Stoicism for a Better Life – Weekly exercise (May 31, 2020)
Hello there,
Our ancient guides tell us to look for guidance and wisdom everywhere…not just from Stoic teachers. Why?
We often speak about the pursuit of wisdom and the truth. However, we are not born with wisdom. It is something that must be pursued. And even though truth is everyone’s domain, and therefore …logically….we should be able to find sprinkles of truth and wisdom in every conversation and everywhere we look, we tend to remain egocentric, single minded or averse to new views, ideas and sources in our thought process. I look around and see too much divisiveness from ideologies, political views, philosophical doctrines, religious dogmas, cultural divergences, linguistic divides, etc.
So I would like to take the opportunity to try and find wisdom from sources other than our ancient Stoic teachers, in trying to embody some of the core disciplines of our school of thought in the pursuit of a virtuous life. After all, the four cardinal virtues of Stoicism can be applied to life even if we find inspiration elsewhere. And this is something the ancients used to do regularly as well.
But enough of the theoretical, let’s get into actionable exercise of our cardinal virtues. I will seek some inspiration today from Sun Tzu’ Art of Warfare. The original text we had (in modern times) was a thirteen chapter book on the philosophy of warfare, which predates the MacDaddy of our school Zeno by two centuries. I recently re-read a new release containing five new chapters that were uncovered in Yin-ch’ueh-shan Han archaeological digs, and the book brought back some great ideas.
Those who have read my books know I often mix and merge Stoicism with ancient Eastern philosophy, as there is a wide overlap. But I have never done this from the writings of Sun Tzu, as this is a book about war, and we’re all about peace and prosperity right? Well, Sun Tzu’s teachings were actually a philosophy about life and governing as much as it was a philosophy of warfare. Here’s an excerpt as an example from Chapter 2:
“I have heard tell of a foolish haste, but I have yet to see a case of cleverly dragging on the planning.”
One of the cornerstones of Stoicism is to recognize the shortness of our time and existence in this temporal life: Memento Mori. This obsession with death, of course, is not from a morbid sense of humor, but a seminal idea to appreciate and enjoy what we have, while we have it, as it will be gone soon.
The most important thing we have, and can lose, is our time. Since it is our most precious resource, it would only make sense to make the most of it and use it to its full advantage. Hastily jumping into something would be a wasteful use of our time, as any time and effort spent on a hasty or listless plan will be gone and wasted with no tangible results. On the other side of the coin, however, spending too much time planning, mulling over details and contemplating can be just as, if not more wasteful than hastily jumping into something.
This is why Stoicism speaks to me. It teaches us to be practicable and actionable. So as a practical exercise this week, identify something you have been thinking about, contemplating or mulling over for a while, which you have not done or started yet. Then ask yourself: Why? Why haven’t you started it yet? Why haven’t you done it yet? And if you don’t have a good answer, perhaps it is time you stopped thinking about it and actually put it into action.
Time is passing you by. Every moment is one more that is used up and left behind as you march towards your inevitable and impending death. Tick Tock. Don’t waste your precious time and put your plans into action.
As always, I wish you a great and productive week. And stay safe through these times. The Pandemic is affecting all of us, and we will get through it together. But being selfish about your actions for your own benefit can potentially endanger others and spread the virus. So be smart and be safe.
Anderson Silver
(Author of “Your User’s Manual” and “Vol 2: Your Duality Within”)