July 11, 2023
By Tom Console
Life isn’t always fair. This statement especially rings true with Admiral James Stockdale, United States Navy pilot who was shot down over Vietnam on September 9, 1965. For the next seven years, he was beaten and tortured in a prisoner of war camp.
Today, Stockdale is known as a modern-day philosopher of stoicism, a belief he learned from studying Epictetus’ Enchiridion at Stanford, which kept him alive while captured. His primary stoic theme was understanding what was in his control and what was outside his control.
The stoic principles of discipline, realism, acceptance, and a sense of purpose helped him through the hard times of life.
You Already Have the Secret Ingredient
“To make the best of what is in our power, and take the rest as it occurs.”
– Epictetus
One of my all-time favorite movies is Kung Fu Panda. While being a fan of Jack Black’s comedic style may be considered a hot take, the first and second installments of this trilogy offer ideas that can help instill a little bit of hope and confidence in times of struggle.
In the first movie, the protagonist Po, an out-of-shape, noodle-making Panda, aspires to be a great warrior. Throughout the film, he is repeatedly told how he is not good enough and that he’ll never become the Dragon Warrior, someone who achieves the highest level of kung fu.
His master rejects him. The other kung fu students ridicule him. He is held in contempt. No one, not even Po, believes that he can ever become more than what he currently is.
He does eventually show promise and skill, though in a different and non-traditional way, and his master agrees to train him. After the obligatory training montage, Po obtains the Dragon Scroll, which is supposed to grant him unimaginable power. But when he opens it, the scroll is blank. Only his reflection appears, greatly confusing him.
At the end of the movie, Po realizes the power of that reflection: real power isn’t some special move or ability, but rather his belief in himself. He doesn’t need anything external because he already has what he needs within him.
The Dragon Warrior understands that to achieve your goals, you do not have to change who you are. Rather you should embrace and love yourself and work to become the best version of you that you can be. And as a stoic, take the rest as it occurs. The secret ingredient is you!
Control
“Some things are in our control and others not.”
– Epictetus.
In the second Kung Fu Panda film, Po has become a fully-fledged master, but struggles with trauma from his past.
The movie’s villain was so afraid of a prophecy that he wiped out an entire village of innocent people, including Po’s family. Po struggles to confront his past after learning of this.
In today’s society, stoicism is often interpreted as the absence of emotions, total indifference. “Bad things happen and I don’t care.” But this is not how the creators of stoicism went about living their lives.
Stoicism, first utilized by the ancient Greek philosopher Zeno of Citium 300 years before Epictetus, is not the absence of emotion but rather the embrace and control over own’s own emotions. Stoicism, at its heart, allows and encourages one to be emotional when bad (or good) things happen.
But those emotions should not dominate us. The stoic understands that he or she cannot control the hand the universe deals them. But the stoic also understands that they can control their reaction to that hand and make the most of it.
The Soothsayer, a wise old goat who used to advise the villain and instead turns to help Po with his past, delivers an amazing quote that really hit home for me. She helps Po accept his past by saying: “Your story may not have such a happy beginning. But that doesn’t make you who you are. It is the rest of your story, who you choose to be.”
You Are the Dragon Warrior
“Events happen as they do. People behave as they are. Embrace what you actually get.”
– Epictetus.
We all have chapters in our lives that are traumatic and painful. The first chapter of my story certainly was. But a few bad chapters do not define who you are. While you sometimes have no power over the things that happen in your life, what you do have power over is both your emotional reaction and the attitude with which you face the future.
Dragon Warriors—those like Zeno, Epictetus, Stockdale, and Po—implicitly understand that true happiness and balance is derived from one’s own self.
You have within you the power to do all things. The only thing left to do is believe in yourself.
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