Stoicism: An Ancient Guide to today’s Life (Introduction).

An ancient Roman emperor, a Greek slave and a Cypriot wealthy merchant, do you find any
connecting threads between them? Well let me tell you, they belonged to the same school of
Philosophy. They were all ​Stoics​. Now what actually is a​ ​Stoic?​ In colloquial English they
are the people lacking emotions. People who are not perturbed by any hardships in life and
remain calm and composed. But why are we talking about these stern and hard-hearted
people? Do we really need this insensitive philosophy at this time when the world is in
corona chaos ​(this term is coined by ​me​, in case it becomes popular HAHA!), when we are
expected to be more sensitive to people of colour, accept and accommodate everyone? Why
would we need such a bogus thing when mental health problems are still considered a
taboo, when people are going to therapy more than ever? This is not an attempt to put
Psychiatrist or Therapist out of business. It is a mere reminder to dive deep into the thoughts
which Instagram influencers and pages often talk about. Now you must be thinking what is
the similarity between these people from the old world and Instagram influencers. Okay,
have you ever come across pages online on how to stay happy, how to improve yourself or
how to get over your ex (we all have been there, no shame hehe!)? The ideas preached by
online gurus is core to the ​Philosophy of Stoicism. T ​ hese ideas developed about 2000
years ago are still very much relevant in our times. The only problem is that we have become
too occupied to dive deep into anything, we have started calling googling things as
researching now! So it’s time to take a step back and investigate. Having said this, I myself
googled a lot of things to understand the philosophy, but I also tried listening to the
audiobook which is considered the​ ​Bible​ of this philosophy. Still a lot is needed to be read!
Without further ado lets get started.

This philosophy was founded in ancient Greece about 2000 years ago by a
wealthy merchant named​ ​Zeno of Citium​. ​It was further built upon by many
Graeco-Roman intellectuals, prominent of which are​ ​Marcus Aurelius​ ​(the
emperor of Roman dynasty),​ ​Epictetus​ ​(born as a slave in modern day Turkey)
and​ ​Seneca​ ​(tutor to one of the most notorious Roman ruler​ ​Nero​)​.

The idea central to the philosophy is​ “Virtue is the only good.” ​Now what is virtue? It is a
quality or trait that is considered to be morally good. The idea of virtue being the ultimate
good sounds foolish in our modern times, isn’t it? Our mind is flooded with the idea of what
success is and how we all shall strive our best to achieve it. Mediocrity is considered bad
and the highly respectable are the people with good money, happy married life and a
successful career.

“Almost nothing material is needed for a happy life, for he who has understood
existence” - Marcus Aurelius

What we all need to understand is the fact that there exists no goal in our lives. There is no
completion. Being virtuous should be the ultimate goal. This is what we have right now or
else we all shall remain in the rat race. So does this mean we should give up on everything
in life, start smoking weed everyday and do the minimum to meet out basic needs?
Absolutely not! The goal in life should be to stop running after materialistic goals and shift
our attention on self discipline. It is to enjoy the journey without affixing to the outcomes.
Some of us may have a desire to lose weight. In order to fulfill this, we fix an achievable
target and start working on it. Some of us will achieve the target and some of us might fail.
Why did some of us fail? Because the problem was in the understanding of our goal. The
underlying understanding of the goal is not to lose weight, it is to impart in us the quality of
self discipline and develop virtuous character. But what if we still fail?

“Sometimes even to live is an act of courage” - Seneca

Adversity is part of Nature. We should learn to accept bad outcomes. Life isn’t fair and most
things are not under our control. But it is indeed hard to accept failure and not be perturbed
by it. The problem lies in our perception of outcomes. There are two ways to perceive a
failed result: One way is to sulk about it and the other way is to accept it as an unfortunate
event and move on. ​“But its hard to just move on! I tried my best and I gave it
everything.” W ​ ell you already have the answer, when you give your best you improve upon
your previous self. You were at your virtuous best and that means you did all you could. We
can always control the journey to the goal and never the outcome.

“In every event which leads you to sorrow, remember to use this principle: that
this is not a misfortune, but that to bear it like a brave man is good fortune”
-Marcus Aurelius

Today there are online trends about how to stay happy and be positive all the time despite
facing adversities. There is absolutely no problem with it, we all deserve to be happy. But the
problem lies in how it is being preached. Day after day we are told to focus only on the
positive things and not think about negative outcomes. In doing this, we tend to divert our
minds from the harsh realities of life, which are equally probable. We should learn to look at
the negative outcomes too because it is through these adversities we get stronger. It is only
through our logical deductions that we can prevent our misplaced hopes being smashed into
an unforeseen reality. And ultimately we always have the choice. Be happy in attempting the
good itself, because if your aim is attempting, you have already succeeded. No matter how
wise one is, life will always find a way to throw you off. The key to being happy is only lies in
our perception of the outcomes.

“​Man is affected not by events but by the view he takes of them.​” -Seneca

A common perception about stoicism is that it is very soulless, self-centred negative

philosophy. But the fact is it is not. Consider a person, lets say Avi(totally made up name!),
who is afraid of lizards and wishes to overcome this fear. The only way to overcome this is to
face the lizard in proximity. The first time he faces the lizard his heart rate goes up and he
starts to sweat. But eventually with few more exposures he overcomes his fear, if not learn
to accept that overcoming it is not essential to his survival.
The doctrine of Stoicism constitutes an essential part of Abrahamic religions and some older
religions like Hinduism and Buddhism. A parallel can also be seen in modern day​ ​Cognitive
behavioral therapy​.