XXVI
The will of nature may be learned from things upon which we are all agreed. As when our neighbor’s boy has broken a cup, or the like, we are ready at once to say, “These are casualties that will happen”; be assured, then, that when your own cup is likewise broken, you ought to be affected just as when another’s cup was broken. Now apply this to greater things. Is the child or wife of another dead? There is no one who would not say, “This is an accident of mortality.” But if anyone’s own child happens to die, it is immediately, “Alas! how wretched am I!” It should be always remembered how we are affected on hearing the same thing concerning others.
Can anyone be so rational or detached about a beloved child? Ought one to be? Even Job tore his garments and shaved his head in mourning over his children, and was said to be blameless for 'he did not charge God with wrongdoing.' Epictetus wants us also not to charge the divine with wrongdoing, and simply to accept it as one of the random things that happens in this world. Which, of course, it is.
4 comments:
If he is serious about the "as one appointed by God to this particular station" business, then there's some asymmetry in how he is supposed to look at a child. Is this his child, one he is particularly responsible for caring for? If he is supposed to be especially alive to the interests of this particular child, why should his reaction to the loss of that child be the same as the loss of someone he is not obligated to love?
Since it seems to be true that humans have some limitation on how many other people they can be intimate with, we have 3 choices in trying to be loving. We can try to love friends and others equally: either by trying hard to love outsiders as much as friends (and failing miserably), or by loving friends less. Or we can give up, and love our friends and at least try to be amiably disposed to others.
I think there's a tension between 'as one appointed by God to a particular station' and 'everything outside your mind is merely a semblance.' I agree with you that there is something necessary and humane about suffering from some losses; but Christianity favors the importance of the incarnation (and thus participation in the semblances) somewhat more than the pagan Stoics.
"Can anyone be so rational or detached about a beloved child? Ought one to be? Even Job tore his garments and shaved his head in mourning over his children, and was said to be blameless for 'he did not charge God with wrongdoing.' Epictetus wants us also not to charge the divine with wrongdoing, and simply to accept it as one of the random things that happens in this world."
To be that strong in the moment. Alas, not.
As one appointed by God to my station, I will shed some light upon this.
To clarify some misunderstandings. Children come from the pre mortal spirit world, and thus from the spirit of God, according to the Law of One.
They are not produced like property from human "parents" or authorities. Thus whether you have children or don't have children, is written in the fate determined by seemingly external sources.
However, that does not mean there are no lesser elohim and gods messing with people to get their fear or worship. There are.
In the recent slave uprisings post 2020 planned epidemic, people see that a lot of their problems are caused by their human opponents, and not so much an invisible god authority over the heavens. But this is also contradicted by Divine Writ, and fate/destiny. Because this was foreseen and allowed as well. In the Book of Job, Godhead and the Divine Counsel allows Satan to test the faith of Job. These are tests and trials, to determine how the individual responds.
When lockdowns came in 2020, how did people respond? For what reasons did they obey or disobey? And injections? So on and so forth.
The unusual statistical death of anyone, children included, is merely the spirit recalling the source of creation back from human lands. Because Divine Judgment has determined that human hands are too corrupt and immature to handle the responsibility any more. So the generations will end. That is not a punishment, it is simply a judgment and one that human courts cannot comprehend let alone contest.
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