Stoicism is the most popular philosophy out there.
But in order to understand why, we need to do a quick abstract reasoning exercise.
Think about the following idea for a second: How often do we embrace self-transcendence
compared to how often we accept our own fragility and latch onto prosaic views?
This question is extremely challenging. Not only because of its innate complexity, but
also because its essence can be interpreted in a plethora of ways.
What constitutes self-transcendence? What constitutes prosaic views?
For now, let us leave these hefty questions aside and focus on the bigger picture.
Life is struggle. Life is struggle cloaked as a game.
It is cloaked as such in order to help us organize ourselves better. For humans thrive
more on structure and less on abstraction. We come up with rules and laws and stages
and prices in order to create a more manageable version of reality and forget the struggle
that engulfs it. We become part of a perennial game of adaptation
that attempts to alleviate that struggle. Throughout that game, we encounter different
players that try to tear our inner world apart while we battle to establish balance. For
balance seems to be, according to our senses, the state we seek, the state we demand, the
state we desire. Balance will always be the end goal for humankind.
It is a long and perilous journey that oscillates between chaos and boredom, but it seems that
we are on the right track to reach that state. The when is irrelevant. What is relevant,
though, is the how and the why.
Self-transcendence is the answer to every
question you might seek that is connected to your search for inner purpose and balance.
Self-transcendence is the core vision every human ought to have in order to explain his
or her role in this world. The reality that is brought to the table by
our ability to keep pushing the envelope of our systems and our desire to transcend our
human condition is the gist of this idea. This is the reason that the personal development
movement has gained so much steam over the years and it keeps growing in an unprecedented way.
The need for every human that walks this planet
to escape the fragility of this existence and become a higher consciousness being, will
never fall out of fashion because it is inextricably bound to the core of our paradigm.
The ultimate virtue of a person is their ability to speak the truth. The truth mainly about
themselves, but also in a broader sense, the moral truth, and the scientific truth.
Morality and science are two terms that have been flirting dangerously with each other
since the beginning of the scientific revolution, but never really succeeded in merging or evolving together.
There are instances of hope throughout history
which indicate that we will eventually find a way to create a universal moral framework
free from religion, that draws depth from scientific facts, but this framework is still
in the making and it will probably take monumental events in order to be formulated.
Throughout that process, however, we are able to discover glimpses of what such a framework
should look like. We are all humans and our capacity to understand right from wrong, and
moral from immoral, is expressed by our ability to seek cooperation and justice from a very
young age, mainly through play. This “gift,” so to speak, allows us to
build variations of play as we grow older and the rules embedded in the various “games”
we create help us assemble a version of reality that is more manageable and more relevant
to our needs. The rules and the games are never perfect.
They are just there to remind us that we need them and that we constantly have to adapt
them and re-engineer them. This is the substrate of our evolution and this is what allowed
our species to survive and thrive. Unfortunately, this idea is arcane for most people.
Either because of lack of proper education or because of a proclivity towards ignorance
and a general rejection of truth, most people will cling to a very trivial and sometimes
dangerous interpretation of reality that will serve only their personal short term needs.
Since the ancient times, people have been facing the ramifications of that situation
and have been trying to come up with solutions to this daunting conundrum. Usually, a head
on approach would result in friction and would create even more tension to the already capricious
nature of our relationships. So, the wisest among us realized our limitations and proposed
philosophies that would allow the thinking human to discover an intellectual solace.
One of these philosophies is Stoicism. It is a philosophy so powerful that it has
withstood the test of time and it has, as of late, become one of the most potent antidotes
to the lack of control we experience while we attempt to enhance most aspects of our lives.
Seneca lived from 4 BC to AD 65.
We don't know much about his early life. What we do know is that he served as Nero’s advisor
from AD 54 to 62 and that in AD 65 he conspired against the mad Emperor. The conspiracy didn’t work,
Seneca was caught and he was ordered to kill himself.
We know Seneca mainly from the works that are attributed to him. His focus was mainly
philosophical essays and tragedies. In his creations, there is a clear attempt to empower
the individual narrative through a belief in virtue, presence, patience and the embrace
of human struggle as an inevitable and much-needed tenet of life.
“True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future,
not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have,
which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing. The greatest blessings of mankind
are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may
be, without wishing for what he has not.” When you read Seneca, you can’t help but
feel humbled and empowered at the same time. Take this simple yet profound statement for
instance: All cruelty springs from weakness. Weak is dangerous because usually, weakness
can lead to cruelty. It is because of weakness that we engage in immoral and atrocious acts.
It is because of weakness that we fail to establish a canonical set of rules in our
relationships that can help them prosper. It is because of weakness that we fail to
see our own weaknesses and we stay trapped in a distorted version of reality that propels
us towards misery and distress. Seneca knew that well. Most probably because
he could see through Nero’s cruelty and understand that weakness is the source of it.
A strong character is only cruel when cruelty is inflicted upon them.
Strength of character demands resilience, an appreciation of life, a responsibility towards people who
admire you and a constant fight to achieve self-ownership.
This is what Seneca fought for and this is probably what he died for.
Epictetus was born a slave, and throughout the journey from a slave to a philosopher,
he confronted all the nuances that the spectrum of his journey entailed. That is perhaps the
reason his philosophy is so powerful. His experiences allowed him to live his philosophy
and use it as a means for survival and prosperity. The name Epictetus in Greek means “gained”
or “acquired.” I am assuming that this was a very typical name for slaves during
that time and probably a word that allowed Epictetus to experience the incessant death
and rebirth of his identity through constantly acquiring more and more wisdom.
Epictetus lived from AD 50 to AD 135. He was released from slavery somewhen after his 18th
birthday and he then began to teach philosophy in Rome. He was considered a vigorous speaker
that could mesmerize his listeners and as one of his pupils pointed out in his notes:
"induce his listener to feel just what Epictetus wanted him to feel."
The gravity of his inner world is illuminated all over his aphorisms.
“There is only one way to happiness and this is to cease worrying about things which
are beyond the power of our will.” “Man is not worried by real problems so
much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems.”
“Philosophy does not promise to secure anything external for man, otherwise it would be admitting
something that lies beyond its proper subject-matter. For as the material of the carpenter is wood,
and that of statuary bronze, so the subject-matter of the art of living is each person's own life."
One can easily see that Epictetus’ main
concern was how to adopt an intellectual framework that will allow the individual to unshackle
himself from the limits that our problematic relationships create.
He was a firm believer of the fact that an individual can only be free if he frees himself
from his limiting beliefs and also his addiction to the opinions of others. He was one of the
first to see that there is a way for one to be in control insofar as one can control only
the things that are within his control. Opinions, perceptions, views, beliefs, stories,
are all manifestations of how our mind adapts to the stimuli of the environment. Sometimes
they are true and sometimes they are untrue. One can’t control the extent to which truth
is being spoken by others. But one can certainly control the extent to which he speaks the
truth and how one reacts and perceives the truth or untruth spoken by others.
Marcus Aurelius was the Stoic Emperor. Epictetus and Seneca were philosophers and
advisors. Marcus Aurelius was at the top of the dominance hierarchy of his time and his
authority exerted respect not just because of his power but also because of his philosophy.
That is something very crucial to ponder. The archetype of the emperor, as it has been
portrayed throughout time, is usually that of the oppressor or the narcissist or the totalitarian.
Marcus Aurelius convulses the foundations of that archetype.
During his reign, he had to deal with a lot of challenging events, among which are the
war with the Parthian Empire, the push back of barbarian tribes, the rise of Christianity
and the Antonine plague. It becomes apparent that, unless you are a
ruthless ruler, you can’t stay sane amongst such precarious times. Marcus Aurelius did
whatever was within his power to avoid ruthless tactics as much as possible and follow a more
stoic path. He was heavily influenced by Epictetus, Rusticus,
and Heraclitus and one can notice a more forward-looking philosophy in his aphorisms:
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”
“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective,
not the truth.” “If you are distressed by anything external,
the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have
the power to revoke at any moment.” “It is not death that a man should fear,
but he should fear never beginning to live.” There is subtle optimism and positivity encompassing
his views and that’s also one of the reasons his dictums have been more popular than the
rest of the Stoics. There is enough ugliness and adversity in this world to make us feel
demotivated in perpetuity. Choosing not to focus on the ugliness but on the beauty and
not on the adversity but on the blessings, is Marcus Aurelius’ way to battle demotivation.
Individuals can act in any way they find plausible, and this allows them to accrue benefits or
suffer costs, depending on the circumstances. The responsibility of our actions is the only
true weapon we can exploit in order to antagonize the nefariousness of the world around us.
Marcus Aurelius realized the power of that weapon and that helped him become an exemplary
emperor despite adversity and despite his weaknesses.
That is what makes him a respectful example for all of us.