ianpspurs
Oracle
Thank you for taking the time to respond and clarify your lived experience of Stoicism. As for the mind the gap issue, I've read/heard many a sermon/homily which also should have been better thought through. I can see many commonalities between Christian tradition and Stocism, especially St Paul but he has some critics over those influences. I can't actually reconcile it to the gospels but there's a great deal of Christian tradition and supposedly foundational beliefs with zero gospel basis. One thing that stands out as remarkably similar is the use of Examen prayers - almost identical to imagining then reviewing the day. My big stumbling block is meditation as prayer. If there is no one on the end of the phone so to speak what exactly is the point? Obviously I could be praying to absolutely no one or nothing but at the very worst there is a 50/50 chance - far better odds. Once again thanks both for this and the link to the whole week.@ianpspurs. Thanks for that. It is not necessary to have a chosen religion in order to practice stoicism. In the case of Monday’s Serenity Prayer - I take it as a sort of mantra or meditative verse and ignore the word ‘prayer’. I suppose you could say contemplate although some would argue that contemplation is praying. But, it’s just a word.
The mind the gap audio I took to be a mental exercise in choice. In physical terms, I got on the wrong tram in Bordeaux a couple of visits ago, realized my mistake, got off two stops down and waited quietly for the one I wanted to turn up. I didn’t get angry or upset by it. People board the wrong train all the time; the person who goes out on the lash, intending to stay with the group and then decides to wander off - and gets mugged or worse. The person coaxed into a bit of light shop lifting and ending up in court. Pinocchio boarding the wrong train, so to speak and going to Pleasure Island. For myself I think about the chimp inside my head (the primitive bit, all excited about jumping in) - and the mind the gap bit as (shoving it back in it’s box and having a think about it). I suppose that the mind the gap explanation could have made more emphasis on the choices that we make in different situations when the chimp inside our heads jumps up and down - ‘the car in front is not going fast enough and I can’t overtake on this winding road - grrrh!’ - or, ‘well it’s a nice day, enjoy the view’.
Not sure that’s of any help.
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