Table of Contents

The Little Book of Humanity.............................................................................................................................1

Epicurus on death...............................................................................................................................................2

Marcus Aurelius on misfortune.........................................................................................................................5

Marcus Aurelius on fearing the future.............................................................................................................7

Epicurus on the roads end..................................................................................................................................9

Marcus Aurelius on feelings of injury.............................................................................................................11

Epicurus on pleasure........................................................................................................................................14

Epicurus on overindulgence.............................................................................................................................16

Bertrand Russell on goals in life......................................................................................................................19

Epicurus on anger.............................................................................................................................................21
Feedback for Post "Epicurus on anger".................................................................................................23

Marcus Aurelius on harmony and universe...................................................................................................24

Marcus Aurelius on the privilege of being alive.............................................................................................27

Author's friends................................................................................................................................................30

About the author...............................................................................................................................................32

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i
The Little Book of Humanity
Epicurus on death

"Death is nothing to us; for that which has been dissolved into its elements experiences
no sensations, and that which has no sensation is nothing to us." - Epicurus (Principal
Doctrine number 2)

Epicurus is in practice saying here that fear of death is quite unnecessary, as in death person
just returns to the state he or she was before he or she was born and there is no pain after that.
The fear of death in itself is the enemy, not the inevitable death, that is a similar necessary
and vital part of life as birth is.
I know it is so easy to say, but so difficult to really do, but the easiest way to diminish fear is
to stop unnecessarily thinking about things you fear, especially if your thinking does not
really change anything, but only makes you fear a thing you need not fear. Epicureans do
think that living a full and good life is the best antidote for fear of death.
Of course the religions are feeding on this fear of death and they do their utmost to keep it up.
So it comes as no surprise that death is the main decorative motive in all Christian churches
and a instrument of killing is its main symbol.
This Epicurean doctrine is not at all about those left behind after our death, but it is all about
how we personally deal with the idea of our own death. The loss felt by others can also of
course be lessened if they can accept death as a natural and necessary part of life and not for
example as a divine sanction for our sins.
After your death you do really exist, but only as a memory of you and your actions in other
people's minds. A person leaving good memories with his good actions will live for a long
time in those memories after he or she is gone and more importantly will also be remembered
fondly.
by jaskaw @ 29.11.2009 - 20:48:53

http://thelittlebook.blogs.fi/2009/11/29/epicurus-on-death-7480720/
Marcus Aurelius on misfortune

"Here is the rule to remember in the future, When anything tempts you to be bitter: not,
"This is a misfortune" but "To bear this worthily is good fortune." - Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius was a Stoic and the Stoic way of thinking is all about changing ones attitude
to make the best of bad situations where one is helpless to really change things.
This however does not mean that Stoics would have thought that people should accept all
things as they come. There however inevitably is many situations in life where one simply
can not change anything with his or her actions. In these situations the Stoic way of thinking
can still be a great tool in retaining ones sanity at least.

by jaskaw @ 29.11.2009 - 20:50:21

http://thelittlebook.blogs.fi/2009/11/29/marcus-aurelius-on-misfortune-7480732/
Marcus Aurelius on fearing the future

"Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same
weapons of reason which today arm you against the present." - Marcus Aurelius

The very central theme of Stoic philosophy is removing all unnecessary ballast from ones
mind. Inflicting oneself with fear of unknown and uncertain future things is often the most
destructive form of self-mutilation.
However, Marcus Aurelius thinks that you can avoid this unnecessary trap created by your
own mind, if you just really do put effort into it.
I do not think that Marcus Aurelius is saying that it would be easy, but that realizing the
amount of unnecessary fears that we so easily fill our minds will help us in coping with the
reality.
In my mind he is just saying that if you have made it so far, there is no reason the think that
you would not succeed in the future also, provided that you take the full use of your very own
rational mind.

by jaskaw @ 29.11.2009 - 20:51:44

http://thelittlebook.blogs.fi/2009/11/29/marcus-aurelius-on-future-7480741/
Epicurus on the roads end

"While we are on the road, we must try to make what is before us better than what is
past; when we come to the road's end, we feel a smooth contentment." - Epicurus
(Vatican sayings, 48)

We do not know what waits for us in the future, but I see that Epicurus is saying here that if
there is a will to even try to make future better than the past, the future just might really be
better.
If we are content to dwell in the failures, mistakes and simple bad luck of the past, the future
just maybe will be no different from the past.
I think this quote is all about not worrying unnecessarily about the future, as nothing good
will come out of it, but giving it a try at least before succumbing to pessimism and cynicism
that so easily tempt all of us.
The last sentence is a reminder that there is a real reward waiting for us, if we just put our
minds into it. It is not one to be had behind the grave, but a real, more peaceful and
purposeful state of mind, that can in fact be achieved by just trying to make a difference.

by jaskaw @ 29.11.2009 - 20:58:03

http://thelittlebook.blogs.fi/2009/11/29/epicurus-on-the-roads-end-7480793/
Marcus Aurelius on feelings of injury

"Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears." - Marcus Aurelius

There are of course also mental injuries that are so deep that you just cannot make them
disappear, but I still think as Marcus Aurelius suggests here that the less you dwell in real or
imagined injuries, the better you will feel in the long run.
A central problem with philosophy often is that it seems to deal in absolutes, even if often
ideas just seem to be presented as absolute ideas. In the real world they can be seen just as
worthwhile ultimate goals that one can strive for.
I do not think that Marcus Aurelius is suggesting that all mental injuries can go away by just
wishing it to be so. I do also think that one must really do work to overcome them, but if you
do not realize that you often really need not to carry those mental wounds with you, you will
miss a important opportunity.
I do think that one can vastly improve one's life without really getting rid of all of the mental
injuries one has collected during ones life, but just by trying to go in the general direction of
that ultimate goal.
However this quote just makes no sense to me if it is interpreted erroneously to include also
physical injuries.
It however makes a sea of sense when understood in the right way, as mental wounds all too
often happen only in the wounded mind itself and all too often they do not exist anywhere
else, as all too often they are creatures of ones own imagination only.
I do think that Marcus Aurelius is basically suggesting here that the less one does allow words
to bite, the less they really will wound you.
by jaskaw @ 29.11.2009 - 20:59:14

http://thelittlebook.blogs.fi/2009/11/29/marcus-aurelius-on-feelings-of-injury-7480805/
Epicurus on pleasure

"The magnitude of pleasure reaches its limit in the removal of all pain. When such
pleasure is present, so long as it is uninterrupted, there is no pain either of body or of
mind or of both together." - Epicurus (Principal Doctrine number 3)

/>

This is the Epicurean doctrine that is misunderstood the most. The sad fact is that this
misinterpretation was often done quite on purpose by those Christians who wanted to make
Epicureanism look bad.
The Epicurean goal is not at all about hedonism or having uninterrupted pleasure, the more so
as pleasure is defined as removal of pain and not a having pleasant sensation as such. So the
ultimate state of bliss is achieved when one is not in pain in any way mentally or physically.
It should be pointed out that one needs no physical pleasures as such to achieve that state of
bliss, even if they do no harm either. The mental pain if course the most difficult to avoid.
Again it is not even stated that such a state is in fact achievable in practice, but this saying is
about the theoretical maximum state of pleasure or in other words lack of all pain.
Of course Epicurus is expressing here only the ideal state. He is not saying that achieving it
would be easy or even possible for all in practice.
However, he gives in his other writings ideas how this state of 'ataraxia' as he called it can be
achieved in practice if one is willing to commit oneself to this task hard enough.

by jaskaw @ 29.11.2009 - 21:25:34

http://thelittlebook.blogs.fi/2009/11/29/epicurus-on-pleasure-7480956/
Epicurus on overindulgence

"No pleasure is a bad thing in itself, but the things which produce certain pleasures
entail disturbances many times greater than the pleasures themselves." Epicurus
(Principal Doctrines, 8)

>

This doctrine is one of those which is very commonly forgotten when people are trying to
portray Epicureanism as hedonistic and reaching only for the unlimited pleasures, as this
doctrine is all about the harmful side-effects the striving for physical or mental pleasures can
have.
The big difference with Christianity is that nothing is seen as forbidden or sinful just because
of some divine revelation, but things are valued on the benefits and disturbances they bring
with them either to a person him- or herself, to his or her relationships or to the society. One
of course needs a rational mind that can do such a valuation.
In Epicurean ideal world a person simply should be able to see when the negative aspects of
an activity are greater that the good it brings.
Epicurean way of thought is based on a strong expectation of self-discipline and ability to
analyze ones own actions in direct contrast with Christianity, where a person is not supposed
the make this kind of personal valuations at all.
I personally do understand that the 'disturbance' mentioned here is anything that puts things
off-balance in ones relationships with other people or one's own mind or body. Naturally for
example eating or drinking too much can cause far more trouble than they do bring in
pleasure.
Disturbances are all the things that disturb "ataraxia" which is a state that is characterized by
freedom from worry or any other preoccupation.
Many Christian writers of the past have described ataraxia as apathy. That claim is as old as
Christianity, as early Christians did dig up things just like this to make Epicureanism look
bad. Epicureanism was at a time a major competitor for this emerging new religion which was
still wet behind its ears, when Epicureanism was a well established and also well esteemed
school of thought.
The Christian claim is however a complete forgery, as ataraxia has nothing to do with apathy,
 but it is the ultimate goal as a state of mind where a person is at peace with him or herself and
the outside world.
I do think that a person can be tremendously active and productive while striving for this kind
of greater inner strength and peace. It is not however claimed that it is even ever possible ever
to attain a complete and perfect peace of mind.
In my mind the central thing here is the process where a person avoids such things that do
disturb his or her relationships with other people and such actions that do make attaining
peace in ones own mind more difficult.

by jaskaw @ 29.11.2009 - 22:10:40

http://thelittlebook.blogs.fi/2009/11/29/epicurus-on-overindulgence-7481220/
Bertrand Russell on goals in life

"I have lived in the pursuit of a vision, both personal and social. Personal: to care for
what is noble, for what is beautiful, for what is gentle; to allow moments of insight to
give wisdom at more mundane times. Social: to see in imagination the society that is to
be created, where individuals grow freely, and where hate and greed and envy die
because there is nothing to nourish them. These things I believe, and the world, for all
its horrors, has left me unshaken." - Bertrand Russell in "The Autobiography of
Bertrand Russell" (1967)

Bertrand Russell shows with his life that a person can lead a full and fulfilling life while
being fully aware of all of the evil and unjust things there are always going on in the world
around us.
He knew very well that we will never achieve a perfect society, but he never tired of trying to
improve the one we do live in.
However, when one does what one can realistically expected to make an personal impact on
things, one can rest assured that one's life has not gone to waste, as Bertrand Russell most
certainly did feel at the end of his long and extremely productive life.
Bertrand Russell was no saint at all, but he was a champion for the downtrodden, a tireless
defender of the cause of peace and a first and foremost always a rational thinker. However,
his often hard-hitting rationality did not prevent him from enjoying all the beautiful, little and
often fragile things our universe and our culture do produce.
He is a fine example of how one does not need any kind of religion (or a strong ideology like
communism, either) for dedicating ones life for making our common little blue dot a better
place to live for all of us.

by jaskaw @ 30.11.2009 - 01:50:43

http://thelittlebook.blogs.fi/2009/11/29/bertrand-russell-on-goals-in-life-7482354/
Epicurus on anger

"A blessed and indestructible being has no trouble himself and brings no trouble upon
any other being; so he is free from anger and partiality, for all such things imply
weakness." - Epicurus (Principal Doctrines,1)

I do believe that Epicurus is saying here that a person can achieve a state that he calls
"indestructibility" when he or she can be free of unnecessary negative feelings.
After this happens one does not cause unnecessary trouble to him- or herself and most of all
to others with his or hers unneeded negative thoughts and actions.
Then a person can be freed from some of the things that does often hurt one the most.
However, I do see that i Epicurus is just presenting an ideal, that need not to be in fact even
be fully attainable in the real world. Most of all he is not saying that reaching this goal would
be easy.
I see that this quite Buddhist thought can be read just as a goal to be sought after, even if it is
not in real life possible to get there or to get even close.
The rewards can come from the process itself. It just might be that even if the goal is never
reached, it does not really matter, if just the reaching for this kind of goal changes something
in a person.

by jaskaw @ 30.11.2009 - 13:36:01

http://thelittlebook.blogs.fi/2009/11/30/epicurus-on-anger-7484059/
Feedback for Post "Epicurus on anger"

Richard Flower [Visitor]

22.09.2010 @ 17:47
Indestructibility is not presently a goal of mine; I am rather aiming to be pliable. Consider the strength of a
palm tree with a tall, slender trunk on a tropical isle. Gale force winds cannot topple the palm tree, whereas
the slightest shake of the earth causes an overwhelming amount of damage to the common rigidly constructed
building. I prefer to learn to "go with the punches." It certainly makes me more amiable.

| Show subcomments
jaskaw pro
http://www.beinghuman.blogs.fi
22.09.2010 @ 18:29
Richard, is that palm tree you describe not "indestructible"? I would say that you just described a
indestructible thing.

Richard Flower [Visitor]

22.09.2010 @ 19:56
I could not rightly say that anything - or anyone - is indestructible. I am saying that it is better to give into the
punch instead of trying to resist it. If I present the impression of an indestructible shell to the world, I merely
present a rigid and cold exterior that invites confrontation, leading to destruction.

This is a statement of the state of humanity the world over as well as the state of each person on this earth.
Wars are started by two countries unwilling to bend. Buildings with a rigid cold exterior cannot grow like a
tree.
Marcus Aurelius on harmony and universe

"He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe." - Marcus
Aurelius

I do see what Marcus Aurelius is saying here is a very simple but extremely important
statement; accepting what and who you really are will get you a long way towards accepting
also other people as who and what they really are.
I do think that only after we accept the value and importance of other people in our life, can
we even dream of some kind of universal harmony in our own lives.
This idea is as far as I know also a very central message in Buddhist thinking too. One must
reach a state of harmony within oneself, as the very first necessary step if one seeks a create a
state harmony with other people and the universe as a whole.
In the end the most of known universe is in real life made of people we already know. How
we relate and react to them will pretty much change and shape our tiny part of the universe.
Our actual real life corner of the universe of course expands and retracts according to how our
life evolves, but I do think that in fact the most meaningful and important part of our whole
universe can be contained in a single room at times.

by jaskaw @ 30.11.2009 - 20:08:42

http://thelittlebook.blogs.fi/2009/11/30/marcus-aurelius-on-universe-7486124/
Marcus Aurelius on the privilege of being alive

"When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to
breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love." - Marcus Aurelius

I do think that Marcus Aurelius is up to something very important here, as it is all too easy to
forget that just being alive for another day makes one a a member of a very privileged group.
We just all too easily just take for granted many things in life.
The human mind is simply build in a way that we do not normally even notice if we are
allowed the ultimate luxury of living through that day without encountering personal pain and
suffering.
To really notice this we need to make an conscious effort. I do think that the true importance
of people like Marcus Aurelius lies in just this ability to raise our level of consciousness.
They need not even to create new emotions and grand new visions, but just to make us aware
of the existence of the ones we already have.

On the other hand I do think you need not to do anything special to make any day in your life
important to yourself. A lazy moment spent on doing nothing else than letting the free flow of
thinking arise just can at times be the best investment one can ever make.
Endless lazy hours spent mindlessly looking on the hypnotic glass eye of the telly is however
a different thing altogether.
by jaskaw @ 30.11.2009 - 20:56:39

http://thelittlebook.blogs.fi/2009/11/30/marcus-aurelius-on-the-privilege-of-being-alive-7486419/
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About the author
jaskaw (Jaakko Wallenius), male, 52 years old, Lohja, , speaks Finnish (FI)

(English version at bottom) Uusi ja yllättävä tieto on minulle ylivoimaisesti parasta viihdettä. Rakkaus
historiaan syttyi jo kansankouluaikana, mutta viime vuosina melkoisesti aikaa on vienyt myös
tietotekniikkaan syventyminen. Opiskelin aikoinaan historiaa, sosiologiaa ja valtio-oppia, mutta lyhyeksi
jäänyt poliittinen ura vei miehen pian mukanaan. Jo 17 vuotta sitten alkoi nykyinen taloustoimittajan ura.
Asun pienessä omakotitalossa pienessä kaupungissa vaimon, kahden koiran, kahden lapsen ja viime laskun
mukaan 14 kalan kanssa. Korjailen toimittajan päätyöni ohella sivutoimisena yrittäjänä hyvien
kaupunkilaisten tietokoneita. Olen myös kotitoimitukseni pääluottamusmies. New information is always the
best entertainment for me. My everlasting love of historý started at the elementary school at tender age of
nine, when I read The 600 pages of Pocket World History, admittedly skipping the dull parts about culture... I
have studied history, political history, political science and journalism in universities of Turku and Tampere,
but have never graduated from neither. A brief but tempestuous political career blew the man premately to to
wide world from the comforting womb of university. A more steady career in journalism followed and I have
been a professional writer and journalist for the past 20 years. At present I live in a small town in a small
house with a wife, two not so small teenagers, two middle-sized dogs and 14 fish of various sizes. By day I
work as a journalist writing about local economy in our local newspaper. Its a job i have held for the past 17
years. In the evenings and week-ends I repair the computers of the good citizens of our little town as a private
entrepreneur.

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