and action followed through with the mind
(20:20):
and the body, but will has to do with the soul.
The one thing that we have control over.
And this comes with building kind of like an inner citadel, which is a Stoic thought
that has been discussed a lot.
A lot of us take weakness for granted and assume that our disadvantages, mental disadvantages
(20:44):
in terms of our ego are permanent.
And as Seneca says, we kind of craft our spiritual strength, we kind of craft our strength of
our soul with physical exercise and physical hardness and mental practice, mental accumulation
of knowledge and perception of the world around us.
(21:07):
And that is what makes the walls of our inner citadel.
This is not to be confused with an emotional boundary or emotional wall you put up with
someone, but it is rather the core part of you, the core fortress that is built inside
of you that allows you to take any obstacles and transform them into fodder for your own
(21:28):
life, for your own journey, to reach your eventual destination.
We strengthen our bodies, we strengthen our minds, we strengthen this inner citadel, not
for the good times, but for the hard times.
We strengthen it so that when inevitably hard times fall upon us, we are prepared.
(21:49):
We have a fortress and a series of weapons and an ability to turn any obstacles into
further weapons for the eventual war that can be categorized as life.
Because if you're armor plating, if your walls are not strong enough, or if they don't
have the ability to resist obstacles, anything can throw your fortress off balance, tear
(22:14):
a hole through it, and cause your balance to be shifted, cause you to become someone
who is not in full command of their own self giving into impulses and reacting to situations
that are responding to them.
And the first step has to do with finally the discipline of the body.
(22:36):
Because when you love the work you do, you don't cheat it.
When you love what you do, you don't try to find shortcuts or loopholes, you do the
work as it is required, as it demands of you.
And you respect even the minutiae details of this pursuit.
(22:58):
So while Babe Ruth is seen as a more famous player in baseball, Lou Gehrig is a far more
seen as disciplined player, who almost never if at all never missed a game regardless of
his injuries, regardless of him being knocked out by a pitcher's ball, regardless of whatever
(23:22):
befell him and continued to show up every single day till ALS ravaged him so far that
he could not play a game and he benched himself.
A lot of us have the same voices on our heads that rings constantly, the one that tells
(23:43):
us that it's fine, we don't have to wake up in the morning, we can just stay in bed
for another 10-15 minutes and just enjoy the warmth in our covers.
There is the one that tells us it's okay, you didn't eat anything sweet for the last
few days so it's okay if you indulge slightly.
(24:04):
It's okay, it's fine, you did a lot.
And this voice on our heads, especially when we're tired, rings very loudly.
However, it is our choice whether or not we want to listen to it.
It's not perfectly okay to completely do diligence and discipline and understand that
(24:28):
your body requires rest, but it's also not okay if you understand that this comes from
a sense of laziness as opposed to a sense of temperance and discipline.
The idea of taking care of your body is similar to that of a principle.
A principle is kind of defined by not what we gain out of something but what we give
(24:48):
up because we believe in something greater than ourselves.
One does not take care of the body simply because to abuse it is really a sin, but it's
rather the idea that the body we inhabit right now will be the same one we have in 10, 20,
(25:10):
30 years.
And so is it not something important for us to respect it for what it has given us over
this last set of time and what it will continue to provide for us in a future day?
Would you say it's not important for us to build up our strength, our will, our power
(25:31):
for our own satisfaction so that we know that when suffering does come, and it will come
as a part of human existence, we have not insulted, we have not decreased, we have not
demoralized our chances for success?
Discipline is not really about holding yourself to such a high, rigid way of life.
(25:59):
It's about being flexible.
It's about allowing yourself to take in an obstacle, change it to something else.
It allows you to adapt, to improvise, to overcome over what holds you back.
And as expected, discipline will involve missing out on a few pleasures, but it's also important
that having no discipline, one of the many quotes I have on my wall, has to do with the
(26:25):
idea that you have a life in the future of regret.
Short-term benefits are what we see as a shortcut with the need for release-'pleasure'.
But as soon as you get comfortable with that, as soon as you get comfortable with this quick
(26:46):
dopamine, or comfortable in general, you lose sight of the further goal.
And that's what this idea of discipline comes down to.
Miyamoto Musashi, who was one of the greatest swordsmen from Japan, acknowledged this idea
of staying constantly in this idea of flexibility or formlessness.
(27:11):
And Robert Greene does too, in his book The Four Year Laws of Power.
When we get comfortable with the state we're in, when we get happy or pleased by the state
we're in, we start to lose track of who we actually are.
This does not mean to constantly be unhappy with yourself, but it means that you can accept
(27:38):
that you are good at what you are doing, but you can also acknowledge you can be better.
You can improve 1% every single day and become someone better than you were yesterday.
Because the greatest competitor to yourself should not be another person, it should be
the person you were yesterday, it should be the person you were a few years ago, or it
should be the person that looks back at you in the mirror, the one that challenges you
(28:04):
to be better, and the one who asks you to sit down and take a break even though you
know you've been fully rested, the one that speaks this lazy voice that tells you that
it's okay, it's fine, it's just one day.
(28:25):
That is who you're competing against, not some external force.
You compete against the voice in your head that asks you to get comfortable and asks
you to give up this pursuit of discipline, the pursuit of becoming someone greater than
yourself.
But if you choose to be in control, despite having foregoing some of these pleasures that
(28:46):
you may or may not really see as pleasure in the future, you create more sustainable
coping mechanisms, and you cultivate one of the foremost goals in my opinion of our existence,
which is self-mastering.
And you will see people around you get it with far less, but how are you to know how
(29:12):
people's minds are on the inside, the wars that rage in their minds when they do not
hold themselves to a high standard of self-discipline, for having not trained their body, trained
their mind, trained their inner citadel, to be ready for negative events that are inevitable
in the life that we live.
(29:36):
Sometimes we do it just to remind the body who's in charge.
We hold ourselves to a high standard to know that we are the ones in charge of our body,
not our body in charge of us.
Who really is a person who is thrown around by forces outside of his control?
His body, who he is not kept under control.
(29:58):
Is he really in control of his life?
Or is he living in a world being tossed around like a ragdoll?
That is why we cultivate discipline of perception, discipline of will, discipline of the body,
and cultivate unrestrained moderation in the fight for temperance, self-control, and discipline.
(30:22):
Thank you so much for listening to this episode on the idea of discipline, self-control, and
perceiving the world as what it should be.
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