He was sent to prison. But the observation that 'he has suffered evil' is an addition coming from you.
Epictetus
This meditation is tougher for me to summarize than the summary in the book, so I will repeat his interpretation.
An event itself is objective. How we describe it - it's unfair, or it's a great tragedy, or they did it on purpose - is on us.
Malcom X went into prison as a criminal, but left as an educated, religious and motivated man who would help with the struggle for civil rights. Did he suffer evil? Or did he chose to make his experience a positive one?
Acceptance isn't passive. It is the first step in an active process towards self-improvement.
See, they say it better than I could. But I have a better example.
---Example---
Covid is one of those objective events. Covid did not appear to specifically kill humans. It isn't a plot from nature to kill us. Covid just is.
But our reactions to it varied from despair to action to non belief. And our reaction is still driving different solutions - avoidance and distance (particularly for parents with children under a year) or getting the vaccines or denying the very existence of Covid. And anger between groups is another reaction of choice. Nearly all Americans - myself included, having made their choice AND now look at the other choices as backward or ignorant.
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