I

February    27th

CULTIVATING INDIFFERENCE    WHERE   OTHERS  GROW    PASSION

“Of all the things  that    are,    some    are good,   others  bad,    and yet others  indifferent.    The good    are

virtues and all that    share   in  them;   the bad are the vices   and all that    indulge them;   the indifferent

lie in  between virtue  and vice    and include wealth, health, life,   death,  pleasure,   and pain.”

—EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 2.19.12b–13

magine the power you’d have in your life and relationships if all the things that trouble everyone else—
how thin they are, how much money they have, how long they have left to live, how they will die—
didn’t matter so much. What if, where others were upset, envious, excited, possessive, or greedy, you
were objective, calm, and clearheaded? Can you envision that? Imagine what it would do for your
relationships at work, or for your love life, or your friendships.
Seneca was an incredibly wealthy, even famous, man—yet he was a Stoic. He had many material
things, yet, as the Stoics say, he was also indifferent to them. He enjoyed them while they were there, but
he accepted that they might someday disappear. What a better attitude than desperately craving more or
fearfully dreading losing even one penny. Indifference is solid middle ground.
It’s not about avoidance or shunning, but rather not giving any possible outcome more power or
preference than is appropriate. This not easy to do, certainly, but if you could manage, how much more
relaxed would you be?