Message to the Friends of the Epicurean Philosophy
Today like-minded friends gather together in Athens, Greece, to exchange their thoughts and experiences: the Second Panhellenic Symposium of Epicurean Philosophy takes place between February 11-12, 2012. The organizers asked me to send a message to the participants of the symposium. This is what I sent them:
Dear Friends of the Epicurean Philosophy, I am happy that you make Epicurus’s voice heard again.
His is the only Gospel that has been valid unchanged for 2300 years.
He has taught us how to break free from our fears and from the slavery of unnecessary and unnatural desires by finding out what we really need.
Epicurus has shown us the proven pathway from pain to pleasure and how we can lead a happy life by cultivating mental peace (ataraxia) and companionate love (philia).
His teachings will never lose their liberating relevance because they are based on the study of the nature of things.
The more people follow in his footsteps the better place our world will be to live in.
Stefan Streitferdt
author of the Epicurean happiness guidance
“From Pain to Pleasure: The Proven Pathway to Happiness”
Happiness – schooled?
The Greek philosophers defined “happiness” as “the consequence of a deed and they drew two conclusions from this insight:
- first: if happiness consists of the fulfilling of human possibilities then there must be broadly applicable rules for attaining it.
- second: in this case we can “learn happiness” by following these rules.
They stressed rather the process and not one or the other event. A happy life meant for them a contented life a life lived in harmony with their values and tastes. The core elements of happiness were:
- inner peace and freedom (in the sense of not being disturbed by passions)
- physical and psychological independence
How did they achieve this state?
The ancient Greeks strongly believed in practice: “everything is practice” – they used to say. Philosophers ran in fact “happiness schools” to train the mind of their students. They believed that insight helped only when people were trained to apply it. Their goal was to form the student’s character so that he would live a happier and more balanced life. The key was the purposeful repetition of certain experiences.
The central thought of classical philosophy about happiness is today still valid and corroborated by modern science, especially neurobiology: positive feelings are not a matter of destiny. We can and must strive for them.
Do not confuse this concept of happiness with the modern – and unrealistic – idea interpreting it as a pleasure without a history and without costs.
You can find the results of modern scientific research on happiness in Stefan Klein’s book: The science of happiness. http://www.stefanklein.info/en/index_en.html
See also: http://www.gluecksformel.de/links.html – lots of relevant links, most of them in German but some also in English
I am proud of my friends
I don’t believe pride is an emotion anybody should be proud of experiencing if
“pride is an inward directed emotion that exemplifies either a high sense of one’s personal status or ego (i.e., leading to judgments of personality and character) or the specific mostly positive emotion that is a product of praise or independent self-reflection.” (Wikipedia)
Especially Epicureans should be ashamed of it and work hard at getting rid of it as soon as possible since its ugly head indicates an over-inflated ego or a dangerous vulnerability to praise. If independent self-reflection should lead to pride one ought to improve one’s self-reflective skills. Urgently.
I can’t help feeling proud of my friends, though.
It took me over forty years to understand that I don’t understand the correlation between my needs, my desires and the way I satisfy those desires, resulting in stressing myself, my friends and family, my coworkers and supervisors, clients and suppliers. It took me another five years to read all the relevant books on Epicurean life techniques and happiness studies to work my way out of the jungle and another five years to hone my tools by using them to set people free of their self-defeating beliefs and unhealthy habits and help them dismantle the walls they build between themselves and their pathway to happiness through congruence and stress-FREEDOM. It took me another year and the invaluable support of my wife to write a wise AND funny book for those who are interested in spending the rest of their lives walking toward their own happiness instead of working for their own or someone else’s greed.
My friends, however, must have been born wise and don’t seem to need the distilled fruits of hard-earned practical wisdom packed in nicely wrapped palatable pieces of advice. They must be champions in analyzing their desires, in satisfying their natural needs through synergistic satisfiers, in keeping their lifestyle and behavior patterns in line with their values and attitudes, serenely threading down their own proven pathways from pain to pleasure, producing their own happiness though congruence and stress-FREEDOM.
I must assume they do all this judging from the absence of their comments on the excerpts of my book that I have been publishing in sequels in my blog. The only topic they mildly reacted to was sequel 15: “How Is It Possible To Find Romantic Love? “
Complete strangers ask me when will my book be available in print and on kindl, when will I start training and coaching sessions on the Galenian Epicurean Conduct of Life, or at least publicly speak about it. (Which I don’t’ know yet. I still have to take care of my health and the happiness of my family.)
But it’s a relief that my friends are doing well, confidently threading their own pathways toward happiness.( Or what they believe is happiness?)
It’s a shame to feel proud but who could help not being proud of them? (Maybe Epicurus?)
PP11: take-aways from the chapter “slavery”
Here’s the 11th sequel of my Epicurean happiness guidance “From Pain to Pleasure: The Proven Pathway to Happiness”
take-aways from the chapter “slavery”
* Until we take responsibility for much of what happens in our own lives, we are slaves to our feelings of fear.
* We must understand how our fears are manifest in our behaviors and thoughts before we can take steps to eradicate them.
* Happiness — that is, freedom from anxiety, or stress-FREEDOM — is impossible until we stop engaging in behaviors that perpetuate our anxieties.
* We must change our thinking so that we don’t see ourselves as victims of outside forces such as physical disabilities, others’ opinions, and heredity.
You may download now the whole the first chapter (“Slavery”) of my e-book “From Pain to Pleasure: The Proven Pathway to Happiness” FREE: http://stressfreedomguide.com/free/1/freechapter.html
PP10: to all who suffer from “victimitis”
Here’s the 10th sequel of my Epicurean Happiness Guidance “From Pain to Pleasure: The Proven Pathway to Happiness”
“Victimitis”
Especially susceptible to their fears are those with a condition known as “victimitis.” The term may not be in a medical dictionary, or any other dictionary for that matter, but it is, nonetheless, a serious condition. Victimitis experts theorize that sufferers have more of a struggle to break the chains of slavery and reach stress-FREEDOM than others because victims start their journey being less fit.
Victimitis is caused by a belief in one’s powerlessness and hopelessness while at the same time investing others with considerable, almost mythical, powers, including control over the patient’s life. Left untreated, victimitis usually causes paralysis of the cerebrum, the part of the brain that controls thinking and memory.
Symptoms include absence of self-confidence, loss of rational and logical thinking skills and occasionally bitterness, with petulant utterances like, “This is all your fault,” “She made me do it,” “It’s his own fault — he made me so angry I didn’t have a choice but to shoot him in the foot,” “I couldn’t help it – I’m just not good at keeping secrets,” and “Boys will be boys.” Victimitis sufferers believe that life is much easier when power and blame are delegated to others. Oddly, the part of the victim’s cerebrum that controls the ability to take credit is relatively untouched.
There are two reports of rare manifestations of victimitis. In the first case, the patient, a 400 lb. female, was interviewed on the Dr. Phil TV show, and responded to the question, “When did your weight start to get out of control?” by declaring in no uncertain terms that it began one day several years ago when she was bitten by a spider.
The second case manifested itself in a pop-rock song several years ago in which the singer subtly asks his audience to shed a few tears and shake their heads in knowing sympathy after learning of his pitiful victimitis (although the song does have a catchy rhythm and it’s easy to dance to):
And now you tell me that you’re having my baby,
I’ll tell you that I’m happy if you want me to…
Take one step further and my back will break,
If my best isn’t good enough
Than how can it be good enough for two?
I can’t work any harder than I do…
Somebody tell me
Why I work so hard for you -
Why do I do the things I do?
Tell you if I knew.
Wham!, “Everything She Wants”
Incidentally, this case is remarkable in another way as well: It is believed to be the first case in recorded history of an immaculate insemination.
If you feel yourself slip-sliding down a slope towards victimhood, ask yourself a very important question: What role am I playing in this situation? If you left an expensive bicycle propped up against a tree overnight in the neighborhood park and went back the next day to discover it missing, would you blame the rotten kids in the neighborhood, the negligent police, your mate for giving you the bike in the first place, and the people who live across the street for not watching closely enough? It may not be clear to you, but it would be to others: Your irresponsible behavior in forgetting to take it home played a significant role in its disappearance, independent of anyone else’s actions.
The only cure for victimitis is finding a mechanism to release the victim’s brain from its grip, thereby restoring rational brain function and allowing self-confidence to thrive. There are no pills or special herbs at this time (although someone somewhere is probably working on it).
You may download now the whole the first chapter (“Slavery”) of my e-book “From Pain to Pleasure: The Proven Pathway to Happiness” FREE: http://stressfreedomguide.com/free/1/freechapter.html
PP9: fear of death
Here’s the ninth sequel of my Epicurean happiness guidance “From Pain to Pleasure: The Proven Pathway to Happiness”
Fear of death
“My young son asked me what happens after we die. I told him we get buried under a bunch of dirt and worms eat our bodies. I guess I should have told him the truth – that most of us go to Hell and burn eternally – but I didn’t want to upset him.” (Jack Handy)
A fear of death is a waste of energy. Death is as natural as blue eyes and blowing your nose, and it’s as inevitable as rain. When I was 8 years old, I was scared silly of going to the dentist. I couldn’t sleep at night, and I even contemplated running away. Sure, getting fillings in those days was no picnic, but my anticipation of it was far worse than actually experiencing it. But I digress. Back to death.
Are you afraid of dying because you’re worried about what will become of your children? Some of what happens to your children after your death is under your control, such as their living arrangements and legal guardianship; and some can be influenced by you in advance, for example by preparing them emotionally or helping to boost their self-confidence and independence. Besides, your staying alive is no guarantee that harm will never befall them.
Are you afraid of dying because it might be painful? There’s that fear of pain again. Sure, there’s a chance it might be, but the pain you’ve experienced from a migraine headache, a broken bone, a gunshot wound, or a hammer pounded on your head may have been worse. And if you suffer from a painful disease before you die, or you’re badly injured in a car accident, there are drugs to alleviate the pain and keep you comfortable. We don’t have to bite on bullets anymore.
What other elements of dying do you fear? If you can exert some control over them, make the decision to figure out how to take charge. If you can’t, worrying, or even thinking, about them won’t make a smidgeon of difference in how events finally play out.
“I intend to live forever. So far, so good.” (Steven Wright)
You may download now the whole the first chapter (“Slavery”) of my e-book “From Pain to Pleasure: The Proven Pathway to Happiness” FREE: http://stressfreedomguide.com/free/1/freechapter.html
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