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November 22nd

THE GLASS IS ALREADY BROKEN

“Fortune falls heavily on those for whom she’s unexpected. The

one always on the lookout easily endures.”

—SENECA, ON CONSOLATION TO HELVIA, 5.3

here is a story of a Zen master who had a beautiful prized cup. The
master would repeat to himself, “The glass is already broken.” He
enjoyed the cup. He used it. He showed it off to visitors. But in his mind, it
was already broken. And so one day, when it actually did break, he simply
said, “Of course.”
This is how the Stoics think too. There is supposedly a true story about
Epictetus and a lamp. He never locked his house, and so his expensive lamp
was stolen. When Epictetus replaced it, he replaced it with a cheaper one so
he could be less attached to it if it were stolen again.
Devastation—that feeling that we’re absolutely crushed and shocked by
an event—is a factor of how unlikely we considered that event in the first
place. No one is wrecked by the fact that it’s snowing in the winter, because
we’ve accepted (and even anticipated) this turn of events. What about the
occurrences that surprise us? We might not be so shocked if we took the
time to consider their possibility.