Stoicism is considered to be a philosophy of grim endurance, of tolerating rather than transcending life’s agonies and adversities, and that is perhaps the reason why the Stoic sage, in Western culture, has never obtained the popularity of the Zen master, writes Larry Wallace. He says that stoicism is a philosophy of gratitude, which is rugged enough to endure anything. Stoicism is not grim resolve but a way to wrest, or snatch, happiness from adversity. The truth is, indifference is a power that facilitates a more expansive and adventurous mode of living, in which joy and grief are there along with other emotions, but they are tempered so that they are less tyrannical.
“Stoicism” is derived from the root stoa, a Greek term for a porch, where the ancient Stoics would hang out and talk about enlightenment, etc. The Greek scholar Zeno was the founder of stoicism, and Marcus Aurelius was its practitioner, but the real hero of Stoicism is the Greek philosopher Epictetus, who had been a slave and who taught Marcus Aurelius directly. “Among those Epictetus has taught indirectly is a whole cast of the distinguished, in all fields of endeavor. One of these is the late United States Navy Admiral James Stockdale. A prisoner of war in Vietnam for seven years during that conflict, he endured broken bones, starvation, solitary confinement, and all other manners of torture. His psychological companion through it all was the teachings of Epictetus, with which he had familiarized himself after graduating from college and joining the Navy…and he came to know their application much better than anyone should have to.”
Epictetus once asked, “Who is the invincible human being?” and also answered himself: “One who can be disconcerted by nothing that lies outside the sphere of choice.” In other words, any misfortune “that lies outside the sphere of choice” should be taken as an [pportunity to strengthen our resolve. There should be a willingness to convert adversity to opportunity. Seneca wrote that to the one who has never been tested by hardship, he would say, “You are unfortunate in my judgment, for you have never been unfortunate….No one will know what you were capable of, not even you yourself.”
William B. Irvine, in his book A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (2009), has given the name “negative visualization” or keeping constantly in our heads the very worst that can happen because only by envisioning the bad can we truly appreciate the good; gratitude does not arrive when we take things for granted. Stoics must be seen as those who are “serene and confident in the face of anything you throw at them.”
Marcus Aurelius, who was sick with an ulcer, whose family was a source of distress, whose officers rebelled against him, and whose empire also experienced plague, famine, and natural disasters such as the earthquake, started each day telling himself, “I shall meet with meddling, ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, and unsociable people.” This was his way of adapting to vicissitudes of life, writes Larry Wallace in an article that appeared in Aeon magazine.
Additionally, we read that a stoic is not entirely above pain and pleasure but strives to be indifferent to them. They recognize pain and pleasure to be natural human experiences, but they should not be the driving force behind one’s actions or emotional state. Stoicism fundamentally emphasizes virtue, reason, and self-control as the pathways to a fulfilling life, and one should not be controlled by external factors like pleasure and pain.
We may say that true Stoicism, or “indifference,” is that which has been taught in the Gita as equal mindedness. It may be equated to the Buddhist term upeksha, meaning tranquility or equanimity. However, upeksha must be distinguished from cold, hardened, and fixed indifference and also from neutrality, lukewarmness, or lack of interest. True equal mindedness has to be rooted in spiritual insight and vairagya, i.e., detached attachment, or still better, “non-attachment.”
Hence, equanimity is often described as a higher state of happiness arising from acceptance of what is happening in the present moment, based on spiritual insight. To acquire spiritual insight, one must begin to understand and realize that all conditioned existence is impermanent, full of suffering, and devoid of true selfhood. We try to derive pleasure out of sensations. Light on the Path says, “In sensation no permanent home can be found, because change is the law of this vibratory existence.”
Through the Gates of Gold asks us to blend the capacities of a stoic and a voluptuary: “He must be capable of testing and valuing to its most delicate fraction every joy existence has to give; and he must be capable of denying himself all pleasures, and that without suffering from the denial.” In other words, it is developing the capacities that enable us not to be dependent on the pleasures.
However, a spiritual person feels more keenly the pain and pleasure, and yet, does not allow them to shake him or influence his decisions. He is able to achieve this by allowing one part of the incarnated mind to experience the emotion while keeping another part detached and thus assuming the position of an observer. A certain amount of detachment is required to enable us to learn lessons from our experiences. We can learn to experience pain and pleasure with detached concern. There should be a dissociation of “I” from happiness and unhappiness.
In the article “A Treatise on the Yoga Philosophy,” H.P.B. writes, “The true Raja-Yogi is a Stoic; and [Sage] Kapila describes their state in the following words: ‘To a Yogi, in whose mind all things are identified as spirit, what is infatuation? What is grief? He sees all things as one; he is destitute of affections; he neither rejoices in good, nor is offended with evil. A wise man sees so many false things in those which are called true, so much misery in what is called happiness, that he turns away with disgust . . .’”
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This article also appeared in The Theosophical Movement. For more articles published in this excellent magazine follow this link: https://www.ultindia.org/magazines/tm.html