How to Practice Stoic Meditation?

Question

How do you practice Stoic meditation, and why has the practice — the daily training of attention and self-examination — been the engine of the Stoic life since the school's foundation? The answer is that Stoicism is a philosophy of practice, and meditation is the practice of practices: the daily discipline by which the doctrines become habits.

Quick Answer

Stoic meditation is the daily practice of attention (prosoche) and self-examination. It has two main forms, anchored to the two boundaries of the day. The morning meditation prepares the day: before the day's business begins, you reflect on what it will bring — the difficult people, the tempting situations, the opportunities for virtue — and you resolve to meet them with the disciplines: to see things as they are, to act justly, to endure what comes, to desire what is right. Marcus Aurelius's famous morning reflection is the model: "When you arise in the morning, tell yourself: the people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly." The evening meditation reviews the day: at its end, you examine what you did — what was done well, what was done badly, what was learned — and you resolve the corrections. Seneca describes this review as the daily examination of conscience, and the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius is its greatest record.

Historical Wisdom

The practice of Stoic meditation descends from the founders of the school and has deep roots in the wider tradition. The Delphic injunction "know thyself" is its ancient ancestor, and Socrates's practice of self-examination — the examined life — is its model. The Stoics developed it into a daily discipline: Seneca describes the evening review in On Anger and the Letters, and he practiced it himself — "when the light has been removed and my wife has fallen silent... I examine my entire day." Epictetus made attention the center of his teaching: "Keep watch on your impressions" is the discipline of prosoche. And Marcus Aurelius practiced the discipline so faithfully that the Meditations — the private notebook of his self-examination — became the most widely read Stoic text in the world.

Philosophical Perspectives

The Stoic meditation is the practice of the three disciplines. The discipline of desire is trained in the morning, when you prepare to want what is up to you and to accept what is not. The discipline of action is trained throughout the day, when you act justly and courageously in the situations you foresaw. The discipline of assent is trained in the evening, when you review the impressions you accepted and the judgments you made — the moments when you were carried away by an impression, and the moments when you held steady. The meditation is thus not a separate practice but the practice of the practices: it is the daily rhythm that makes the disciplines habits, and the habits character.

The Stoic meditation differs from other meditative traditions in its orientation. It is not primarily a practice of relaxation, of emptying the mind, or of transcending the self. It is a practice of attention — of keeping watch on the impressions, the judgments, and the impulses — and of self-examination, the daily audit of the soul. Its goal is not the absence of thought but the correctness of thought: the mind that sees clearly, judges truly, and acts rightly. This is why the Stoic meditation is cognitive in a way that many other meditative practices are not: it is the daily training of the rational faculty.

Lessons From Thinkers

From Marcus Aurelius: the morning meditation is the preparation for the day — "tell yourself: the people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant..." and "what you were expecting has arrived." From Seneca: the evening review is the examination of conscience — "when the light has been removed... I examine my entire day," and "there is nothing more noble than this daily accounting with oneself." From Epictetus: the practice is the keeping of the watch — "keep watch on your impressions," for the impressions are the gate through which everything enters. And from the tradition as a whole: the meditation is the daily work without which the philosophy is only words.

Practical Application

The practice has a simple, concrete form. Morning: upon waking, before the day's business, spend a few minutes in reflection. What will the day require? Who will you meet, and what are their likely faults? What temptations will arise, and what opportunities for virtue? Resolve the disciplines for the day: to see clearly, to act justly, to endure courageously, to desire temperately. Marcus Aurelius's version adds the preparation for adversity: the day may bring any of these, and you are ready. Evening: before sleep, review the day. What was done well? What was done badly? What was said that should not have been? Where was the impression accepted that should have been examined? Resolve the correction for tomorrow. The practice takes minutes a day, and it is the whole of the Stoic life in miniature: the daily training by which the philosophy becomes a life.

Quotes

Marcus Aurelius states the morning practice in the Meditations: "When you arise in the morning, tell yourself: the people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly. They are like this because they cannot tell good from evil." Seneca states the evening review in On Anger: "When the light has been removed and my wife has fallen silent... I examine my entire day." And Epictetus states the discipline of attention: "Keep watch on your impressions, for nothing is in your power except your own impressions."

Related Questions

• What Is Stoicism? — the philosophy the practice trains.
• What Is Prosoche? — the discipline of attention at the heart of the practice.
• What Is Mindfulness? — the neighboring tradition of meditation.
• How to Practice Stoicism — the wider practice of which meditation is the daily engine.