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A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (Stoic Advice I…
A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy
The Rise of Stoicism
Philosophy Takes an Interest in LIfe
in life != out life
Grand goal in living is the first component of philosophy of life
Stoicism is philosophy, it has a significant psychological component. Life plagued with negative emotions - anger, anxiety, fear, grief and envy - will not be a good life.
Pursue Tranquility and give us advice on how to maintain it.
The First Stoics
To be virtuous, then is to live as we were designed to live, it is to live, as Zeno put it, in accordance with nature
We are designed to be
reasonable
Sage = Budha
One benefit of attaining virtue is to that will experience tranquality
We are rational, as are the gods. We are therefore a curious hybrid, half-animal and half -god
Stoic Psychological Tehniques
Negative Visualization
Instead of thinking how our situation could be worse, we refuse to think about how it could be better
Negative visualization is antidote to hedonic adaptation
"He robs present ills of their power who has perceived their coming beforehand"
The easiest way of getting happiness is to want thing we already have
Everying we posses in "on loan from Fortune, which can reclaim it without permession"
Hedonic Adaption - Once you get it, you don't find as desirable as they once did.
Negative visualization = Full-Blown optimists
Projective visualization
- Bad things that happen to us instead happened to others
Contemplation is an intellectual exercise and it is possible for us to conduct such exercises without its affecting our emotions. 2-3 times a day
Do not develop over-much love for the things we enjoy. The user, but not the slave, of the gifts of Fortune.
The Dichotomy of Control on Becoming Invicible
One of most important choice of life is whether to concern ourselves with things external to us or things internal
It is better and easier to change yourself and what you want than it is to change the world around you.
Some things are up to us, some are not up to us.
There a things on which we have complete control/no control/some of control.
Trichotromy of Control
Part of control ->
Internalizing our Goals
We have control opinions, impulses, desires and aversions
We cant control Wealth, Reputation, Office, Body
if we want things that are not up to us though, we will sometimes fail to get what we want, and when this happens we will "meet missfortune" and feel miserable and upset
Fatalism: Letting Go of the Past... and the Present
We should keep firmly in mind that we are merly actors in a play written by someone else. Fate
Respect to future -> keep firmly in mind when deciding what to do, that her actions can have no effect on future events
Respect to past -> Her actions can have no effect on the past
Stoic advice us to be fatalistic with respect to the past, past cannot be changed.
We don't have control over past nor do we have any control over present
To happen as they happen
We can either spend this moment wishing it could be different, or we can embrace this moment
Living in this fleeting instanst
In engaging in negative visulazation, we think of ways our situation could be worse, and our goal in doing so is to make us value whatever we have.
Self-Denial: On Dealing with the Dark Side of Pleasure
We should some time cause them bad things to happen to us.
We harden our selves against misfortunes that might befaull us in the future
Discomfort help us appreciate what we already have
Someone who tries to avoid all discomfort is less likely to be comfortable than someone who periodically embraces discomfort. The latter individual is likely to have a much wider comfort zone and therefore feel comfortable under ciircumstances that would cause the former individiual considerable distress
Person who periodically experiences minor discomforts will grow confident that he can withstand major discomforts as well, Buliding courage. Something in present
The more pleasure -> "The more masters will he have to serve"
Always abstain on pleasures that can capture you in single encounter
If we lack self-control, we are likely to be distracted by the various pleasures life has to offer, and in this distracted state, we are unlikely to attain the goals of our philosophy of life
Enjoy pleasures from friendship, family life, a meal, or even wealth but they counsel us to be circumspect in our enjoyment of these things. Don't cling to it
Conciously abstaning from pleasure can itself be pleasent.
Water, barley-meal and crusts of barley-bread -> They are not cheerful diet yet it is the highest kind of pleasure to be able to derive pleasure from this sort of food.
Meditation: Watching Ourselves Practice Stoicism
Stoic mental checklist.
Judge our progress as Stoics
We should continually ask whether we are being governed by our reason or by something else
Our philosophy will consist of actions rather than words
We should play role of participant and spectator. We should create stoic observer that watches us how we practice stocism
We should be so inconspicuous that others don't label us Stoics - or even label us philosophers
Did something disrupt my tranquality, did i experience anger, envy, lust? What events upset me? Is there something i could have done to avoid getting upset
Continue to practice stoicism even when success looks hopeless
Meditate on the events of daily living, how we responded to these events, and how, in accordance with Stoic principles, we should have responded to them
Stoic Advice I
Duty: On Loving Mankind
Person who performs well the function of man will be both rational and social
Social Relations: On dealing with Other People
Spend time with unclean person and you will become unclean as well
Avoid whiny people
That there are doubtless people who find us annoying.
By letting ourselves become annoyed we only make thing worse.
They are fated to behave in certain way. Fatalism
Best revange is to refuse to be like him.
Insults: On Putting Up with Put-Downs
Pause. Consider whatever insulter said is true?
That wahat is insulting is not the person who abuses you or hits you, but the judgement about them that they are insulting
Use humor.
Mention other much worst insult
Do i value this person?
Grief: On Vanquishing Tears with Reason
Retrospective negative visualation
Anger: On Overcoming Anti-Joy
No plague has cost the human race more.
Personal Values: On Seeking Fame
do I really want to pay the price?
If our goal is to please others, then we lose ability to please ourself
its foolish for us to worry about what other people think of us and particularly foolish for us to seek the approval of people who values we reject.
Not concern ourselves with things we can't control
If you want to win admiration from other people you must agree to their defination of what success is.
Do thinkgs that trigger their disdain
Peopele don't want you to succed because that makes look them bad.
By refusing to see the adminiration of other people, stoic gain their admiration.
Personal Values: On Luxurious Living
Why desire so much when you can hold so litlte?
Not needing a wealth is more valuable than wealth itself is.
We lose our ability to take delight in simple things
Rather than mourning the loss of their ability to enjoy simple things, they take pride in their newly gained inability to enjoy anything but "the best"
Experiencing luxury only whets their appetite for even more luxury
Desire for wealth is unnatural desire. Natural desire can be satisfied.
An amount that does not descend to poverty, and yet is not far removed from poverty.
The man who adapts himself to his slender means and makes himself wealthy on a little sum, is the truly rich man
We should spend time preparing for the loss of it. Periodically pr acting poverty.
It is possible to enjoy something and at the same time be indifferent to it.
Stoicism For Modern Life
Stoic Advice II
Dying
Becoming Stoic
Old Age
Exile