Photo by Magda Ehlers from Pexels
I’ve recently begun reading the collected works of Seneca. Before that I was reading the books of the modern day Stoic Ryan Holiday. I’m fascinated by what I’m reading, particularly because its providing another lens in which to view my actions, both magical and mundane. I think what I find most fascinating about Stoicism is that there is a profound recognition of the need to achieve a balance within ourselves where we acknowledge our emotions and feelings, but find balance by weighing them against rational perspectives and considerations.
I don’t always agree with the Stoic perspectives. For example, I read something by Seneca where he cautioned against reading on a wide variety of topics at the same time. I definitely could not take that advice because I like to entertain a multiplicity of perspectives and actually find it to be essential to my creative approach to life. Yet if I did not consider perspectives I disagreed with, I couldn’t appreciate why I approach my life the way I do, so even in reading Seneca it caused me to chuckle, disagree, and yet appreciate the perspective gifted to me.
I chose to start reading the Stoic texts because my friend Victoria has their books in her home. I became curious and ordered my own copies. I’m only now beginning to read the classic stoic works, yet working my way through Ryan Holiday’s works has helped me better appreciate how I can temper my choices and thoughts, and it has also helped me appreciate even further the mandates of essentialism, which call for living a simpler life, instead of needlessly complicating it.
Having needlessly complicated my life sometimes (mainly through my thoughts and emotions) I have discovered that learning to focus on the essential and to reject whatever becomes a distraction creates a kind of clarity of thought and emotion that I have sometimes lacked. What stoicism is providing me is a counterweight to the internal work I do, because it gives me a way to step back from the internal work and ask myself, “Am I navel gazing too much? Am I becoming distracted by all confabulations I’m indulging in?”
I don’t say that lightly, because internal work is valuable. I don’t think people do it enough, and it can help us work through the traumas we’ve experienced, but I also think there can be times where it is good to get a different perspective and what I’m discovering is that Stoicism and other classical philosophies are fitting the bill because they provide other ways of knowing and thinking.
I’m really just beginning my journey into the classic philosophies, but I intend to also revisit the works of Mencius and Confucius, which I had previously read, and then explore some of the other perspectives that are available. I think that when we cultivate ourselves, we must be willing to explore the multitude of perspectives and experiences that are available to us, from all the people who have come before us. We may find ourselves disagreeing or agreeing, but more importantly what we’ll discover is an enrichment of our lives that allows us to appreciate what we have access to and how it can shape our lives for the better.
