.
The Funeral
The funeral was fine, and in fact really well done. I left the building feeling positive, and uplifted. There was no mention of God, Jesus, or heaven. There were no holy songs. There was no religion whatsoever. In fact the piece of music that played us out was John Lennon's best known song - “Imagine there's no heaven . . . and no religion too . . .”
The focus of the gathering was entirely on dear B, and the good life she'd lived. Which is as it should be. Amongst other things she was a loving mother, a gifted teacher, an inspirational headteacher, a long-serving trustee of a children's charity, and a good musician. There were two points during the proceedings at which music was played, and allowed time for us to sit in silent meditation. It was during those moments that the Christian cross at the head of the room caught my attention.
Was it fixed in place? And if so, why? And if not, then why hadn't it been removed prior to this gathering that was obviously intended to be secular? Is it ignorance, or arrogance, or sheer determination on someone's part that causes this to happen? On the other hand, maybe the family had been told they could have the cross removed, if they desired, but had said it wasn't necessary. No need to make a big deal of it. Maybe.
On returning to the car I pressed the play button on the stereo, and the very next song that came up was this wonderful Tracey Chapman number:
Heaven's Here on Earth
You can look to the stars in search of the answers
Look for God and life on distant planets
Have your faith in the ever after
While each of us holds inside the map to the labyrinth
And heaven's here on earth
We are the spirit, the collective conscience
We create the pain and the suffering and the beauty in this world
Heaven's here on earth
In our faith in humankind
In our respect for what is earthly
In our unfaltering belief in peace and love and understanding
I've seen and met angels wearing the disguise
Of ordinary people leading ordinary lives
Filled with love, compassion, forgiveness and sacrifice:
Heaven's in our hearts
In our faith in humankind
In our respect for what is earthly
In our unfaltering belief in peace and love and understanding
Look around
Believe in what you see
The kingdom is at hand
The promised land is at your feet
We can and will become what we aspire to be
If Heaven's here on earth
If we have faith in humankind
And respect for what is earthly
And an unfaltering belief that truth is divinity
And heaven's here on earth
I've seen spirits
I've met angels
Touched creations beautiful and wondrous
I've been places where I question all I think I know
But I believe, I believe, I believe this could be heaven
We are born inside the gates with the power to create life
And to take it away
The world is our temple
The world is our church
Heaven's here on earth
If we have faith in human kind
And respect for what is earthly
And an unfaltering belief
In peace and love and understanding
This could be heaven here on earth.
-----------------------------------
Now that's what I call spiritual intelligence.
------------------------------------
Whilst I was in Spain I had an interesting conversation with my friend T, who has many images and figures of the Buddha in and around his house. He's spent a lot of time working and traveling in Buddhist countries. We spoke about the benefits of meditation, and he revealed to me that he thinks it's impossible for him to really meditate because he has an over-active mind that simply won't switch off, so as to allow itself to become still, calm, and contemplative. I guess lots of people feel this way.
---------------------------------------
Bushido
Whilst in Spain I finished reading "Bushido - The Soul of Japan", by Inazo Nitobe.
William Elliot Griffis says this in his Introduction:
"This little book on Bushido is more than a weighty message to the Anglo-Saxon nations. It is a notable contribution to the solution to this century's grandest problem - the reconciliation and unity of the East and the West."
This was published in 1905, and of course things didn't quite go that way. If only such reconciliation had been the major problem facing the planet in the 20th Century.
As things turned out, quite a lot of stuff got in the way of such leisurely and worthwhile pursuits. Things like the wars against fascism and nationalism, the Cold War, Korea and Vietnam, America's espousal of the Shock Doctrine and its attempt to impose its will on the rest of the planet, globalisation, anti-liberalism, neo-conservatism, etc, etc. Not to mention little things messing up the beginning of the 21st Century such as Bush2, the Twin Towers, Afghanistan, Iraq2, global warming, the collapse of the world's financial system, etc.
In the meantime, any attempt to understand the philosophy of Bushido might indeed help the West to gain a better perspective on its own problems. Griffis was right to say that Japan and China needed to get wise to the materialistic, scientific and capitalistic ways of the West, and they've done that to a remarkable degree. The West, however, for the most part arrogantly assumes it has nothing to learn from the ancient wisdom, ideas and philosophies of the East.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushid%C5%8D
-------------------------------------------------
Walking Meditation
Whilst in Spain I spent some time taking photos and shooting video of the sun rising above the hills to the east of T's place, enjoying, as ever, the quality of the light, the peace and the stillness of the dawn.
There was time to take walks up and around the mountain on the little roads that wind their way up into the campo. “Walking meditation” is brilliant for re-acquainting yourself with your body and its state of fitness, or unfitness. Also for focusing on your breathing. These are essential components of the process of meditation, which seems to me to be the process of gaining self-knowledge and self-understanding.
For instance, how can I claim to be enlightened, or even part-enlightened, if I don't even know the degree to which I'm fit or unfit, whether my body's strong or weak, and to what extent I can walk and climb easily?
Hill walking and climbing can therefore be a continuous reminder of the need to take care of our bodies and address our levels of health and fitness.
And then there's our emotional and spiritual health to deal with, assess, and take care of. What do we teach our children about these things? Very little, on the whole.
We need to learn self-assessment techniques and dedicate time to using them regularly. How well do we know ourselves and our inner workings in reality? In most cases, not well at all. Our culture and our education don't encourage these things.
How and when do we assess the quality of our relationships, and our love of life itself? People may love life and want to hold on to it, whilst hating their own lives and the way they live.
How often and when do we set aside time to experience awe and wonder?
-------------------------------------------------------
The sun rising each day
With impossible brilliance
Clouds changing
From grey to red and orange
To yellow and purest white.
The sky and sea emerging
From black to grey
To brilliant blue.
A billion trees and flowers
Beginnings from small seeds
Growing from darkness and no colour
To every possible shade of brilliance.
The cycle of nature
And cycles within cycles:
Colours and forms appearing
And disappearing
Unbidden, never ending.
---------------------------------------------------------
Gaining perspective and insight into ourselves, into others, and into the entire universe around us, is surely worthwhile, and necessary if we're to experience life to the full and become the best we can be. Where's the positives in ignorance and failure to perceive the essential reality of ourselves, our relationships, and the universe we inhabit?
-----------------------------------------------------------
And yet . . . too often, it seems, knowledge is forsaken and ignorance seems like bliss. The dark side of our own reality seems like something to be hidden from ourselves, as well as others . . .
Instead of grappling with our own weaknesses and failures we'd rather stay unaware of them, ignore them and dismiss them. Our poor egos can't cope with too much threat to our self-esteem, since they tend to be fragile at the best of times.
---------------------------------------------------
Enlightenment
And yet . . . I have friends who have chosen The Way of meditation and self-discovery, and find that the pathway to self-knowledge and self-development is challenging – yes – but also exciting, necessary and very worthwhile.
I have other friends who say they cannot meditate – that their minds are too active with never-ending thoughts that refuse to cease. The mistake here is to assume that meditation is solely about calming and emptying the mind. Of course, in the long run, we want to achieve “peace of mind” and “relaxation”.
Surely, however, if we live our lives to the full, as creative and loving beings, adding value to our lives and the lives of others, we of necessity generate hundreds, possibly thousands, of thoughts, ideas, feelings and imaginings each and every day, each of which is worth taking note of, exploring, examining, etc. Who was it said the unexamined life is not worth living?
I need to say this to my friends who say they can't meditate - to be aware of and reflect on our unceasing and sometimes troublesome thoughts and feelings is in some sense to tame them, bring them to order, and perhaps neutralise and banish them. It's all positive. Knowing what we know, what we feel, and what we imagine, is surely worth knowing.
In time our processes of meditation – our mind, soul and spirit cleansing – can lead us to a realm where we can see and feel ourselves to be part of the universal flux, however strong or weak a force within it we may be, and at that point be filled with a state of contentment, peace, joyfulness and satori. Call it grace.
The gift of life is priceless. This morning I overheard my local shopkeeper telling his friend that money is no use to you when you're dead. We should be mindful of life – value it, treasure it, appreciate it, use it well, and enjoy it to the full.
We learn from our mistakes, to be sure, but we also learn from life itself, no matter how simple and uneventful it may be, and we may surely come to value simplicity and freedom from complexity.
What more do we need besides a place to live, food and drink, good friends, an appreciation of nature, and of life itself?
I need to return to the thoughts of the stoics and the epicureans, who also recognised the value of good food and wine, good conversation, laughter and music.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoicism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicureanism
-----------------------------------------------------------
Piano Blues
You've got to hand it to Clint Eastwood. The man knows his blues. All this week, at 23.15, Sky Arts has been showing the series of full-length feature films originally shown on BBC4 on The Blues: Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues. Earlier in the week the films directed by Mike Figgis and Wim Wenders were shown. Last night it was Clint's turn.
Clint sat at a piano with Ray Charles, encouraging him to talk about how he'd got started playing the blues piano. Ray rapped at length about Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson, Mead Lux Lewis, Nat King Cole, Joe Turner, Oscar Peterson, and Art Tatum, whom Ray clearly regards as a genius. And Ray should know.
“My God, man, when you just sit back and listen to Art, you, you, you just don't believe what you're hearing. His left hand was just a symphony on its own. And the closest to him I ever heard was Oscar Peterson.”
“Oscar can play, man. (whispering to Clint) Motherfucker can play his ass off.”
Clint, laughing, to camera, “Can we use motherfucker in this?”
Amazon are selling the Box Set for £33. Also the book, the CD and the DVD for £63.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Martin-Scorsese-Presents-Various-Artists/dp/B0000C6JTT
http://www.pbs.org/theblues/
Clint moved on to interviews with Dr John, Professor Longhair, and many others.
“Urban blues came together in Chicago in the 1950s, which is where the Delta blues were electrified,” said Clint. Shit – 1950. Not so long ago.
-------------------------------------------
Earlier in the evening a documentary on Mick Fleetwood had featured clips of BB King and John Lee Hooker – the absolute masters – who clearly rated Mick as high as it's possible to go as a master of the drum kit - as a keeper of time, as Len would say.
BB was also featured earlier in the week in the Scorsese series, and said this about the British guys who had embraced the blues in the early Sixties:
“They did more than anyone to popularise this 'Race Music' in the country of its origin.”
In that particular programme, directed by Mike Figgis, there were many excellent clips of interviews with the likes of Clapton, Eric Burdon, John Mayall, Van Morrison, Lulu, Tom Jones, Steve Winwood, Chris Farlowe (whom Otis Redding invited to sing with him on Ready Steady Go), Lonnie Donegan, Peter Green and Humphrey Littleton. These were the days of all-nighters at the 100 Club, The Flamingo and The Marquee.
BB also said, “These British guys (including the Beatles and the Stones) opened doors that I don't think would have been opened in my lifetime.”
.
Showing posts with label Epicurus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Epicurus. Show all posts
Friday, August 7, 2009
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Layer 39 The Consolations of Philosophy
.
Life In A Box
My cat lives in a box:
These days she never rocks
Or rolls on grassy knolls;
Though she’ll sometimes stroll
When the sun is shining
But soon starts pining
For life in her box.
These days I live in a box:
Protected by doorlocks,
Avoiding the pain,
All the slings, arrows and rocks,
The shocks and the wounds
Of outrageous fortune
Outside my box.
My cat and me:
We see things similarly,
We prefer lives of simplicity,
Predictability and pleasure - you see
Epicureans are we:
Happy and free
Enjoying lives in a box.
February 2008
Hamlet III 1
To be, or not to be:
That is the question -
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune . . .
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong . . . ?
Suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune is something I’ve thought a lot about these past 12months. Sooner or later I’ll make an effort to write something about them, and about the annus miserablis of 2007.
Epicurus
Alain de Botton’s “The Consolations of Philosophy” is a terrific book, and was made into an excellent TV series. And speaking of rocking and rolling, which I’m still very keen on, someone says on the back cover of TCOP, “No doubt about it, philosophy is the new rock and roll”. Really?
OK. Let’s rock.
The book begins with the death of Socrates, put to death by the citizens of Athens for failing to worship the gods, for introducing religious novelties, and for corrupting the young men of Athens. And to think that we reckon WE live in intolerant times.
He could have pleaded for his life and promised to change his ways, of course, but he calmly told the jury, “I shall never stop practising philosophy, and exhorting you, and elucidating the truth for everyone I meet.” And so he died for his beliefs and his principles. What a guy.
Now as it happens, I was born on a day that, according to a certain book I own, is The Day of Glaring Truth. This apparently means that people born on this day see themselves as representing a cause, and as such are idealists, no matter how negative the material they are revealing.
Little bit of self-revelation there. “They are not schooled or scholarly trained individuals but rather people who have learned through the hard lessons of experience. They can assume scholarly status through their own form of thorough study, and in their field they can come to be regarded as experts. It is usually difficult to disagree with their arguments since they are able to amass such an impressive body of knowledge to back up what they say.”
Their symbol is The Empress, who represents creative intelligence, and embodies mankind's dreams, hopes and aspirations. Strengths - curious and knowledgeable. Weaknesses - judgemental and accusatory.
Oh yes, j'accuse. I might change the name of my blog to The Glaring Truth.
However, I come to bury Socrates, not to praise him. What I’m interested in here is Epicureanism. And wisdom. Philo = love. Sophia = wisdom. And I'm interested in happiness. And the meaning of life.
Epicurus emphasised the importance of sensual pleasure. “Pleasure is the beginning and the goal of a happy life. I don’t know how I shall conceive of the good if I take away the pleasures of taste, if I take away sexual pleasure, if I take away the pleasure of hearing, if I take away the sweet emotions that are caused by the sight of beautiful forms.”
By ‘emotions’ I believe he was really talking about awe and wonder, and what Zen calls satori, and talking about how we can access metaphysical, spiritual, sublime revelation, and experience satori, by using all our senses.
In my view the use of our physical senses can transport us into metaphysical realms, and the greatest happiness and feelings of well-being can arise from ‘ordinary’ sensual experiences. Perhaps even looking contemplatively at a photograph, for example, let alone a great painting. Awe and wonder.
According to TCOP, at the heart of Epicureanism is the thought that most of us are as bad at intuitively answering the question “What will make me happy?” as “What will make me healthy?” It seems the task of philosophy, according to Epicurus, is to help us interpret our indistinct pulses of distress and desire and thereby save us from mistaken schemes for happiness.
Epicurus lived in a simple house a few miles from the centre of Athens, ate simple food, drank water rather than wine, and was happy with a dinner of bread, vegetables and a handful of olives. He had come to some striking conclusions, says TCOP, about what actually made life pleasurable. The essential ingredients may be elusive, but they’re not very expensive.
1. Friendship.
His house was essentially a commune, with common rooms for meals and conversations. Maybe he was the first commune-ist.
TCOP says the household of Epicurus resembled a large family, but without sullenness or sense of confinement, only sympathy and gentleness.
“In small comments, many of them teasing, our friends reveal they know our foibles and accept them, and so, in turn, accept we have a place in the world,” says de Botton.
“True friends do not evaluate us according to worldly criteria, it is the core self they are interested in; like ideal parents their love for us remains unaffected by our appearance or position in the social hierarchy, and so we have no qualms in dressing in old clothes or revealing we have made little money this year.”
A handful of true friends can deliver the love and respect that even a fortune may not.
2. Freedom
TCOP says “Epicurus and his friends made a second radical innovation. In order not to have to work for people they didn’t like, and answer to potentially humiliating whims, they removed themselves from employment in the commercial world of Athens. (‘We must free ourselves from the prison of everyday affairs and politics.’) They began what could best have been described as a commune, accepting a simpler way of life in exchange for independence. They would have less money but would never again have to follow the commands of odious superiors.”
They bought an allotment near their house, just outside the old Dipylon gate, and grew a range of vegetables. “Their diet was neither luxurious nor abundant, but it was flavoursome and nutritious,” says TCOP. Epicurus said, ‘The wise man chooses not the greatest quantity of food but the most pleasant.’
“Simplicity did not affect the friends’ sense of status because, by distancing themselves from the values of Athens, they had ceased to judge themselves on a material basis. There was no need to be embarrassed by bare walls, and no benefit in showing off gold. Among a group of friends living outside the political and economic centre of the city, there was - in the financial sense - nothing to prove.”
3. Thought
“There are few better remedies for anxiety than thought. In writing a problem down or airing it in conversation we let its essential aspects emerge. And by knowing its character, we remove, if not the problem itself, then its secondary, aggravating characteristics: confusion, displacement, surprise.”
De Botton says there was much encouragement to think in the Garden, as Epicurus’s community became known. Many of the friends were writers. “There must have been unbroken opportunities to examine problems with people as intelligent as they were sympathetic.”
They were especially concerned to analyse their anxieties about money, illness, death and the supernatural. The spiritual aspect of life seems to have been a key issue. Epicurus argued that there is nothing but oblivion after death, and that ‘what is no trouble when it arrives is an idle worry in anticipation’. It’s senseless to worry about a state one will never experience. “There is nothing dreadful in life for the man who has truly comprehended that there is nothing terrible in not living.”
Wealth in itself should not make people miserable. “But the crux of Epicurus’s argument is that if we have money without friends, without freedom and an analysed life, we will never be truly happy. And if we have them, but are missing the fortune, we will never be unhappy.”
---------------------------------------------------------------
Social injustice and economic turmoil may deny us prosperity, but this may be foregone without great regrets if we have the things that are essential for happiness.
Epicurus divided our needs into three categories.
a ) Natural and Necessary.
Friends . . . Freedom . . . Thought
Food . . . Shelter . . . Clothes
b) Natural but Unnecessary
Grand house . . . Private baths . . . Banquets
Servants . . . Meat . . . Fish
c) Neither Natural nor Necessary
Fame . . . Power
Happiness is thus dependent on some complex psychological goods, but relatively independent of material ones. These ideas are provocative for those who equate happiness with the fruition of grand financial schemes, and misery with a modest income.
“Money’s capacity to deliver happiness is already present in small salaries and will not rise with the largest. We will not cease being happy with a greater outlay, but we will not, Epicurus insisted, surpass levels of happiness already available to those on a limited income.”
To illustrate this point de Botton suggests we look at the need, or otherwise, of renting an expensive villa for holidays. It’s possible to spend money on a villa and still not be happy, especially if we feel isolated and friendless. Whereas we can be happy in a tent if we’re with someone we love and feel appreciated by.
True needs may seem very different from confused initial desires. “The possession of the greatest riches does not resolve the agitation of the soul nor give birth to remarkable joy.”
De Botton says, “Objects mimic in a material dimension what we require in a psychological one”.
He also says, “Our weak understanding of our needs is aggravated by what Epicurus termed the ‘idle opinions’ of those around us, which do not reflect the natural hierarchy of our needs, emphasising luxury and riches, seldom friendship, freedom and thought. It is in the interests of commercial enterprises to skew the hierarchy of our needs, to promote a material vision of the good and downplay an unsaleable one. And the way we’re enticed is through the sly association of superfluous objects with our other, forgotten needs.”
A jeep instead of freedom. A house instead of friendship. A swimming pool instead of thought and conversation.
De Botton points out that we receive little encouragement to attend to modest gratifications - playing with a child, conversations with a friend, an afternoon in the sun, cheese on fresh bread.
Lucretius wrote verse extolling the virtues of simplicity and inexpensive things.
“People may recline in company on soft grass by a running stream under the branches of a tall tree and refresh their bodies pleasurably at small expense. Better still if the weather smiles on them, and the season of the year stipples the green grass with flowers.”
In sum, we need a home (“a hut”); friends; to avoid superiors, patronisation, infighting and competition; we need time to think and mediatate and enjoy conversations; basic clothing; a sense of humour and spontaneity.
All of these are seen as requirements for Zen living as well.
De Botton concludes: “Happiness may be difficult to attain. The obstacles are not primarily financial.”
How come I never heard about Epicurus, let alone Zen, when I was in secondary school? And how come these philosophies are not required study in the National Curriculum?
The Consolations of Philosophy. Penguin 2001.
http://www.alaindebotton.com/philosophy.asp
--------------------------------------------------------------
The full Shakespeare text:
Hamlet III, 1
To be, or not to be:
That is the question -
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?
To die: to sleep;
No more: and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd.
To die, to sleep;
To sleep; perchance to dream; ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil;
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life,
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong . . . ?
Life In A Box
My cat lives in a box:
These days she never rocks
Or rolls on grassy knolls;
Though she’ll sometimes stroll
When the sun is shining
But soon starts pining
For life in her box.
These days I live in a box:
Protected by doorlocks,
Avoiding the pain,
All the slings, arrows and rocks,
The shocks and the wounds
Of outrageous fortune
Outside my box.
My cat and me:
We see things similarly,
We prefer lives of simplicity,
Predictability and pleasure - you see
Epicureans are we:
Happy and free
Enjoying lives in a box.
February 2008
Hamlet III 1
To be, or not to be:
That is the question -
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune . . .
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong . . . ?
Suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune is something I’ve thought a lot about these past 12months. Sooner or later I’ll make an effort to write something about them, and about the annus miserablis of 2007.
Epicurus
Alain de Botton’s “The Consolations of Philosophy” is a terrific book, and was made into an excellent TV series. And speaking of rocking and rolling, which I’m still very keen on, someone says on the back cover of TCOP, “No doubt about it, philosophy is the new rock and roll”. Really?
OK. Let’s rock.
The book begins with the death of Socrates, put to death by the citizens of Athens for failing to worship the gods, for introducing religious novelties, and for corrupting the young men of Athens. And to think that we reckon WE live in intolerant times.
He could have pleaded for his life and promised to change his ways, of course, but he calmly told the jury, “I shall never stop practising philosophy, and exhorting you, and elucidating the truth for everyone I meet.” And so he died for his beliefs and his principles. What a guy.
Now as it happens, I was born on a day that, according to a certain book I own, is The Day of Glaring Truth. This apparently means that people born on this day see themselves as representing a cause, and as such are idealists, no matter how negative the material they are revealing.
Little bit of self-revelation there. “They are not schooled or scholarly trained individuals but rather people who have learned through the hard lessons of experience. They can assume scholarly status through their own form of thorough study, and in their field they can come to be regarded as experts. It is usually difficult to disagree with their arguments since they are able to amass such an impressive body of knowledge to back up what they say.”
Their symbol is The Empress, who represents creative intelligence, and embodies mankind's dreams, hopes and aspirations. Strengths - curious and knowledgeable. Weaknesses - judgemental and accusatory.
Oh yes, j'accuse. I might change the name of my blog to The Glaring Truth.
However, I come to bury Socrates, not to praise him. What I’m interested in here is Epicureanism. And wisdom. Philo = love. Sophia = wisdom. And I'm interested in happiness. And the meaning of life.
Epicurus emphasised the importance of sensual pleasure. “Pleasure is the beginning and the goal of a happy life. I don’t know how I shall conceive of the good if I take away the pleasures of taste, if I take away sexual pleasure, if I take away the pleasure of hearing, if I take away the sweet emotions that are caused by the sight of beautiful forms.”
By ‘emotions’ I believe he was really talking about awe and wonder, and what Zen calls satori, and talking about how we can access metaphysical, spiritual, sublime revelation, and experience satori, by using all our senses.
In my view the use of our physical senses can transport us into metaphysical realms, and the greatest happiness and feelings of well-being can arise from ‘ordinary’ sensual experiences. Perhaps even looking contemplatively at a photograph, for example, let alone a great painting. Awe and wonder.
According to TCOP, at the heart of Epicureanism is the thought that most of us are as bad at intuitively answering the question “What will make me happy?” as “What will make me healthy?” It seems the task of philosophy, according to Epicurus, is to help us interpret our indistinct pulses of distress and desire and thereby save us from mistaken schemes for happiness.
Epicurus lived in a simple house a few miles from the centre of Athens, ate simple food, drank water rather than wine, and was happy with a dinner of bread, vegetables and a handful of olives. He had come to some striking conclusions, says TCOP, about what actually made life pleasurable. The essential ingredients may be elusive, but they’re not very expensive.
1. Friendship.
His house was essentially a commune, with common rooms for meals and conversations. Maybe he was the first commune-ist.
TCOP says the household of Epicurus resembled a large family, but without sullenness or sense of confinement, only sympathy and gentleness.
“In small comments, many of them teasing, our friends reveal they know our foibles and accept them, and so, in turn, accept we have a place in the world,” says de Botton.
“True friends do not evaluate us according to worldly criteria, it is the core self they are interested in; like ideal parents their love for us remains unaffected by our appearance or position in the social hierarchy, and so we have no qualms in dressing in old clothes or revealing we have made little money this year.”
A handful of true friends can deliver the love and respect that even a fortune may not.
2. Freedom
TCOP says “Epicurus and his friends made a second radical innovation. In order not to have to work for people they didn’t like, and answer to potentially humiliating whims, they removed themselves from employment in the commercial world of Athens. (‘We must free ourselves from the prison of everyday affairs and politics.’) They began what could best have been described as a commune, accepting a simpler way of life in exchange for independence. They would have less money but would never again have to follow the commands of odious superiors.”
They bought an allotment near their house, just outside the old Dipylon gate, and grew a range of vegetables. “Their diet was neither luxurious nor abundant, but it was flavoursome and nutritious,” says TCOP. Epicurus said, ‘The wise man chooses not the greatest quantity of food but the most pleasant.’
“Simplicity did not affect the friends’ sense of status because, by distancing themselves from the values of Athens, they had ceased to judge themselves on a material basis. There was no need to be embarrassed by bare walls, and no benefit in showing off gold. Among a group of friends living outside the political and economic centre of the city, there was - in the financial sense - nothing to prove.”
3. Thought
“There are few better remedies for anxiety than thought. In writing a problem down or airing it in conversation we let its essential aspects emerge. And by knowing its character, we remove, if not the problem itself, then its secondary, aggravating characteristics: confusion, displacement, surprise.”
De Botton says there was much encouragement to think in the Garden, as Epicurus’s community became known. Many of the friends were writers. “There must have been unbroken opportunities to examine problems with people as intelligent as they were sympathetic.”
They were especially concerned to analyse their anxieties about money, illness, death and the supernatural. The spiritual aspect of life seems to have been a key issue. Epicurus argued that there is nothing but oblivion after death, and that ‘what is no trouble when it arrives is an idle worry in anticipation’. It’s senseless to worry about a state one will never experience. “There is nothing dreadful in life for the man who has truly comprehended that there is nothing terrible in not living.”
Wealth in itself should not make people miserable. “But the crux of Epicurus’s argument is that if we have money without friends, without freedom and an analysed life, we will never be truly happy. And if we have them, but are missing the fortune, we will never be unhappy.”
---------------------------------------------------------------
Social injustice and economic turmoil may deny us prosperity, but this may be foregone without great regrets if we have the things that are essential for happiness.
Epicurus divided our needs into three categories.
a ) Natural and Necessary.
Friends . . . Freedom . . . Thought
Food . . . Shelter . . . Clothes
b) Natural but Unnecessary
Grand house . . . Private baths . . . Banquets
Servants . . . Meat . . . Fish
c) Neither Natural nor Necessary
Fame . . . Power
Happiness is thus dependent on some complex psychological goods, but relatively independent of material ones. These ideas are provocative for those who equate happiness with the fruition of grand financial schemes, and misery with a modest income.
“Money’s capacity to deliver happiness is already present in small salaries and will not rise with the largest. We will not cease being happy with a greater outlay, but we will not, Epicurus insisted, surpass levels of happiness already available to those on a limited income.”
To illustrate this point de Botton suggests we look at the need, or otherwise, of renting an expensive villa for holidays. It’s possible to spend money on a villa and still not be happy, especially if we feel isolated and friendless. Whereas we can be happy in a tent if we’re with someone we love and feel appreciated by.
True needs may seem very different from confused initial desires. “The possession of the greatest riches does not resolve the agitation of the soul nor give birth to remarkable joy.”
De Botton says, “Objects mimic in a material dimension what we require in a psychological one”.
He also says, “Our weak understanding of our needs is aggravated by what Epicurus termed the ‘idle opinions’ of those around us, which do not reflect the natural hierarchy of our needs, emphasising luxury and riches, seldom friendship, freedom and thought. It is in the interests of commercial enterprises to skew the hierarchy of our needs, to promote a material vision of the good and downplay an unsaleable one. And the way we’re enticed is through the sly association of superfluous objects with our other, forgotten needs.”
A jeep instead of freedom. A house instead of friendship. A swimming pool instead of thought and conversation.
De Botton points out that we receive little encouragement to attend to modest gratifications - playing with a child, conversations with a friend, an afternoon in the sun, cheese on fresh bread.
Lucretius wrote verse extolling the virtues of simplicity and inexpensive things.
“People may recline in company on soft grass by a running stream under the branches of a tall tree and refresh their bodies pleasurably at small expense. Better still if the weather smiles on them, and the season of the year stipples the green grass with flowers.”
In sum, we need a home (“a hut”); friends; to avoid superiors, patronisation, infighting and competition; we need time to think and mediatate and enjoy conversations; basic clothing; a sense of humour and spontaneity.
All of these are seen as requirements for Zen living as well.
De Botton concludes: “Happiness may be difficult to attain. The obstacles are not primarily financial.”
How come I never heard about Epicurus, let alone Zen, when I was in secondary school? And how come these philosophies are not required study in the National Curriculum?
The Consolations of Philosophy. Penguin 2001.
http://www.alaindebotton.com/philosophy.asp
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The full Shakespeare text:
Hamlet III, 1
To be, or not to be:
That is the question -
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?
To die: to sleep;
No more: and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd.
To die, to sleep;
To sleep; perchance to dream; ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil;
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life,
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong . . . ?
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