A neighbor of mine retired and moved to a new subdivision bordering a golf course. Why? He said “well, every day I just open up the garage and roll onto the links in my golf cart for a couple of rounds. I am livin’ the good life!” I hope he is still happy. Most of us do not know exactly how to achieve such a blissful state. The ancient Greek philosophers sought the answer and, later, the Roman Stoics thought they found it, although they didn’t have golf courses.
William B. Irvine, a professor at Wright State University looked to Zen Buddhism to help him in a personal quest for flourishing life. In A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy he writes that the path of Zen was not enough, but he found his way through Stoicism. And his conversion came about by reading A Man in Full. Tom Wolfe’s novel features a man who suffers one defeat after another but finds comfort and personal satisfaction through the works of the Stoic philosopher Epictetus. When I read the novel some years ago, I did find I came to appreciate Stoicism. Irvine relates how Wolfe’s novel led him from his embrace of Western style Buddhism to the Greek and Roman philosophy of Stoicism.
There is a growing interest in Stoicism. A recent New York Times article was somewhat critical of the new, trendy Stoicism Lite (Opinion | What Pop Stoicism Misses About Ancient Philosophy – The New York Times (nytimes.com)) Stoicism for the ancients sought a meaningful life through the cultivation of virtue. To the Greek and Roman philosophers, virtue wasn’t personal goodness. Their concept of virtue includes a rational understanding of just what is goodness, and the cultivation of wisdom, courage, self-control, and justice. Moreover, virtue was a social good, a measure of one’s relationships with others. The NYT opinion writer quotes the Stoic Seneca as writing: “Let us cultivate our humanity.”
Irvine’s book does not really feature ethics, but rather the book’s purpose is to guide the reader toward a fulfilling life of tranquility and a calm acceptance. In modern terms, this interest in developing a fulfilling, happy life fits well with the interest in meditation, “living in the moment” and the new “Positive Psychology” of Martin Seligman as well as popular college courses about happiness. Irvine stresses the self-help aspects of Stoicism as the road to tranquility and seems to have very little interest in the ethical goals of the Roman form of Stoicism. He shows the reader how to control anger and reduce anxiety. To prevent worry, the apprentice Stoic should learn to go ahead and imagine the worst-case scenario and see how unlikely it is and to understand the futility of worry.
In order to learn satisfaction in life, the author recommends “negative visualization” or imagining how it would be to lack some of the things and relationships we have. Consider how valuable is our life now. Get off the hedonic treadmill, the yearning for better things or riches or fame only to find out that when we have more things we are not happy. We keep striving for more and more.
Like the Buddhists, the Stoics were careful to point out that one must distinguish what one can have from what is achievable. Buddhists emphasize that everyone’s life comes with sorrow and misfortune. However, desires, especially unreasonable desires are the root cause of suffering. Stoics and Buddhists are clear about the understanding that distress is within the self and there are methods to deal with personal suffering. One of the new websites devoted to Stoicism, “The Stoic Sage,” explores the similarities between the Western Stoicism and Eastern Buddhism. The entry is on Buddhism and Stoicism is here: http://thestoicsage.com/stoicism-and-buddhism/.
The New York Times book critic Molly Young tells of her own initiation into Stoicism https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/28/books/stoicism-books.html. The article gives several resources for modern Stoicism including Ryan Holiday’s popular book and website. I do listen to Holiday’s podcast “The Daily Stoic.” But after all, the best reading is from some of the original Stoics like Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius. I keep the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius handy for reading the short entries like Marcus wrote it day by day. It’s the original Daily Stoic. Amazing that Marcus, the Emperor of Rome, could write with such humility, graciousness, and wisdom.
Two Strikes 