Awareness–Right Here, Right Now

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All men’s difficulties and perplexities are concerned with external things. ‘What am I to do?’ ‘How is it to be done?’ ‘How is it to turn out?’ ‘I fear this or that may befall me.’ All these phrases are used by persons occupied with matters outside their will.” Epictetus Discourses Book 4 Chapter 10.

There is a never-ending urge for us to focus on things external and things in the future.  Don’t get me wrong, we all take care of business by managing things external, Continue reading

Balancing The Present Moment with the Future

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I do a lot of talking about the present moment here on the site.  For good reason:  the present moment is where I will find true happiness.  It is the only thing that is real; the past is a memory and the future is never assured… Continue reading

Inner Excellence and “What Should I Pursue?”

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I read a great piece today from Brian Kim.  It came in an E-mail, but I’ve added his site to the blogroll, because he gets to the heart of things rather quickly on what can be a complicated matter of happiness. If you came here direct to my post, here is the link:  briankim.net.

The quote that stuck in my head is Continue reading

Back to Basics: Control, Fate, Impermanence

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I sure am full of a lot of advice.  If you read here on the site enough, you might wonder if I have any organization to my thoughts, or am I just like Jack Handy with a few deep thoughts now and again?  The answer to these questions is “yes” and “no.”  I do have random ideas pop into my head, but it is always through the filter of my philosophy.  In the interest of maintaining a simple template for the Heroic Stoic philosophy (at least as a beginning), I think I have been very clear that there are 3 tenets to always remember: Continue reading

The Stoic Hero’s Triad of Virtue

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In your preparation for taking on life, there are three facets of your training that are key. You’ve heard them before, as they are nothing new.  They are Body, Mind, and Spirit.  A Stoic Hero, of course has his own spin on these three aspects.  I know these seem kind of cliche. I tried to be more original but there really is no other way to break it down. To be ready, to be virtuous (which means to be happy), I have to work on all three.  They are not independent of each other…no way!  Your physical health is affected by your mind and spirit, your mind is connected to your body is connected to your emotional well being, and on and on.  Interestingly, each of these aspects fit quite nicely with the buoys on my philosophical raft.  Continue reading