Stoic affirmations
Stoic letting go affirmations, in the Stoics’ own words
The Stoics wrote no letting go affirmations, but they described the act: Epictetus says to take care of what one is given as of something not one’s own, as passengers do of an inn, and Marcus Aurelius writes that one should receive without arrogance and be ready to let it go. For both, what is released is the claim on things that are not in our power, not the care given to them while they last.
In the texts
Epictetus · Enchiridion, XI
While He gives you to possess it, take care of it; but as of something not your own, as Passengers do of an Inn.
Epictetus · Enchiridion, XIV
Whoever then would be free, let him wish nothing, let him decline nothing, which depends on others; else he must necessarily be a Slave.
Marcus Aurelius · Meditations, VIII, 33
Receive [wealth or prosperity] without arrogance; and be ready to let it go.
Seneca · Letter 107, §9
Whatever happens, assume that it was bound to happen, and do not be willing to rail at Nature.
Chapter XI of the Enchiridion, in Elizabeth Carter’s 1758 translation, begins with a rule of speech: nothing is to be called lost, only given back. A child, a wife, an estate were given, and have been taken back by the one who gave them; it makes no difference by whose hand. While it is given, Epictetus continues, take care of it, but as of something not your own, as passengers do of an inn. The division behind the rule is the Dichotomy of control.
Chapter XIV draws the consequence for desire. To wish that one’s children, wife and friends should live for ever is to wish that things not in one’s power were in it, and what belongs to others were one’s own. The chapter closes on the sentence quoted above, where freedom and slavery turn on whether one’s wishes reach into what belongs to others. Letting go, in Epictetus, is not resignation but the condition of freedom.
Marcus Aurelius gives the same attitude a single line in book VIII, chapter 33 of the Meditations, in Long’s 1862 translation: receive without arrogance, and be ready to let it go. Long puts the words “wealth or prosperity” in square brackets, his sign for words supplied by the translator, so the line can be read of anything received (Meditations, VIII, 33).
Seneca’s letter 107 to Lucilius, written after Lucilius’s slaves had run away, sets the attitude at the scale of the world. Nature changes by seasons, calm after storm, day after night; the sentence quoted above asks that each event be taken as necessary, without reproach to Nature. The letter closes on lines of Cleanthes that Seneca renders in Latin: Fate leads the willing soul and drags the unwilling along. The willingness is what the moderns call Amor fati (Letter 107).
Why this is not a positive affirmation
A letting go affirmation, such as “I release what I cannot control”, announces a detachment in the hope of producing it. Epictetus starts elsewhere: with an inventory of what is and is not in our power, and with a change in the words used for loss. The sentence follows from the inventory; it does not replace it.
Nor do the Stoics present letting go as relief. Chapter XIV of the Enchiridion speaks of freedom and slavery, Marcus Aurelius of readiness, Seneca of obedience to an order he calls Nature. What is let go is a claim on things, not the care given to them while they last: the passengers in Epictetus’s image still look after the inn.
Terms in the glossary
- Dichotomy of control — τὰ ἐφ’ ἡμῖν / τὰ οὐκ ἐφ’ ἡμῖν (ta eph’ hēmin, ta ouk eph’ hēmin)
- Amor fati — amor fati (latin)
- Adiaphora — ἀδιάφορα (adiaphora)
In Stoïque, the life theme “Letting go” opens the passages on this subject, each with its reference. The theme is part of Stoic+.