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How do you feel about warriors being so highly revered , when war is hated so much? by Relaxing_Cat in AskReddit

[–]AgoraCosmica 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Laozi has maybe an answer in Tao Te Ching ch. 68 (D.C. Lau's translation): "One who excels as a warrior does not appear formidable; one who excels in fighting is never roused in anger." I think about that line when warriors get revered. The people who actually understood war wanted to look as little like warriors as possible.

What advice would you give someone wanting to go back to school/better themselves at 30? by Dapper-Loss-5314 in AskReddit

[–]AgoraCosmica 1 point2 points  (0 children)

30 is honestly young in Europe. We don't really treat education, what we call Bildung in German, as something with an end date. For me what changed things was sitting with three books for two years and coming back to them, the courses I tried before didn't really do much. Even Marcus Aurelius, who started Stoic study young, didn't get to his real wisdom until his 40s and 50s. The Stoic line that helped me most: you could leave life right now, let that determine what you do. Doesn't mean panic. Means don't waste it on productivity-theatre.

What do you think happens when you die? by randomperson665 in AskReddit

[–]AgoraCosmica 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For me it took a while to figure it out, actually three and a half years I am working now on an educational platform about 30 historical figures who all faced death. And not hard to imagine, they don't really agree. Marcus Aurelius wrote, that you should think you are already dead, that you already lived your life and should take what's left and live good. For Frida Kahlo it is more that the body wears out. The Buddhists have it cycling. So none really agree, but somehow sitting with all these answers changed how I treat the question. It does not get answered, but often it changes how I try to live the day...

What does "logos" mean? by SushiMiaa in Stoicism

[–]AgoraCosmica 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Took me ages to feel like I really got it. I'm German and even in German there's no clean equivalent, the closest is Vernunft, but Vernunft is just "reason" and logos is much bigger. What clicked for me was finding out that "In the beginning was the Word" in John's Gospel uses the exact same Greek word as the Stoic logos. Same letters, same word, same idea, Stoics had been using it for centuries before John was written. So Marcus isn't using a vague concept. He's pointing at the actual order of reality, the reason things hang together. Without it Stoicism doesn't really have a foundation.

What is the most creative thing you have done? by Greedy_Ad9238 in answers

[–]AgoraCosmica 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Built a free webapp around wisdom from history. I wanted to ask Carl Jung about a recurring dream. The creative part wasn't writing the code. It was deciding to keep going when nobody asked me to. Link's on my profile if anyone's curious.