Stoicism
Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2012 4:08 pm
According to the Guardian, It's Stoic week! so let's talk Stoicism and Buddhism.
Stoicism (and possibly its earlier form - Cynicism) has always struck me as a sort of counterpart to Buddhism in the west. I have always thought that the truths that the Dhamma revealed was there for anyone to discover if they so chose, and I think the ancient Greeks uncovered quite a lot of it.
Stoicism was a Greek philosophy founded in the 3rd century BC by one Zeno of Citium, but it has its roots in more ascetic practices of the Cynics (such as Diogenes).
I think that the Stoics sought the same goal as Buddhism, which they called Apatheia (freedom from suffering, painful desires/emotions). They believed that pathos results out of human ignorance of the reason in nature. They put an emphasis of philosophy as a practice and personal training (askesis) instead of just intellectual exercise. The goal of that practice was the removal of pathos which comes in four forms; desire (for some future thing), delight (attachment to something you have), fear and distress from present conditions.
Stoicism (and possibly its earlier form - Cynicism) has always struck me as a sort of counterpart to Buddhism in the west. I have always thought that the truths that the Dhamma revealed was there for anyone to discover if they so chose, and I think the ancient Greeks uncovered quite a lot of it.
Stoicism was a Greek philosophy founded in the 3rd century BC by one Zeno of Citium, but it has its roots in more ascetic practices of the Cynics (such as Diogenes).
I think that the Stoics sought the same goal as Buddhism, which they called Apatheia (freedom from suffering, painful desires/emotions). They believed that pathos results out of human ignorance of the reason in nature. They put an emphasis of philosophy as a practice and personal training (askesis) instead of just intellectual exercise. The goal of that practice was the removal of pathos which comes in four forms; desire (for some future thing), delight (attachment to something you have), fear and distress from present conditions.
According to the philosopher Epictetus, no sense impressions are actually good or bad, because they are outside of our power to control them. The only thing which can be said to be in our power is our prohairesis, our choice in giving or withholding assent to impressions and passions. By training this faculty, the stoics point to a way to freedom."Freedom is secured not by the fulfilling of men's desires, but by the removal of desire." - Epictetus
Another concept which seems to me very close to Buddhism is the idea of being vigilant and mindful of your daily actions (prosochē). As Pierre Hadot says in "Philosophy as a way of life": "Attention (prosochē) is the fundamental Stoic spiritual attitude." By being vigilant in this way, stoics sought to control their prosoche and not assent to impressions which could give rise to pathos.Remember that what is insulting is not the person who abuses or hits you, but the judgment that these things are insulting. So when someone irritates you, realize that it is your own opinion that has irritated you. Try, therefore, in the first place, not to be carried away by the impression; for if you once gain time and respite, you will find it easier to control yourself. - Epictetus, the handbook
The techniques which the stoics used included writing in journals (hypomnemata - an example is the meditations of Marcus Aurelius), daily reminders about death and the impermanence of things (memento mori), and constant reflection on your actions and thoughts."Remember that man lives only in the present, in this fleeting instant; all the rest of his life is either past and gone, or not yet revealed." - Marcus Aurelius
I have read the stoics and they have always helped me in my practice. Also the use of a journal is indispensable as well. What do you guys think about Stoicism?Say to yourself in the early morning: I shall meet today ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, uncharitable men. All of these things have come upon them through ignorance of real good and ill... I can neither be harmed by any of them, for no man will involve me in wrong, nor can I be angry with my kinsman or hate him; for we have come into the world to work together... - Marcus Aurelius