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Stoicism - Ultimate Handbook To - Thomas Beckett PDF
Stoicism - Ultimate Handbook To - Thomas Beckett PDF
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Contents
Introduction
Chapter 2: Epistemology
Final Word
Key Highlights
Conclusion
Introduction
It is no secret that our lives are what we make of them. While that is true, the
vagaries of life buffet us every step of the way, dislodging at least some of
what we choose and replacing it with misfortune. But we choose our response
to misfortune, also. How we respond to life’s twists and turns is what defines
its quality. How we choose to confront the many challenges we face each day
defines our quality as people.
This core philosophy of life is, however, not generally popular, as many
would prefer to blame external factors for the quality of their lives. While
there is much in life beyond our control, our response to factors we can’t
command is a vital component of our quality of life. There are those who
think their destiny has already been sealed and there is a higher power above
all of us that doles out our fates. But there has been a lot of criticism of this
theory, as not everybody believes in the existence of a higher power.
The Greeks did not just preach but also led by example. They showed the
world how a mere thought could help develop the answer to many questions
that burden the human mind. Heraclitus, from the metaphor of fire,
envisioned a universe in constant flux. Plato, from the allegory of a cave,
posited that introducing people to his philosophy of eternal forms would free
them to see beyond the vague shadows available to them without it. The
Ancient Greek philosophers and their contributions to human development
cannot be underestimated. They were giants and their philosophical writings
continue to be overwhelmingly current.
In believing that virtue was the ultimate end of a life well-lived, the Stoic
school established a primary feature of Greek society (albeit via a
philosophical proposition which was not as potent a presence as the concept
of virtue and its role in Athenian society). The Stoics believed, essentially,
that errors in judgment caused our destructive emotions. They also believed
there was a dynamic relationship between freedom and cosmic determinism.
In other words, free will and fixed cosmic destiny were not entirely
incompatible, as other schools of thought suggested. Chrysippus, who
followed Zeno, posited a causal determinism that was rooted in the actions of
the individual.
They focused mostly on how a person behaved, rather than nitpick through
what he said. Apart from Zeno, Seneca and Epictetus were the prime Stoics
of their time who emphasized the belief that being virtuous was enough for a
lifetime of happiness. Stoicism consisted mainly of subjects like logic, ethics,
morals, and monistic physics. But, of course, the most important element of
all these was ethics, which will be discussed in further detail in the
forthcoming chapters.
Stoicism’s intent was to move followers toward leading a life that would
allow them to tap into their fullest potential. Freed of the intensity of human
passions and emotional attachment, Stoic teaching demanded that its
adherents look at the world around them in a detached manner, instead of
becoming victims of emotional responses to its unpredictability.
In this book, we look at the Stoic philosophy in detail and seek to understand
how it can help us in this day and age. We’ll explore how Stoicism can be
adapted to modern life and help us approach it with less anxiety, greater
detachment, and thus greater success at living in it.
I hope you enjoy reading this exploration of Stoicism and I thank you for
choosing this book.
Chapter 1: History of Stoicism
The Stoa Poikile (the painted porch) became the locus for the teachings of
Zeno and a gathering place for his followers, also giving the philosophical
school – Stoicism – its name. From this location in the Athenian agora
(marketplace) Zeno taught his followers. As part of his teaching, he
expounded on Greek grammar (albeit in a scientific manner), vocabulary,
logic, physics, ethics, and theology. According to the core of Stoicism, it was
believed that the goal of life was virtue and high morals. All other things, like
emotion and feeling, were extraneous and a hindrance to the pursuit of a life
of virtue, in Zeno’s estimation. Emotions, he taught, were the offspring of
people’s thoughts. He believed that by changing the manner in which people
thought about life events, they could detach from negative and harmful
emotions, reducing suffering toward improving their lives. For Zeno, life was
not so much what people made of it as how they thought about it.
All human beings need something to believe in, which helps them progress in
life. If there was nothing in life but work, marriage, and child rearing, our
days would seem endlessly boring. So every day, we wake up in pursuit of
greater happiness and with the sole aim of having more than what we already
have. We look beyond the horizons of the mundane world for greater
meaning, asking ourselves “Is that all there is?”
In looking beyond those horizons, our inner lives come to the fore. We seek
answers to eternal questions, wrestling with them in the depths of our beings,
hoping to bring forth a reason for it all. Why are we here? Why do we die?
What is the purpose of this life? Sometimes the answers we come up with fail
to satisfy. That’s usually the case, in fact.
Since the human animal developed the power of introspection, it has sought
answers to these questions. Each challenge we face in our finite lives – the
death of loved ones, the birth and rearing of children, illness, adversity –
leads us to ponder the whys and wherefores. Philosophical thought is a
natural outgrowth of the questioning nature of the human being, a systematic
means of apprehending the world around us and how it works. Philosophy is
a means of exploring the nature of the universe and our place in it, toward
putting our finger on the point of it all. As questioning, thinking, speaking
beings, humans have always sought to find meaning in the midst of an
uncertain life.
The philosophical impulse has been part of us since the moment we were able
to take time out from the business of survival and stare into the hearth,
pondering our lives. Our reaching for innate purpose and how it impacts our
understanding of life was studied by Zeno of Citium, a philosopher in the
Hellenistic period of ancient Athens. What he taught his followers was
essentially a means of controlling their responses to life in order to become
vessels of exemplary virtue.
Zeno’s Philosophical Approach
Zeno’s philosophies had a profound impact on the theory of movement, but
these were not to really take root until the Renaissance, in mathematics. His
most enduring legacy, though, is in his assertion that human emotional life
was a profound challenge to living a life of virtue, due to the destructive
impact of human passions on objective thought. In Athenian society, there
was a widespread taboo against those who preached their ideals in public, but
Zeno broke that taboo and decided to preach about his philosophies at public
gatherings, so that more and more people could listen and avail themselves of
the benefits of Stoicism. This democratization of philosophical thought is
another of Zeno’s lasting legacies. Zeno brought private intellectualism in the
public square, quite literally.
Zeno believed that human beings could be so obsessed by and stuck in their
own modes of thinking that they allowed this tendency to manifest in out-of-
control emotions, like envy and jealousy. Although it was not Zeno’s
intention to forbid his followers an emotional life, he believed that it was
possible for people to control their emotions through their thoughts.
In mastering one’s emotions and physical demands, Zeno taught that wisdom
could properly be developed by claiming its rightful place in the mind of the
Stoic practitioner. Pain and pleasure could be mastered in meditative practice,
and the influence of emotions arising from these psycho-physical phenomena
could be quelled. In this assertion, Zeno saw limitless potential for the ability
of human beings to rationally reflect on the nature of the world they lived in
and attain superior wisdom and, thus, virtue.
Zeno also believed that the universe was an integral totality, which was
comparable to God, but that does not signify God, essentially. The school of
Elea advanced the viewpoint that the nature of the universe was unchanging
(in contrast to Heraclitus, who posited a universe of eternal flux) and static in
nature. Its central claim was “all is one.”
Zeno suggested that two powers were in play at any given time, being the
active realm and the passive realm and that these two powers existed in a
dynamic tension that held the whole together. The passive realm consisted of
all those items that lie passive until provoked into action, only when they are
pressed to do so. The active realm, on the other hand, consists of all those
things that operate automatically, and run their own, natural course unless
provoked and modified to run a different course. Both powers were the result
of immanent (indwelling) Divinity, in which and by which the universe
existed and operated.
So, all human beings are products of both these realms, working in dynamic
tension with each other, forming an immutable whole, which is Zeno’s static
and fixed universal model.
Zeno also believed that all happiness lay within the individual and preached
this philosophy specifically to those who sought joy in external sources. He
believed that Stoicism would help people realize genuine happiness and that
its propositions would end unnecessary anxiety and uncertainty, bringing
followers peace.
Cleanthes’ soaring ode to a universal, omnipotent god (in the person of Zeus)
pre-figures concepts and wording found in Christianity and its father,
Judaism. It’s particularly reminiscent, in tone of address, to the Christian
Lord’s Prayer. For example, Zeus is referred to as the “King of Kings,”
bringing order to a chaotic universe (as is seen in the first two books of
Genesis). There is also a reference to Zeus making “the crooked straight,”
which pre-figures the person of John the Baptist as the herald of the Christ, in
the incarnational figure of Jesus of Nazareth.
And the parallels don’t end there. In the heart of Stoicism are early echoes of
later Christian thinking, particularly t the Church father, Augustine.
Augustine’s entreaty to Christian practitioners in his Confessions, to “treat
food as medicine” and to forego sexual pleasure, is strong parallels to the
Stoic exhortation to subdue the passions in the practice of apatheia. We will
discuss more about these fascinating similarities between the Stoic
philosophy and other religious systems later in the book.
As time progressed, more and more people adopted the Stoic philosophy,
making it their way of life.
We now encounter two later Stoics Panaetius (185-109 BC) and Posidonius
(135-50 BC). The later Stoa period includes teachers such as Seneca and
Epictetus. Seneca’s theories were peppered with the eclecticism that had
originated in the writing and teaching of Panaetius of Rhodes.
Would it surprise you to learn than Marcus Aurelius was also a Stoic? In fact,
the Roman emperor was the last of the Stoic teachers. In 4 BC, Seneca and
Marcus Aurelius took up the subject and conducted extensive research on it.
This was also a period when Stoicism was slowly fading as a popular fashion,
mainly because of its popularity. It was a victim of its own success, in
essence. Stoic philosophy became common property among the masses and
was eventually absorbed by Neoplatonism. This effect had already been
hinted at in Panaetius of Rhodes, considered in his day indistinguishable from
any of the contemporary Platonic thinkers.
It was Marcus Aurelius and Seneca who gave the world contemporary, late
Stoicism, which was an extremely refined version of the original philosophy.
It was possible for all people to adopt it, not just the elites. Both Marcus
Aurelius and Seneca lived as they thought – with great self-mastery and
emotional control. The Emperor kept a daily account of his personal
development in the philosophy of Stoicism. Seneca famously thought only of
his wife and children and how they would be affected by his death, when
Emperor Nero called for his suicide.
Seneca also believed in the active practice of misfortune and taught that
followers should set aside several days each month for the purpose of
experiencing poverty. In deliberate self-denial, Seneca believed it was
possible to neutralize the emotional dread of it and thus master the anxiety
most people have of reduced fortunes.
Marcus Aurelius wrote that in choosing not to feel as though you’ve been
harmed, you wouldn’t have been harmed. His understanding of Stoicism as a
philosophical guide to life is evidenced in his daily writings. That was an
extraordinary undertaking for a man who, at the time, was arguably the most
powerful man in the world. With access to the riches of the Empire, untold
power, and deified status (Roman emperors were considered gods), it’s quite
striking that Marcus Aurelius would pursue such a practice, at all. That he did
this each and every day is difficult to believe, but a historical fact,
nonetheless.
Stoicism’s influence in the ancient world ended decisively in the 6th Century.
It was at this time that the Holy Roman Emperor, Justinian I, closed all the
empire’s philosophical schools. As the Roman Empire had, by this time,
adopted Christianity as its state religion (under Theodosius in the 4th
Century), Justinian feared the influence of the schools as rivals to the
established religion of Rome.
Socrates, the great Greek philosopher, is said to have been one of the most
potent influences on the development of Stoicism. In fact, observing him
keenly is at least part of what led Zeno to formulate proto-Stoicism. Socrates,
as we know, was a very calm person who did not allow the ways of the world
to affect him negatively. He remained calm, even in extreme adversity. This
is what prompted Zeno to begin formulating the basis for Stoicism.
In common with Christianity, Stoicism claims that the universe has at its
center a Divine reason. In Greek the word for this is “logos”. In the Christian
Scriptures, God in Christ is referred to as the logos. Marcus Aurelius, in
particular, brought forward the view that humanity is God’s ultimate
incarnational reality (an interesting parallel to the Christian claim of God
incarnate in the person of Jesus of Nazareth). Aurelius claimed that the
“logos spermatikos” (or “seed of Divine reason”) was indwelling all human
life, as only human beings possessed its three attributes – life, desire, and
reason. To the Philosopher King, all humans were “fragments of God” for
this reason. This statement hints at a more panentheistic understanding of
Divine immanence. If humans are “fragments of God,” then the universe
resides in God as the greater reality, as opposed to God residing in all things
via material agency.
The early views of Stoicism may well have been described as pantheistic by
virtue of their materialism, which means that a Divine or otherworldly
presence indwelled the material, animating it. A reflection of the
philosophical constructs of the day, it’s not difficult to see how early
Stoicism’s apprehension of the Divine presence evolved through time to
arrive at reasonably well articulated panentheism – even in the pages of
Christian Scripture.
There were two kinds of matter, according to the Stoics: That which can be
seen and touched, and the finer matter, which cannot be seen, but only
sensed. This was more like a breath or spirit or a Divine entity whose
presence could only be felt and imagined and which held everything together.
These types of matter were also given different names to go with their
properties: logos (Divine reason), pneuma (Divine breath), and pronoia
(Divine providence). The Stoic philosophers turned to mythology and ancient
texts, and also to allegorical interpretations of sayings and theories to fine-
tune their new and emerging Stoic philosophy. Of course, their naming of
God followed the Pagan construct of the day, as a means of acculturating and
adhering to the philosophy to its social context. For instance, Hera (ERA)
becomes air (AER) and GEMETER (Earth) is derived from DEMETER. So
successful was this naming convention that even early Church Fathers, like
Clement and Origen, adopted it for their theological purposes.
According to Stoicism, human nature harbors both types of matter described
above. The soul was believed to consist of eight distinct parts, comprising the
five senses and two types of power - generative and leading. But this is not to
say that Stoic principles negated free will. Free will has always been
associated with higher intelligence and a higher form of cognition. Stoic
wisdom took into account this extremely vital aspect of a functional human
mind, along with its tenets of happiness and inner peace, adhering at its
earliest layer to the notion of free will, even in the face of cosmic
determinism.
All said and done, Stoicism stood for happiness. That was its major goal then
and remains its major goal now. Stoics firmly believed that happiness is the
result of inner peace and a lifelong formation of virtues and values. Since
they negated extraneous thoughts, feelings, and emotions, they theorized that
virtue was intrinsic, or ontological; that it can’t be taken away from someone
because it is an essential feature of their humanity. Thus, if someone lived in
accordance with nature, caused no harm to others, led a quiet, peaceful life,
reasonably and with full passion and commitment with regard to his work,
family, and social context, that person was sure to attain happiness and
contentment; the ultimate goal of Stoicism. And the beauty of this tenet is
that, once someone started walking on this righteous path, he almost never
strayed from it. Anyone can embrace this philosophy at any age and from any
walk of life. Its beauty lies in its simplicity.
Let’s get back to Zeno and Cleanthes for a minute. Zeno, as we know, was
the founder of this school of thought. He and his disciple, Cleanthes, tried to
formulate fundamental principles of this new and exciting theory. They
focused on the active and energetic nature of the mind. When Chrysippus
appeared on the scene, he polished the theory further by stating that the soul
was akin to pneuma, a fire-like substance, constantly burning brightly and
illuminating other matter around it. Pneuma was also associated with higher
mental processes and cognition. To take the theory to another level
altogether, pneuma was likened to Zeus, the ultimate God in Greek
mythology.
God occupied a very special place back then, as now. But God was accorded
the status of an artistic and beautiful fire, which could create as well as
destroy. The fire was considered pure and sacred, which enveloped the entire
cosmos and our beings. As mentioned earlier in this book, the philosopher,
Heraclitus, employed the metaphor of fire to describe a universe in constant
flux, stating that its ontology was not subject to change, as its matter
encountered flux. From a spark came flame. From the flame came ash and
smoke. The ash returned to earth, with the process repeating eternally, never
changing the essential nature of fire. The Stoics, on the other hand, posited a
fixed and immutable universe; unchanging through eternity and fire of Divine
nature.
The Stoics might have lived in ancient times, but their thoughts were
definitely modern. They viewed the world as one big living organism. Just as
God was a pure pneuma, the human soul was equated with a magical mixture
of air and fire. They referred to it as “refined fire” or “aether.” This dual-
quality fire was said to envelop humans as well, and was viewed as a part of
the soul, which was seeking benediction from heaven, from Zeus, and the
cosmos. Ultimately, according to Stoicism, the human soul would merge into
the cosmos. Stoic beliefs also taught people that the soul was a part of God,
residing within human bodies, and showering intelligence and wealth upon
us. The four elements of nature - fire, air, water, and earth - were properly
explained in the philosophy as well. Earth and water were supposed to be
heavy, dense and entirely in the vice of passivity. Air and fire were thought
of as light, transient elements, with a deep connection to science, arts, and
anything to do with intelligence and activity. The Stoics held the belief that
both sets of elements were needed to nourish the soul and make it bloom.
Chapter 2: Epistemology
Still confused as to the real meaning of this philosophy? Well, it’s rather
simple, if you think about it. Stoicism advocated the idea that thorough
reasoning was the key to attain knowledge. Reason, the Stoics believed, was
the avenue to the Stoicism’s longed-for virtue, the key to happiness.
The human brain is an amazing organ. It has the innate ability to ascertain
whether an impression is correct or incorrect, and whether or not we should
approve of or reject it. This also enables it to distinguish between
representations of reality from those which are fallacious or fanciful. Of
course, the degree to which this is accomplished varies from experience to
experience, but it is an established fact that clear comprehension and
conviction are attained only by verification of the judgment.
Many books and treaties have been published on the subject, one of them
being A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy. It reiterates the
basic principle of Stoicism. Stoicism has been around since ancient times,
and is just as relevant today as it was back then. It propounds a list of
techniques and guidelines that allow people to slowly decrease, diminish,
lessen, and ultimately eradicate everything negative about their lives.
Emotions such as anger, jealousy, fear, hatred, and dissatisfaction are all
slowly eliminated from one’s being through sound reasoning and logic,
paving the way for positive and uplifting emotions like joy, love, happiness,
contentment, etc., thus bringing total peace and equanimity to society as a
whole.
The core belief upon which Stoicism lays its foundation is simple: having a
meaningful life by overcoming discontent, desire, and unbridled human
passions.
What does this even mean? People everywhere have wants and desires. They
fulfill one, and go on to the next one. They believe that, by fulfilling their
desires, happiness will be theirs. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Each satisfied desire brings with it the next one, in a seemingly unending and
insatiable chain of desire and longing. There is no end to this. People
continue to chase the elusive perceptions of what constitutes happiness all
their lives, and end up no better off than when they began. This is an
unfortunate waste of the goodness of life. So, what’s the trick here? How do
we begin to find happiness within ourselves and our surroundings, without
depending on material things in life? We can do this by overcoming our
passions. Ask yourself; is what you seek a want or is it a need? What we need
and what we desire are two different matters.
Some things in life can be controlled, and some cannot. Worrying endlessly
about the many variables and exigencies of life beyond our control will only
cause untold misery, tension, and anxiety. Why worry when something is not
in your hands? Stoicism teaches us to do a thorough and complete job of the
situation or thing or activity we can control, like doing our job or taking care
of our parents and children or building or creating something. A tornado is
not in our hands, nor is the result of the next election. By learning to separate
desire from need and what’s within our control from what’s not, we can take
a vital step toward inner peace and happiness.
Another activity that will raise your happiness quotient is interaction with
other humans. The Stoic school of thought firmly advocates that, as social
animals, we need and crave each other’s company while limiting the
interactions to playful, fun activities that engage the mind and body. Refrain
from envying the status and fame of others around you. This can result from
constantly seeking the company of other people. It’s been said that familiarity
breeds contempt and so it is with social life.
And what to do when you encounter ill thoughts and insults from those
around you? Detaching yourself from the slight and examining its importance
in the great scheme of things is a good way to start, but there are two ways in
which you can proceed: If the insult or comment is true, you have a chance of
making yourself a better person. Thus, an objective reading of the perceived
slight is in order, even before you arrive at a judgment about its validity. If
it’s false, you don’t lose anything and can go about your daily business,
because it doesn’t matter to you. Your response is entirely within your hands
and the Stoic’s response is no response at all. This defuses the sting of the
insult. Calm, rational examination of the importance of the slights, gossip,
and insults that others can’t help but fling at us, casts them as what they are –
completely uninteresting to us.
Thinking stoically means not allowing the little annoyances in life to set you
back. While some become frustrated with taking one step forward and two
back, Stoics will think of this as the “cha cha cha” of life: a dance. Your
response to the world around you is within your control. By not permitting
your response to events, personalities and challenges to dominate your
thinking and by not allowing your emotions to rule you, you claim the peace
that Stoicism promises.
But there’s a better way to live. We can master our passions. We can choose
to walk away from conflict, to ignore negative voices around us and to
transcend the challenges we face in life with determined calm. This is the
way of the Stoic and that way is available to all who are willing to work on
changing the manner in which they respond to life and its bumps and grinds.
Chapter 3: Core Philosophies
Stoicism features several philosophical cornerstones. These core ideas are the
very basis of the philosophy and are intended to help you understand what it
takes to walk in the way of the Stoics. It’s a way of life and not something
you should take casually (unless you’re just a tourist in the land of Stoicism,
which is fine, too). In this chapter, we explore some of the core teachings of
this philosophy.
Control What You Can
The very first proposition is that you come to an understanding about what is
in your control and what is not. Not everything in the world is within your
ability to change, improve, or control. Some things, you have to accept, are
part of a greater reality in which you exist, but which is not subject to your
will. Say, for example, that your anger is in your control but external forces
provoking it are out of your control. You need to understand that your
response to whatever it is that has provoked your anger is within your
control. It’s your choice how you answer that. Your response can’t be blamed
on your circumstances. It’s your personal responsibility to manage your
reactions. That’s because your emotions are the product of your own
thoughts. Your thoughts are your own, regardless of what’s occurred in the
world around you. You are their master and you are responsible for them.
Emotions Are Within
This is one of the most important philosophies of Stoicism. The Stoics
believe that emotions are to be detached from externals and are solely created
by our own thoughts and feelings. Most people believe that their emotions are
the result of what they see and hear from the outside world. But how can the
world create your personal emotions? It can only create thoughts, which can
stir emotions. But if you control your thoughts (in response to external
stimuli), then you can control your emotions. It’s incumbent on you to look
inside yourself, in an effort to examine the emotions that arise from your
thoughts in response to what’s going on around you. What’s within you is
yours to control and the world may not be blamed for your personal passions.
Your Responses Are Your Responsibility
Your responses (actions arising from emotional responses) are also your
responsibility. This means that the emotions arising from your thoughts that
give rise to your actions (for better or worse) are all linked and dependent on
one another. It is all within your control, regardless of the event that has
precipitated the thought-emotion-action.
Life is full of ups and downs. There’s no question of that. But your responses
can either lift you up or pull you down. Too often, our passions rule us,
precipitating inappropriately out-of-proportion responses that make us look
overly emotional. Self-control is the mother of the kind of life you are hoping
to live. When you have a command of the thoughts that give rise to
inappropriate emotions and the actions they are capable of producing, you
will also become the master of your destiny. This is the free will aspect of
Stoic determinism. Life is going to happen, but how it happens is somewhat
up to you, relying as it does on your actions in response to difficult situations.
Honesty Is a Virtue
Although you are free to choose the virtues you wish to base your life on, it’s
best to treat honesty as your life’s primary virtue. Honesty brings out the best
in you. Lying fills you with the dread of discovery. It forces you to
desperately try to remember what story you’ve told various people and if
those stories match. It brings worry and invites catastrophe into your life.
Choosing honesty as a primary virtue permits you to release worry and to
replace it with the knowledge that you have chosen the path of virtue in a
world of deceit.
It’s important that you maintain a consistent and close relationship with
someone who is just as trustworthy and honest as you are and that you
nurture this supportive relationship over time. Having a reliable sounding
board will provide you with a means to gauge your ethical soundness and
provide you with support when dishonest or less than honest alternatives
present themselves as more facile than the path you’re pursuing. The buddy
system is an excellent way to enhance your journey toward reduced
attachment to negative thinking and the emotions and acts that can result
from it. A second opinion is always of great value and provides you with an
objective voice when you’re in doubt.
Hope Springs Eternal
Hope is a virtue, as it’s an eternal spring you can drink from and also share
with others. Hope is a virtue that leads you on in life, even leading you
through those times that challenge and can even break you. The hope that life
will get better, or even just continue, leads you through those times. We all
have episodes in our lives when hope seems elusive. Fostering hope as a
virtue is one way to build internal resilience to the vagaries of an
unpredictable life and to nurture detachment from its mutable nature.
The Stoic philosophy teaches that in knowing the worst, you may better
appreciate the best. Building on that knowledge reminds you that life is ever-
changing and that it’s full of mountains, as well as deep valleys. Walking
through all these highs and lows at the same pace is a Stoic virtue. Being less
attached to outcomes and more attached to how you react to life, as a whole,
builds you up and makes you less vulnerable to unexpected contingencies.
You have to hope for the best and keep going. It is not important to analyze
all the fine details of your losses, because they matter so much less in the face
of the hope you have. Hope tells you that change being the nature of the
world is acceptable, because if the nature of the world is change, then
challenge can turn to triumph overnight. Triumph and challenge are
essentially the same creature. They are two sides of the same coin – life and
thus[1], have the same value to you.
Knowledge Will Save You
Knowledge is your salvation. Read as much as you can and spend time in the
company of those who are wise and who know more than you do. Gather as
much knowledge and information as you can from the wide variety of
sources that are available to you, and go through them in detail to refresh and
update your memory from time to time. Turn off your television and turn on
your mind. The time you spend watching television is wasted. It’s much
better spent on nurturing your mind. Your knowledge and reasoning skills
will help you increase your self-worth. You’ll begin to appreciate the role of
knowledge in your life as something to be turned to in times you’d least
expect it might serve you. Knowledge will improve the overall quality of
your life and relationships. Fill your mind with it.
Mindfulness is Important
The Stoic philosophy stresses that you must remain indifferent to the various
situations in life, but that mindfulness and living fully in the moment are of
paramount importance. Mindfulness refers to being completely present in
each moment and understanding what’s happening around you. Even if
you’re presented with a negative situation, you need to remain indifferent but
mindful and fully aware. You can’t be ignorant of circumstance, as this will
cause you to become a passive bystander. It is well and good if a bad
situation has passed you by without your knowledge of it, but you need to be
as aware of life going on around you as possible. Mindfulness is a window to
understanding the world objectively, seeing it for what it is, and making the
decision not to allow it to impact your way forward. It’s a practice that
demands you be fully aware of all that is positive, as well as all that is
negative, in order to be able to fully detach yourself from outcomes. You are
an observer and processor of information, whether that information suits you
or not.
Morals Not Awards
Stoicism teaches that life is to be measured through the application of virtues,
morals, and right action. These are an end in themselves; you are not seeking
a reward for practicing them. They are the reward and the purpose of your
life. Rewards are only temporary and will not help you remain happy forever.
You need to count the number of virtues and morals you’ve dedicated your
life to and question your adherence to them as your measure of life’s value.
By living a virtuous life, freed from the oppression of emotions and
attachments, you are living your reward. Virtue is its own reward.
Letting God
At any time in life, if you feel someone has emotionally parted from you, it’s
important that you accept this is as the “new normal” and choose not to brood
over the departure, analyze it, or give in to despair. Once someone starts to
show signs of not being emotionally invested in a relationship with you,
accepting that decision and not clinging to the relationship, or questioning the
motives of the departing person, is another value that detachment from
negative emotions has for you. You are spared unnecessary suffering. Even if
the departing person tries to hurt you, you must be completely in command of
your emotions and as indifferent as possible. You must tell yourself that
nothing they do can affect you and that you will only listen to your objective
thoughts on the matter, refusing to give in to negative thoughts that feed
unwelcome emotions that lead to suffering.
Every Day Is a New Day
Each morning, you start fresh. You literally hit the refresh button in your
head and start all over on the new day. Don’t dwell on the possibility of a
negative or unpleasant situation repeating itself. Even if it does, you will have
the knowledge to deal with it. But be on the lookout for opportunities that
will help you increase your knowledge base. Don’t hold on to anything for
the next day and forget about it as soon as it’s resolved. Once you’ve
objectively unpacked it, put it away. You must be optimistic and move
beyond negativity and misfortune, doing your best to be as rational and
indifferent as possible.
There are many stages to pursuing the virtue of wisdom. The first stage is
self-knowledge. You have to know yourself well enough before you can
begin to develop wisdom. You must understand your own learning capacity
before you embark on the profound project of growing the “sophia”
(wisdom) which already resides in you, longing for nurture. Once you are
well acquainted with your own learning style, you can begin training yourself
in the apprehension of wisdom. Wisdom is more than knowledge. Wisdom is
understanding and experience.
Experience will make you wise, but only if you allow it to seep into your
consciousness as learning. Most of us subconsciously make many decisions,
but it’s important that we help our conscious minds and our subconscious
minds unite. Once they reach the same plane, we are given the precious
opportunity to make better decisions based on a more unified consciousness.
Our wisdom will shine through and help us make the right choices at the right
times; choices that are informed by our experience, processed by
understanding all our lives as learning.
There is no limit to how much knowledge you can obtain in your life. Every
day should be a learning day and you must try and learn as much as you can
from each and every experience. You must then filter out unnecessary
information and allow only what’s important to remain with you. With time,
you will know exactly how to do this. The habit of filtering your knowledge
will help you understand how to categorize what’s going on around you,
arriving at the kernel of importance in all that occurs in your life and the
world around you, without dwelling on peripherals that don’t concern you.
Courage
The second cardinal virtue of Stoicism is courage. Courage is a virtue that
increases your resilience for those times when the winds of life buffet you.
Courage is a virtue that manifests both physically and intellectually.
In Stoicism, the Greek word apatheia is used to describe this state of being,
whereas the Roman word is closer to the modern English word,
aequanimitas. Both describe a natural state of balance resulting from a
concerted effort and practice to manage thoughts and emotions that result in
the ability to face all circumstances with a similar attitude – for all
circumstances have a similar value. Marcus Aurelius’s model for equanimity
was the natural world, which the Stoics believed to be the model for human
life. The natural world is, above all, cyclical. In understanding the cycles of
nature, we can better apply ourselves to understanding the nature of life itself,
with its cycles, (both fallow and fruitful) and its laws, which are neither good,
bad, nor indifferent.
Self-Control
Temperance is the ability to maintain balance in your life and person and that
involves self-control. This is a cardinal virtue, as self-mastery is one of
Stoicism’s primary goals and teachings. Balance in your life creates balance
in your world and this is achieved through the mastery of excessive passions.
Tempering your thoughts and emotions will temper your actions and the
result will be peace and equilibrium.
Self-control also involves abstaining from bad habits. Stay away from
substances, situations, people, and actions that have the potential to affect
you negatively. Leading a temperate life is a reward in itself, as it’s better for
you all around. Excising the negative means excising habits that do you only
harm.
What good is all the philosophy in the world if it can’t teach us how to live
practically? What do humans all over the world want?
Stoic Week events are spreading like wild fire. Grand Valley State University
held its first Stoic Week recently and other academic institutions are involved
in examining Stoicism’s claims against modern life and how they might
impact those who live it. And Stoicism is showing up in some pretty unlikely
sectors, with some pretty unlikely adherents.
In the world of sports, each game is a new game. Players focus on what they
can control in the context of the game. Factors that are beyond their control
are ignored. They endure pain and injury without complaint, powering
through their circumstances with one thought in mind – getting back on the
field and trying again. Sound familiar? That’s because all these features of
the sporting mind are rooted in Stoicism.
The huge popularity of Holiday’s book in the NHL is no surprise. That world
is populated by people who accept defeat as a learning experience; who don’t
obsess about what’s beyond their power to control. There is a natural
Stoicism in the world of football that has responded to Holiday’s book with
great enthusiasm. Only those unaware of the parallels between the sport and
the tenets of Stoicism should be surprised by this.
Stoicism, even over the past several years, has grown as an area of interest all
over the world. There’s even a large, online community called the New Stoa
(after that long-ago porch in the Athenian agora). Somehow, its ancient
philosophical propositions are resonating with people in the 21st Century. In a
world spun out of control, it provides a philosophical approach to life that
quells the fevered chaos around us. Stoicism’s time would seem to be right
about now, for that reason.
Philosopher Massimo Pigliucci recently wrote a blog post about Stoicism that
he’s now developing into yet another book on the subject (I told you it was
having a revival). His blog, entitled "How to Be a Stoic," struck such a chord
with readers that it went viral. Pigliucci warns that modern Stoicism might
become yet another handy self-help pseudo-fix. He sees Stoicism for what it
is: a way to manage the uncertainty of life and our responses to it. Further,
Pigliucci sought out Stoicism for its approach to the inevitability of death.
We will all die. That truth doesn’t mean we should seek ways out of it. There
is no way out of it! Hoping for some magical eternal life after death is
unhealthy and fails to acknowledge our role in the quality of our lives.
Rather, the inevitability of death is an invitation to live our lives more fully
and above all, more mindfully. Impending death is our invitation to a richer
life and all it offers, through the acceptance that it will come and that we’re
called to make the most and best of the time we have on this earth.
Modernity’s Salve
It is no secret that life has become so hectic and harried these days that
people don’t even have the time to breathe properly. But why is everyone so
busy? Well, to make more money! People try and amass as much money as
they can, in order to immunize themselves from the vicissitudes of life. They
work day and night to gather as much wealth as possible and forget that
they’re just human beings. In a world of rampant consumerism, it’s pretty
easy to get caught up in it; to sacrifice the quality of our lives to the fruitless
pursuit of a security that doesn’t really exist.
The Stoic philosophy is a salve for modernity. Applied with serious intent, it
can make anyone who chooses to do so more mentally and spiritually strong.
Stoics don’t look to the outside world for happiness or validation. They
understand that these effects are internal and dependent on their own
apprehension of the world.
Stoicism’s rise took place in a very different world. Before the industrial age,
before the 24/7 news cycle, television, the internet, the telephone, or
widespread literacy. But now it resonates much more deeply in our world, in
which we’re continually being given sources of anxiety, as the television
blares.
Stoicism’s teachings – pointing out the value of virtue over all other values –
is an answer to consumerism and its excesses. By looking within for what we
need to answer the world’s challenges and learning to detach from outcomes,
we can much more effectively navigate the turbulent waters of the 21st
Century. Our focus is easily shaken loose in confrontation of climate change,
the mass displacement of people, famine, and perpetual war. We can’t do
anything to stop any of these realities, but we can master our reactions to
them. We can do what we can in our own lives to contribute to solutions. We
can detach sufficiently to look at the world objectively and with the eyes of
wisdom and not panic, dread, or fear.
The Universality of Stoicism
Stoicism has a global appeal that makes sense in any number of cultural
contexts. Its undeniable universalism makes it applicable in any time and any
place, to any person. Because it specifically addresses the individual’s
relationship with the greater world, it speaks to all people in all times. Its
loose panentheism also presents a viewpoint of Divinity which divorces it
from monotheistic, prescriptive religious practice in a manner that makes it
attractive to people who might otherwise reject a systematic philosophy
toward more fruitful living. Stoicism is even compatible with religious
practice, as an auxiliary lens through which to look at the world, and it can
enhance the practitioner’s understanding of the tenets of whatever faith he
practices.
All people yearn to find a better way of living in an uncertain world. Some
look to a life after this one as a means of doing that; hoping that their
suffering in this world will be rewarded by an eternal life free of it in the
next. What Stoicism offers is a way of living in the present time, with virtue
being the eternal reward. That virtue, being attained through self-mastery,
fulfills the question of how we might live with change – even catastrophic
change. Stoicism provides us with the tools we need to accept external
factors, for better or worse, by detaching from undesirable and damaging
emotions, in favor of acceptance. Acceptance is not resignation. Acceptance
is understanding that we are unable to change anything but ourselves and our
response to ever-changing circumstances.
In whatever corner of the world we live, Stoicism can speak to our universal
need for balance and temperance in our lives, bringing contentment and a
respite from the anxiety that plagues so many of us.
Stoicism in Religion
As discussed earlier, the parallels between Stoicism and Christianity, as well
as Buddhism, are striking. The ideas of Marcus Aurelius, as we’ve shown,
can even be found in the pages of the Christian Scriptures. But in fact,
Stoicism is compatible with and its tenets can be found embedded in most of
the world’s religions.
Like Stoicism, most religions emphasize the need for people to detach
themselves as much as possible from worldly pleasures and to look inside
themselves for happiness. You may currently be a member of a faith group.
Consider that you’re already practicing at least some of the teachings of
Stoicism as part of that faith. Consider that many of the ideas put forward by
Stoic philosophy form a part of your religious practice. The ancient world
was a melting pot of cultures and religions, so it’s inevitable that the ideals of
the Greek world and its philosophers would continue to be heard in the
canons of our various faith traditions in various ways. This is particularly true
of Stoic philosophy. Stoicism is uniquely compatible with faith practice, due
to its philosophic emphasis on self-mastery and examination and the jaded
eye it casts on an emotional attachment to the temporal. This world will pass
away, but the words of Stoic philosophy will not pass away (to paraphrase
Jesus of Nazareth).
With the rise of Christianity and the subsequent decline of Greek Stoicism
via the actions of Justinian I, Stoic ideals found a home in that faith tradition.
Today, Alcoholics Anonymous (a quasi-religious organization founded on
Christian ideas), employs a prayer which rather starkly and succinctly sums
up Stoicism in a few brief lines:
“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, to change
the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference”.
The Serenity Prayer so efficiently encompasses the message of Stoicism, that
it might have been engraved over that porch in the agora by Zeno himself!
Similarities between Zen Buddhism and Stoicism are also quite striking. For
example, the emphasis on mindfulness (being in the present moment) is a
central feature in both systems, as well as detachment toward the elimination
of the suffering caused by anxiety, grief, fear, and worry. Both Stoicism and
Buddhism posit an increase of virtue through meditation and subsequent
analysis. Essentially, these systems are strikingly similar and a detailed
exploration of their equivalencies would serve as a useful exercise to increase
your knowledge and understanding of Stoicism’s aims.
Through your life and the way you live it, others will see you as someone
worthy of trust and emulation. By modeling the Stoic philosophy, you will
draw others toward its benefits and in so doing, increase the practice of
personal accountability and the increase of virtue through mindful
detachment from temporal affairs.
A Stoic leader, it should be noted, stands with and not above those he leads.
Leadership is, above all, servanthood and servanthood is an ontology of
sacrifice to others. It’s not authority. Authority is bowed to. Leadership is
lived out in equality and radical community which acknowledges the
personal accountability of each person. Leadership is humble, willing, and
available to help point the way forward, but never by fiat or coercion.
Leadership is exemplary and suggestive. It shows others what a well-formed
human being consists of and how that human being behaves when placed in a
leadership position. Stoic leadership, then, is dedicated to the betterment of
others by way of the demonstration of the value of virtue as the goal of a life
well-lived.
Chapter 7: Does Stoicism Matter Today?
How many people share Facebook status updates telling anyone who cares to
read them what they ate for lunch? How they’re feeling in any giving
moment? Rants of a highly personal nature appear on Facebook as people
vent their negative emotions. Those emotions have to go somewhere, so why
not Facebook – in front of millions of people!
Stoicism offers us a way out of our self-obsessed, fearful addiction to giving
in to our emotions. Posting a status update is an action that arises from
thoughts, which turn to emotions and become an action we may well regret
later. It seems the world is longing for a retreat from the realm of the duck-
lipped selfie, the overwrought Facebook self-revelation, the obsessive texting
on our omnipresent prosthetic, the mobile device. Stoicism represents just
such a retreat.
The Global Village
Technology may have brought us closer together in terms of communication
and travel over enormous distances, but the world’s new smallness also
seems to have given rise to an unfortunate tendency to tribalism.
Recent events in the USA are a good example. The increase in xenophobic
sentiment, fueled by the rise of ISIL in the Middle East and the terrorist
attacks in Paris, has opened a can of tribalistic worms which is not making
life on earth any easier. Presidential candidates fan the flames, making hatred
based on religion popular in a way it hasn’t been since the days of the Third
Reich.
In such times, a philosophy that rejects tribalism and calls people together
under the auspices of the Divine reason at the center of the universe is more
than welcome.
Stoicism is, in fact, the first philosophy known to have actively fostered
universal acceptance of people unlike ourselves. Philanthropia (brotherly
love) originated in Stoicism. When practiced intentionally, as a way of life,
the concept of accepting others as they are (because we can’t and don’t have
the right to change them) and living in peace with them is a powerful one.
This idea has untold resonance in our times of division, hatred, racism, and
xenophobic fear of “the other.”
Chapter 8: What Stoicism Helps You With
Stoicism is a way of life. It’s a way into yourself and your way of interacting
with the world and with others.
Human beings are vice- and neuroses-riddled creatures, prone to all manner
of mischief and destructive behavior. It’s clear that mischief and destruction
aren’t the best way to live a happy life, so having the ability to modulate our
vices and behaviors is both beneficial and necessary. Self-mastery allows us
to work toward such modulation of our vices or neurotic responses and thus
better manage our presence in the world.
Stress
Stress is an unfortunate feature of modern life. It affects us all to some
degree. But stress is a reaction to our emotions, as they arise from our
thoughts, and anxiety is where it’s born. Anxiety is a state of extreme worry
(even obsession) about contingencies that may or may not happen. Anxiety
can also be rooted in past events that we haven’t made peace with.
Many people spend a great deal of time wrestling with anxiety about any
number of things. When will the electricity bill come and will the money be
in the bank to pay it? Is my wife/husband/girlfriend/boyfriend cheating on
me? Am I going to lose my job? Am I going to get sick? Sometimes our
anxiety stems from a realistic concern. Often, though, anxiety results from an
irrational fear of the unknown. Anxiety can prey on people’s minds to the
point where they have to be medicated to reduce its deleterious effect on their
lives.
But anxiety can also be induced by our media-saturated lives. All around us
are messages about not being good enough, not having the right stuff (or
enough of it), not having enough money, terrorist attacks, burglaries, rapes,
murders, and other mayhem that fills the coffers of media giants. Our fear is
what generates the money in those coffers. Like a perpetual train wreck,
information comes at us in big, scary, moving pictures, prompting us to lock
our doors against the rising tide of evil and insanity all around us, threatening
to climb in our windows in the dark of night.
Indifference to judgment applies to many other areas, but the 21st Century’s
focus on consumerist models of perfection presents judgments based on
superficial beauty as a good example. You are not subject to the judgments of
others, because you are indifferent to them. The judgment of others is an
external factor that doesn’t impact your inner life. You’re not attached to it
because you can’t change it. You can only choose not to be affected by it.
Modeling self-mastery of the passions, mean not losing your temper. That’s
the result of managing the thoughts and their emotional offspring that lead to
you losing it. Anger is a big one. It’s the one that’s most likely to boil over
and burn everyone in the immediate vicinity and Stoicism knows that this is
true. The mastery of emotions leading to displays of rage and anger should be
at the top of your list of goals as a Stoic, because such displays stay in
people’s minds for a very long time and can create needless suffering.
Worry
Worry is common to us (especially those of us who are mothers). But it has
absolutely no purpose. All worry does is affect your sleep, your health, and
your peace of mind. It changes nothing. All it does is make you unwell.
Pretending you’re not subject to worry is not useful, because taking this
position does nothing to address the negative impact of the worry that is
actually there. Rather, it’s important to defuse the worry by analytically
working through the issue you’re worried about. Asking yourself the right
questions and then resolving to file the problem under “things you can’t
change” is the right answer. It’s the Stoic answer. You cannot change the
outcome. You can only change the input and that is your thinking around the
source of your worry and the emotional offspring of that thinking.
Today’s Stoics (like the philosopher, Pagliucci) often put this meditational
tool into practice, but note that it’s recommended only for those who are able
to confront some of the more disturbing aspects of visualizing the worst that
might happen. Being prepared not to obsess about the scenarios you’re
visualizing is key to the method’s success and, if you’re not ready to go there,
it’s suggested you don’t. You are the best judge of your readiness to employ
it.
Insecurity
You could well say that insecurity is one of the most virulent diseases of
modern life. The world is full of other people, competing for the same jobs,
the same lifestyle, and the same positions at universities. Many of us live in a
state of precocity occasioned by globalization and its reduction of available
jobs. There are thousands of people out there doing the same job you are,
making the same moves, and on the same life trajectory. Just the thought of
all those unknown competitors can make people feel insecure and doubt their
ability to stay on course – even their ability to keep their jobs, their homes,
and their lives as they know them.
But Stoicism teaches that outcomes are indifferent and that the significance
we attach to them is really a product of our thoughts. When we see outcomes
as possibilities that have no particular value, except what we might learn
from them, they stop being important. The wisdom that Stoicism propagates
assists people in developing not just self-confidence, but also indifference. So
even if there are a hundred people in the race for a desired job, the Stoic will
not be bothered and continue doing what he does, with no attachment to the
outcome. There is no insecurity, because there is no attachment to the
outcome. If the Stoic gets the job – great! If the Stoic doesn’t get the job –
also great!
Throughout this book, we’ve reminded you of the Stoic prescription to accept
those things you can’t change and to change what you can: your internal life
and the emotions that guide your responses to external factors. Your fate,
while perhaps determined, is impacted by the manner in which you approach
what’s ahead and faces you in this very moment. Your command of the
moment and your mindfulness about how you are active in it are where your
free will meets your destiny. It’s the part that’s completely under your
control. You, however, do not control the universe, so disappointment is an
emotion that not only doesn’t serve you, but fails to acknowledge that you’re
disappointed about things you can’t change. Transforming disappointment
into acceptance is powerful, as it lifts up your life as a resilient one, able to
know happiness when others are miserable because of life’s little smacks in
the face.
So no matter what the situation or outcome is, it’s what it is. Only your input
matters. Only your response matters. Disappointment is suffering, and
indulging it fails to move you along the path toward your goal of enhanced
virtue.
Chapter 9: How to be a Stoic
By now, I’m sure you understand what Stoicism is all about and what impact
it can have on the life of someone who follows its precepts. In this chapter,
we look at how you can become a Stoic practitioner.
Read
The very first thing you should do is to read as extensively as possible on the
topic. This will help you understand the scope and evolution of Stoicism and
what to expect should you decide to adopt the Stoic philosophy. Apart from
this book, you should read other books and articles on the subject to acquaint
yourself with what Stoicism is and what it has to offer you. You must
understand the views of each of the early Stoics to know how you can adopt
the philosophy in order to lead a better life. Understanding not only the
foundational aspects of Stoicism, but also its evolution through time, is
important to gaining a thorough understanding of the philosophy.
Greater Understanding
Once you are acquainted with the Stoic philosophy, you should analyze it
from all angles and ask yourself how you might contemporize it to the
realities of your life. Similarly, don’t blindly accept what you’re told by
others about Stoicism. In the Stoic tradition, that responsibility lies with you
and no one else. You need to apply your own thoughts and understand the
philosophy from your own, unique perspective. Even if you have conflicting
thoughts, it’s important that these factor into your understanding. There is no
use adopting a philosophical guideline for living that’s deposited and not
properly understood by you, the practitioner. Blind adherence is the antithesis
of Stoicism, which lifts up personal accountability and self-reflection as core
values.
Company on the Journey
It is always a good idea to have a partner in exploration. That means you
might want to find a friend who’s also interested in Stoicism to come with
you on the journey. This can be your partner, a sibling, a friend, or a relative.
An adventure with a friend is a lot more fun, to be sure. Having a sounding
board to share thoughts and ideas with is always useful. Talking to someone
else about your studies will also further motivate you to take the subject
seriously and explore it in detail.
Way of Life
Being interested in philosophy and taking it on as a lifestyle are two different
things. While each is worthy in and of itself, it’s important that you decide
early on what you want to do with what you’re learning. As an interest,
Stoicism is an important area of philosophy, worthy of study. As a lifestyle,
it’s a life-changing exploration of who you are and what you’re doing in the
world. Seeking is just as valid as practicing, as all learning (in the Stoic
tradition) is good learning. In between those two possibilities, there’s
dabbling, which may just be a waste of time for you, as this is not a pop
psychology alternative. This is the real thing – philosophy as a way of life.
No Zealotry, Please
Remember to always do everything in moderation. Zealotry is not virtuous
and it will not help you get where you’re going. The enthusiasm of
“converts” is often short-lived, with the demands of life-changing disciplines
losing their shine as their demands become more apparent with time. Take
your time with approaching what represents a shift in the way you plan to
live your life. Set yourself monthly and weekly goals and follow a plan for
your development. Move to the next goal only after you have attained the
previous one and aim high each time, but don’t overshoot. Don’t feel
pressured to get to where you want to go overnight. The zeal of the “convert”
can be heartwarming and even inspiring, but spiritual burnout is a loss for
everyone, especially you.
Join a Group
You can choose to join a Stoicism study group. This will help you get a better
insight into the philosophy and how it can manifest in your life. You can
interact with both experienced and new practitioners and understand Stoicism
in a deeper way. You can look for a group in your area and join with like-
minded people in your stoical explorations. Check online for groups in your
area. If you don’t find one, you may want to start one yourself.
Everyday Practice
As with any life practice that you hope can improve the way you move
through the world, your daily practice is the key to success in knowing
growth. It should be the center of your life, as its impact on your life and how
well you live it depends on your dedication. Rome wasn’t built in a day (or
Athens, for that matter), so be kind to yourself, acknowledge you’re in the
midst of a growth project, and take your time getting to know and understand
the philosophies you’re applying to your daily life.
Meditation
Meditation is a great way to focus on the principles of Stoicism and has
always been prescribed as a support to its practical application. Pursuing
meditation along Stoic lines will help you absorb the lessons you’re learning
and move you forward. While this may seem odd at the beginning and
somewhat foreign to you, daily attempts will make it easier every day.
Chapter 10: The Relevance of Stoicism in the
Modern Day
This is because, while civilization has advanced, society has not. We have
developed advanced medicines that have made the likelihood of dying of
disease far lower than it used to be only a century ago. We now travel in
efficient machines at unbelievable speeds.
Yet, for all of these technological advancements, our mentalities have not
progressed much further beyond what they used to be. We still face problems
in our daily lives. Although the nature of these problems might be vastly
different from those experienced by people living in Ancient Greece, we still
deal with these problems in largely the same ways.
What follows is a list of five basic arguments that posit how Stoicism and
modern life are fully compatible.
The World is Still a Difficult Place to Live In
War and violence continue to plague the world. Refugees number in the
millions. Climate change drives people from their homes as the glaciers melt,
the oceans rise, and catastrophic weather events destroy entire cities.
We’ve been at war with each other since Cain killed his own brother. In fact,
the Biblical flood was occasioned by the increase of violence on the face of
the earth. God simply got fed up with it! In the midst of terrible violence,
ideologies about how to cope with them are born. Systems of dealing with
hardship can only occur after hardship has been experienced. They arise
naturally as a way of helping us understand the world, its unpredictability and
how we should respond to its many challenges.
The same is true of Stoicism. Created in the wake of Alexander the Great’s
bloody conquest of Asia, Stoicism arose as the result of Greek civilization’s
unwelcome involvement in the violence and upheaval of the times. A great
deal of suffering was experienced by the people of Greece and this molded
the very ideology this book is dedicated to.
Hence, Stoicism was made in a war-torn time very similar to our own. We
have become dichotomous in the way we react to trauma in that we either
grieve with abandon or we repress what we are feeling and retreat within
ourselves.
Stoicism was born in the crucible of a war-torn time very similar to our own.
As the people of Athens did in their time, we respond to trauma and chaos by
either repressing our emotions, or completely breaking down. Stoicism
offered the people of Athens a better way of organizing their thoughts,
toward an emotional mastery that increased their resilience in the face of
catastrophic events.
This is another aspect of that time period that makes it similar to our own.
Stoicism’s answer to the xenophobia that can result from cross-cultural
exposure (due to the innate human tendency to indulge in tribalism) was
philanthropia. Now, as in those times, this principle can help salve a
troubled, angry, and violent world.
One of the core tenets of Stoicism is acceptance. This means that the Stoics
of Ancient Greece accepted those who were different from them as a
philosophical imperative. Stoicism can thus serve a very useful purpose in
modern society, where we are faced with such a diverse panorama of human
life. Philanthropia and the practice of accepting life and people as they are
promise a better foundation for society than the one we’re currently working
with. For example, the response to the Syrian refugees, which has caused
such an eruption of xenophobia globally, would be very different were Stoic
principles to be applied.
To be able to love one’s fellow man and accept humans the way they are is a
truly admirable quality, and is universal regardless of what era you are living
in. Stoicism, in teaching acceptance, precludes xenophobic responses to the
“Other” in our midst, commanding that we extend brotherly love to all we
encounter. In a world grown so small, this seems to be an imperative we can
no longer ignore.
Stoicism Is Compatible with Modern Religion
A common argument against the integration of Stoicism into modern society
is that it is a dead philosophy. What critics don’t seem to realize is that
Stoicism continues to live in the world’s religions and political systems. Its
influence continues to inform people all over the world in these areas and
others.
If we take the top four religions of the world, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism,
and Judaism, we find that they all have multiple connections to Stoicism.
Judaism was heavily influenced by Greek philosophy, as was its offshoot
Christianity (something we’ve already discussed in some detail). Islam was
greatly influenced by both Christianity and Judaism. In the pages of the
Qu’ran, we find almost precisely the same account of Joseph and the wife of
Potiphar, for example. In Hinduism, the cardinal virtue of equanimity is
highly regarded also. When Alexander of Macedon reached India, his people
were introduced to the Hindu concept of peace and serenity through
meditation. This concept reverberated through the academic elite of Ancient
Greece, who called on it as a Stoic practice.
The common thread among all of these religions is that they all essentially
preach love of mankind. Their main tenet is the concept of brotherly love;
that each human being is intimately connected to the other and intrinsically
valuable. Additionally, all modern religions preach that humans should
control their most basic urges. To give in to these urges is to relinquish
something that sets the human animal (according to Marcus Aurelius,
himself) apart: our reason. The abandonment of self-control makes beasts of
human and leads to suffering, violence, and chaos. It’s for good reason that
the mastery of emotions and actions is a commonly held tenet of all world
faith systems.
With the influence that Greek philosophy has had on the religions of the
world, you can be sure that if you practice a religion, you will be applying the
tenets of Stoicism as part of that practice. With love for one another being
such a common theme in every religion, you can be sure that applying
Stoicism to your daily life will seem completely natural and complementary
to your existing practice. Adding the principles of Stoicism to your religious
practice will deepen and enrich your understanding of your faith.
The Universal Stoic Soldier
The way of the military is the way of discipline. To live in the manner that
the men and women of the military do is to embody many of the central ideas
of Stoicism. Living life with such immense discipline allows you to take
control of your thoughts, your emotions, your actions, and your focus. The
military ideology incorporates exercise, early days, and hard work. A good
soldier goes to the field of battle knowing it’s very possible that he will die or
be wounded. This thought he controls. He doesn’t allow it to guide his
emotional response to the prospect of battle. He marches through his feelings
with courage, as though it was just another day. He understands that the
battle, even the war, may be lost. He detaches himself, putting one foot in
front of the other, dedicated to being where he’s needed.
Stoicism arose as a part of the outfall of the learning experience the Greeks
underwent, following one of the most brutal and extensive military
campaigns in the history of the ancient world. It was inevitable that the
precepts of Stoicism would encompass the ideal traits of the warrior, set
against the backdrop of recent history.
Ancient Greek society was arranged in such a way that upward mobility was
rather difficult to achieve in any meaningful way. The only way to get rich
was to be born that way. Criminality was the only other avenue, but would
not gain the criminal status or power.
Stoicism challenged the rigid hierarchical order of Greece, claiming that all
had access to reason and thus, virtue. It also democratized philosophical
thought, bringing Stoicism and its precepts into the midst of the agora, the
heart of Athenian society. Making philosophy available to people outside the
favored privileged upper echelons gave all those willing to listen the
opportunity to learn a way to form themselves differently; to aspire to a richer
inner life. It may not have enabled the poor to climb out of their financial
circumstances or social profile, but it provided a way to deal with those life
circumstances philosophically.
Of all of the areas of modern society that Stoicism can help one deal with,
none is perhaps as significant as the world of the entrepreneur, an individual
who creates and develops businesses primarily as an independent.
This world, filled to the brim with unimaginable stress and hardship, requires
a great deal of Stoicism. This chapter has been designed to describe in detail
how you can apply Stoicism in your life an entrepreneur and become better at
pursuing your entrepreneurial dreams.
Stoicism Allows You to Filter Your Thoughts
If you are an entrepreneur, you already know that the average workday of an
entrepreneur encompasses a wide variety of different tasks. The nature of
these tasks can be so diverse that an entrepreneur often ends up getting lost in
all of the noise, unable to decide what to work on or what needs to be worried
about.
It’s easy to lose track of what’s important. Stoicism allows you to run your
thoughts through a strainer, in order to see what’s really crucial and in need
of your attention over the course of your busy days.
Stoicism and its analytical aspects can help you calmly and objectively
analyze all the facts in play and make decisions that are sound, well-
informed, and effective.
Stoicism Gives You Patience
The curse of the entrepreneur also happens to be one of the most valuable
aspects of the entrepreneurial personality: impatience. An entrepreneur needs
things to happen quickly, to allow them to keep moving. They’re people of
action.
But not everything happens at the speed we’d prefer. Some things need time
to ripen so that they’ll be as successful as they possibly can be in terms of
your operation and its needs. Many entrepreneurs don’t like to wait, and their
impatience leads to them rushing processes that would have been better left
to chug along at their own pace.
Stoicism facilitates the building of a patient psyche that allows the modern
entrepreneur to sow seeds and wait for them to grow and bear fruit that has
been given adequate time to ripen.
The entrepreneurial Stoic will be able to patiently wait for the fruits of his
labor and, in the bargain, address other tasks while that’s happening. Patience
is a virtue and virtue is what you’re after, right?
Stoicism Allows You to Enjoy the Present
We’ve established that entrepreneurs are impatient. They’re so focused on
their goals that they often don’t slow down long enough to take in the scenery
along the way. But here’s the thing: You’re living your dream. How much
more enjoyable would your life be if you could find a way to focus on the
journey and forget about the destination?
If you’re doing well, then what’s the rush? If it’s true that you love what
you’re doing, then why not enjoy it? Sometimes, entrepreneurs become
addicted to the challenge and fail to be truly mindful of the pleasure they’re
deriving from doing what they do. The Stoic practice of mindfulness and
being present in the moment can help entrepreneurs with this tendency.
Practicing Stoicism can make your life as an entrepreneur less stressful, more
intentionally focused and less harried. You’re a human being. You need to
live a life which is not solely concerned with your enterprise. While your
complete attention to it may be required at times, that can’t be the totality of
your life. Life is short and the roses to smell are many. Take the time.
The most important thing you’re going to realize, if you apply Stoicism to
your entrepreneurial efforts, is that you are already right where you’re
supposed to be. You are living your dream and you’re living the life you want
for yourself, doing what you truly love. There’s something to be said for that
and Stoicism will help you name it, claim it, and live it every day with
mindful intention.
Stoicism Helps You Remain Original
One major stumbling block that many entrepreneurs encounter is the inability
to be original. Entrepreneurs carry their mentor’s interests and worldview
with them more than many of them know and they permit these to color their
own creative efforts.
We get so used to imitation - something that is far easier than true originality
- that being original might seem an alien concept to us. That's why we see
product and service duplication in the marketplace. Formulaic answers to
consumer needs are easier, by far, than applying original solutions to those
needs.
As a result of this objective analysis, original ideas will start coming to you
more frequently. You will be able to compartmentalize your thoughts in such
a way that you can sift your thoughts and your daily task schedule more
efficiently. This will allow you to be more efficient in your creative process
also, and bring forth original ideas instead of recycling formulaic models that
fail to set you apart as the entrepreneurial standout you are.
Stoicism Helps You Deal with the Possibility and Occurrence of Failure
A true entrepreneur takes risks. In order to acquire the maximum return, the
maximum risk must be taken. As a result, entrepreneurs experience a lot of
failure over the course of their careers.
Instead of crumpling into a heap, you will be able to unpack what led to the
failure in question, analyze it, learn from it, and keep going. Each failure
increases the possibility of success for your next attempt, because having
failed, you’re aware what you need to do and not do, next time. Stoicism
allows you to see failure as a learning opportunity and gift.
Chapter 12: How Stoicism Can Make You Happy
Finding a common thread in human nature can be tricky, but if you had to
pick one thing that every single person on this planet wants, it is that they
want to be happy.
Reaching a state of contentment with the reality of life and all it entails is a
fundamental value in Stoicism. Once contentment has been achieved, you
will find that happiness is only a step away. From all you have learned about
Stoic philosophy in the pages of this book, you can learn to be content with
what is and from that contentment, derive happiness.
This chapter is all about how these concepts can work within the context and
concept of happiness for the modern human being. The various aspects of
Stoicism that can contribute to happiness are mentioned here, along with
descriptions of what aspect of Stoicism each benefit is derived from.
Stoicism Allows You to Rationalize Death
The concept of death is scary, and is possibly one of the only fears that can be
considered universal.
We all fear our lives ending, even though every single one of us is aware that
death is inevitable. People in the West have a particularly strained
relationship with death, preferring that it not be spoken of or thought about.
This is a very unhealthy approach to death. It’s just another phase of life and
exists as part of life in every cell of our perishable bodies.
Stoicism counsels that all people should become intimate with death,
allowing it into their lives, in its rightful place. Death is universal and
completely beyond your ability to control, which means that worrying about
it is a waste of time. Better that you should invite it in, ask it to take a seat,
and take a good long look at it. Death as a friend is much less frightening
than death as a shadowy unknown. Making friends with death is a way for
you to more fully enjoy life in the moment, in all its unpredictable glory.
Stoicism Helps You Deal with Suffering
Just like death, suffering is an inevitability of human life. We go through
pain, we suffer hardships, and through it all we accumulate mental baggage
that can cause depression and unnecessary further suffering.
One thing many of us don’t realize is that much of our suffering comes not
from events themselves, but how we deal with those events. Our thoughts and
emotions are the root cause of suffering. They determine our response to it
and that is something we have a choice about.
This is one major aspect of life that following the ideals of Stoicism can help
you with. Since Stoicism’s most important feature is the control of our
emotions, suffering loses its power over us when we practice it intentionally,
with a view to managing our responses.
This can lead to a great deal of unhappiness, because you may, at some point,
need to examine some of your beliefs, even those you hold onto with all your
heart. Life can make a fool of you and prove that your dearly held opinions
are no longer valid, from an objective standpoint. As we live, we grow and
Stoicism demands an open mind to examine ourselves and to arrive at an
understanding of the value of our opinions and beliefs.
The beauty of Stoicism is that it allows you to confront the truth in all things.
This includes the truth of the things that surround you but, more important, it
includes the truth about yourself. Stoicism promotes applying reason to our
beliefs, and one’s personal beliefs are not exempt from that reason, as you
determine the quality of your life, under the Stoic aegis.
As a Stoic, you will be able to discover whether the things you believe are
truly worth believing in, because the principles of Stoicism have been
designed to facilitate the understanding of the logic that lies behind beliefs
and ideology. By unearthing the logic behind your beliefs, you will be able to
see the heart of the matter and question the validity of your beliefs.
To see your opinions laid bare before you is a gift. It will show you whether
you are right to believe in them staunchly, or whether it would be better to
examine them through the faultless lens of reason. You will either discover
that your beliefs are built on the quicksand of prejudice, or perhaps that you
were right to hold them all along. Either way, you’ll be happier, having
objectively examined the basis for your beliefs.
Sometimes we hurt the people around us through actions we believe are done
in the name of God and therefore righteous. Such actions are more often done
in the name of religion than God, and Stoicism will allow you to see whether
performing these actions is just or not.
Stoicism Helps You Engage with the World
A major problem humanity has begun to face in this day and age is that we
are constantly hiding ourselves behind our screens, placating ourselves with
the illusion of connection while slowly forgetting what it is like to truly
connect with another human being.
There is nothing wrong with being an introvert. If you are the kind of person
who does not wish to interact much with people, that is perfectly within your
rights. However, a frequent problem is that we become so introverted that we
cut off real connection with other people altogether. Instead of finding
connection with other people, we find it in our mobile devices.
By practicing Stoicism, you will be able to get over your fear of what other
people think of you. By the same token, you’ll be freed from the human
tendency to judge others. You will be able to enjoy other people for what and
who they are, because you’re enjoying yourself in the same way. The ripples
flow outward.
Stoicism Allows You to Enjoy What You Have
Humanity’s perpetual dissatisfaction with its current state has long been a
popular topic of philosophical debate. It is both the impetus for our most
astounding innovations and the cause of our most deeply rooted sense of
unhappiness: the longing to attain the highest level of our human potential.
You will have noticed this in yourself as well. One of the biggest reasons that
you are unhappy is that you don’t like where your life is at the moment. You
might even have noticed that there is no change you can make in your life
that will make you happy. In whatever way you choose to live your life, you
are going to be unsatisfied and that compels you to seek change for the better.
But it’s not your fault. This longing for improvement is an evolutionary
feature that has been put in place to facilitate constant innovation, which
leads to human evolution and development. However, the discontented nature
of human existence is a feature of our race that holds it back. Regardless of
our achievements, the quest for happiness never seems to meet its end.
By practicing Stoicism, you will gain the ability to see that wherever your life
is, it is where it is supposed to be. If there are areas that require improvement,
as a Stoic you will be automatically drawn toward improving them as an
outgrowth of your practice. Once you have achieved your optimum self,
Stoicism will allow you to feel contented and sated by the quality of your life.
Stoicism Allows You to Be Virtuous
We live in one of the most morally compromising periods in history. It is
perhaps unique that we live in a time in which we are simultaneously more
aware of the rights of others and, at the same time, are more willing than ever
to ignore these rights in order to secure better lives for ourselves, at the
expense of others.
Indeed, the standard of living in the past century, particularly in the last two
or three decades, has gone up considerably, to the point where we are able to
enjoy luxuries that people in the past could never have imagined, and we look
at these luxuries as just standard parts of human existence – even as our
rights and entitlements.
However, this comes at a cost to others, which is why, no matter how much
we have, we remain unhappy. This is probably why depression and mental
illness has become so prevalent in recent years. We’re aware, at least on
some level, that our abundance is had at the cost of the discomfort and
suffering of others.
By applying the principles of Stoicism, you will be able to see that what you
are doing is making the world a worse place to live. The instinctive sadness
inherent in living a life that you know is costing other people their quality of
life is your conscience telling you that you need to live a more virtuous life; a
life in which your happiness is not achieved to at the expense of others.
Once you have arrived at this level of understanding and mindfulness, you
WILL be able to change your life for the better and, in the process, begin
living a more virtuous and happy life.
Stoicism Allows You to be Happy without Consuming
In this day and age, we live in a way that humanity has never lived before.
For a lot of people, the problems of hunger and day-to-day safety no longer
apply. If you are reading this book, you probably live in an area of the world
that is more or less free of war and violence. You are also probably never
going to go hungry in your life, and you probably have access to incredible
luxuries (such as technology) that allow you to control the temperature of
your home, choose where you live, what you eat, and what you spend your
“disposable income” on. These are luxuries that continue to elude many in
the world.
This makes you very different from humans who lived not too long ago. Even
two centuries ago, the main goal in almost everyone's life was to secure a safe
environment for themselves and for their loved ones and to be able to keep
themselves free from hunger. That’s because the world used to be a lot more
violent before laws were put in place to protect civilians.
Luxuries such as the technology you have access to that alters the
temperature of the room you are sitting in were unheard of. The best you
could hope for was a fire to warm you at night. Maintaining that fire would
have required a significant amount of work on your part.
Even amenities that you don’t think of as luxuries (such as hot water that
flows from a tap with a simple twist) were considered precious and reserved
only for the rich. To have a tub of hot water was a real treat, and you
absolutely could not waste a single drop of that water because it would take a
long time to heat more of it. To have a device that constantly sprays you with
a stream of hot water would have been a luxury that even a King would not
have been able to afford only a hundred years ago.
Yet, despite all these luxuries, the vast majority of people are not happy.
That’s because we’ve been taught that the only way we can ever really be
happy is to purchase, consume, and then rinse and repeat.
This is a rather sinister trick that the elite have played on us. They have
created holes within us and have told us that we need to buy things in order to
fill these holes. There was a time when we were told that we all had a “God-
shaped hole.” We’re now told that we have a “product-shaped hole,” as
consumer culture has supplanted the life of introspection and contemplation
that was once considered a value for human beings to seek out.
The problem is that we only briefly fill the emptiness within us by consuming
what corporations have to offer. Once the high of the acquisition has worn
off, we revert to the sadness that has become the norm these days, which
results in us feeling the need to consume once again. It’s a vicious cycle that
spares no one in these times.
You already know how you can circumvent the stress of modern life by
applying the principles of Stoicism, but the benefits of practicing Stoicism
extend far beyond these basic concepts of stress relief.
It’s a commonly known fact that humans don’t use even two-thirds of our
brains, even when they’re functioning at maximum capacity. This means that
we have an incredible potential to grow our mental prowess by accessing
parts of the brain we don’t currently use to their full potential right now.
Whereas, you might not currently have access to more than 30 to 33% of
your brain, by applying the principles of Stoicism, your brain’s capacity,
through the adherence to its self-reflective prescriptions, will grow
exponentially. This significant boost in brainpower will allow you to more
fully realize your human potential.
With this increase in intelligence, you are also going to develop a more
receptive personality, in terms of happiness and understanding its deep
presence in your life. A deeper understanding of how things work will allow
you to enjoy life without worrying about matters you don’t understand and
can’t control. This will contribute significantly to your overall happiness.
Stoicism Allows You to Block Out What Other People Think
One of the most significant roadblocks to happiness is the fear of what other
people will think about you. Social anxiety is extremely common these days,
and it ends up making us avoid the things we really want to do.
By worrying about what other people think of us, we stop ourselves from
ever being truly happy. We start to work toward what other people think we
should do, and this is one of the worst things that we can do for ourselves.
The influence of others' opinions can be corrosive and essentially destructive
in the pursuit of peaceful living. What others think of us has absolutely no
significance.
People are perpetually unhappy, which means that they are never going to be
happy with you. If you spend your life trying to please people, trying to live
the way other people want you live, you are never going to achieve any
meaningful level of happiness in your life. They are not living your life. You
are living your life. The opinions of other people are external to your
happiness and completely irrelevant.
Instead of trying to be the way other people want you to be, you need to start
living the way you deserve to live: by being who you want to be. This way,
the only person you will have to satisfy is yourself, significantly reducing the
potential for suffering.
By pursuing Stoicism, you will be able to ignore what other people think,
because you will have instilled in yourself the ability to reject the external
stimuli that provoke suffering. A Stoic understands the true meaning of
happiness, and the true value of self-worth. Once you start valuing your self-
worth over what other people say about you, you will start experiencing true
happiness in a way that you never believed possible. In Stoicism is the ability
for you to detach from the arbitrary opinions of those around us and to live in
the comfort of your own self-knowledge.
Stoicism Allows You to Offload Bad Habits
Have you ever noticed that moths are attracted to flames? You might find it
odd that a creature would be so enticed by something that can only offer it
destruction. However, if you think about it, people are not so different from
moths.
Cigarettes, drugs, alcohol, and junk food are all injurious to human health.
They offer temporary highs through their stimulation of chemicals in our
brains associated with sensations that mimic happiness, but they do not
provide long-term happiness. The high fades almost instantly, leaving you
wanting more.
This is how addictions are formed, and these addictions prevent us from
being happy because we are essentially slaves to something that we can’t
control in any way. And, when we can’t control factors in our lives, we
become the victims of suffering, anxiety, and regret and these are the
antithesis of the Stoic way.
Bad habits are short-term solutions, but Stoicism allows you to see the longer
view. It permits one the luxury of looking into the future in order to ascertain
the consequences of short-term, ersatz solutions to long-term happiness. The
beauty of Stoicism is that it allows you to see things as they truly are.
As a Stoic, you are not going to be fooled by something that makes you feel
good for a few fleeting minutes, hours, or even days. Stoicism will show you
that what you are feeling is temporal and temporality is not a value. It’s an
instant that will pass without edifying you. Stoicism will assist you in ridding
yourself of bad habits so that you can live a more fulfilling life; a life that
makes you happy in ways you never would have believed possible before
encountering this highly practical and fulfilling philosophy.
Stoicism Allows You to Be Selfless
One of the previous points in this list was that living for yourself is an
important part of being happy. People who demand things of you are not
worth your time, because they are simply projecting their own unhappiness
and dissatisfaction with life onto you.
However, the dynamic changes completely for people who truly love you.
You might want to do things for people you love but find yourself unable to
because you are too selfish. This is human nature, and this impulse is very
different from trying to please others in order to be happy.
By pleasing others for yourself, you are being selfish. However, being
selfless and acting for the happiness of others, without regard for your own
happiness, is a truly beautiful thing. It may seem like a rather odd way to be
happy in the short run, but the truth is that, in the long run, being selfless and
doing things for others is one of the most significant ways in which you can
attain happiness.
Being selfless means showing true love for other people. It allows you to
form much more stable and loving relationships in your life. As you already
know, truly connecting with other people is one of the best ways to be happy.
Caring for the welfare and wellbeing of others is a way to find happiness,
because it takes you out of yourself and your individualized needs.
As a Stoic practitioner, you will be able to see exactly where your happiness
ends and someone else’s begins. Stoicism will show you how you can be
selfless, but more importantly, it can also show you when to be selfless.
Being selfless for the right people is an important element of the discernment
that comes with Stoic practice. Continued and intentional Stoic practice will
lead you to an understanding of precisely when it’s appropriate to model
selflessness and prevent the suffering that comes from being “the touch.”
Stoicism Allows You to Practice Being Happy
Unless you suffer from serious mental illness, one of the main keys to being
happy is deciding that this is how you’re going to be. Too often, people deny
themselves happiness because they feel that they don’t deserve it. This is a
sad reality, as happiness is the birthright of all human beings.
The belief that we’re undeserving of happiness can come from a number of
sources, from self-pity to an innate feeling that happiness is beyond our
capacity. This effect can be attributable to any number of factors in our lives.
It is highly destructive to believe that one does not deserve happiness. Some
of us live with childhood trauma, the result of adults who took their
dissatisfaction with life out on us, leaving us feeling as though we were
deficient in some way. There are many other reasons, but the upshot is that
we are all born for the happiness of life, without exception. It’s our human
legacy.
An important part of being happy is practicing being happy. This may sound
odd, but if you understand the concept behind this technique, you will find
that it is indeed very useful, and can be effective if applied properly.
Practicing being happy means instilling in yourself the belief that happiness
is something you deserve. It involves realizing that the things people have
said to you in the past, things that may have made you feel unworthy of
happiness, are untrue. The best way to practice happiness is to apply the
principles of Stoicism, which will allow you to look at your situation
objectively. Once you begin doing this, you’ll find there is absolutely no
reason that you do not deserve to be happy.
We all deserve to be happy. It’s our birthright as human beings and the
ultimate reason for being alive. Life is happiness and Stoicism acknowledges
this reality by teaching practitioners to work around life’s difficulties
mindfully.
Stoicism’s Answer to Childhood Trauma
Another roadblock to happiness is childhood trauma. Childhood trauma
comes in many shapes and forms, the most obvious of which is abuse,
whether intellectual or physical. However, a single moment of abuse is not
the only thing that can stop you from being happy. Long periods of
continuous abuse while growing up can damage your psyche.
Unhappiness in your adult life might stem from the way you choose to deal
with this childhood trauma. A lot of people repress the memory of abuse, and
others might not believe that they have been abused at all. The latter of these
two strategies for dealing with childhood trauma stems from the fact that
society has a very specific view of what abuse is. If the abuse you went
through did not conform to what society classifies as genuine abuse, you
might not feel you’ve been abused at all. You might even feel that you’ve
imagined your abuse. You might even feel that the abuse you suffered is your
fault, which is even more damaging, as this belief can result in lifelong
dysfunction.
Stoicism can also help you unearth repressed memories from your childhood
and come to terms with them. Either way, Stoic practice can help you
overcome the long-term effects of childhood trauma. With the support of
therapy, you can start living a full and happy life, through the practice of
Stoicism.
Stoicism Allows You to Change Your Behavior
As a result of childhood trauma, a difficult life, or just certain aspects of your
personality, you might not have the ability to interact as well with others as
you would like. This is a polite way of saying that you might be abusive to
other people in some way, as an outgrowth of the abuse you have suffered
yourself. You may act out in social interactions, or with your family, in ways
you don’t completely understand. Stoicism can assist you by teaching you to
examine your motivations and get to the bottom of your behavior, finding the
root in trauma.
You are a human being with a conscience, after all, and although you might
lash out at people, chances are that you feel guilty about your behavior
afterwards. From a purely objective standpoint, you are affecting your own
happiness by preventing the people around you from being happy and from
interacting with you in a normative way.
Whether you realize your own abusiveness toward others or not, in such
situations it is very important that you apply the principles of Stoicism to
your life. It has already been established several times over in this book that
Stoicism allows you to objectively analyze every aspect of your personality.
This means that when you practice Stoicism, you will be able to realize rather
quickly whether the way you are behaving is acceptable or not. Realization is
half of the solution, but Stoicism doesn’t meet you halfway. Stoicism
provides a blueprint for life which is readily applicable in every context.
Once you have realized that you are being abusive toward the people you
love, Stoicism will allow you to change your behavior. Whenever you begin
to behave in a way that hurts others, as a Stoic practitioner, you will
immediately stop yourself and simply choose not to behave that way instead.
It is in this way that you will be able to achieve true happiness in your life.
Due to the introspective aspects of Stoicism, which call on practitioners to
create internal change over demanding external change, you will find that
your internal landscape creates space for the world around you to conform to
it.
The most important facet of this particular benefit that Stoicism provides is
that it allows you to make other people around you happy as well. By making
others happy you will create a positive environment for yourself. As with the
Butterfly Effect, you will see the ripples that originate as your internal
changes move outward in concentric circles that improve the context you’re
living in.
Stoicism Can Help You to Deal with Mental Illness
Mental illness is another roadblock to your happiness. Fundamentally, it’s
beyond your control. It is important to note that medical intervention is an
absolutely essential part of managing and even overcoming mental illness, as
such illnesses are caused by chemical imbalances in the brain, for the most
part.
The problem a lot of people face is that they are unable to maintain medicinal
and therapeutic prescriptions, which leads to relapse. This is often caused by
the mental illness itself, which can prevent sufferers from maintaining a
regular schedule. The erratic nature of mental illnesses thus makes it difficult
to achieve a sense of stability and happiness, even if professional help is
enlisted.
Another dearly held belief of Stoicism is that if you don’t know what your
purpose in life is and what you’re good at, what makes you happy, the entire
world is enabled to take a shot at you. You need to own your life. What are
you doing each day that aligns you with your calling in life? Are you taking
the right steps in that direction? What is your passion? What drives you?
What can you do without becoming bored? That is your calling. Stoicism
does not tell you what your purpose is; you need to figure that out by yourself
to become the person you want to be.
2. Maintain a Gratitude Record
Make a sincere point of expressing and feeling gratitude every day of your
life. Not just figuratively, but literally. Jot down experiences for which you
are grateful, for the positive circumstances you have enjoyed or the
benevolent attitudes you have encountered. As Stoicism teaches, we maintain
and gain serenity when we are aware of the inner pendulum at work. You
need to look around you and count your blessings. If you have food on your
table, a roof above your head, a family that loves you, if you are able to read
and write, if all your limbs are in perfect working condition – you can
consider yourself an extremely lucky person. You belong to a privileged class
of people. Learn to be grateful for these things. You did not earn them, you
did not ask for them, and you may not even deserve them, yet you enjoy
them. Many people in this world would love to take your place, as their lives
are not as blessed as yours is. So be grateful and work toward making the
world a better place with every small step you take.
3. Living with Boundaries
Don’t confuse boundaries with walls or enclosures that serve to isolate you
from society. Boundaries, in this context, mean limited resources at your
disposal, such as energy and time, and how best you can utilize them to your
advantage. You have to filter out the relationships, endeavors, and activities
which drain your energy and time, and instead focus on those which nourish
your equanimity and aid with your quest of seeking wellbeing and inner
peace. Don’t be ashamed to be selective. No external force or person or thing
can alter your inner being. And you are certainly not responsible for any of
them. Stoicism teaches that you can’t achieve inner peace by obeying every
wish and whim of other people or events. Stay true to yourself. Follow your
unique path. Know your bliss.
4. Disengage
Our tendency for attachment to people, places, and things, as well as life
situations, makes life difficult. In the long run, detachment from these factors
and realities will help you achieve inner peace. Because, according to
Stoicism, it is not the external factors that decide your happiness and
wellbeing, it is what you are inside. It’s imperative to understand that life can
be great even when we don’t get everything we want. Do you really need a
bigger house or car, or the latest gizmo on the market? Are you trying to
impress someone? If that is the cause of your behavior, then it will only
create a vacuum in your life. This is not the path to inner happiness. Of
course, when it comes to people and relationships, letting go is much harder.
But remember this - nothing in this world is permanent. Anything that is born
has to die. There are no guarantees in life except death (and maybe taxes).
Once we get this into our heads, we will be in a much better position to
appreciate what we have and to work toward enjoying it to the fullest.
5. Develop Resilience
What does resilience mean in terms of the challenges we face in the modern
world? Mental toughness, certainly. But we also need to be physically
resilient. With huge advances in transit, water systems, food, centrally heated
and cooled homes, people have become rather soft. We can’t imagine what
it’s like to live without any of the afore-mentioned luxuries. We need to get
out of our comfort zones and start doing something that will expose us to the
elements of nature. Go mow your lawn yourself or climb the stairs, or hike in
the wilderness. Developing physical as well as mental strength is one of the
keys to survival and certainly, one of the keys to happiness. How can we love
ourselves, if we are content to allow our bodies to turn to mush?
6. Your Life Is “on loan”
Life existed long before you were born, and it will continue to exist millions
of years after you die. You are but an extremely tiny speck in the grand
scheme of things. The universe doesn’t depend on your existence. So be
grateful for the life you currently have. Make the best of it. Develop your
inner peace and help others obtain theirs. Make sure your life is of a quality
by which your values and principles are remembered long after you’re gone
from the face of the earth. Make your life worth the space you take up on the
planet. Don’t just exist. Live!
Chapter 14: The Essence of Stoicism
- Certain things and events are not in our control, so it’s pointless to agonize
over them and to get agitated when they occur.
- Negative emotions and passions need to be eliminated from our
consciousness for the optimum chance at living a happy life.
True happiness, according to Stoic belief, arises from detachment. Freedom
from emotions, wealth, status, and negative thought processes translates into
real happiness and joy. Stoicism also places great importance on moral
development. Of what does moral development consist, exactly?
Moral Development
Okay, so we’ve been harping about how wonderful Stoicism is for our day-
to-day functioning, and adopting it as a path to gain insight into ourselves and
attain true inner happiness one day. But is there a flipside to this?
Studies done on emotion regulation and memory have brought new facts to
light. Those studies conclude that, while attempting to banish painful
thoughts and feelings from their mind, humans think twice. Instead of
completely discarding them from their lives, humans seek and adopt adaptive
strategies to deal with their pain. They might associate with people who have
had similar experiences or seek social support or conceal their true emotions
or engage in cathartic activities. Engaging in cathartic activities is another
coping mechanism.
But not all strategies are equal. Re-enacting the situation or reconstructing the
scenario might help somewhat. Others might take refuge in building
something with their hands, yet others might lock themselves up and refuse to
talk. Different emotional strategies have different impacts on cognitive
functioning, especially the memory. Stoicism values inner peace and
happiness, which are continually shattered by the coping mechanisms people
adopt.
Take Control
Decide to be unscathed by a problem or situation and you
will be unscathed. One of the stoical exercises was to flip
the problem on its head. Then every misfortune turns into a
good thing.
Stoicism, meaning the principles and beliefs that life should be focused on
self-enlightenment, fulfillment, betterment, and happiness via strong yet
simple values, and morals, has been around for centuries. Its conception, in
ancient times, came at a time when life was simpler, with fewer distractions.
Transformations and diversification throughout consistent evolution are
inevitably inspired by mankind as a whole. Our desire to learn more, build
more, make things bigger and better, and to be as educated, knowledgeable,
and forward-thinking as possible has changed life and the way it is lived in
ways that were inconceivable to humankind in the days when the Stoic way
of life began. The development of transportation, mass production, political
diversities, and modern technology has inspired and necessitated adaptations
to the initial paradigms associated with Stoic-based principles.
In this era that has embraced the "spare the rod, spoil the child" philosophy,
could it be that we are not only giving in to whims, overlooking bad
behavior, and rewarding mediocrity, but we are, in fact, praising our children
too much? Is it even possible to give a child too much praise?
In the past, Stoicism and the practices involving a person’s betterment have
supported a fundamental approach to praise. There are some historic figures
associated with Stoicism who would go so far as to insinuate that showing
undue praise could be frowned upon, as the following quote by Epictetus,
regarding the success of an individual practicing Stoicism, implies:
The question however, in terms of Stoic principles, is not really about giving
too much praise, but rather giving praise where and when it is due.
The premise, according to practicing Stoics, that a child needs to be told how
good at something they are or how smart they are in order to gain a high level
of confidence or self-worth is over-rated. By giving a generalized
compliment like “You are so good at math” or “you have such a natural talent
for sports” we may be encouraging a child to unintentionally internalize the
wrong message.
According to Stoic practice, instead of praising the child for each individual
scenario or accomplishment, we need to focus more on giving praise to the
process in which the child is involved in or practicing in the moment. This
makes the incident more a form of praising the child for taking on a project
with some level of difficulty, no matter whether new, difficult, simple, or
tried and failed. It enables the child to feel a sense of fulfillment at just
having made an attempt, trying various problem-solving techniques, showing
determination and motivation, and trying and perfecting until possibly
achieving success over time.
"Where did I go wrong? What did I do? And what duty’s left undone?"
From first to last review your acts and then
Reprove yourself for wretched acts, but rejoice in those well done.
The changes, advances, and complete over-use and consumption of all things
technology-related has not only made it more difficult to adhere to the basic
premise of Stoic beliefs and values, but it has made it virtually impossible to
keep a constant, committed sense of family, communication, and personal
boundaries for millions. While we may strive daily to encourage our children
to put down the phones and take off the headphones and BE PRESENT in
life, we find even ourselves falling victim to the constant need to feel
connected at all times.
The mentality of “Keeping up with the Joneses” or wanting to have the best,
fastest, newest, most recent piece of the technology pie has become so mind-
consuming and all-encompassing that it seems as if society may, at times,
almost view objects as more important or more necessary than human beings.
So, how do we use Stoicism and its principles to help us be less dependent on
our need to be connected to others and become more focused on being more
in tune with our own inner strengths, our own fulfillment, being more
centered, happy, and reflective? The answer is simple: We need to have the
self-discipline and determination to force ourselves and our loved ones to
take a few moments a day in which to DISCONNECT!
It is nothing to panic about and it is only temporary, but it is completely
necessary! Put down the cell phones, turn off the televisions, radios, iPods,
tablets, laptops, etc. If need be, just flip off the router that supplies your
family with its seemingly constant flow of worldwide internet. You will be
amazed how the simple act of turning that tiny little switch to ’off’ will get a
reaction from the entire family! You could spend hours trying to convince
your family to come to the family dinner table as soon as they "come to a
stopping point." It can go on for hours as we can all fall victim to just keep
going and going, forgetting the outside world, or the mom reminding you to
come out of your internet-induced haze, even exist.
In those few moments after taking the initiative to disconnect your family, by
whichever means you choose to utilize, they will all come out of their havens,
some confused by the lack of Wi-Fi, some actually squinting or rubbing their
eyes, in defense of the sudden introduction back into natural light.
Undoubtedly, someone may even be annoyed by the unexpected interruption,
as they were inevitably in the middle of the most important project, game,
conversation, or business call EVER. You can, however, rest assured that, if
you begin to incorporate this practice into your daily family and personal
routines, the initial adverse reactions will tend to minimize.
In this day and age, we quite often become upset at the way we are treated by
other people. This could be from others not saying thank you, not being
appreciative of something we’ve done from them, or even by being
physically assaulted or emotionally hurt.
When this happens, all you have to do is remind yourself of four questions
that are Stoic in nature. However, in order to get the most out of these
questions, it is important to have a crystal-clear awareness of the world.
When asked this question, Marcus Aurelius's answer was that we are made
for one another. A core belief of Stoicism is that the best way we can live is
by helping others. When we come into contact with other people, we should
do the right thing for them, even if they do not do the same for us.
If someone is upsetting you, try to understand what kind of person they are.
Marcus Aurelius breaks the question down into smaller parts: What has
caused them to behave in this way and how much does their pride play into
the act? Stoicism tells that people with negative information will make a
negative decision.
You should always look at yourself and ask this question. Although we may
not intend to, there are times when we make mistakes. We are human, after
all.
Aurelius tells us that many times things will happen for reasons that we can’t
understand at the time and we should have all the information at hand before
we judge someone else’s actions. Stoics will usually say that they don’t know
when it comes to the question, "Are they correct?" We cannot always be sure
about where we are on our own journey to virtue, so how can we know where
another person is on their journey?
Everyone makes mistakes. You do. I do. If you want other people to forgive
you when you make a mistake, isn’t it right to offer the same forgiveness to
others? Our time on this earth is fleeting; no one knows when we will die. Do
we really want to spend the time given to us in this world to be spent dealing
with anger, impatience and other negative emotions when instead you could
spend it happy? No, you shouldn’t.
You choose to carry on feeling bad. You will discover that it is our anger and
our crying over what other people say and do that is more damaging than the
actual reasons that made us feel bad in the first place! The hurt only continues
if you allow it to. Release the worry about what they say and do and focus on
your own actions and words.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that these kinds of scenarios will stop any
time soon. Marcus Aurelius told us that we should memorize these points but,
in today’s society, it may actually be easier to write them down in a notebook
or journal. If you find yourself upset with someone, or because of someone,
try bringing your notebook out and read these points. You will remind
yourself of the practical outcomes from living according to Stoic beliefs. If
you believe – honestly believe – that everyone is intended to come together,
working for the benefit of all of us, then you can’t work in contradiction of
this reality and still think that you are being rational.
Like taxes, death is inevitable. Are you prepared for when you will die? What
do you think about death, your own death, and what part does it feature
within your daily life?
No matter how much you avoid thinking about it, you will die. Your parents
will die, your children will die, your siblings, your colleagues, and even the
girl who serves you coffee in your favorite coffee shop will die. With life
comes death. The ancient Stoic philosophers understood the significance of
meditating on the thought of your own mortal demise, in order to challenge
the panic that the majority of humans feel when it comes to their deaths.
Epictetus tells that when Roman generals returned after their military
victories and during the celebrations, the slaves would whisper “memento
mori,” which means “remember that you will die,” so that the generals would
not get too above themselves. There were a number of other techniques that
Stoics implemented because they thought it was vital to conquer this dread
through self-control of longing and loathing.
Memento mori is a phrase which has been incorporated into many artistic
works, from Renaissance paintings to modern art. This simple phrase has
inspirational for many artists and non-artists around the world, calling to
mind a thoughtful or theoretical attitude regarding our lives and subsequent
deaths. This notion can be seen in many works of literature, including
Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, where the main character is visited by
three spirits, leading to his changing his moral personality. Indeed, this
conception of the inescapability of death can be found in many philosophies
right into modern times.
“I must die. If soon, then I die; whereas if a little later, I will take lunch now,
since the hour for lunch has come, and afterwards I will die at the appointed
time. How? As becomes the man who is giving back that which was
another’s” (Discourses, 1.1).
This quote from the Discourses states that it is natural for us to die; death is
part of nature, something that we borrow and then have to return after a
period of time. Death is something natural and as such, we should not worry
about it or see it as something out of the blue; rather, we should be ready long
before death comes to give up on life. This conception was quite popular with
many philosophy schools in the ancient world, even right up to the modern
era.
Epicurus said that it is good to learn how to die. Although it may seem a little
odd to learn how to do something that will only happen once, it is actually a
very good thing to practice. If you are practicing how to die then you are in
actual fact learning to free yourself. When you have learned how to face
death, then you have freed yourself from everything around you; what could
hurt you when you no longer fear the prospect of your own death? Fear is
what binds us, locks us away; fear is a prison, we allow it to lock us away
from enjoying life.
On the other hand, the concept of being unmoved by death is not adequate to
cause a personality or character transformation. The core values that make up
Stoicism are intended to be transformed into a conviction that calls for
persistent exercise on a day-to-day basis. From the moment we are born we
love life and as such it is understandable that we are scared of it coming to an
end. Yet Stoic beliefs tells us that we need to realize death in a more
reasonable way, which means that we need to overcome this notion of fear of
the unknown. As a result, Stoicism tells us that we should imagine our own
demise regularly, numerous times daily, in various ways and different stages
of our lives.
When you go to bed you should do it being appreciative for what you have.
Do you have a roof over your head, food in your kitchen, are you in good
health, do you have a job? When you wake up, be appreciative of that fact
that you have all these things; that your life is much happier than what other
people are experiencing right this moment. Live your life as if this was the
last day. Tell yourself that you will die tomorrow – what would you do? Will
you tell people that you love them? Will you tell people they have made a
difference to your life? Can you make a difference to someone else’s life,
even in a little way?
Final Word
After reading all this, a question may come to mind: Does practicing Stoicism
in real life actually work? Or is it just a theory, which has no use in practical
life? The answer lies in positive psychology, an upcoming branch of
psychology, which is extremely relevant today. It deals with providing a
scientific understanding of life and the manner in which we can continually
grow into better human beings. Positive psychology and Stoicism draw from
each other and incorporating these ideas will indisputably enrich your life.
Positive Psychology and Stoicism
Since its initiation, positive psychology has been one of the most actively
researched subjects, with numerous studies, books, and articles examining its
efficacy. Drawing on the wealth of knowledge it has accrued, positive
psychology has provided some important insights. Following are some of its
findings:
Positive emotions such as happiness, joy, pride, love, and contentment have
been proven to have positive effects on our health and longevity, altruism,
and creativity.
A positive attitude is the cure for many of our mental hang-ups. And it is
possible to cultivate this effect. Believing in and practicing hope, gratitude,
optimism, cheerfulness, and happiness has been found to increase one’s life
expectancy. A positive attitude also corresponds to enhanced levels of
academic performance, improved health, and greater resilience.
Each morning during the course of the study, an element of Stoic philosophy
was pulled up and discussed. Examples include “not worrying about things
outside our control” and “dealing with possible changes in our daily lives.” In
addition, a late evening session of meditation, wherein the day’s events were
discussed and analyzed using Stoic principles, was pursued by those involved
in the study.
Exercises using Stoicism were held each day among study participants.
Themes ranged from self-discipline, to simplicity, to inner happiness, to
emotions and adversity and philanthropy, and each of these was discussed at
length.
After the study was concluded, certain findings came to light. It was proved
that Stoicism is not dead in the modern world. It is still relevant. The group
reported significant increases in their satisfaction levels, positive emotions,
and happiness, and a considerable diminishment in the levels of their
negative emotions. The study proved that practicing Stoicism has a positive
effect on the lives of those who follow its precepts. Stoicism was shown to
increase contentment and happiness, and decrease anger, irritation, blame,
fear, and sadness. Values, morals, and virtues were all found to be enhanced
by the study of Stoicism. The group members all reported feeling better and
wiser after the study than before it.
The reason that Stoicism and positive psychology can co-exist is that they
function primarily on the same virtue-based philosophy. Stoicism teaches the
same values as positive psychology, as both require people to develop
virtues, morals and values, along with positive qualities and emotions, as
opposed to negative qualities. Both these schools of thought provide an
opportunity for people to develop wisdom, wellbeing, the feeling of brotherly
love toward others, and an overall optimistic attitude toward life.
Key Highlights
This book is only the beginning of your journey into the heart of Stoicism
and how it can help you improve the quality of your life. I offer this as a
signpost along the way; an introduction to an ancient philosophy that is
gaining new currency in the modern world. Stoicism’s answers, I believe, are
the right ones and I also believe that Stoicism offers a way forward for those
of us searching for a better way of living in an uncertain and unpredictable
world.
As we’ve reviewed in the pages of this book, Stoicism was inspired by the
philosophy of Socrates through the teaching of its founder, Zeno, based on
his theories about what he observed in the world around him. He saw that
people reacted emotionally to numerous situations and allowed their
emotions to get the best of them. He also saw that people had the tendency to
turn to the outside world for solace and an embrace (largely false) that might
solve their issues. He understood that doing so only exacerbates our
problems, sending people out into the world seeking solace, when they might
find it in themselves.
The theory of Stoicism has seen a lot of changes since Zeno introduced it to
the world and it was made into a rather adoptable theory by Seneca, who
massaged its teachings in order to allow more and more people to apply it in
their daily life. Modern-day Stoicism has spread worldwide and you would
be surprised to know just how many people are already staunch followers of
the Stoic philosophy. Try asking around and you will find out just how many
people you know who are already practicing Stoicism and its virtues on a
day-to-day basis and how many are keen on trying it out for themselves.
You will be a changed person once you commit to the practice of Stoicism
and become a more mature and understanding individual. It will not only help
you to change your perspective on life in general, but it will also teach you to
be indifferent toward things that are of no real use to you and things you’re
unable to change, by your efforts. You will be surprised to see how keeping
quiet instead of having an opinion about everything that goes on around you
can help you improve your life. By refraining from casting judgment, you can
improve your overall personality and also save a lot of time and effort on
your part. It’s doubtless that you’ll also be more well-liked. Just saying!
There are four main virtues of Stoicism that should be adhered to in order to
embrace it as a way of life. These virtues are - wisdom, courage, equanimity,
and self-control, which together form the cardinal virtues of Stoicism. You
have to know how you can use each one to your advantage and make the
most of them in your life. It’s easy for us to preach about these virtues, but
extremely difficult to adopt them in day-to-day life. It is important to
understand them fully before adopting them. You will already have a grasp of
some of them as part of your impulse to do the best by yourself and others.
The next step is to intentionally practice them.
You can join a group that discusses Stoicism and its application regularly.
This will help you understand Stoicism more fully and give you the
opportunity to see it for the life-giving practice it is. You can participate in
discussions with other members of the group and also present them with your
point of view on the subject. The ultimate goal is to develop as much
understanding of Stoic practice as possible. Being in the midst of a group of
like-minded people will make your journey more interesting and less isolated.
There are many areas in life in which Stoicism can support you. It is not only
about leading a life of indifference, but also dealing with all your real-life
situations in the best possible manner. Be it stress, or anger, or
disappointment, Stoicism will help you cope with life’s challenges and
vicissitudes. Similarly, it will also help you deal with your positive moments
and allow you to make the most of them.
Stoicism has a universal approach that precludes concern about any religious
practice you may already be a part of. I’ve already demonstrated Stoicism’s
influence on Christianity and other world religions. But you can be a Hindu, a
Muslim, or a Jew, and still adopt Stoicism as a guiding principle of life. It is
not necessary that you be brought up as Roman or a Greek. You can live in
any part of the world and in any culture to completely embrace Stoicism.
Once you adopt it, you can also teach the philosophies to others.
Stoicism will support you and help you improve your life in every respect.
All you have to do is give it a shot. You will not be disappointed with the
results. After all, who would pass up the opportunity to improve their life?
Stoicism can give you that opportunity while making you a better person with
the ability to influence those around you to lead happier, more satisfied lives,
also.
Conclusion
I thank you once again for choosing this book and hope you enjoyed reading
it. I also hope it’s clarified some of your questions about Greek Stoicism and
how you might apply it to your life.
Its universalism has aged well, coming down to us in the 21st Century in a
very similar manner as it arrived in Athens – as a way to make sense of and
to live in a world of turbulence and upheaval, without compromising our
personal values and equilibrium. Stoicism offers even more than that: It is an
avenue for the development and full flowering of our values and the
evolution of our innate virtue. Eternally relevant to human beings in every
age and in every context, Stoicism remains a vibrant force in the midst of
modernity as a sage philosophical practice and a way to find peace in the eye
of the storm.
The central purpose of this book is to educate you about the importance and
purpose of the Stoic philosophy as a way to enhance your life. The Greeks
left us with a lot of knowledge about how life is to be lived, our place in the
universe, and how that universe operates. They taught us ways in which we
can employ our mental and physical strengths to attain the best in life, while
searching for ways to articulate the vastness of the reality we live in. In
Stoicism, it leaves one of its most enduring legacies; a legacy that continues
to inform thousands of people the world over.
The Stoic philosophy continues to have universal resonance that can help
people live more fruitful, peaceful, and satisfying lives, even in the chaotic
world of the 21st Century. The more resolutely you dedicate yourself to the
study and practice of Stoicism, the greater the fruit you’ll bear in your life.
Stoicism is a gift to people in the modern age, as it teaches us to look beyond
the temporal and material, to a world in which virtue is the principle value
and in which the passing of history is a background to our own place in it.
Should you decide to practice Stoicism as a way of life, all you have to do is
practice its precepts on a regular basis and concentrate on improving your
understanding of its philosophies and virtues.
I hope you put into practice the Stoic philosophy as outlined in this book and
adopt the way of life it proposes to attain a higher consciousness, greater
wisdom and above all, a virtue that expands your universe and that of those
around you.
I thank you once again and wish you luck in pursuing a better life, following
the precepts and lessons of the Stoic philosophy.