Happiness is not a state of rich material possession, that’s something we have more or less agreed.
If not a state of material possession, is it a state of mind?
Yes, it is.
Does it last? No, it’s not.
Tag: spirituality
2 Stoic Practices
You might have heard of Stoicism, or you might not. If you did, there is a good chance that what you perceive about Stoicism is not what you would learn if you read A Guide to the Good Life by William B. Irvine.
But whether your knowledge of Stoicism is the same as the author’s is also not that important to you. What you would be interested, however, are the principles, regardless of the -ism, that would help you live a better life, whatever you take better to mean.
And there are 2 Stoic foundational practices that I think you would be interested to learn about and to apply. I have been using them unaware they are also part of Stoicism.
Let’s start with the first one.
You and I: The 3 levels of Connection
There are many ways in which You and I are different. It’s easy to see the differences, anyway. But sometimes this obstructs us from seeing that we’re all human beings, with more or less the same kind of desires and aspirations, and are all subjected to many similar experiences including illness and death (and we have just witnessed the passing of a great designer and visionary in technology). We know this all very well, to the degree that we’ve taken our similarities for granted so as to put more attention to the differences. I am.. and You are…
Now, the first level of connection that I’d like to suggest is something simple, something you may have heard many times before, but something I still find astonishingly profound:
If I had been You, I would have done it the same.