“Study Death Always”: Seneca’s advice for living centered on dying • Hacker News Board

Re: “Study Death Always”: Seneca’s advice for living centered on dying

#111

Post by Jerry64545 » Mon, Feb 12, 2018, 8:11 PM UTC

IAmGraydon wrote: post #41

beefinethan wrote: post #25

I've been an avid reader of Stoicism, and was introduced to it by, you guessed it, Tim Ferriss. I have been conciously trying to adopt the philosophies and mantras into my day to day life. Have compiled the following tangible techniques/approaches to thought feel free to add your own: * Premeditatio Malorum (premeditation of evils or Negative Visualization) * Stoic Fork - Make the best use of things in your control a…

I'm genuinely curious - what is this mindset supposed to accomplish?

Process emotions faster and free brain cycles for more computation. Very much hypothetical example. If a friend or loved ones is dead, one approach is take a lot of time to morn the passing or train your mind in advance to such a degree to process the emotions(not detach because its not possible) faster and move on.

Re: “Study Death Always”: Seneca’s advice for living centered on dying

#112

Post by Jerry64545 » Mon, Feb 12, 2018, 8:15 PM UTC

Yhippa wrote: post #104

anvandare wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All life is suffering, but mercifully it ends with death. However, we don't want to die (because we are so attached to life, it's hard to overrule billions of years of evolution). So we have to endure the suffering until we die on our own, or until the suffering becomes great enough to overcome the mental barrier of suicide. Just as we can train our bodies through exercise to deal with exertion, so too can we train o…

> or until the suffering becomes great enough to overcome the mental barrier of suicide. Does Stoicism rationalize suicide?

Yes. Seneca writes in one of his letters when you are incapacitated to take care of yourself and are a burden to someone else or your self dignity is under question then you should be prepared to lose your body although you must take care of your body well when you can.

Re: “Study Death Always”: Seneca’s advice for living centered on dying

#113

Post by Jerry64545 » Mon, Feb 12, 2018, 8:18 PM UTC

_mhr_ wrote: post #72

fapjacks wrote: post #4

The Stoics of ancient times had something profound to say about everything, it seems. The reason for that, of course, is because what they actually describe is a way of thinking, a way of life. As you can gather from the article, there is also some religious context which is really fairly optional. Or at least you could substitute your own religious beliefs in with all the talk about God. But you can apply Stoic prin…

If you don't mind me asking: which Aurelius idea(s) specifically popped into your head, and how did it save you?

Yes me too would you like to know about this specific idea.

Re: “Study Death Always”: Seneca’s advice for living centered on dying

#114

Post by Jerry64545 » Mon, Feb 12, 2018, 8:28 PM UTC

happy-go-lucky wrote: post #59

Here's an interesting read: Parallels in Hindu and Stoic Ethical Thought http://www.studiesincomparativereligion.com/public/articles/... > Krishna reminded Arjuna that "Thinking about sense objects will attach you to sense objects. Grow attached and you become addicted. Thwart your addiction, it turns to anger. Be angry and you confuse your mind. Confuse your mind, you forget the lesson of experience. Forget experien…

This is a comparison b/w oranges and pigs. Hinduism is founded by priests to favor Brahmin's and nothing more. Instead of the slavery like in US which is binary(slave or not-slave) in hinduism the caste system is a multiple levels of slavery. Any caste must be a slave to another and if they obey(no choice) they will get another caste as their slaves. Finally at the root node is this Dailt people who are slave to every one in the hierarchy. In contrast Stoic is religion agonistic, in fact Stoicism does not care of religion. Seneca talks about how it does not matter if there is a god exists or not in his reference to free will and determinism in his letters.

Re: “Study Death Always”: Seneca’s advice for living centered on dying

#115

Post by fapjacks » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 3:38 AM UTC

_mhr_ wrote: post #72

fapjacks wrote: post #4

The Stoics of ancient times had something profound to say about everything, it seems. The reason for that, of course, is because what they actually describe is a way of thinking, a way of life. As you can gather from the article, there is also some religious context which is really fairly optional. Or at least you could substitute your own religious beliefs in with all the talk about God. But you can apply Stoic prin…

If you don't mind me asking: which Aurelius idea(s) specifically popped into your head, and how did it save you?

Hmm. I suppose I should clarify that these ideas did not save me in combat, and probably would not save anyone in combat. There isn't a philosophy in this universe that would save you from "Whoops! Should have juked right when I juked left!"... But from other things that can kill you, Stoic philosophy will set you up for survival.

About the question, though, I thought about what he said about telling friends and family you're always busy. It was just something that came to mind, making me wish I'd spent more of my time with people I enjoy being around.