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Post by Admin on Jun 21, 2014 8:07:37 GMT -5
Ancient Stoics generally considered philosophy as a means to transform one's way of life rather than a purely intellectual and academic pursuit.
I've always assumed that most modern students of Stoa are seeking to transform their lives in this way. How true is this for you?
What caused you to change your life through Stoa; or, what caused you to want to study Stoa academically?
What exercises do you use to help you live your life in accordance with Stoic ideals?
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JoeC
New Member
Posts: 18
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Post by JoeC on Jun 21, 2014 8:43:22 GMT -5
My purpose in studying Stoa is definitely to change my life to live in accordance with nature as perfectly as possible, as the ancient Stoics would have tried to do. I've been studying Stoa for about 10 years and I'm still very far from that goal. I think I have a fairly good grasp of Stoic academic theory, but the degree in which I've changed my life is far less accomplished. I'd like to work on that a lot more in the coming years.
I have two main reasons that I decided to change my life through Stoicism. I honestly believe that Stoicism is a path to happiness. Even before I was knowledgeable about Stoa I tried to live my life logically and in accordance with nature. However. not unlike many teenagers, I found that I wasn't really happy. Stoa gave me the missing pieces to my own philosophy that would give me that happiness. It explained nature or life to me in a more "scientific" and robust way so that I could understand what I truly wanted and what I had to do to make that happen.
The second reason is that I'm a fairly fierce competitor. I see the transformation as a competition with oneself. My soul is competing with everything that I was taught or learned in my early life and with proper judgment, appropriate actions and living in accordance with nature. So I consider the transformation as a personal challenge, one that I take not because it is easy, but because it is hard. And, as our ancient Stoic sources say Nature challenges us with the hard things in life because she knows we are worthy.
I don't use meditations as extensively in my life as I would like to. The main exercises I use are: 1) Surrounding myself with nature. Maybe more of a Cynic practice than a Stoic one, I find it helps to calm me and give me peace to be in the middle of nature, far removed from every day society. I can just listen to my surroundings and take in the beauty around me in a silent, unwritten type of meditation.
2) Reading Stoic theory. I find that knowledge & theory helps me to answer a lot of the questions I have about the transformation. Unfortunately, as Stoa ceased being a living philosophical movement long ago it also leads to many more questions, for me at least. Which leads me to #3.
3) Writing on Stoicism. I don't look at Stoa as just a way to happiness, I see it as a total definition of one's life and writing helps me to organize my thoughts on certain aspects of Stoa (and my life). Most of what I write, however, is on Stoic Theory as opposed to actual meditations on my own life.
4) Information dumping. I forgot where I found this idea, but it has worked well for me to clear my mind for several years now. I'll just take a piece of paper or open up a blank Word document on my computer and write everything that comes to my mind. A lot of times the sheet just ends up being a list of words and pictures that are circulating in my mind rather than anything that makes sense, but it still tends to help me clear my head.
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Post by melody owens on Sept 13, 2015 18:02:33 GMT -5
Hello, I am the mother of a 5 year old. My time on computer is very limited so I try to make the most out of time spent online. My son and I share the computer. Mostly he uses it to watch cartoons and reviews of toys on YouTube. My question for this forum is: what is the fastest way to get information from the newstoa website? How can I connect with other people who are learning about stoic information as I am. Thank you in advance for any help. I have found this website to be a bit difficult to navigate but maybe its just me.
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Post by Alethia on Jun 15, 2016 10:01:21 GMT -5
Hi,
Hope you don't mind ridiculous here, I use Stoa as an excuse.
One of the things that people seem to miss is that everything, I mean everything, is based on the fact.. that is absolutely absolute.. that one can only, ONLY, identify their-own-truth for themselves. Identify! Note, I said IDENTIFY!!! Not merge, not blend, not vibrate till the phase variances are in sink so you can't tell the difference, identify. You cannot fake a natural law till it becomes the law you want. ..
Just call me General Rant.
Stoa is not the end game, it is an attempt to get there. Past efforts led to insights we are using as tools that are useful as they blazed part of the trail. Stoa is incomplete, many aspects are degenerative and sorely lacking. What is needed is a physical, scalable, research community, it is not hard to do and everything needed is at hand but interested people. At this rate it will take another 1000 years if we, you whom are reading this now, don't have something to do with it. .. it is possible to evolve backwards.. just FYI.
It will never be more than it is without building it so.
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Post by logicalmonkey on Sept 19, 2016 6:42:12 GMT -5
Hello Everyone.
I've just joined the forum and am looking forward to speaking with you all about stoicism. For me, I was struggling to cope with a stressful period of my life and I stumbled on stoicism whilst looking for ways to cope. As such, I think I would say that I am looking for that transformation rather than any academic interest.
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jwc
New Member
Posts: 1
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Post by jwc on Aug 10, 2017 13:55:17 GMT -5
I found a good deal of academic philosophy was not applicable to daily life. I found it interesting but largely theoretical. Stoa on the other hand I find helps me to tackle life problems and to reflect on my behavior. It is, in my view the only way to get through life with some dignity.
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