Jan 5, 2020 - Musings    No Comments

How to Live Like a Stoic

The following quotes are from Massimo Pigliucci’s book How to Be a Stoic

“The Stoics adopted Socrates’s classification of four aspects of virtue, which they thought of as four tightly interlinked character traits: (practical) Wisdom, Courage, Temperance, and Justice.

Practical Wisdom allows us to make decisions that improve our Eudaimonia, the (ethically) good life.

Courage can be physical, but more broadly refers to the moral aspect—for instance, the ability to act well under challenging circumstances…

Temperance makes it possible for us to control our desires and actions so that we don’t yield to excesses.

 Justice, for Socrates and the Stoics, refers not to an abstract theory of how society should be run, but rather to the practice of treating other human beings with dignity and fairness.”

Massimo thoughtfully walks us through the four cardinal Stoic virtues: Wisdom + Courage + Temperance + Justice.

“The Stoics derived their understanding of virtue from Socrates, who believed that all virtues are actually different aspects of the same underlying feature: Wisdom. The reason why Wisdom is the ‘chief good,’ according to Socrates, is rather simple: it is the only human ability that is good under every and all circumstance.”

Massimo continues: “Other cultures have developed, more or less independently, their own sets of virtues as socially important character traits, each arriving at its own classification of the relations among virtues. Interestingly, though, there is much more convergence than we would expect in these days when cultural relativism is so often portrayed as the norm. A study by Katherine Dahlsgaard, Christopher Peterson, and Martin Seligman looked at how virtue is articulated in Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Judaism, Taoism, and what they call ‘Athenian philosophy’ (mostly Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle).

They found a rather surprising amount of congruence among all of these religious-philosophical traditions and identified a set of six ‘core’ virtues: Courage, Justice, Humanity, Temperance, Wisdom, and Transcendence.

Four of the six are indistinguishable from the Stoic virtues. Stoics also accepted the importance of ‘humanity’ and ‘transcendence,’ although they didn’t think of these as virtues, but rather as attitudes toward others (humanity) and toward the universe at large (transcendence).”

Remember ‘Intention’ is a KEY. ‘Action’ is the ANSWER.

Nov 8, 2019 - Musings    No Comments

Step in Any Concrete Lately?

The following is a brief story by the contemporary philosopher Brian Johnson relating wisdom by an obscure 20th century philosopher and spiritual teacher named Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov from his book, “Golden Rules for Everyday Living”.

Omraam wisely reminded us that: The past is past but it has given birth to the present, and the present contains the roots of the future. This means that you must build your future in advance by improving the present.

Aïvanhov was a Christian mystic. He was born in Bulgaria in 1900 and taught in France until his death in 1986. He reminds me of some other somewhat obscure spiritual teachers like Vernon Howard (see our Notes on The Power of Your Supermind) and Sri Swami Satchidananda (see Notes on The Golden Present). I also thought of Rumi as I read the book (see Notes on Rumi Daylight) along with some old school Stoic philosophers (see that collection!).

Today’s wisdom.

Aïvanhov tells us: Never let your inner feelings of malaise reach such proportions that you can no longer put them right. Suppose you absentmindedly stepped in some wet concrete and are so lost in thought that you neglect to step out of it again; what will the result be? The concrete will harden; in fact, it will become so hard that someone will have to go and get some tools to break it before you can get your feet free, and you may well be hurt in the process. Well, this is what happens in the inner life: if you fail to put your mistakes or faults right very quickly, it will be too late. The remedy will be very costly and may well cause further damage.

I absolutely LOVE that metaphor.

Imagine cruising down the street.

You’re so busy looking down at your smartphone (hah) that you don’t notice the new concrete that was just poured on the sidewalk. You step right in it.

Then…

You’re so lost in thought (and/or tapping away at the screen you’re staring at) that you don’t move and/or notice the concrete hardening around your feet until… OOPS! You’re stuck.

Moral of the metaphor: Ideally, avoid stepping in the concrete in the first place but… When you inevitably do, don’t let it harden!!

In other words: Notice and then FIX YOUR MISTAKES quickly while it’s still relatively easier.

Aïvanhov puts it another way: When a disaster occurs in the ordinary way of life, we see how firemen or soldiers immediately come to the rescue to put out a fire, repair bridges, clear the roads, rescue the injured and so on. People find it perfectly natural to repair physical damage immediately, but when it comes to the inner world, they don’t know what to do; they look on without reacting as the destruction continues. No, you must look into yourself and see what needs to be repaired, five, ten, twenty times a day, and not leave it until later. Otherwise, when ‘later’ comes it will be too late. You will have already fallen to pieces and been annihilated.

Step in any concrete lately?

btw: Any time I think of spiritual teachers and metaphorical concrete, I think of Pema Chödrön and her wisdom. In The Places That Scare You, she says: This is the path we take in cultivating joy: learning not to armor our basic goodness, learning to appreciate what we have. Most of the time we don’t do this. Rather than appreciate where we are, we continually struggle to nurture our dissatisfaction. It’s like trying to get flowers to grow by pouring cement on the garden.

btw2: Perhaps my favorite wisdom gem from Aïvanhov is this: It is time you understand that true spirituality means that you yourself become the living expression of the divine teaching you follow.


Oct 19, 2019 - Musings    No Comments

Savor this Life

This special ‘blessing reminder’ was written by
Terry Hershey. Please see his website at:


https://www.terryhershey.com/sabbath-moment/

We are wired to savor. To live awake and attentive, present in the moment… “being spontaneously surprised by the goodness and beauty of living.”

What is not a surprise is that savoring is also good medicine for our blue moods.

But I forget that. Well, that’s not quite accurate; let’s just say that I get distracted, exhausted and too often, live numbed.
 
A young man boarded an overnight train in Europe. He was told, “There have been a lot of recent thefts. We take no responsibility for any loss.” This worried the young man, because he carried a lot of stuff. So, he lay awake, fearing the worst, staring at his stuff. Finally, at 3 am, he fell asleep. Waking with a start twenty minutes later, he saw that his stuff was gone. He took a deep breath. “Thank God,” he said. “Now I can sleep.”

Here’s my question; What is it that we carry (so dutifully) that keeps us from savoring? From living awake and present? The list seems longer these days (including things we didn’t sign up for). It is no wonder that we sometimes feel undone.
 
I’ve talked about wrestling with depression and anxiety. When it rears its head (shrouded in mystery of course), I treat it like a challenge, or competition, expecting to figure it out. As if I’ll move past it, on to “real life”. So, of course, I google it. (Not a good first move. Just sayin’.)

I scan the page and a pop-up screen flashes and squawks (literally), asking me to take a survey. My blood pressure now up, I close the box and scroll the article, sidetracked by several ads, playing as videos. Including an ad for a med I cannot even pronounce. There’s a depression(s) guide, with 30 plus types of anxiety to choose from, five articles to read, rabbit trails to follow. At the bottom, pictures with 8 more recommended articles, including foods to avoid. So, I hide my chocolate from the screen in case the computer is spying on me.

I take the healthiest option; I start laughing, turn off my computer, and say out loud, “Thank God. Now I can sleep.”

So. Back to savoring.

“We are part of what is sacred,” William Kittredge reminds us. “That is our main defense against craziness, our solace, the source of our best politics, and our only chance at paradise.”

Here’s the good news; The sacred isn’t always where you expect it. Say, the immediate vicinity. Can the beauty of living, surprised by the goodness and beauty of this life, be enough?
 
“To see takes time, like to have a friend takes time,” Georgia O’Keeffe wrote, contemplating the art of seeing.
And I love Simone Weil’s memorable assertion that “attention, taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer.”

This week I read that it’s a new day on Amtrak. No more sit-down meals. Which takes us again, to savoring. Rainesford Stauffer writes, “Just like Amtrak citing prepackaged meals as a chic and contemporary workaround to a prepared meal, the emphasis on ease — on maximizing every second — is supposed to be sexy. But it can feel exhausting. The idea that young people like me are always on the go, always in transition and always on, masks that we might actually desire slowness, want to relish an experience, or enjoy taking a moment to feel comfortable and human instead of curated and optimized.

Our experiences at work, in our homes and even in transit can be chopped up into pieces of purpose and service. Anything else — any lingering, any humanity — can feel superfluous, or even wasteful, especially for a generation scapegoated as entitled for wanting things that used to be considered basic. It’s as though doing more (even when we’re doing something as simple and sedentary as riding a train) with less is always the ultimate goal.

It’s not difficult to see why, when an advertisement highlighting convenience and quickness pops up, we believe maybe this really is the thing that will make life better. Maybe this is what ‘contemporary’ looks like. But I wish small things — meals on a train, unplanned moments that can’t be logged as self-improvement or furniture that is owned — didn’t feel old-fashioned. I wish people knew that my generation wants more than to optimize our lives, or to feel trendy because of how fast we’re hustling. I wish slowing down didn’t feel like a luxury.” And I say, Amen.

So. Today, where can I pause, see, savor? And say, thank you?
I learned a new word this week; Fika. Fika is an everyday Swedish tradition, about sitting down and having a coffee while spending time with someone else. Plain and simple, a moment to slow down, and appreciate the goodness and beauty of living.

This week I shall Fika.

And do you know what spills from savoring?

When we see, we allow ourselves to care, to be invested. To see around us a profusion of “raw, unalloyed, agenda-less kindness” (David Foster Wallace). That’s easy to forget. Gallup released a recent poll on success, about what we value and the disconnect between personal views, and our perception of how society views success. The results are no shock. We think society honors fame and money. But personally, we would choose trustworthy, considerate and helpful. It’s a reminder that we measure the wrong things. And when we do, we carry superfluous and cumbersome baggage.
 
When I savor, grace comes to life. Grace allows us to risk loving, to be unafraid of a life than can be messy. To make a space for something less than perfect in ourselves and in one another. To offer kindness and compassion. In a glance, in a word, in a touch. To create spaces, sanctuaries, where healing and hope are offered.

To believe in goodness after harm. And to know that this light and love will always spill to the world around us.
 
This week, distracted by work, rain and mental shenanigans, I turned toward the foothills of the Olympics. Resting in a saddle, a rainbow, taking a breather, blessing the earth. Or being blessed. And making me very glad to be alive.

Oct 18, 2019 - Musings    No Comments

Ideas Can Change Your Life

Jim Rohn says: “Ideas can change your life. And sometimes all you need is just one more good idea in a series of good ideas. It’s like dialing the numbers of a combination lock. After you’ve dialed five or six numbers, the lock may not come open. But you probably don’t need five or six more numbers. Maybe you need just one more number, one more idea. Maybe a seminar or a sermon can provide it. The lyrics from a song could do it. The dialogue from a movie could do it. Conversation with a friend might do it. If you keep your eyes and ears open, you’ll find that one last idea you need. Once you find that idea, the lock comes open, and there’s the door for you to walk through. Just one more idea, no matter where you get it, may be all you need to open that door of opportunity.

“I wonder what is over there?”

Oct 16, 2019 - Musings    No Comments

The importance of Running Experiments.

Science is simple. Sure, some of it—particle accelerators, astrophysics, photon torpedoes—can be a little tricky. But the scientific method itself is straight forward:

1. OBSERVE what’s going on.
2. GUESS why things are happening the way they are.
3. EXPERIMENT to test your hypothesis.
4. MEASURE the results and decide whether you were right.

That’s pretty much it. The scientific know-how behind everything from WD-40 to the Hubble space telescope all came from following those four steps.

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