When I was
taught a little Greek philosophy in grade school, the Stoics and Epicureans
were depicted as having opposing approaches to what they considered a good
life. Later, I learned that was not really the case. Stoics were depicted as
somber and gloomy in contrast to the fun-loving Epicureans. But discipline is
not incompatible with joy and pleasure. Adherence to duty and
responsibility is a feature of Stoicism. The Buddhists say that discipline can
bring a sense of joy. Psychologists say virtuosos and athletes get into “the
zone,” where they experience joy in their craft. Confucius also stressed the
importance of duty and the joy that could be found within it. Discipline and
self-control can be developed, and success in them can bring joy or a sense of
accomplishment.
The Stoics also stressed the
importance of logic and noted that it was a prerequisite and a foundation for
ethics. Their logic system involves premises and conclusions. Examples are
given below of logical connectives, modal definitions, and indemonstrable
arguments.
I was fortunate to hear about
modern practitioners of Stoicism on the PBS show Firing Line with Margaret
Hoover. One included Daily Stoic founder Ryan Holiday and retired General and
former Defense Secretary James Mattis. The other was an interview with retired
General Stanley McChrystal. They noted how Stoic values helped them strive to
be better warriors, better public servants, and better people. Mattis brought
up the Crosby, Stills, and Nash song ‘Teach Your Children,’ and its lyrics: “You
who are on the road must have a code that you can live by.” He argued that
Stoicism can provide a useful code to live by.
Wikipedia describes Stoicism
as:
“…a philosophical movement and practical guide to
living, emphasizing daily self-discipline and moral improvement, which
originated in the Hellenistic period of ancient Greece and proliferated well
into the Roman Imperial period.”
Zeno of Citium is considered
to be the founder of Stoicism around 300 B.C. He was influenced by the
Cynics. His most influential successor was Chrysippus.
“Stoicism became the foremost popular philosophy among
the educated elite in the Hellenistic world and the Roman Empire to the point
where, in the words of Gilbert Murray, "nearly all the successors of
Alexander [...] professed themselves Stoics". Later Roman Stoics placed
greater emphasis on practical ethics and the cultivation of inner moral
discipline in everyday life.”
Stoicism was popular in Asia
Minor in the city of Tarsus, where Saul of Tarsus, aka. the Apostle Paul, lived
before he went to Jerusalem. He was a fierce critic of early Christianity
before he experienced his epiphany on the road to Damascus and became a
disciple of Jesus. The Stoics in Tarsus were known to be “mythmakers” and
developed their own prophetic mystery cults. Some have ascribed this function
to Paul as a mythmaker of Christianity. He was known to be influenced by
Stoicism and to be responsible for the early Christians being fond of the Stoic
ideas of Epictetus and the Roman Stoic Seneca. The Discourses of Epictetus is
an important source. Other influential Stoic philosophers include the Roman
philosopher Musonius Rufus and the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, whose book,
Meditations, is considered to be a classic of Stoicism and remains popular to
this day. The Roman Pyrrhonist philosopher Sextus Empiricus was also fond of
Stoicism and was a good source of information about Stoicism.
The Stoics believed that
adhering to their tenets of virtue could lead to eudaimonia: a
well-lived life. They believed that:
“…people should aim to maintain a will (called
prohairesis) that is "in accordance with nature". Because of this,
the Stoics thought the best indication of an individual's philosophy was not
what a person said but how the person behaved.
Stoicism was revived somewhat
in the Renaissance, and later in the 18th century, the philosopher Immanuel
Kant developed an interest in Stoic logic. More contemporary revivals of
Stoicism derive from the publication of the book ‘Problems in Stoicism’ by A.
A. Long in 1971.
As noted below, Stoicism also
likely formed a basis of modern cognitive psychotherapy, particularly cognitive
behavioral therapy.
“Stoic philosophy was the original philosophical
inspiration for modern cognitive psychotherapy, particularly as mediated by
Albert Ellis' rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT), the major precursor of
cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). The original cognitive therapy treatment
manual for depression by Aaron T. Beck et al. states, "The philosophical
origins of cognitive therapy can be traced back to the Stoic philosophers.”
In more recent times, Ryan
Holiday, founder of Daily Stoic, has been a champion of Stoicism. He cites the
Stoicism of Frederick the Great, Montaigne, George Washington, Thomas
Jefferson, Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, Ambrose Bierce, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Theodore
Roosevelt, and General James Mattis.
The four virtues, or values
of Stoicism, are courage, temperance, justice, and wisdom. Seneca noted that
encountering misfortune allows us and can enable us to be courageous in
confronting it. Aristotle noted that there can be too much courage, which can
lead to recklessness. Thus, he advocated for the right amount of courage.
Temperance, or moderation, is simply avoiding excess. Epictetus emphasized
developing virtuous habits through practicing moderation. Marcus Aurelius noted
that justice is the source of all the other virtues. The Daily Stoic cites the
Roman thinker Cato as influential on George Washington’s and Thomas Jefferson’s
notions of democracy and justice. Wisdom is a virtue that allows us to grow
through lifelong learning and by making efforts to understand things as they
are. They note:
“Wisdom has always been prized by the Stoics. Zeno said
that we were given two ears and one mouth for a reason: to listen more than we
talk. And since we have two eyes, we are obligated to read and observe more
than we talk as well.”
“It is key today, as it was in the ancient world,
to be able to distinguish between the vast aggregations of information
that lay out there at your disposal—and the actual wisdom that you need to live
a good life. It’s key that we study, that we keep our minds open always. You
cannot learn that which you think you already know, Epictetus said. It’s true.”
They also stress that true
wisdom is accompanied by humility.
Holiday and the Daily Stoic
offer nine Stoic exercises to practice. I have found that there are remarkable
parallels with Buddhist philosophy, which I will point out.
1) The
Dichotomy of Control. This involves seeking to understand what parts of
life are controllable and which are not controllable, what we can change and
what we can’t. As I am well-versed in Buddhist philosophy, I know this is one
of several parallels between Stoicism and Buddhism. The Buddhist version, from
Shantideva’s ‘Way of the Bodhisattva,’ goes something like this: If you can
change it, change it. If you can’t, then it simply must be accepted, and one
should not worry about what one can’t change.
2) Journaling. This
simply refers to writing down or otherwise keeping a record. This is journaling
as a form of self-examination. One method is to review what you have done in a
day and write about it. Marcus Aurelius’s ‘Meditations’ was written to himself,
as a form of journaling. “It’s not enough to simply hear these lessons once,
instead, one practices them over and over again, turns them over in their mind,
and most importantly, writes them down and feels them flowing through their
fingers in doing so.” This sounds like the three activities important in
Buddhism: hearing, contemplating, and meditating.
3) Practice
Misfortune. The Roman Stoic philosopher, Seneca, said we should
practice poverty. They note that comfort can be a form of slavery in that we
worry about losing our comfort. Anxiety and fear arise from the mind, not from
experience. They are judgments about the future. We are advised to practice
what we fear. There is another Buddhist parallel here in the words of the
female Tibetan practitioner Machi Labdron, who said: “Go to the places that
scare you.” They quote Seneca: “It is in times of security that the
spirit should be preparing itself for difficult times; while fortune is
bestowing favors on it is then is the time for it to be strengthened against
her rebuffs.”
4) Train
Perceptions. This involves seeing obstacles as opportunities. This
occurs in the Stoic practice known as “turning the obstacle upside
down.” Marcus Aurelius stated it as: “The impediment to action
advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.” They
explain it as: “There is no good or bad to the practicing Stoic. There is
only perception. You control perception.” A Buddhist might say “the path is
the goal” or that all obstacles are chances to practice, and one should
therefore be grateful for them.
5) Remember—It’s
All Ephemeral. The point here is that all of our achievements can’t
really be possessed. They are fleeting, often quite temporary, and their
importance fades away. Thus, we should not get too attached to them. The
Buddhist parallel would be the notion that this life is basically a dream that
is gone in an instant, so getting attached to accomplishments is not useful.
6) Take The
View from Above. Here, they note that Marcus Aurelius
would practice the “bird’s eye view,” the view from above, which is perhaps
equivalent to looking at the big picture. Stoic scholar Pierre Hadot described
it like this: “The view from above changes our value judgments on things:
luxury, power, war…and the worries of everyday life become ridiculous.”
They note that the point of the exercise is to “tap into what the Stoics
call sympatheia, or a mutual interdependence with the whole of humanity. As the
astronaut Edgar Mitchell, one of the first people to actually experience a real
‘view from above’ put it, “In outer space you develop an instant global
consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state
of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it.” Take a step back from
your own concerns and remind yourself of your duty to others. Take Plato’s view.” A
likely Buddhist parallel would be to avoid attachment, to avoid getting caught
up in self-importance, which is known as “ego-clinging,” and is known as the
root cause of all suffering. To zoom out is to see the world from the
perspective of others or from a cosmic perspective, rather than see it as
revolving around oneself.
7) Memento
Mori: Meditate On Your Mortality. We are all going to die,
and we had best remember that as much as we can. Seneca said, “The one who
puts the finishing touches on their life each day is never short of time.”
Socrates was said to have originated the practice of memento mori, or
meditation on one’s death, at least in the so-called Western tradition. At
around the same time as Socrates lived, the Buddha taught in India. The early
teachings describe an extensive way to meditate on death, including sitting
with human corpses and even enduring the stench and observing the stages of
decomposition. This is part of meditating on impermanence. The Japanese Zen
teacher Suzuki Shosan was a former Samurai whose main practice became
constantly being aware of his own mortality. Seneca said we die every day and
don’t know if we will wake the next day. Epictetus told his students: “Keep
death and exile before your eyes each day, along with everything that seems
terrible— by doing so, you’ll never have a base thought nor will you have
excessive desire.”
8) Premeditatio
Malorum. This involves planning for all possibilities in one’s
mind, even those one dreads. Premeditatio Malorum means “the premeditation of
evils.” This is simply preparing oneself psychologically for the inevitable
misfortunes of life. This is another practical or pragmatic aspect of Stoicism
where one mentally prepares for all contingencies. Humans develop expectations
and are often disappointed when they are not met. A possible Buddhist parallel
is again the practice of non-attachment. In this case, to expectations. Seneca
noted: “Nothing happens to the wise man against his expectation,” he wrote
to a friend. “. . . nor do all things turn out for him as he wished but as he
reckoned—and above all he reckoned that something could block his plans.”
9) Amor
Fati. This means a “love of fate,” or a deep acceptance of
fate. Marcus Aurelius describes it thus: “To love only what happens, what
was destined. No greater harmony.” This is a way to live in the moment.
German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche described it as loving whatever happens.
They describe it as “treating each and every moment—no matter how
challenging—as something to be embraced, not avoided.” Accepting whatever
happens is a common and important Buddhist practice as well.
In
conclusion, I would agree that Stoicism provides a nice framework philosophy
that is indeed applicable to modern times. I can also understand why some
military leaders and leaders in general are attracted to the philosophy. The
Greek and Roman philosophers were not just thinkers. They lived their ideals as
best they could, and as Socrates illustrated, sometimes suffered unfortunate
fates. I am also a fan of other varieties of Ancient Greek philosophy,
including Cynicism, Pyrrhonism, Epicureanism, Academic Skepticism, Pythagoras,
the pre-Socratics, and Neoplatonism, to name some.
References:
Stoicism.
Wikipedia. Stoicism - Wikipedia
What
Is Stoicism? A Definition & 9 Stoic Exercises To Get You Started: Stoic
Exercises, Wisdom, and More. Daily Stoic. What Is Stoicism? A Definition &
9 Stoic Exercises To Get You Started
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