The continual holding of death in consciousness as a present, not a remote, possibility: ὡς ἤδη ἀποθνῄσκων — "as one already dying." This is not the memento mori of the medieval kind, with its eschatological fear, but the Stoic asceticism of presence: the nearness of death focuses the mind on what is happening within it now, and clears away the accumulation of false priorities. Epicurus and the Stoics share the practice but give it different senses: for Epicurus, "death is nothing to us"; for the Stoics, "death at any moment" is the lens of a correct scale of values.

(1) Carry out each action as if it were the last. Do not hurry, do not be distracted, but also do not cling. (2) On waking, recall that this night could have been the last. (3) At the moment of a passionate desire or fear, ask: would this matter if I knew I were going to die this evening? (4) An additional move: imagine yourself, at the moment of death, looking back on this day — what would you want to see in it? Act accordingly.