“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.”
— Marcus Aurelius
All the secular “gurus” from Tim Ferris, who many called out as a fraud in many respects, to various “influencers” will tell you stoicism and Marcus Aurelius are where it’s at.
Well, they are simply wrong.
Don’t get me wrong, Marcus has some decent stuff he says, and I recommend you read his work, and while his meditations on stoicism are generally still way ahead of the modern wannabes versions and mangling of them, in all honesty, stoicism is something I had accepted quite fully by age 16.
It is, after all, the reasonable, objective man’s answer to a world filled with uncertainty and unknowns with regard to the gods.
Given Marcus was born less than a century after Christ ascended, and his world was Pagan, i think his nature was probably tending on the agnostic. And even if not, who can fathom the will of the ever fickle Gods?
So stoicism is simply the logical position to have.
But it is far from ideal in terms of effectiveness in navigating life on Earth. So, relatively shortly thereafter, after further observation and consideration of various topics of physics, biology and astronomy, I concluded an intelligence behind creation surely existed but as to its nature I remained agnostic. Most people are uncomfortable with my version of agnosticism, but I was very comfortable with it. Tempered with Zen Budo philosophy, which is a more evolved form of stoicism, it served me quite well for roughly the next two decades.
And I probably would have remained there with perhaps a smattering of Christian-like concepts, like forgiveness, as I described in my Systema book. It took a rather extreme event to bring me “face to face” so to speak, with God and even then, the absolute central aspect of Him was, aside from His infinite intelligence, His infinite Love, tinted throughout with good humour, and, most shocking of all, an absolute, intimate, caring love for me. For actually me, an utterly insignificant gnat on the ass of an utterly insignificant speck of dust in a Universe so vast the mind recoils at trying to think about it.
The concept that God, THE God, the All-creator, really cared about each and every one of is in extreme detail, was so utterly fantastically unexpected it took me a further 4 years of pretty intensive study and research and experimenting and learning before I could even begin to think that I could, or even should, accept it.
Having been baptised, confirmed and married, the philosophy of Catholicism (Sedevacantism) is clearly, infinitely superior to the others mentioned above. I don’t mean it makes me feel better. I mean it is practically more effective for navigating this world. In every respect.
So, while I like Marcus, and I’d happily have a good dinner conversation with him, the “gurus” trying to tell you stoicism is it, are basically, at best, copying my 16 year old attitude. I say copying it, because I had not read Marcus Aurelius at age 16. I came up with stoicism pretty much on my own. Because it made sense at the time given what I knew or could observe of the world. While the “gurus” had to read it or at least pretend to have read it, so they could pontificate on it.
Even Shintoism, or Zen Buddhism, are superior to stoicism. So why do you listen to the “gurus”? Find out for yourself.
Seek.
Seek and ye shall find.
Glad you pointed this out. When I tried reading Meditations a couple of years ago, it reminded me of a secular self-help book.
In both cases it’s often decent advice, but it doesn’t give much framework to apply it. You’re left to rely on your own willpower and your own morality.
Yes. As I said, I was a stoic by age 16, but I have an uncommon sense of willpower, as most who know me have verified for themselves, and it is not an easy or fun way to live. Really only people that are born with a certain bloodymindedness naturally will really benefit from this behaviour, and it is pretty much a given since they will naturally tend to act this way anyway. Even then, it can be rather brutal.
I would compare it to the difference between a hard style of martial art like karate-do compared to a perhaps more “difficult” but infinitely more effective system like Systema.