Reddit reviews The Discourses of Epictetus: The Handbook, Fragments

Glad you like it! If you're interested in more along those lines, I cannot recommend my man Epictetus strongly enough

I'm quite new to Stoicism myself and, like you, am trying to figure these things out. My advice would be to invest in some good books. Something you can take your time with, study, highlight, write in, keep under your pillow at night. Here's a short list of the ones I've found to be most helpful:

[All things Epictetus](http://www.amazon.com/The-Discourses-Epictetus-Fragments-Everymans/dp/0460873121/ref=sr_1_10?
ie=UTF8&qid=1382479293&sr=8-10&keywords=Epictetus)

And to help you understand Epictetus: Epictetus: A Stoic and Socratic Guide to Life by A.A. Long

A very helpful translation and commentary on Epictetus' Handbook by Keith Seddon

Marcus Aurelius' Meditations

Along with this indispensable study of the Meditations by Pierre Hadot

This is a very good video introduction to Stoicism.

The main ancient Stoic books that have survived are Marcus Aurelius's Meditations, Epictetus's Discourses and Enchiridion, which is basically a summary of the Discourses, and Seneca's Letters to Lucilius and Essays. All these editions are relatively new translations and, in Seneca's case, abridged, but they will give you an idea of what Stoicism is about. I suggest you first read the Enchiridion (it is no longer than 40 pages) and then the Meditations (around 150-200 pages), and then dig deeper if you get interested.

There are other ancient sources, and quite a lot of modern work is being done currently, but those are the ones I suggest you begin with.

Then there are very active modern Stoic communities, like /r/Stoicism, the Facebook group, and NewStoa, with its College of Stoic Philosophers, that lets you take a very good four month long course by email.

The great thing about Stoicism as a way of life is that it has neither the blind dogmatism of organized religion nor the ardent skepticism of atheism. It puts the soul back in the universe, in a way, and, on the personal level, empowers you to take responsibility for your actions and to take it easy with what you cannot control.

I suppose I take issue with the analogy (as much as I appreciate it). Whereas Pankration all but died out and had to be reconstructed from jar decorations and a few oblique textual references, the major Stoic texts have survived to the present. The main body of Stoic literature was preserved by Byzantines, Arabs, and eventually western monks who felt it anticipated their own virtuous christian asceticism. Stoicism's open distaste for slavery and unnecessary violence meant that it survived centuries of social upheaval and progress surprisingly intact. Stoicism is a living tradition, just not a public one.

In purely practical terms, the beauty of Stoicism is that anyone literate can go online or to the library, read the (very approachable) foundational texts of the philosophy in a weekend and begin practicing immediately. Certainly it's not for all personalities, but the self-starter type can dive right in, decide if Stoicism works for them or not and move on; no need for memorization, chants, costumes, or classes. Stoicism is the least pretentious, most practical thing I can imagine.

An unsolicited recommendation:

If you find you have time to read some Stoics, I would suggest the Hays translation of Aurelius' Meditations, James Stockdale's "Thoughts of a Philosophical Fighter Pilot", and the Penguin Discourses of Epictetus. If you have inclinations to Zen, I doubt you will be disappointed.