Stoicism for a Better Life – Weekly exercise (November 22, 2020)

Hello there, 

Diogenes Laertius was a biographer and wrote extensively about the lives and philosophies of the ancient Greek philosophers. The book of his we have today is the translation Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, which contains a lot of the information we have about the predominant philosophers of ancient Greece (which was in Ionia; a region on the central part of the western coast of Anatolia in present-day Turkey). For this week’s exercise, I will seek some inspiration from a snippet in his book regarding Heraclitus IX 7:

“Heraclitus called self-deception an awful disease and eyesight a lying sense.”  

We lie. You lie. Don’t deny it, you do it every day. And worse, we lie to ourselves more than anyone else. But today’s exercise is not about earning a badge of honesty. It is about earning the strength and courage to view the world more objectively than we have ever viewed it before. Because we do lie to ourselves about it constantly. Our lies are especially potent and poisonous regarding our impressions of our external world. 

We see the world through our own perceptions and “describe it” in our own internal narrative. So we can’t really be faulted for having an ego-centric view of things. All we have ever known is the world from our perspective. But what our ancient guides try and teach us and remind us is that this view is very subjective by its nature and that we cannot make good objective choices based on a subjective view of the world around us. Therefore, we must try and try hard to see the world as objectively as possible. With this objective view of the reality around us, we can make better decisions for our own lives and the greater good. 

So as a practical exercise this week, don’t rush into conclusions about what you see, hear or observe. Don’t rush into conclusions about anything, especially your judgments, because your senses are often wrong, your emotions are overly sensitive, your hopes overly optimistic and your fears overly pessimistic. Your time is valuable and your efforts are important and impactful. So make sure you take the time to absorb the pertinent information around you as best as you can (i.e. as objectively as possible) before you make a judgment or decide on an action.

I wish you a productive and tranquil week. If you feel like it, share your stories and accomplishment or challenges. These stories always help inspire others.

Anderson Silver

(Author of “Your User’s Manual”, “Vol 2: Your Duality Within”, and Vol 3: Your Dichotomy of Control)