The Stoics drew a sharp line between what happens to the body and what the mind does with it. Pain is real. But the suffering on top of it, the part that says this should not be happening, is something the mind adds. This episode sits with that distinction.
The passage I work from:
“Sickness is a problem for the body, not the mind – unless the mind decides that it is a problem. Lameness, too, is the body’s problem, not the mind’s. Say this to yourself whatever the circumstance and you will find without fail that the problem pertains to something else, not to you.” Epictetus
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