The Most Potent Antidote to Human Suffering
By: Paco Chávez
Tags: Stoicism, Transcendence, Self Improvement, Happiness

“True happiness is to enjoy the present without anxious dependance upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing. The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.”

-Seneca

Life is struggle. Life is struggle cloaked as a game, it is cloaked as such in order to help us organize ourselves better. For humans strive more on structure less on abstraction. We come up with rules and laws, and stages and prizes in order to create a more manageable version of reality and forget the struggle that engulfs it. We become part of a perennial game of adaptation that attempts to aliviate that struggle. Throughout that game we encounter different players that try to tear our inner world apart while we battle into establish balance. For balance seems to be according to our senses the state we seek, the state we demand, the state we desire. Balance will always be the end goal for human kind. It is a long and perilous journey that oscillates between chaos and boredom. But it seems that we are on the right track to reach that state. The when is irrelevant. What is relevant though, is the how and the why.

What constitutes self-transcendence?

Self transcendence is the answer to every question you might seek that is connected to your search for inner purpose and balance. Self-transcendence is the core vision every human ought to have in order to explain his or her role in this world. Whether this is manifested via a religious approach, a spiritual approach or a materialist approach is not of importance.

The reality that is brought to the table by our ability to keep pushing the envelope of our systems and our desire to transcend our human condition is the gist of this idea. This is the reason why the personal development movement has been gaining so much steam over the years and keeps growing in an unprecedented way. The need for every human that walks this planet to escape the fragility of this existence and become a higher conscious being will never fall out of fashion because it is inexplicably bound to the core of our paradigm. Philosophers, thinker and spiritual leaders and every agent that strives to add another brick in the wall of self-transcendence is at the epicenter of this verity. That´s why we follow them, that´s why we admire them, that´s why we listen to them. This is one of the biggest truths that you will ever encounter and one you should examine with enormous care.

What constitutes prosaic views?

The ultimate version of a person is their ability to speak the truth. The truth mainly about themselves but also in a broader sense, the moral truth and the scientific truth. Morality and science are two terms that have been flirting dangerously with each other since the beginning of the scientific revolution, but never really succeeded in merging or evolving together. There are instances of hope throughout history which indicate that we will eventually find a way to create a universal moral framework, free from religion, that draws depth from scientific facts, but this framework is still in the making and it will probably take monumental events in order to be formulated. Throughout that process however we are able to discover glimpses of what such a framework should look like. We are all humans and our capacity to understand right from wrong, and moral from immoral is expressed by our ability to seek cooperation and justice from a very young age. Mainly through play. This gift so to speak allows us to build variations of play as we grow older and the rules embedded in the various “games” we create help us assemble a version of reality that is more manageable and more relevant towards our needs. The rules and the games are never perfect. They are just there to remind us that we need them and that we constantly have to adapt them and re-engineer them. This is the substrate of our evolution what allowed our species to survive and thrive. Unfortunately this idea is arcane and unknown for most people, either because of lack of proper education or because of a proclivity towards ignorance and a general rejection of truth. Most people will cling to a very trivial and often times dangerous interpretation of reality that will serve only their personal, short term needs. Since the ancient times people have been facing the ramifications of that situation and have been trying to come up with solutions to this daunting conundrum. Usually, a head on approach would result in friction and would create even more tension to the already capricious nature of our relationships. So the wises among us realize our limitations and proposed philosophies that would allow the thinking human to discover and intellectual solace. Stoicism is a philosophy so potent that it has withstood the test of time. And it has of late, become one of the most pertinent antidotes to the lack of control we experience while we attempt to enhance most aspects of our lives. In Senecas creations there is a clear attempt to empower the individual narrative through a belief in virtue, presence, patience and embrace of the human struggle as an inevitable and much-needed tenet of life. True happiness is to enjoy the present without anxious dependance upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing. The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not. What Stoic philosopher Seneca has told us makes us feel humbled and empowered at the same time. Take this simple but yet profound statement for instance. All cruelty springs from weakness. Weakness is dangerous because usually weakness can lead to cruelty. It is because of cruelty that we engage in unmoral and atrocious acts. It is because of weakness that we fail to establish an accepted set of rules in our relationships that can help them prosper. It is because of weakness that we fail to see our own weaknesses and stay trapped in a distorted version of reality that propels us towards misery and distress. Seneca could see through this cruelty and understand that weakness is the source of it. A strong character is only cruel when cruelty is inflicted upon them. Strength of character demands resilience towards weak views, an appreciation of life and a responsibility towards people who admire you, a constant fight to achieve self ownership. This is what Stoic philosopher Seneca fought for. Stoicism is not just the quotes you will find on the Internet nowadays. It is actually the most potent antidote to human suffering and a philosophy that, if understood deeply, can transform your life in monumental ways. There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things that are beyond the power of our will. Man is not worried by a real problem so much as his imagined anxiety about real problems.

“Philosophy does not promise to secure anything external for man, otherwise it would be admitting something that lies beyond its proper subject-matter. For as the material of the carpenter is wood, and that of the statuary bronze, so the subject-matter of the art of living is each person´s own life.” -Epictetus

One can easily see how Epictetus main concern was how to adopt an intellectual framework that will allow the individual to unshackle himself from the limits that our problematic relationships create. Epictetus was a firm believer of the fact that an individual can only be free if he frees himself from his limiting beliefs and also his addiction to the opinions of others. He was one of the first to see that there is a way to be in control, in so far as one can control only the things that are within his control. Opinions, perceptions, views, beliefs, stories, are all manifestations of how our mind adapt to the stimuli of the environment. Sometimes they are true and sometimes they are untrue. One can´t control the extent to which truth is being spoken by others. But one can certainly control the extent to which he speaks the truth and how one reacts and perceives the truths and untruths spoken by others.

“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”

“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.”

“If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it: and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.”

“It is not death that man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.”

-Marcus Aurelius

Grasping the sincerity of these words by Marcus Aurelius will bring among us a subtle yet immense feeling of positivity encompassing his views and also one of the reasons his dictums have been more powerful than any other Stoic philosopher. There is enough ugliness and adversity in this world to make us feel demotivated in perpetuity. Choosing not to focus on the ugliness but on the beauty and not on the adversity but on the blessings. This was Marcus Aurelius tools for battling demotivation. Individuals can act in any way they find plausible, and this allows them to accrue benefits or to suffer the consequences depending on the circumstances. The responsibility that our actions necessitate is the only true weapon we can exploit in order to antagonize the nefariousness of the world around us. Marcus Aurelius realized the power of that weapon and that helped him become and exemplary emperor despite his weaknesses. This is why stoicism has the power to monumentally change your life, and start to introduce a new lens of reality where you can truly find happiness.