In our individual lives, which unfold within a field of events beyond our wishes and often beyond our understanding, where do freedom and will reside?

Stoic philosophy, one of the most powerful philosophical schools in Greece and Rome for five centuries, teaches us that the more value we place upon what lies outside us, the less control we possess over our own lives. Our most fundamental task in life therefore centres on a simple capacity: to distinguish what lies outside our being and control from what we choose through our own will and can influence; to try to change what can be changed, to accept with serenity what cannot be changed, and to attain the wisdom to understand the difference between the two.

The Stoic seeks freedom within. Although this freedom cannot enable a person to alter what has already been determined, it allows one to respond to events with freedom and full awareness and therefore to regulate the effect those events have upon one's happiness. In Stoic thought, happiness and pleasure arise from liberation from whatever can fragment us and make us unhappy. Happiness is a path that begins within us and extends into the world outside.

Aydin Areta