How does one live well? It’s a question that our fellow human beings have been pondering for centuries. Out of that simple question, many philosophies and religions have been born.
But no
philosophy does a better job of explaining the ideas for living well in a
practical way than Stoicism.
The
Emperor-Philosopher Marcus Aurelius, once the most powerful man on earth, was
also a practitioner of Stoicism. Marcus wrote a collection of thoughts, ideas,
and rules for life in what was later published as Meditation.
You can study
Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations forever and benefit by such an endeavor. Here are
ten rules for life that serve as a succinct and beneficial introduction to his
teaching.
One — Take A
View From Above
You should view
yourself occasionally as if you are looking at yourself in the third person.
Imagine a camera that is looking at you and then you slowly zoom out and up.
So, if you are in a situation where you are feeling uncomfortable or anxious,
you zoom out to look at the room and the people in it, then the building, then
the street, then the town, then the county, then the province, then the country
and so on. Whilst you are doing this, picture all the other buildings and all
the rooms that they contain and all the people inside of them. This will have
the effect of putting your problems in perspective, that other people are
having problems and yours are not all consuming,
Two — Plan
for complete failure
Yes, this
appears contrary to the usual focus on the power of positive thinking and the
law of attraction. The Stoics believed in negative visualization — that you should
think about the worst thing that could happen and do so in some detail. So, for
example, if you are making a public speech, you should visualize the crowd
standing up and booing you before all walking out. This is not going to happen,
but if you dwell on it and visualize it, then if some other things do go wrong,
it will not concern you as much.
Three —
Stare at Death
Spend a month
dwelling on death and indeed the worst and most painful death imaginable. If
you realize you only have a certain number of days — the average person lives
25,500 days — you will live them better. Also, by ruminating on the terror of
death, you lessen the fear of it, as paradoxical as that first appears.
Four — Do
Only What is Essential
If you think
life is short, it is not, for the Stoic, seventy summers is more than enough.
But, you must learn to focus, to cut out what is important, if you concentrate
on only the essential, you will have plenty of time to achieve the essential.
Five — All
Things Must Pass
When things are
going wrong for us, we tend to allow negativity to consume us. Learn to
accept that all emotions, both negative and positive are transient and
impermanent.
Six — Live
like a Minimalist
Sadhu ascetics
in India give all their possessions away, Kondo teaches us to declutter. Learn
that the things that you buy will not bring you happiness. It will not bring
you long term fulfillment. The more stuff you have, the more stressed you are.
The things you own, actually own you.
Seven — Live
In The Present Moment.
You did not
worry about being around in 1841, why worry if you are not around in 2041? Do
not dwell on the past nor be concerned with the future. Do not replay your
mistakes over and over, learn to walk out of that movie. You cannot change the
past but you can change your perception of it. Meditation is the best method
for this.
Eight —
Contemplate the Sage
Choose a person
who you wholly respect. Or outline what traits you ideal character would have.
When you encounter a situation that arises emotions in you, try to take a few
seconds to consider how your ideal character would react and then strive to do
the same.
Nine —
Habits are necessary
The Stoics
would write down their maxims, such as ‘The best revenge is not to be like your
enemy’ or ‘I have no cause to hurt myself. I have never consciously hurt anyone
else.’ And repeat them everyday, over and over, until they acted them out
subconsciously
Ten — Review
The Day
Before you
sleep, take time to review your day, think about what you did well and what you
can improve upon. Then, the next day try to act out what you thought about.
Small improvements compounded each day achieve monumental results.
And that’s why
so many people are drawn to the writings of Marcus Aurelius and other Stoics.
They wanted to make the world a better place.
I can’t think
of a more noble goal than that. It is now up to us to keep this philosophy
alive. And you can only do that by putting these 10 rules for life in practice.
No comments:
Post a Comment