Stoicism focused on understanding the creative force. God being the spirit that moves through all reality giving animation. By understanding the pneuma or soul, they could understand the intention or truth behind any form. If you understand the process of the dialogue with the hegomon/logos/god, you can avoid all misfortune, but you cannot avoid misfortune if you defer to desire. If you don’t seize the situation with reason, and see the reason in any event, they basically say you are choosing your poison.
“When I see a man in a state of anxiety, I say, What can this man want? If he did not want something which is not in his power, how could he still be anxious?” Epictetus
“The mind in itself wants nothing, unless it creates a want for itself; therefore it is both free from perturbation and unimpeded, if it does not perturb and impede itself.” Marcus Aurelius
“The soul should know whither it is going and whence it came, what is good for it and what is evil, what it seeks and what it avoids, and what is that Reason which distinguishes between the desirable and the undesirable, and thereby tames the madness of our desires and calms the violence of our fears.” Seneca
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