Stoicism

• The world is nothing but change, our life nothing but perception. Change your perception of things to change how you experience the world.

  • Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what’s left and live it properly.
  • By imagining a world without you, you realize how insignificant most of life’s problems are

• Neither pleasure nor pain are inherently good or bad. Good or bad is merely a human notion. ¹

• Control your life. First and foremost, live life to its fullest. The only thing you own and lose is the present. The difference between days and years in the grand scheme of things is minute. Thus,

  • Concentrate on things that really matter.
  • Concentrate on the things that you can do.
  • Concentrate on the things you can control—and you cannot control others or their dispositions.

• Unrestrained moderation: To be swept away by desires and to value the material is to tether yourself to them and make yourself prone to greed, lust, and envy of others.

• A healthy mind is one that engages well with philosophical thinking—one that behaves rationally and is unmoved by emotions, yet which still acts with tender care. Keep your biases and feelings in check.

• Only a simple minded person can be impressed by things that have a rational explanation. The truly rational seek to empower their and others’ minds by living a life of selflessness and logic.

• Do not care for what other people think, whether good or bad. Praise is meaningless as it only supplements what was already beautiful. Criticisms and Mockery are a product of the other’s worldview different from your own. Be no one’s master and no one’s slave. Remember that you always have a choice on how to react to others

  • Thus, live a genuine and authentic life. Live according to what you think is good ² Authenticity breeds consistency in life.
  • Don’t expect to be unhurt by others. Thinking yourself an exception to this is arrogant.
  • Don’t expect to be perfect. To err is human. Things only seem like mistakes in hindsight.
  • Praise is useless except as a means to gauge feedback for a work.

• Instead of being infuriated by a person’s ignorance, inform them and make them realize the problem in a rational manner. Change your perception of ignorant and seemingly malicious people to those that have merely slighted you but have not tarnished your ability to choose how to feel and act.

• Aim for personal growth, ignoring excuses of “cannot”. Do not settle for less. Imagine what you could be if you did. Difficulty is not a sufficient excuse, if it is humanly possible, you can do it too.

• Stoicism has its roots in realizing one’s powerlessness and lack of control of the Universe. Accept things as they are. ³ Let Fate run its course.

  • If there were such a thing as a Natural Order, then there is no reason to fight it as all things are simply Nature running its course.
  • If Entropy prevails in the Universe, there is still no reason to fight it as by nature all things are simply random, and we are powerless to stop it by imposing our own “order” through actions.

• It is easy to be lazy. But, embrace nature without mind for others and you can live a life of fulfilment, one where you act of your own volition and motivation rather than because of some external motive or pressure.

  • It is ironic how we love ourselves more than others, but care more about others’ opinion over our own. ^{2 4}

• All things are interconnected by nature. It pays to look at things wholistically as things working in harmony for some Universal order. For example, the Universe is still subject to flux and entropy

  • Change is natural, therefore accept change.
  • What harms the whole necessarily harms its parts.
  • The Whole (Universe or Society at large aims to not harm itself) ⁵
  • Everything has a purpose ⁶ for everything is governed by the Logos.
  • Death is a natural part of life. Ergo, accept death as it is. All that is lost is a brief instant in the present.

Links §

• Meditations - primary source for most of the insights above.
• Stoicism—Techniques and Philosophy
  • Negative Visualization: Imagine how life could be worse and now realize that life now is better.
  • Anything you do might be the last thing you do.
  • Storytime Framing: Imagine how you could tell others in the future how you overcame today’s setbacks
  • Test Strategy: Think of life as a game with challenges for you to overcome and as a result level up yourself.

Footnotes §

1. Which contradicts the notion that the Universe is good. ↩

2. That said, it is naïve to assume that the perception of others on one’s nature does not have an effect. Look no further than mob mentality and cancel culture. Thus think as you like, but behave like others. ↩ ↩²

3. Of course, in the context of social progress this is simply leading to the reasoning that we should simply stagnate. Contrary to the technological mindset we have in the modern world that has made life more convenient (i.e., good). ↩

4. Public perception is a heuristic for value and goodness. Still, the message still holds—that we ought to not think about others when it comes to living our own lives to the fullest. In the end we have the final say on how to live our lives. ↩

5. This is a core tenet from Aurelius’ writings. This is not necessarily true. At best the Universe is amoral. It does not “aim” to do things, barring arguments of the existence of the logos. It also ignores how Societies as a whole are prone to their own biases such as mob mentality or group think. ↩

6. Not necessarily true in the sense that life does not have a predetermined purpose. In a modern sense, it is hard to accept life as such unless you believe in some religion. ↩