stress-FREEDOM » Epicurean Happiness Guidance

religion without communities?

Galenios — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 12:34:35 +0000

One of the main functions of religion is the satisfy the fundamental human need for belonging and produce an emotion of elevation. Jaakko Wallenius proposes Epicureanism as a “new”, rational religion on his blog

http://beinghuman.blogs.fi/2010/07/10/is-there-a-already-a-rational-alternative-on-offer-for-the-modern-theistic-religions-8950770/

My reponse was:

Christianity (as Buddhism and Islam, too) started out with dropping out into alternative communities and has continued to satisfy the fundamental human need for belonging. Epicureans did have their small communities for 800 years (300 BCE-500 CE) but 21st century Epicureans do not have functioning (NON-virtual) communities, the minimum necessary condition to fulfill the role (=satisfy the need) of a religion. (Democratic/meritocratic egalitarianism does work very well WITHIN closed communities and I do not think that Eism would ever aim at establishing itself as a state religion.)
How about starting a NON-virtual Epicurean community, gather experience, share its learnings?

The discussion on Facebook might produce new insights:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Epicurus/79493658728

Friendship reduces stress and prolongs life

Galenios — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 15:53:30 +0000

Science proves Epicureans to be right about the immense value of friendship: some baboons groom their buddies for long lives.

Female chacma baboons that maintain close, lasting friendships live considerably longer than their peers who switch companions more frequently, a new study finds in ScienceNews

fearing death is often fear of meaninglessness

Galenios — Fri, 28 May 2010 11:46:52 +0000

fearing death is often fear of meaninglessness

For some people it is not so much that the moment of death is daunting . Their real agony is born of the realization that “at some point all that we are is as if it never was and we are helpless to change that. More than that is knowing the same is true for those we love and worse yet for those died suddenly or tragically. “

Is it possible that the fact that we come from nothingness and then disappear into nothingness makes them feel that this life is meaningless? Some of my clients used to gripe with this issue.

During the coaching we realize that are the only persons that can give meaning to our lives by living it to the fullest. “Vivamus dum vivimus” is an old Epicurean advice. It means something like”let’s live our lives to the fullest as long as we are alive”. If we taste the pleasure of contributing something to the happiness of our children, spouses, friends or community we can feel that our life is not meaningless.

For some people it is not so much the moment of death that is daunting . Their agony is born of the realization that “at some point all that we are is as if it never was and we are helpless to change that. More than that is knowing the same is true for those we love and worse yet for those died suddenly or tragically. “

Is it possible that the fact that we come from nothingness and then disappear into nothingness makes them feel that this life is meaningless? Some of my clients used to gripe with this issue.

During the coaching session they realize that we are the only persons that can give meaning to our lives by living it to the fullest. “Vivamus dum vivimus” is an old Epicurean advice. It means something like “let’s live our lives to the fullest as long as we are alive”.

If we taste the pleasure of contributing something to the happiness of our children, spouses, friends or community we can feel that our life is not meaningless.

Happier through the internet?

Galenios — Mon, 17 May 2010 17:31:36 +0000

I am sure that access to the internet significantly contributed to my personal happiness in more ways since it is via the internet that I

- I could meet the most important person in my life

- I can keep in touch with my friends, relatives and clients

I could read books online I could not find in my library or could not afford to buy in a bookstore

- I can follow lectures online whenever I feel like without having to overburden my schedule or budget

- I can learn about things I am interested in a group like this (I have learned a lot here from all of you)

- I can find and listen to music that gives me pleasure

I do not think that I am the only person to have experienced the above mentioned pleasure increasing effects of the internet.

Or am I wrong?

There is an interesting discussion on the EpicureanGroup on yahoo about whether access to the internet can make people happier.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EpicureanGroup/

I am sure that access to the internet significantly contributed to my personal happiness in more ways since it is via the internet that

- I could meet the most important person in my life

- I can keep in touch with my friends, relatives and clients

- I could read books online I could not find in my library or could not afford to buy in a bookstore

- I can follow lectures online whenever I feel like without having to overburden my schedule or budget

- I can learn about things I am interested in a group like this (I have learned a lot here from all of you)

- I can find and listen to music that gives me pleasure

I do not think that I am the only person to have experienced the above mentioned pleasure increasing effects of the internet.

Or am I wrong?

Proselytizing for Epicureanism?

Galenios — Sat, 08 May 2010 12:49:36 +0000

Should we proselytize and if yes, for what kind of “Epicureanism” .

Some of today’s “Epicureans” are not sure, whether they should proselytize for their creed. The hesitation is understandable, since nobody really knows, what kind of “Epicureanism” to proselytize for.

The theoretical “Epicureanism” is well known by today’s theoreticians (mostly philosophers and some psychologists) who are debating its theoretical subtleties in specialized publications and needs no further propaganda. The theoretical virtues of this “theoretical Epicureanism” are being propagated also by amateurs in blogs and on the Facebook.

Epicurus’s Epicureanism included the communal daily practice of the original creed AND lifestyle and it flourished for 800 years until 1500 years ago, because it had been quite powerfully and successfully propagated by its adherents. (The relevant evidence can be accessed in Bernard Frischer’s book “The sculpted word”).

The ancient Epicureans did proselytize because they could offer something valuable: happiness through the cultivation of stress-FREEDOM within a circle of friends. This experience was so strong that it was felt as redemptory and Epicurus was referred to as “The Redeemer” (o soter).

What kind of “Epicureanism” should or could today’s “Epicureans” proselytize for?

Some of today’s “Epicureans” do practice some elements of the complex original creed and lifestyle, like temperance through control of desires. They feel that through this practical knowledge their life has become better and they want to share this knowledge with some of their friends and acquaintances. If they do, is that “proselytizing”?

Others might wish to reload the whole range of the original theory AND practice and they might try to launch communal projects, like cultivating a vegetable garden together or moving closer to each other or building “extended families” of like-minded Epicurean friends, very much like the ancient Epicureans did. If they let their endeavors know, is that “proselytizing”?

An Eye for Accidental Happiness

Galenios — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 12:39:08 +0000

An Eye for Accidental Happiness

I have designed dozens of training courses and workshops and delivered hundreds of them, yet my all time favorite is “Crucial Conversations”, which I have delivered all over the world. One of the authors, Kerry Patterson, publishes his monthly musings under the title “Kerrying on” in VitalSmart’s newsletter and I have been downloading his podcasts regularly for a few years now. (Anyone can sign up for their newsletter on their site http://www.vitalsmarts.com/ ) I have got to like and appreciate his dry humor and warm, practical wisdom and can hardly wait to get a fresh dose of them.

In the last one, entitled “Tombstone Talk” Kerry Patterson talks about those unexpected moments of accidental happiness that I also mention in my book “From Pain to Pleasure: The Proven Pathway to Happiness” called “serendipity.” Kerry realized that “the secret of happiness lies in recognizing joy when it comes.” His advice reminds me of the urgent recommendation Kurt Vonnegut left us behind:

“I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, ‘If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.’”

Kerry admits a fact I also have been experiencing more and more often: “Now that I’m growing older, I’m getting better at spotting such unlikely and lovely experiences. I no longer look past the little snippets of life in quest of the big, trumpeted events. I look for what I want.”

What he and I imply is that your eyes and minds have to be trained by experience and motivation to pick out those snippets of happiness, recognize them for what they are and cherish them. The most successful training school for our eyes and minds I know of is Epicurus’s happiness-acknowledging mind-training school. It has been staying open day and night for 2300 years and it is easy to find if you know what you want.

…………………………………..

More “new findings” from Happiness Research

Galenios — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 22:41:18 +0000

Scientists never tire of churning out ever “newer” findings about happiness, like e.g.

“5 Reliable Findings from Happiness Research”

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2010/04/10/5-reliable-findings-from-happiness-research/

This is the comment I made on their site:

The students who started attending Epicurus’s school-communities 2300 years ago and kept on building their lives on practicing his teachings uninterrupted for over 800 years would have smiled heartily at the “newness” of the never-ending row of “evidence” in support of opinions that used to be are self-evident for them. Although Epicureans have never referred to the achievability of happiness in percental terms, they knew and know that we can change some things (basically our attitude) and we cannot change other things. They knew that human relationships were the alpha and the omega of happiness and therefore they cultivated friendship in their communities and their couple relationships. And they knew what Scattycat stressed in his comment and what Democritus propagated before Epicurus:

“At one and the same time we must philosophize, laugh, and manage our household and other business.”

Followership vs. Leadership

Galenios — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 15:32:59 +0000

I was used to see the management and self-improvement bookshelves in bookstores and libraries flooded by titles with the word “leadership” in them but now the omnipresent catchword has slopped over to inundate other areas as well.

I have taken a few books home from the local library on adolescent psychology and character education and was surprised to see that the obsession with the concept of “leadership” has already reached the shores of parenting, too. The author - otherwise a knowledgeable expert – just could not get out of the mythical circle of the label “leadership”. Looking into the details of how we should educate our teens to “become leaders of valued community activities” it turned out that behind the catchword “leadership” the author hid such useful notions as the skills of organization and time management, responsibility and considerateness.

Now, if everybody is a “leader”, who will be the followers?

The infatuation with “leadership” has blessed humanity with an endless row of Alexanders (greater or smaller), Napoleons, Hitlers, Mussolinis, Stalins who all founded huge empires that lasted from 3 to 30 years.

The cultivation of the “skills”, “virtues”, “attitudes” of sheer practice of followership has produced, on the contrary, billions of “average” (a negative catchword for the arithmetically uneducated) decent, reasonable and rational individuals over thousands of years across different cultures. The cult of inconspicuous happiness had few preachers (Lao-Tze, Buddha, Epicurus) and its “success” has never become overly visible. And justifiably so: fame is seldom an ingredient of happiness – if ever.

The silently smiling masses simply “followed” their normal and “average” instincts in the pursuit of happiness, contained in the teachings of the above mentioned preachers. Billions of them. Thousands of years.

Commenting Epicurus”s First Principal Doctrine

Galenios — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:08:24 +0000

The Epicurus page of Facebook started publishing Epicurus’s Principal Doctrines again with new comments.

“A blessed and indestructible being has no trouble himself and brings no trouble upon any other being; so he is free from anger and partiality, for all such things imply weakness.” – The First Epicurean Principal Doctrine

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/?ref=home

My comment was this:

I agree with DeWitt in that Epicurus taught that the gods were not immortal but “only” indestructible” and that their “blessedness” was -at least partly – due to the fact that they were “free from anger and partiality”. So the message of the 1st Principal Doctrine is: Do NOT fear the gods! At the same time I agree with Jaakko in that the gods through their “blessedness” or perfect ataraxia served as role models for Epicurean practitioners, who believed and proved that through daily practice the can “live like gods”.

“Everything you possess will possess you some day”

Galenios — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 18:21:34 +0000

“Alles, was du hast, hat irgendwann dich” is the page a friend of mine started on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=308803883852&ref=mf

I jotted down there some ideas on Freedom the way Epicureans understand and practice it.