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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.