The first area of training deals with emotions and feelings. An emotion only comes from one thing: failing to get what you want or getting what you don't want. This is what creates all the chaos in your life — the upset, the confusion, the bad luck, the disasters, the grief, the complaints, and the jealousy. This is what makes people bitter and resentful. And when you're caught up in all this, you can't even hear good advice. The second area deals with your duties as a person. I shouldn't be emotionless like a statue. I should fulfill my natural and learned relationships — as someone who respects the gods, as a son, as a father, as a citizen.
ta pathae] perturbations); for an affect is produced in no other way than by a failing to obtain that which a man desires or falling into that which a man would wish to avoid. This is that which brings in perturbations, disorders, bad fortune, misfortunes, sorrows, lamentations, and envy; that which makes men envious and jealous; and by these causes we are unable even to listen to the precepts of reason. The second topic concerns the duties of a man; for I ought not to be free from affects ([Greek: apathae]) like a statue, but I ought to maintain the relations ([Greek: scheseis]) natural and acquired, as a pious man, as a son, as a father, as a citizen.