In Buddhism, there is no random chance. Every consequence always follow from a cause, even if those causes are not clear to you. However, not all causes are about you. Your karma is not behind everything you experience. So, even though things are determined, they’re not just determined by what you did earlier.

Buddhism encourages you to take everything that happens in stride as part of your training. In lojong, you take the attitude of owning everything that happens to you (instead of rejecting it). Owning doesn’t necessarily mean changing the outcome, but it goes beyond a resigned acceptance.

I find this is a striking (if subtle) contrast with the Stoic approach, which draws a clear dividing line between what you control (own speech, own thought) and what you don’t (everything else). Stoicism claims ownership only of your own acts and deeds, but draws a strong boundary of separateness between the internal and the external.

I feel that this blurring of the lines that happens in Buddhism is more empowering, because it reflects that the boundary between “your mind’ and “out there” is porous, not sharp. The Stoic concept of a water-proof mind swimming in reality, I think, weakens the initiative to train the mind on all of reality’s ground.