As I'm finishing the first book of Epictetus' discourses, what strikes me the most is how much he and Jesus agree on the practice of discipleship. Epictetus was a Greek pagan, born in 50 CE almost twenty years after Jesus' death and resurrection, who worshiped Zeus. He would call what he taught being a philosopher, but though they say things differently, much of the substance of what Epictetus taught is complementary to what Jesus Himself said, and in no way truly disagrees.
Epictetus, like the Buddha, complements what Jesus taught regarding the disciple needing to let go of their attachments. It's clear that he lived and taught decades after Jesus ascended and the original disciples spread His Gospel and teachings, though it isn't clear that he's even aware of this. I tend to see this as another example of the same Author, the same Voice, speaking to and within different cultures and worldviews to get His message across. Why do I say this? Because Jesus Christ said the same things, maybe in different ways with different words, but He, being God made flesh, said the same things thus establishing that inasmuch as these men also said what He said, they were speaking the word of God as well. While He was fully manifest in and as Jesus Christ speaking to and within the Hellenistic Judean culture and worldview, that doesn't mean He was silent to everyone else, or didn't inspire anyone else to teach what He believed most important for them to know.
There is a reason why letting go of attachments, "treat others as you want to be treated," and a special focus on compassion, kindness, and love are so universal among nearly all of the ancient philosophies and great religious figures; because it was all coming from the same Source as He spoke into the different cultural contexts and worldviews. While God had a unique relationship to Israel, to say that He only spoke to Israel or responded to Israel while leaving everyone else to rot is to severely limit and misunderstand where the Bible says, "Because God so loved 'the world'..." If God loved the entire world, would He have really been silent to the entire world for most of their existence?
I can't help but notice how familiar this sounds when compared with Paul's writings:
"That's the show a young graduate of the school should put on. Leave everything else to others. Don't ever let anyone hear you talk about these matters, and don't ever let anyone think that you have these abilities, but present yourself as an ignorant nobody. Make it clear by your actions alone that you know how to avoid encountering what you don't want to encounter. Leave the study of law court arguments, hypothetical problems, and syllogisms to others, while you focus on how to face death, imprisonment, torture, and exile. Approach all these things with confidence, trusting in the one who has called you to experience them and has judged you worthy of this post--an assignation that will enable you to show what a rational command center is capable of when it confronts forces that aren't subject to will." - Epictetus, Discourses, Book 2, 1:36-39, Robin Waterfield, trans.
Consider also the Biblical passages next to a quote from Epictetus:
"Don't you know that to whom you offer yourselves slaves for obedience, you are slaves to whom you obey, either of error resulting in death or obedience resulting in a right state of being?" Romans 6:16
"And who is your owner? Anyone who controls anything that you're interested in having or avoiding." Epictetus, Discourses, Book 2, 2:16, R.W., trans. with minor alteration
"No one is capable of being enslaved to two owners; because he will either hate the one and love the other, or he will cling to one and be minded against the other. You cannot be enslaved to both God and wealth." Matthew 6:24a
In reading Epictetus, I can't help but hear the echoes of both Jesus and Paul in his words (there are echoes of the Buddha here as well). The foundation of what he teaches is to let go of everything which is not up to you, and the only things which are up to you are your own will, choices, and judgments. How you respond to everything is up to you. Otherwise, what other people do, the relationships you have, the external wealth you possess, even your own body or possessions, none of these things are actually up to you. As such, you make yourself their slave, and the slave of anyone who controls what you might crave or be averse to, when you cling to them or are averse to them. You subject yourself to misery, pain, and suffering when you reverse the importance of what is up to you and the external things which are not up to you.
What is also interesting is that, like Socrates, Epictetus also teaches all of this, and does all of this, in the service of the God (which to him, being a pagan Greek, was Zeus but for our purposes here that is irrelevant). He says:
"If you're ever in the presence of a powerful man, remember that someone else is looking down from on high at what's going on, that it's him you have to please rather than that man." Then speaking of that someone else questioning him, "'Now tell me what things you took to be good.' 'Right exercise of will and right use of impressions.' 'And what is the goal?' 'To follow you.'" (Discourses, Book 1, 30:1, 4, R.W., trans.)
Like Jesus, Epictetus too understood that you cannot be a slave of two owners. You can either be enslaved to God, or you can be enslaved to those things which are not up to you.
No comments:
Post a Comment