Stoicism 3 – Week 4: Everything passes

Not yet trial-taught Not yet expert-reviewed

Before you start: this level 3 course deals with death and loss. If you are newly bereaved, seriously ill, or having thoughts of dying or harming yourself, please save the course for another time and see Get help now straight away.

This week: practise looking at change calmly. Each day watch one thing that is changing around you (the sky, a tree, the moon, a child at home, yourself in an old photo), and choose one task in the day to do slowly, carefully and fully.

Measurable goal: note one observation of change and one task done fully, on at least 5 of 7 days.

1. Traditional teaching

[Traditional teaching] Stoicism teaches that everything in nature changes, and that a person who lives well does not cling to what is passing but attends to the task at hand. Marcus Aurelius (121–180), a Roman emperor, wrote these notes for himself, not for others to read.

Reading it in context

• [Expert judgement] "Neither good nor evil" is a Stoic technical term. For the Stoics, only virtue (wisdom, justice, courage, moderation) is "good" in the strict sense. Health and life count as things "to be preferred" where possible, but they do not make a person better. The sentence does not mean that living or dying does not matter.
• The first sentence is a reminder to do the task at hand fully, not advice to dwell on death. The translator George Long notes that this sentence can also be read another way; the course follows the main reading in the translation.
• In the middle of section 11 (not quoted), Marcus argues about the gods. That is the Stoic idea of the divine and of providence, not the same as the teaching of any religion today.
• Marcus writes "thou" because he is reminding himself.

2. What science finds

• [Verified] A meta-analysis of 47 randomised trials (3,515 people): mindfulness meditation programmes, which include watching what comes and goes, reduce anxiety and depression by a small-to-moderate amount, but are not better than other active treatments. (Goyal et al. 2014)
• [Verified] A review of 83 studies: about 8% of meditators reported an adverse experience (about 4% in experimental studies), most often anxiety or depression; it can happen to people with no history of mental illness. (Farias et al. 2020)
• [Inference] No study has directly evaluated reading and reflecting on Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations.

3. Practice for adults

About 30 minutes a day.

1. Slow reading (5 minutes). Read the three passages. Choose one sentence to carry with you during the day.
2. Watch something change (10 minutes). Choose something that is changing: clouds, the evening light, the tree outside, the moon over several nights, a photo of yourself five years ago. Look closely and write two lines: what is different; how you feel looking at it.
3. Sit with sounds (10 minutes). Sit comfortably and listen to the sounds around you: traffic, birds, a fan. Notice each sound arrive, stay a while, and go. No need to name or judge them.
4. One task done fully (during the day). Choose an ordinary task (cooking, talking with your child, writing an email) and do it slowly and carefully, as if it were the only thing at that moment.
5. Write it down (5 minutes, evening). One observation of change; one task done fully.
6. Tick it. At the end of the week, count the days you wrote; the goal is at least 5 of 7.

4. Kids' corner 6+

Game: "The moon changes shape" (5 minutes each evening, with an adult)

1. Each evening this week, look at the moon with the child from a window or outside (if it is cloudy, redraw yesterday’s shape and guess).
2. The child draws the moon’s shape that night in one box of a sheet divided into seven boxes.
3. At the end of the week, look at all seven drawings. Ask: "Did the moon disappear, or only change shape?"
4. Finish: the moon grows full and then thin, thin and then full again.

Talk only about the moon, the night sky and the seasons. Do not talk about death or separation.

5. Stop practising if

• You feel panic, have flashbacks of trauma, have a lasting sense that you or the world are "not real", lose sleep for several nights, or have thoughts of harming yourself or of dying.
• While sitting still, you feel detached from your body, or everything becomes strange or empty; or the thought "everything will be lost" weighs you down for days. Then stop the sitting part, keep only the outward observation, and talk to someone you trust.
• If you have a history of psychosis, bipolar disorder or severe PTSD, ask a doctor before practising for more than 20 minutes.
• If so, stop and see Get help now.

6. Foundation skills on daynentang

If you feel unsteady while sitting still, daynentang has a lesson that brings attention back to the body and surroundings: Neo lại (in Vietnamese).

7. Practice for today

Watch something that is changing for 5 minutes. Then choose one ordinary task and do it fully.

Science sources

• Goyal M, et al. (2014). Meditation programs for psychological stress and well-being: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Internal Medicine, 174(3), 357–368. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.13018
• Farias M, Maraldi E, Wallenkampf KC, Lucchetti G (2020). Adverse events in meditation practices and meditation-based therapies: a systematic review. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 142(5), 374–393. doi:10.1111/acps.13225