​Why I Am Not a Stoic (And You Shouldn’t Be Either)​

Hey friend,

You've probably heard of Stoicism as a philosophy for living a good life. Part of it forms a framework for acting according to virtues and the benefit of the greater good. Another part focuses on strengthening the mind to endure adversity and the inevitable suffering of life.

While Stoicism offers an extraordinary moral compass, it falls short of recognising the human condition when it comes to dealing with undesirable emotions.

That is because Stoicism is a thought-based philosophy. The way it proposes to strengthen the Stoic's mind against adversity is by adopting more stories.

What's wrong with stories? For a while now in Edge of Insight, I've been arguing against a thought-based approach to life. I continue to stress that suffering is made of untamed stories running around in our heads.

The Stoic Marcus Aurelius said, "The nearer a man comes to a calm mind, the closer he is to strength."

Stoicism relies on building a story strong enough to override all other stories that cause suffering.

What I share here are my experiences in navigating the teachings of Eastern masters of the mind. What becomes obvious when following this path is that you cannot fight thought with thought.

You may find solace while you're temporarily lost in a positive and motivated mindset, but remaining in the realm of stories will make you susceptible to any thought that dawns on you.

The Eastern approach is different. It recognises that there's a non-thought-based way of living. In other words, by centring yourself in conscious presence rather than being lost in thought.

While the Stoic has to do all sorts of journaling and visualisation rituals essentially to convince themselves into a beneficial mindset, a person who isn't lost in thought can simply exit an unskillful mental state and go on about their day.

While the Stoic comes up with more stories to believe in being calm and strong, a person who lives before thought can just be that without thinking about it. Simple.

It's like finding yourself in a game where you have to fight, yet you can exit the game and choose not to play at all.

I cannot overstate the power of redefining your relationship with thought. You won't need any other philosophy to rely on.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this week’s letter. Send them to hi@chrisbasha.com and I'll address them in the next one.

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Thank you for reading and sharing,
Chris

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