Sunday Stoicism: Nature

It’s funny how quickly the week goes. Already we are at the end of Stoic week, even though it only felt like yesterday it was the middle of the week. How did my day as a Stoic go? Fine. My sister had her soccer grand-final, which she lost 2-1 in extra time, after two missed penalties by her team. Sure, a win would have been nice, but what can we do?

Today’s focus is on nature, and how a Stoic can find their place in it. The guide tells us to look at the nature’s order (like the orbits of planets) as a guide to life. Do not lose yourself in the vastness of the cosmos, instead, accept it and become a part of it.

Today’s morning text, by the accomplished Marcus Aurelius, tells us that even though we are a small part of a large universe, we still have a part to play. This is a good text, as it is positive, and a good way to guide your life.

The evening text, once again by venerable Marcus Aurelius, is about death, and how we come from the earth, where the dead lie, but also where we came from. This text is a way into a peaceful death, a way of accepting the way things happen, and accepting that all, even Rome, will become unto dust at some point. Just like this blog. It has been a week already and the time has passed for this blog to rest.

Good night.

 

Saturday Stoicism: Resilience

Before I go on about Resilience, first I will reflect on my day as a stoic. Not really much to reflect on, to be honest, other than dad making me clean up for half an hour. Not much to be angry about, not much to require the Stoicism to kick in.

Resilience- maybe the most important lesson we can learn from Stoicism. With Stoicism, we can learn to overcome great grief and great strife by keeping calm and carrying on. One way we can do this is by imagining possible strifes to come, so we are better mentally prepared for these bad situations. You can wake up in the morning and consider all the bad things that might happen, so you are prepared for the bad things and can better work around them. I think this is a fairly pessimistic attitude, but a realistic one was well.

Now for the texts. The morning text (by the magical Marcus Aurelius) is about being a steadfast headland with bad things (waves) constantly breaking against it, and how it’s good that you can stay strong against it. This is a good way to be resilient, a good way to keep calm and carry on. Jedi=Stoic.

The evening text, once more from the great and powerful Marcus Aurelius, tells us to do things as if we are going to die tomorrow. I think what Marcus means is that when we know death is close, we can focus more clearly. Some say that the last few moments of your life last the longest, and I would think that is the case (not that I know what it is like to die. Pure speculation). I don’t think we should behave as if we are going to die tomorrow, because it would be sad for everyone around us, including us. I think we should act for the future, and to act for the life we are in, rather than the death that will come.

Night.

Friday Stoicism: Relationships

Friday is usually one of the best days of the week. For me, it’s a chance to hang out with friends after school, and not worry about any homework. Unfortunately, though, today my patience was at a low- and I felt the need to avoid a lot of the people who chose to hang out near me during recess. During Lunch, I had the happy retreat of WIG, luckily enough. I didn’t lose my temper, I just calmly walked away (during recess).

Stoicists are supposedly cold and detached. When I first told my dad I was doing Stoicism in Philosophy, he started thinking of cynics and similar, cold and detached disciplines. Naturally I was quick to correct him, which is always a good feeling.

Now on to our texts. Our morning text (from the esteemed Marcus Aurelius’s meditations) was about accepting that you will meet bad people, who are bad because they do now know what is good or bad. It talks about how everyone has a reason for what they are doing, even if it is bad. Because of this, it means everyone is the same, and everyone is equal. It’s a nice little way of looking at things, but I think that people are so complex and unique, people are very different, so they are not all the same on the inside.

The evening text (once more from the great Marcus Aurelius) tells us that we should do good things and not make a big deal about it (like by posting on facebook). You should do good things and just keep on going. I like this text, because it tells us not to be full of ourselves for being selfless (ironically) and it tells to be a good person.

Buonasera.

 

Thursday Stoicism: Virtue

It’s already day four of the Stoic week. In the middle, in fact. Yay, I guess?

Yay indeed. Today was a good day, I think. Aside from a 2 minute delay outside of North Melbourne. School was fine, managed to dodge a bullet at period 3, and we had an early finish. What’s not to love.

“The core virtues are wisdom, moderation, courage and justice.” Stoics are really just Jedi in hiding. The stoics realize than becoming fully virtuous is incredibly difficult, and in order to become Master Yoda Member of the Jedi Council you require  great strength of will and wisdom. They also think that everyone can become fully virtuous, which is a little like Buddhism’s sense of Nirvana.

And now for the text reflections. Once again, our morning text is from our blessed Marcus Aurelius, and his Meditations. It provides a guide on how to become virtuous, and what not to do. It starts off by saying if you find something you enjoy, enjoy it. But if everything pales in comparison to virtue, you will not be able to give the full attention to the “properly good”. I think that this passage is an interesting way of looking at things, and a good moral compass.

Our evening text is from Epictetus, and it begins by telling us that if you want to be good at something, do it regularly.  He then draws a comparison with anger management, saying if you don’t want to be ill-tempered, suppress the impulse of being angry, and then count the days between an angry incident. I really like this philosophy- a common part of human nature is to enjoy “streaks”. For example, the language learning app Duolingo encourages you to keep using it daily by emailing you every ten seconds daily, telling you that “You’re heating up, on a 3 day streak.” Maybe I might break this streak by forgetting to do it before my Philosophy homework, but it still creates a good incentive. I also apply a similar method of thinking for any physical training. If you continue doing something regularly, like typing, or playing StarCraft, the amount of actions you can perform per minute can increase dramatically. When I first started playing StarCraft, I had an APM (actions per minute) of around 50. It’s now in the low 120s, after a few years of playing the game every few days.

Good night.

 

Wednesday Stoicism: Mindfulness

Today was an interesting day. I went in fully expecting being able to have fencing as my Wednesday afternoon sport, and had my hopes thoroughly dashed as I noticed my name on the cross country lists. Suffice to say, my hopes and dreams of learning how to use a sword properly was destroyed. Luckily for me, I had stoicism to keep me company in this cold, dark world.

Today is about mindfulness, and “examining your impressions”. Mindfulness is what my mother reflects on every morning at 6 AM, so naturally I have a cynical attitude towards it. The article tells us how we need to keep an eye on what we are thinking, so we don’t dig ourselves into  a deep mental hole. This is something I can really understand, since it can be really easy to have dark, thoughts which consume your thoughts. It’s important to snap out of it and recognize what you really have going for you.

And now for the daily text reflection. Our morning text, by our lord and savior Marcus Aurelius, tells us that we are wasting our time going out into the hills or the countryside for holidays, when we should be going to the beach going to our inner peace of mind. Like a mind palace, which Sherlock from our favorite BBC series uses. Marcus tells us to use our inner self to calm our thoughts, and as a place to relax. To meditate, basically.

The evening text is a handful of lines from Meditations. Like yesterday’s text, it makes little to no sense. They should have hired Marcus Aurelius for wartime code-creation, because he is so cryptic. He’s saying something about letting go of your hatred, and all will be calm. I suppose Jedi are stoics, in a way, and this paragraph from meditations really shows it.

EDIT: oops, just realized I hadn’t published this. You’ll have to forgive me.

 

Tuesday Stoicism: Control

I’ll start of today’s blog entry with a bit of whinging. It’s 10:45, and only now have I just been able to sit down and do my blog entry, thanks to the wondrous Po Goh and his piano concerto which went on for what felt like days.

But, sitting down to this blog of stoicsm, I realize that this was not in my control, and as such, I should let it be. That’s what today’s topic is about- accepting what you can and can’t control. I can’t control my parents- if they want to listen to Shostakovitch’s concertos, so be it. I shouldn’t have been pissed off because I had to spend 20 minutes listening to the exquisite sound of the violin, because this wasn’t under my control.

Now on to the texts. The morning text talks about the drive to do things, in this case, get out of bed. What is the motives? Why should you get out of bed?  Why shouldn’t I just stop writing this blog post and go to bed? This text is about doing your bit in the world, and in general not being a lazy person who sleeps all the time. It’s a nice little piece of text, describing the need to go ahead and get on with it.

The evening text talks about getting people to do what is right, even against their will, and how if they use force to resist, you should approach their response stoically. I don’t really understand the last part. Perhaps because of this, I don’t really agree with the text- it makes no sense.

Good night (It’s 11:00 PM BTW)

 

Monday 5/09/2016- A Stoic Start

Today is the day I start the journal documenting my week as a stoic, as part of the year 10 Philosophy Course.
First of all, my opinion and thoughts about Stoicism. I think I live fairly stoically already. I do not get angry very easily, and I like to think I am quick to let something go.
However, my patience was tested today, in fact, period 2 in Philosophy class, after a surprisingly smooth train journey to school. What happened? I made the mistake of sitting next to Michael, who had some strange idea that playing a high pitched noise while sitting next to me was a good idea.
This was really annoying, and I still hear the ringing in my ears. Was it in my control that Michael was driving a high-pitched noise through my ears?
I seemed to think so. I repeatedly attempted to sabotage Michael’s attempts at distracting me by snatching his iPad and turning the noise off. Was this a burst of anger? My mind was perfectly clear during the incident. I didn’t feel angry, I didn’t feel particularly escalating the situation to further violence. Though I did have a physical reaction to the event, I did it in a clear, calm mind.
The rest of the day passed smoothly and cleanly, I recall no other incident’s worth noting.
Now on to the texts. The morning text was from Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations, 1.14. I really feel like I agree with everything in this text, as it describes some of the core tenets of Stoicism. There is nothing there I disagree with especially, as it describes a happy way of life.
The evening text was from Seneca’s Letters, 12.9. This text is about how we should be grateful for the gift of life God has given us, and how we should appreciate every day we have. I like this text, it is a positive, upbeat way of looking at life. However, I think it just speaks of being too content, and as such, means that people will have no real motivation to do things. Like in communism

That is all.

Stoicism

Upcoming- A Stoic week reflection journal

yay?