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Epictetus - The Enchiridion - 02
Identifier
013334
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
The Enchiridion
2. Remember that following desire promises the attainment of
that of which you are desirous; and aversion promises the
avoiding that to which you are averse. However, he who fails
to obtain the object of his desire is disappointed, and he who
incurs the object of his aversion wretched. If, then, you
confine your aversion to those objects only which are contrary
to the natural use of your faculties, which you have in your
own control, you will never incur anything to which you are
averse. But if you are averse to sickness, or death, or
poverty, you will be wretched. Remove aversion, then, from all
things that are not in our control, and transfer it to things
contrary to the nature of what is in our control. But, for the
present, totally suppress desire: for, if you desire any of
the things which are not in your own control, you must
necessarily be disappointed; and of those which are, and which
it would be laudable to desire, nothing is yet in your
possession. Use only the appropriate actions of pursuit and
avoidance; and even these lightly, and with gentleness and
reservation.