Lecture |: Which Philosophers in the Athens Academy Would Not "Grab Vegetables"

On the afternoon of April 4th, Shanghai Library and Shanghai Sanlian Bookstore jointly held a lecture - Virtual Speech: "Lying" of Philosophy, which was broadcast online, and the keynote speaker was Yu Zhejun, associate professor from the School of Philosophy of Fudan University and doctor of philosophy of leipzig University in Germany. In the live broadcast, Yu Zhejun discussed the significance of "lying" for philosophers. How do philosophers calm their anxieties in the face of difficulties? The following is a compilation of the contents of this lecture.

Understand lying in a philosophical way

Today's lecture has something to do with our current situation. "Lying" is a noun, but it may also be used as a verb, I think it is okay to say "philosophical lying" or "philosophical lying", "philosophical lying" refers to a way of "lying", and another refers to how philosophy understands the problem of "lying".

Today I also got up early in the morning and was called to do nucleic acid. During this time, because of the epidemic, everyone, especially friends in Shanghai, may be closed at home and face a relatively closed and simple life. A while ago, in order to prepare for the closure, everyone went to grab the dish, right? I was chatting with a friend when I suddenly remembered an interesting remark by the French philosopher Pascal, who said that most of the problems of human beings may lie in the inability to be alone in their own house. But after these two days, you will find that quietly staying in the house itself is already an unusual luxury. As for how to stay quiet in the house? Recently I've found that many of my younger friends, including my students, generally exude a relatively pessimistic and slightly negative thought.

A few years ago, we held a special academic conference to talk about the phenomenon of "lying flat" in young people's culture, and I found that "lying flat" on the Internet has become a special term, which is directly expressed by pinyin tangping, rather than by the English lying flat. This situation is caused by the superposition of social factors of long periods and short periods, and we need to find a way to face an environment with a lot of uncertainty and anxiety.

The feeling that "Ge You Lie" gives me is that many people want to lie down, or he has already laid down, or occasionally he will lie down, but although he is lying down, his heart is uneven. The posture of "Ge You Lying Down" can express such an inherent contradiction and conflict.

The "lying" expressed on the Internet has a kind of performance in itself, which can be used as a method of retreating to the second place. That is, if the external environment can make you work hard and have a corresponding return, then maybe everyone will not choose it. Whether young or middle-aged or old, we don't make much difference at this point. How people perceive "lying" in their hearts is very different. Some people accept it calmly, and some people actually have a huge struggle inside - I don't want to lie down, external factors force me to crush me on the ground to rub, what do I do? Let's look at this question from the history of philosophy.

In the face of epidemic control, who in the Athens Academy will not go to grab vegetables

If a philosopher in history travels back in time to our city in 2022, what resources might he provide in the face of the scene we are facing now?

This is a picture that people who study philosophy really like. If I had to find some people from the history of Western philosophy to face this anxious lying situation today, I don't think he could have run out of this picture. This is the Renaissance Raphael painting "The Academy of Athens", completed in 1511, frescoes in the signature hall of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.

There are many philosophers on this painting, as well as famous mathematicians, astronomers and so on. For raphael, at least for the artist raphael of the early 16th century, the wisest mind in his mind was placed in such a virtual physical space in the form of a crossing, Athens. The people here don't actually live in the same place, they don't live in the same era, they are deliberately put in. For example, we are familiar with the two systems of ancient Greek philosophy - Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates. Ancient Greek philosophy can basically use these two pairs of masters and apprentices—Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle—to string together the main axis. But today we are not going to focus on them. Their light is so dazzling that it will obscure other philosophers. Our topic today is more appropriate for other famous scholars who may not be so noticeable in the history of philosophy, and whose public awareness will be relatively low.

Socrates is a landmark in the history of Western philosophy, not just as Cicero commented, socrates pulled philosophy from heaven to earth, from the stage of natural philosophy to the city-state, political, moral, and ethical concerns. In fact, it is very important that in 399 BC Socrates was sentenced to death by the Athenian city-state. As you know, the Athenian city-state at that time practiced direct civil democracy, and the grand jury of 501 people voted twice, the first time reluctantly believing that Socrates was guilty, and then Socrates himself went up and defended himself. The second overwhelming majority sentenced Socrates to death, and finally Socrates died of poisoned wine. There are many dialogues in the history of philosophy that record the process of defending himself. The death of Socrates in 399 BC later gave rise to many different schools of philosophy. Their different response plans can be seen in their basic attitude towards life. From these different coping options, we can find resources to help us understand why we are lying down today, why we are anxious, and how we can cope with the semi-closed isolation of our homes for the next few days.

There are probably more than 40 people on this picture, and according to the research, there are probably 20 people with names and surnames. As I was preparing for today's lecture, I had a whim and made a picture of an unoccupied Athenian Academy. I thought of a virtual scenario, if different philosophers in history came alive and lived in the present, and suddenly encountered our current situation, such as buying vegetables before sealing, what would they do? Will they be like us modern people, no matter what position, what status, how much food at home to give themselves a little sense of security.

I probably calculated that there might be two people in this Athenian academy who wouldn't hoard food. The first was Eugenie, a representative philosopher of the Cynic school. Why didn't he go grocery shopping? Simply put, he lives like a dog, he may pick up some vegetable skins on the road, and even he does not need to eat vegetables, and he lives like a beggar. So why did you choose this way of life? We'll talk about it later. You see that his movements are also very similar to "Ge You Lie", either sitting or lying down, or leaning on the steps of the Academy of Athens, still me, reading what articles he holds in his hand.

The second man was Epicurus. So why didn't Epicurus go grocery shopping with everyone? He wasn't in a hurry either, because he had his own vegetable garden. In fact, in addition to growing vegetables, this vegetable garden is also a community for learning and discussing problems, like a university college. There is a strong intrinsic relationship between growing vegetables and their philosophical claims. Because in Epicurus's view, a very important condition for the pursuit of happiness in life is self-sufficiency.

You can also imagine how our ancient pre-Qin Hundred Families would respond to this challenge when they encountered such a scene.

Epicurus and Eugenius left very little direct material in the history of philosophy, but both of them would have influenced another very important school of later Western philosophy, namely the Stog school.

There is the hermitage of the vegetable garden, Epicurus

First, let's look at Epicurus, who has his own vegetable garden. His goal is to live a life of seclusion, a bit like our old village's ideal, and he wants to live unknown, so he will have his own vegetable garden. This vegetable garden is not only able to be self-sufficient in diet, but more importantly, to live with some like-minded people and discuss some issues. What they advocate is not the pursuit of fame and fortune in life, but the attainment of happiness through ataraxia. This happiness is eudaimonia in ancient Greek, which may be a little different from the happiness we modern people talk about. Our modern happiness is basically psychological, or some people call it an emotional happiness, such as I can drink a cup of coffee in the middle of the epidemic. But these are all a physiological experience or an emotional reaction to a brief moment. The Greeks thought that this emotional thing was fleeting, that it was unreliable. What is more important is actually a very close to our Tao Yuanming-style understanding of happiness, that is, there is no other entanglement, and the heart maintains a state of peace and tranquility.

The core pursuit of Epicurus's philosophy of life was tranquility. In order to attain this tranquility, one also has to overcome some external fetters, so to achieve these ones one has to have a sense of self-sufficiency. He believes that self-sufficiency is the greatest good. Self-sufficiency in growing vegetables here is only a very small aspect, and the bigger thing is that people have to achieve self-sufficiency in mentality.

Later it was said that Epicureanism was a form of pleasure, which was absolutely wrong. Epicureanism did not actively pursue happiness, they believed that if people are always pursuing a lot of happiness, then you will always have moments of disappointment. Instead of reducing happiness to a minimum, it is only necessary to satisfy me with some of the most basic things, and when I am most hungry, I can have a dish to eat, a piece of bread, and a sip of water to drink, and I can be happy at this time. This oligo-desirable pleasure brings down the materialistic desire, so that our happiness is sustainable and does not contradict the way he reaches tranquility. Looking at the lives of many people now, the happier we are, the less peaceful feelings you have in your heart.

Representative of the Cynicism – Diogenes

Diogenes is also worth learning and reference. How modern man transforms his life from his philosophy is that he needs great wisdom. Why is he called a cynic? Cynicism is a very pejorative word in modern languages, and the Greeks of the time were also very reluctant to see them, because they really lived like dogs, eating and sleeping in the wind, and Diogenes even lived in a large wooden barrel, with no place to live. The most classic is a dialogue between Diogenes and Alexander the Great. Alexander asked Diogenes, "Who are you?" Diogenes replied, "I am Diogenes who lives in a barrel." You don't block my sunlight. Alexander the Great let him go, but he later said something sincere, saying, "If I weren't Alexander the Great, I would live like Diogenes." "That makes a lot of sense, doesn't that mean?" Why would a monarch who travels across the globe want to be able to live like Diogenes—so humble, even by abandoning human shame altogether, and starving? Diogenes is said to have died a terrible death, grabbing food with a group of dogs, only to be bitten by a dog, and later died tragically alone. Why would Alexander the Great envy cynics like Diogenes?

For in fact, as I have just said plato, Epicurus, or Diogenes, in a way their philosophy of life is a reaction or answer to the death of Socrates in 399 BC. Such a wise man as Socrates was executed by the Athenian city-state, which means that for a certain period of time, the wisest man may not enjoy his life, there will be some accidents. Diogenes and Epicurus no longer emphasized that they were merely citizens of the city-state, but that there was a higher morality above the political community of the city in which they lived, and therefore considered themselves "citizens of the world."

In contrast, Plato and Aristotle still considered themselves citizens of the city-state. This is actually quite inspiring for us. We have seen a lot of material records that people like Diogenes, in our current terms, are shameless, wandering skeletons. But it is very interesting, he is actually not born like our Buddhists or Taoists, he still sleeps in the city, on the edge of the square or in a more conspicuous place, which is a kind of wandering into the world. This debauchery itself carries a value. What is this value? It can be understood that this is a "performance artist" of the third century BC, who could have lived an idyllic life. Of course, Diogenes had a personal peculiarity, he was a stain on history, he once made counterfeit money, then he was expelled, and he came back. He did not shy away from it, saying that I was a criminal, but the exile of the city-state to me was to exile me to the city-state. His own life as a dog on the streets was a mockery of the authoritative traditions prevailing in society at the time, including the law. Diogenes did this, and his heart was very open. At that time, Greece was in a period of decline from the most prosperous era, so there would be a cynical stubbornness like Diogenes. One of Diogenes' assessments of himself was "Mad Socrates".

Socrates returned to the city-state and tried to be a city-state bullfly through philosophical arguments, which Diogenes would have thought would not work. Plato later said in the Republic that a philosopher took an ascending passage from the cave, learned more, and then returned to the cave to complete the rescue of the people in the cave. I think that although Diogenes's superficial approach is very different from Plato's, he is still not dead-hearted, he is not going back to wake everyone up in a verbal way, but he wants to use another image of Socrates, the mad Socrates, to give everyone a wake-up call. This is a very interesting performance artist approach.

Calm and calm Stoic school

What I want to focus on today is another school of philosophy, the Stoics. This school of philosophy has, to some extent, absorbed some of the contents from the Epicureans, Cynicism, and Platonic philosophy and put them together. This school was also born in the Greek era, but it flourished mainly in the Roman era, and its written materials are relatively rich, and there are many philosophers who can be counted.

Stoicism is actually a transliteration, and Stoa originally referred to a type of cloister building in architecture. In Greek times, there was a cloister in the central town square of Athens, which is still there today and is now a heritage park. At that time, some philosophers often gathered in this cloister to discuss philosophical issues in order to avoid the wind and rain, and over time these people were called cloister philosophers, hence the name of the Stoics.

The Stoics were founded by Zeno in Athens around 300 BC, almost a century after Socrates' death. Stoicism is a bit like the old Zhuang among Western philosophers, and it also has a bit of a Buddhist atmosphere. In the simple dualistic worldview, people generally think that Eastern philosophical thought pays more attention to the individual's heart and talks about personal cultivation; Western philosophy pays more attention to the external world and pursues the dualism of physical and mental opposition. In fact, at different historical stages, some schools of Western philosophy, such as the Stoic school, are also very concerned with the human heart.

To sum up, the philosophical orientation of post-Socrates has probably four different directions. Plato pursued the conceptual Odyssey tour by writing the Republic, and he asked to be a philosopher who returned to the cave to "speak", Plato's main job was to speak, and he also believed that speech had a limit, as we say in Zen Buddhism. Cynicism is an ironic "madman", a wandering skeleton, not far away, but a "body teaching" performance art of "retreating into progress". Epicurus wanted to build a somewhat reclusive vegetable garden community: the world was a bit chaotic, and I didn't want to transform it, but I wanted to protect myself and pursue happiness—the happiness that could be achieved through self-sufficiency. The Stoics synthesized elements of several genres, and I used a word for "spiritual victory" here, but not the AQ-style spiritual victory method, which is at its core the consistency of phism and nomos. Physis is simply the natural world, and the nature of the ancients is somewhat close to what happens naturally, rather than our natural sciences. Physis is an external, self-governing world. Nomos refers to the norms of human society, including what is commonly known as ethics, morality, politics, etc. We modern people generally think that these two are separate, nature is nature, morality is morality, morality is different from person to person, from time to time. But ancient philosophers, especially the Stoics, placed great emphasis on the need for the two to be consistent. This consistency became a fundamental philosophical pursuit. Our Chinese philosophy very much pursues the unity of knowledge and action, the unity of words and deeds, and the Stoic school of Western philosophy is very pursuing the unity of the external natural world and the human world of mankind.

The Stoics have a classic "dichotomy", which is the premise of their "spiritual victory", which holds that the world is divided into two parts, one part is controllable and the other part is uncontrollable. A world of two parts means that we want to control what we can control and give up what we can't. If we compare the anxiety of many of us today with the simple dichotomy of Stoicism, we will find that most of our anxiety comes from delusion and transgression—trying to control what we can't control, or not controlling what we can't control.

There is a similar idea in Chinese thought, we have all heard of "doing everything in our power to obey the destiny of heaven." We may feel a little bit negative when we hear this, but it is not. If we go back to Chinese philosophy from Stoicism, personnel and mandate of heaven are somewhat similar to the dichotomy of Stoic philosophy, the mandate of heaven is far greater than the "I" as an individual, and to obey it, it is uncontrollable to "I". But this is not negative, because there is also "doing our best", saying that there are some things in this world that we can do. There is a very clear sense of proportion in this.

Two years ago, I watched an animated film "Nezha's Demon Boy Descending", which said a very heroic line - my life is up to me. When I listened to it, I also felt very energetic and inspired. But in retrospect, the philosopher's instinct exploded, and when analyzing the word, it had obvious logical problems. If my destiny is not controlled by me, then the "fate" in this is not "fate", and the so-called "fate" is something that is not controlled by "me". By "My destiny is up to me" he denies that there is a greater power beyond the individual. If from the point of view of "obedience to the destiny of all" and Stoicism, it is a little arrogant, transgressing to the place where it should not go. This dichotomy sounds simple, but it's a bit difficult to draw a clear line that guides your life.

Stills from "Nezha's Demon Boy Descending"

The very famous Stoic philosopher Epicteides said, "Man is not troubled by what happens; he is troubled by their views of things." First, "things" and "perceptions of things" are not the same. Second, not all "things" are controllable, but our perception of it must be controllable. Some problems can be lifted by changing things, and more often than not, "things" themselves cannot be changed, or when it is beyond our control, only "perceptions" can be changed. This is also a very interesting view, which sounds a little passive on the surface, but my understanding is not passive. The dissatisfaction of our modern people comes from our failure to draw this line well.

The spiritual temperament of the Stoics is, first, calm and calm, not to like things and not to be sad with themselves, and the other is to be stoic and persevering, and it is difficult to crush them spiritually. Their attitude towards life is one-size-fits-all: it is not a total non-entry into the world, nor is it completely immersed in the rolling red dust. Representative figures include successful emperors, ministers, and slaves. Epicteide, a slave philosopher, said, "We take the stage that we don't choose, and the performance is not the play we choose." "Don't misunderstand, he is not saying that life is a drama, but that there is a helplessness in life, such as the family you were born into, the appearance of your parents, the era of which country... It's not up to us. But a good actor wants to enter the play, and this is when the sense of faith comes out. Although I intellectually told myself that I was not the person I was going to play, I had a sense of conviction that when I stood on the stage at this moment, I was the person I played, whether I was an ordinary man or a king. After reading The Words of Ebichted, and then look at the words of Roman Rowland, a literary scholar who was very popular on the Internet a while ago, "There is only one true heroism in the world, that is, to recognize the truth of life and still love it." "I think Ebikted said it better, if Ebikted paraphrased Romain Rowland, that is, there is only one kind of true heroism in this world, that is, you know that this stage is not chosen by you, this script is not written by you, this role is not assigned by you, but you can still live this life and still love it. This is a sense of faith in life. Abectete and all Stoics are not negative and pessimistic, it has a positive heroism complex.

The Stoics never complained. Aurelius, a Stoic philosopher and Roman emperor, said, "Who is a Stoic?" Even though he was sick, in danger, dying, exiled, and plagued by evil words, he still felt happy. He longs to be in one heart with God, never complains about others, never feels disappointed, never opposes His will, never feels anger or jealousy. ”

Why is that? In addition to the "dichotomy" mentioned earlier, the Stoics also believed that there was a common set of laws behind the operation of the universe, which were called "Logos" at that time, and that man was also required to conform to this law. For example, being sick, or encountering some accidents, misfortunes, twists and turns, this is the logos itself. Since it is implied by the Logos itself, it is useless to complain, and it will only aggravate the sense of unhappiness. At this time, it is necessary to control and control, to be relatively alienated, and to adjust their mood, which is a part of what people can do. The Stoics may have some short-lived emotions, but over time, the heart is relatively calm.

This philosophy is very different from our current academic philosophy. Academic philosophy books basically do not instruct you how to live, and the content of the philosophy of life has basically been removed, thinking that this should be left to other social spheres. The Stoics, on the other hand, are "learning for themselves," and "being for themselves" is not meant to be selfish, but to answer some of their own personal questions.

If the Stoic philosophers had come to life, they would have said that you academic scholars who write papers and books every day actually solve other people's problems, and this problem may not have much to do with yourself. Seneca, one of the three great representatives of the Stoic School, said that "philosophy is not a profession of the masses, nor is it for self-propaganda." It focuses not on words, but on facts. It's not about spending the day in a fun way and eliminating the boredom of your leisure time. It shapes and builds personality, arranges life, regulates behavior, shows what a person should do, what a person should give up, and maintains the right course in a dangerous ocean under the control of a helmsman. Without it, no one is carefree. There are countless situations that arise every hour of the day, requiring philosophical advice. ”

Three philosophers of the Stoic School

Next, I will briefly introduce you to the three Stoic philosophers.

The first is Seneca.

His career did not go well, and in 41 AD he was exiled to Corsica, which was a barbaric land at that time. Desperate there, but with a clear mind, he wrote a book called On the Brevity of Life, and then a paper order sent him back to Rome to be Nero's teacher. However, after Nero came to power, he executed Seneca, because Seneca was arranged by Nero's mother, and Nero's ascension to power was arranged by his mother, and he wanted to kill the "rear party" after his wings were full. By this time, Seneca had actually retired, and when it was known that Seneca was going to die, the family began to cry bitterly, including his wife, children, many students, and slaves. At this time, Seneca was very calm, and at the crucial moment, he still showed some Stoic qualities, and he roared angrily: "Where have all the philosophies you studied gone?" "A Stoic who has truly studied philosophy should collapse in front of Tarzan and remain unchanged, although this is a man-made disaster, descended by a bad emperor, but it is just as uncontrollable to the Stoic. This is the sense of destiny in classical thought. He wrote in the book: "Why cry for part of your life? Jun did not see that all his life was tearful. ”

The Stoics believe that the development of the entire universe is as big as the stars, as small as how I have lived in this life, and there are logos behind it. Even for his own life, he took an almost out-of-the-box view, accepted his fate with peace of mind, and died calmly.

"The life we really lived was only a small part," he said. The rest is not life, it is only time. ”

The Stoics believe that the present is short-lived, that the future is uncertain, and that the past is stereotyped.

If you don't understand his philosophy, you will think this is very common, but if you think about it, the dichotomy between control and the uncontrollable world is different. In the Stoic view, the past has been fixed and cannot be changed, and the future influence is not yet reached, so for each of us, the real controllable part is very narrow, that is, the present.

He also believes that time has been stolen by various recreational activities. This is not what we said in the primary school essay to cherish the meaning of time, the essence of recreational activities is a kind of overdraft, when you are entertaining, it is difficult to do it wholeheartedly. For example, it is very simple, when we modern people brush short videos, each short video may focus on a few seconds to more than ten seconds, at this time almost all the attention is not in the present, but in the future, and soon a few hours have passed. The Stoic attitude toward time is very clear: don't forget the past, don't ignore the present, and don't fear the future. What we can control is the present moment that should not be ignored.

Based on this position, I call it "minimalism" and distinguish it from "minimalism", which is precisely the product of consumerism, and "minimalism" is not. It has a concept that is also very close to our ancient Chinese people - everything is prepared for me, and this "thing" does not just refer to objects. Seneca wrote a letter to his mother in exile, which became another book, "Consolation to Helvia", which also reflected the thinking of a happy life as a Stoic philosopher. "A happy life does not require any good equipment, this is the original intention of nature. Everyone can make themselves happy, external things don't matter, and neither good times nor bad times have much impact. "Greed and extravagance can ruin everything, and it only takes a tiny bit to sustain a man's life!" From here you can see the minimalism and self-sufficiency of the Cynics and Epicurus. The Stoics formed an asceticism that also had an impact on Christianity.

The second Abec Ted.

He was originally a slave with a leg disability, and at a very young age he was freed by his talent, and then he established a Stoic academy and became the spiritual teacher of the Roman Emperor Aurelius.

Epictet said, "The beginning of philosophy is a consciousness, a consciousness of weakness and incompetence in the things that are truly important to life. "What about weakness and incompetence here? Both of these words are derogatory, but people must first be sincere, like at my age, basically admit that people are weak and incompetent, some things I can't do, some things I can't control, some things I can't rebel against. This is actually a bit of a "knowing the destiny" feeling, knowing where the boundaries of knowing are. This weakness and incompetence does not mean that you are not brave, timid and afraid of things, but that you know that you are not omnipotent. He also said: "I want to manage what belongs to me as much as possible, but what does not belong to me is left to their own owners to worry about." The words of the Stoics should be carefully savored, although they look very simple, ostensibly talking about property, but in fact they are still talking about the problem of "dichotomy". Many of us now are not worried about our own things, and Stoicism believes that the first one is not necessary, and the second you cannot interfere. At this time, you should know and stop, and don't let your heart trespass.

There is also a very interesting saying, "What a person can lose can only be what he once possessed." "There's a saying in economics called fear of loss. Many times, before we have it, we are already worried about losing it, so that we will live in a kind of gain and loss. Every word of Abec Ted, you substitute a lot of life's sadness and tears.

Epicteide believed that the world was a bazaar, "and our state is like the people who go to the bazaar." Cattle and livestock were brought there to sell, and most of the people were engaged in trading. But there are a few people who just come to the bazaar, to see how it works, to see who arranged it and why? What is his purpose. The same is true of the 'bazaar' of this world where we live, where some people are only interested in their feed like livestock. For for all of you who are worried about property, land, slaves, this or that office, all this is nothing but fodder. Only a very small number of people come to the bazaar because of their interest in watching. Aristotle said that one of the highest pursuits of philosophers is to be idle and contemplate the world. This is also the kind of detachment of the Stoic school I just mentioned. If you come to the market with too strong utilitarianism and want to sell cattle and sheep to make more money, it is impossible to stay away. The philosopher wants to understand how the world works, but he doesn't want to profit from it.

Epicteide believed that man was forced for desire. "Remember, not only does wanting power and wealth pitiful and subservient to others, but also wanting peace, leisure, travel opportunities, and knowledge can make people look despicable and enslaved." Most people are relatively tall people, the first half of the sentence must be understood, but how to understand the second half of the sentence? Even those who want the opportunity and knowledge to travel in peace and leisure can make people look sad and enslaved. In the midst of the epidemic, many people still have a very typical middle-class taste, nothing more than want to be able to get up early to drink a cup of coffee, go out to travel every year, take a vacation, take two photos, and go out to meet a friend in beautiful clothes. Our theory should be thorough, and this pursuit will actually lead to a kind of vanity, which will in turn be subject to what is pursued. Zhuangzi said that "things are not things", which is very close to what Epicteide said.

Epicteide believes that anxiety stems from wanting to control uncontrollably. "When I see a person in an anxiety, I say to myself, what does this person want? For if he had not wanted something out of his control, how could he have been anxious? "Anxiety comes from a delusion that if you focus your control on something you already have control over, you're basically not anxious. I feel very happy to be able to drink a cup of coffee, I can't drink coffee, drink a cup of cold water, still sweet. This is Epicteide's philosophy of life.

The influence of Stoic thought is very widespread, and many scholars, thinkers, and activists have not had the label of Stoicism on the surface, but they have been more or less subtly influenced by the Stoic philosophy of life, such as the twentieth-century American theologian Niebuhr said: "God, give me tranquility, let me accept things that cannot be changed; give me courage, let me change things; give me wisdom, let me distinguish between the two." ”

The third is quite prominent, Aurelius is the Roman Emperor, one of the "Five Wise Emperors" in Roman history.

Aurelius was a model civil servant all his life, and he fought fires like a Roman firefighter, because the situation in Rome at that time was from the peak to the decline, surrounded by barbarian invasions, frequent riots, and Aurelius fought everywhere. In a short period of idleness, he wrote a "Meditations", like a collection of notes, paragraph by paragraph, some of which are on one line, and the longest is not more than half a page, which is very suitable for modern people to read.

Aurelius, the Roman Emperor, believed that the highest value of life should be "tranquility", and Epicurus's ideas continued. I am going to bring out the Stoics today because I feel that it is very compatible with the living situation and state of mind of our modern people. Some of the things they talk about or advocate are exactly what we modern people need. For our irritable and vain society, it can play a hedging or healing role.

The following passage is from Aurelius' Meditations, and I have a very good friend who says that after reading this passage, he was cured of his road rage. I think it's interesting.

"Say to myself at the beginning of the day: I will meet the nosy, the ungrateful, the arrogant, the deceitful, the jealous, and the lonely. They are infected with these qualities because they do not know what is good and what is evil. But I ,—— as a man who knows the nature of good and evil, that the former is beautiful and the latter ugly; that the nature of those who know that they have done wrong is similar to mine, that we not only have the same blood and skin, but also share the same intellect and the same divinity—and can never be harmed by any of them, because no one can impose evil on me, nor can I be angry with these people who are my kind, or hate them. Because we are born to cooperate, like siblings, lips and teeth and eyelids. Mutual opposition, then, is a violation of nature, self-seeking and self-exclusion. ”

If only all the emperors had the mind of Aurelius. He may be the only figure in history who fits plato's "philosopher king."

Jobs gave a very famous alumni lecture at Stanford University in 2005, quoting Aurelius' Meditations— that if you live every day of your life as if it were the last day of your life, one day you will be sure that you are going in the right direction. What does it mean to repeat this statement with my understanding? If you think about it, Jobs already knew that he had advanced pancreatic cancer at this time, and there were no days to live. We modern people generally have arrangements and expectations for life, such as what to do when you are 20 years old, what to do at 30 years old, and what to do after retirement... But Jobs said no. By imagining the finiteness of life, you will rearrange priorities. If you want to be a poet, write poetry today.

This is a great wake-up call for modern people. Modern people are basically arranged too rationally, and there is not a moment that lives in the present.

Aurelius suggested some ways to reach tranquility. For example, to have a little leisure in life, to pay attention to one's own heart: "If one does not care what is going on in the minds of others, one is very unhappy; but if one does not pay close attention to the activities of one's own mind, one must be unhappy." Don't pay too much attention to other people's gossip: "Never guess what is going on in other people's minds, and people who think about other people's minds are never happy people." "Don't get involved in disputes: "Don't get involved in any faction of the circus, and don't get caught up in a dueling scene." We must learn to endure labor, to be pure-hearted, to be personal in everything we do, not to interfere with other people's affairs and not to believe gossip. ”

The Meditations say: "People seek to retreat from themselves, they live in rural huts, in the mountains and the seashore, and you tend to desire these things. But this is entirely a sign of the mundane, because whenever you want to retreat into yourself, you can do it. For a person who retreats to any place is more peaceful and less distressed than retreating into his own mind, especially when he has such thoughts in his mind, and by considering them he immediately enters into complete tranquility. I insist that tranquility is nothing more than the orderliness of the mind. ”

How to achieve tranquility? "Grasping the present" is more enlightening to our modern people. It's called Carpe diem in Latin, and I specifically explain it in the book When Plato Meets Lumiere. Friends who like to watch movies know that there is an American movie "Dead Poetry Society", in which mr. Keating, a language teacher, taught the word. Carpe is capture, catch; diem is day. I don't know how you understand it, but the worst translation is "just in time", which is simply absurd. If you think back to Aurelius quoted by Jobs, think about dying tomorrow, what to do today? This is Carpe diem. So it must not be translated as just in time, but "grasping the present", or in a more psychological way of saying it – immersing in the present. Here is a recommendation to everyone a book "Zen and motorcycle maintenance art", just saw the message area someone asked the question, what is the impact or continuation of Stoicism in contemporary times, from this book to some extent can see a little. Many popular writers of the Anglo-American world, including Alain De Botton, have a Stoic background. In zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance, Posig says: "Haste itself is the most undesirable attitude of the 20th century, and when you do something, once you want to be fast, it means that you no longer care about it, but want to do something else." 」 ”

Many times we are absent-minded, not because we don't have enough time, or because we are too busy to catch up with others, but because this psychological structure in our hearts has been very wrong. Many of us can experience that when we were young, we were so engaged in doing things that we forgot about ourselves, and now psychology calls it flow state. Different schools of philosophy, including Stoicism, as well as the way religions are practiced, attach great importance to this. This is precisely an ability that our modern people have lost.