Actions and choices, starting from Epictetus

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I really like the Stoics and Epictetus is my favorite one. Here are some of his quotes:
"Some things are in our control and others not. Things in our control are our opinions, pursuits, desires, aversions, and, in a word, whatever are our own actions."

"There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond our control"
The concept 'action' in the first quote is fundamental and it appears also in many other contexts, like the Zen culture.
  • Epictetus says that under our control are our actions. 
  • The fifth Buddhist remembrance says "My only possessions are my actions. I cannot avoid the consequences of my actions". 
  • Krishnamurti says "Life is action".
I find these three philosophies to be linked through the concepts of 'action' and 'choice'.

If what is under our control are our actions, then we must choose our actions. Hence, making the right choices is the basis of right action (a Buddhist concept). And in doing so, choices and actions become one and the same: we can only choose our actions (since it is the only thing we control) and every action is a choice. Therefore, the act of choosing is the art of living - life is action.

The opposite of choosing our actions is being reactive. A reaction is a conditioned action - a pre-established way of doing things that we have not questioned. Action is freedom; reaction, slavery. Focus on your actions (opinions, pursuits, desires, aversions), since they are the only things under your control.
"Any person capable of angering you becomes your master; he can anger you only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by him."  - Epictetus  
"People are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of things." - Epictetus 

"Don't seek to have events happen as you wish, but wish them to happen as they do happen, and all will be well with you."  - Epictetus 

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