Living in Moderation Part 3 (Enter Zeno)

Posted on October 15, 2012 by Chris

To truly experience something, is to know whether it is right or not. Many a soldier has gone into a war waving their flag for king and country. Then, they experience the brutality, the insanity of killing, maiming, and butchering others…all for the sake of some far off ideology they only marginally understand. All warfighters come back different. They don’t all come back peace-niks (like me), but they all come back different.

And so it goes with living a purposefully deprived life, like a Cynic would. Theoretically, asceticism (see Part 1) sounds like a good idea. Isolate yourself completely from worldly temptations and pleasures, and you can focus on living a virtuous life. However, to experience asceticism is another thing altogether. Thus, it must have happened to Zeno of Citium, the original Stoic.

Zeno! (Actually it’s only a model)

Right around 300 BC, as the story goes, Zeno ended up in Athens as a result of a shipwreck. Zeno had previous knowledge of philosophy because of books that he had read, so when he ended up by this precarious accident to be in Athens…Home of Philosophy!…he asked around to find where great philosophers like Socrates could be found. As luck would have it, Crates (a Cynic, remember from Part 2?), found him instead and took him on as a pupil. Crates passed on to Zeno that the goal of a good life was to live with virtue and excellence.

But somewhere along the line, Zeno was unconvinced that a life of deprivation was necessary for virtue. He considered the pleasures of life that the Cynics rejected as “indifferents.” In other words, while these things were not beneficial in living a good life, they were not necessarily bad either. Incidentally, this consideration of “indifferents” became a cornerstone of Stoic ethics.

In other words, a person could enjoy the “indifferents” as long as she does so in moderation, and that she is aware, that indeed these things are indifferent…that worldly pleasures of wealth, power, prestige, and indulgence are not helpful to you in attaining virtue and excellence. This awareness, I think is what gives the Stoics their modern image as being emotionless and indifferent to the world around them, I suppose.

In a sense, this indifferent Stoic image is true, but not in the simple way that is commonly thought of.

(Zeno photo licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported)

Living in Moderation Part 2 (The Cynics) or Alternately: Doctor No

Posted on October 15, 2012 by Chris

Speaking of Self-Deprivation, the Cynics were masters at such a practice. The Cynics were a philosophy school beginning around 450 BC in ancient Greece. Most famous were Antisthenes, Diogenes of Sinope, and Crates.

The Cynics thought that:

The goal of life is happiness which is to live in agreement with Nature.
Happiness depends on being self-sufficient, and a master of mental attitude.
Self-sufficiency is achieved by living a life of virtue and reaching your highest potential.
The road to living an excellent life is to free oneself from any influence such as wealth, fame, or power, which have no value in Nature.
Suffering is caused by false judgments of value, which cause negative emotions and a vicious character.

What they meant by a life according to nature is to live with the absolute bare necessities. In other words, they lived an ascetic life (a life of self-deprivation). By depriving themselves of worldly desires completely, they draw nearer to to a life of virtue and excellence.

As I said in Part 1, I can see their good intentions, but I think that, in short, they throw the baby out with the bath water by trying to eliminate judgment from the equation. Would you like some food? No. Would you like some shelter? No. Would you like air conditioning? No. Would you like to travel to Hawaii on a vacation? No.

In short, I think that ascetics have the right idea: that material things and excesses do not bring happiness. They certainly lay the foundation for finding happiness. But aren’t they only half-right?

DON’T FORGET TO READ PART 3

Zen and Stoicism…Two Sides of the Same Coin

Posted on October 9, 2012 by Chris

For 15 years, I have been studying and practicing, as best I can, some of the teachings of Buddhism (mixed with a little Eastern thought in general). The school of Buddhism called Zen concentrates on direct insight into “how things are” through meditation and by calming, then tripping up the mind (unlike some schools which emphasize knowledge of doctrine and the writings of Buddhist teachers). One of the ways Zen masters trip up the minds of their students is through the use of koans (a kind of unsolvable riddle) One of the most well-known of these koans is as follows:

“Two hands clap and there is a sound. What is the sound of one hand?”

A koan is designed to break your mind free of previous paradigms. It rattles your perception free of its previous conclusions. This continues as you meditate upon the question or puzzle of the koan. The very pursuit of an answer is intended to break your mind free of previous illusion/delusion. In everyday life, we make conclusions based on a few inputs, then we move on. We accept our conclusion as true, and often we never return to reexamine. Thus, we build our own truth based on previous assumptions. A koan helps your mind enter a state where previous assumptions are questioned. For you Zen gurus out there, I know, koans are supposed to lead you to enlightenment…but I left that pursuit, and tend to be a bit more practical with my koans. I guess it’s a result of my Stoic side.

Breaking through illusion

Here is an example of a possible truth you may have built. What if your parents wanted you to go to college? When you were young, they told you that college is good and will ensure you get a good job, which implies you can earn more money, which will allow you to buy things you like. Presumably, this would lead to greater happiness. They didn’t specifically say the thing about happiness, but some of what they said, as well as societal influence certainly led you to believe that this was true. So, college = good…you built a truth, and then moved on. But what if that conclusion was wrong? What about other jobs that might have made you happy without a college degree? Do you really need a lot of money to be happy? Do you need any money to be happy? If you are that smart (smart enough to get into college), couldn’t you have spent those 4 years building your own business, teaching yourself how to run it? What if the $60,000+ spent on a college degree, and the $100,000+ loss of four years of wages weren’t worth it? These are questions that we may all answer a little differently, but my point is that if we’ve moved on without questioning, then we’ve assumed “college = good” is true. I lived for over 30 years with this “truth,” without ever reexamining. I am questioning it now. In a way, I’ve presented a koan to myself to break my paradigm. A practical one: “What is the worth of not going to college?” I have teenagers of college age, and this question is an important one for me to answer. Practicing with koans gets me in the habit of viewing something from a different perspective.

So, viewing things from a different perspective is an important tool we can take from Zen. The Stoic does this as well, by examining whether his actions and reactions to the events of his day are correct.

Another of the most important facets of Zen is to be aware. Awareness of the present moment allows us to observe our situation clearly. The mere effort of being aware allows me to examine my motives clearly. It is in this pursuit of awareness that I think a second very strong connection between Zen and Stoicism occurs.

So Zen and Stoicism are similar in these two ways:

We try to gain a new perspective.
We try to become more aware of the present moment and how we fit in it.

The Stoic makes every effort to be aware of his place in life. What is in his control, what is not. If my goal is to be aware at all times of what is in my control and what is not, then I must practice and cultivate this awareness. The beginnings of this type of awareness are found in meditation. Zen meditation focuses on making the mind still, focusing on the present moment, maybe even working through a koan. Stoic meditation is similar, but it is more reflective, more examining. “What things did I react badly to today? How could I have utilized the things I can control, my thoughts, reactions, emotions, to be a better man?” Either way (Stoic or Zen), meditation gets us into the habit of awareness, increases our perspective, and into the habit of asking these questions.

(Feature photo by Kriss Szkurlatowski)

Passionate Equanimity

Posted on October 3, 2012 by Chris

Passionate Equanimity – this term, found in my creed, I owe to Ken Wilber, or rather his wife Treya. In his book, Grace and Grit: Spirituality and Healing in the Life and Death of Treya Killam Wilber, he details his relationship and journey with his wife, Treya, who discovers she has cancer 10 days after they are married. Five years later, she dies of the cancer. The book reflects on this time with his and her thoughts.

Treya writes in her journal: “What if you had passion without all that stuff, passion without attachment, passion clean and pure? What would that be like, what would that mean? I thought of those moments in meditation when I’ve felt my heart open, a painfully wonderful sensation, a passionate feeling but without clinging to any content or person or thing. And the two words suddenly coupled in my mind and made a whole. Passionate equanimity, passionate equanimity – to be fully passionate about all aspects of life, about one’s relationship with spirit, to care to the depths of one’s being but with no trace of clinging or holding, that’s what the phrase has come to mean to me. It feels full, rounded, complete, and challenging.”

Treya Killam Wilber starts with passion and ends with equanimity. I think many of us do that; we start with passion in our blood, ready to take on the world, to change it, to succeed, to be a champion. Without a doubt, when I was younger I was 99% passion and very little equanimity. Then, as I aged and matured, I started to get some perspective, yeah, some of that equanimity. It took me years and years, and I’m still working on it…on gaining more equanimity. I think we’re all like that: we start with passion first, then maybe we gain the perspective. In the Air Force, we would say “that guy is all thrust, and no vector.” I think most of us have a lot less vector than we think…especially when we are young.

Bungee Jumping…all thrust, no vector?

Before I get too far, I think it is best to describe equanimity further. It is the ability to distance yourself from a situation. It is to be “dispassionate,” unemotional, and rational about a particular situation. I think I will use an analogy here. Think of a bad situation in your life as like a drop of deadly cyanide. A drop of cyanide is enough to kill a person quickly and cleanly. However, if I took that drop and placed it in the ocean, it would disperse quite quickly. Would it kill any fish, or swimmers? Very unlikely…even more so as time goes by and the drop becomes mixed in with the sea. So, if the situation is that drop of cyanide, then the ocean is equanimity. Equanimity helps us dilute that poison in our life and gain some tranquility about a situation. In a sense, it is the opposite of passion! That’s what makes “passionate equanimity” such an intriguing concept.

Unlike Treya Killam Wilber and myself, who started with passion then found equanimity, Stoicism starts with equanimity (well, the Stoics might call it tranquility). With our logic and our values, and with acceptance that so much is out of our control, we can gain perspective, which in turn gives us equanimity. Further, the Stoic accepts that tragedy will befall us, because it is our fate. If we can dispassionately accept the impermanence of the world around us, then we can have some perspective. Once I have a large measure of equanimity, I have a better understanding of my situation juxtaposed with my own values, then I can better cultivate a passion for what I set out to do.

I think it works better to start with equanimity, and only then be passionate about our calling. I think that this works better because when we rationally observe our lot in life or our current situation, we can make a better choice about what to be passionate about. I am a living example of this: I was passionate about my job as an AF pilot and officer, but I think I would have been happier if I had examined what my job was really about: killing for a government, rather than defending “freedom.” In a sense, I think I lacked the big picture of what my values should be because I did not reflect enough before I acted. I committed to something without fully understanding it, and thus I was dissatisfied with what I was doing. Possibly, I just didn’t have enough information. In any case, gaining equanimity helped me vector my passions in a different direction.

USAF F-4: Loads of Passion with little Equanimity

I suppose it is inevitable that we lack equanimity in our youth, and in fact, some never get it. As you read, I hope this helps you gain some equanimity. Again, I throw a little seed your way….I hope it helps you.

More Stoic Fitness and a Tour of My Gym

Posted on September 28, 2012 by Chris

I worked out this morning. It took me 16 minutes. It should have taken shorter, but it was a little warm and muggy. Before I get into the workout, I have to take you on a short tour of my gym.

Yes, my gym is in my garage. Besides the bicycles, scooters, and storage tubs are a squat rack, with a cable assembly, and some dip bars (they are removable). My club membership fees are zero, and my commute to the gym is very nice. But what about all that equipment cost? Well, did I luck out or what…I found all of it for $450 on Craigslist, except for two extra 45 lb plates that I bought for, I think, $10 at a yard sale. The plates were rusty so I had to wire brush them and spray paint them black with Rustoleum. Continue reading →