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This is the third part of a video commentary series, working through Epictetus' classic work of Stoic philosophy, the Enchiridion (or Handbook), one half hour at a time. In this series, we examine the text chapter by chapter, and line by line, providing analysis, examples, discussion, and applications. In this video, we look at chapter 4-5 of the text.

Epictetus writes:
"4. When you are on the point of putting your hand to some
undertaking, remind yourself what the nature of that undertaking is. If
you are going out of the house to bathe, put before your mind what
happens at a public bath—those who splash you with water, those who
jostle against you, those who vilify you and rob you. And thus you will
set about your undertaking more securely if at the outset you say to
yourself, "I want to take a bath, and, at the same time, to keep my moral
purpose in harmony with nature." And so do in every undertaking. For
thus, if anything happens to hinder you in your bathing, you will be
ready to say, "Oh, well, this was not the only thing that I wanted, but I
wanted also to keep my moral purpose in harmony with nature; and I shall not so keep it if I am vexed at what is going on."

5. It is not the things themselves that disturb men, but their
judgements about these things. For example, death is nothing dreadful, or
else Socrates too would have thought so, but the judgement that death is dreadful, this is the dreadful thing. When, therefore, we are hindered, or
disturbed, or grieved, let us never blame anyone but ourselves, that
means, our own judgements. It is the part of an uneducated person to
blame others where he himself fares ill; to blame himself is the part of
one whose education has begun; to blame neither another nor his own
self is the part of one whose education is already complete."

I first released this commentary series over the course of Stoic Week 2016, in a different video channel. I have taken those older videos, improved the sound quality as much as possible, and I am now releasing the entire set in my main channel.

The intro and outro music for this video is from the public domain site MusOpen, and is from J.S Bach - Das Musikalische Opfer - II. Canones diversi super Thema Regium, available here: https://musopen.org/music/3225-the-musical-offering-bwv-1079/#recordings

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