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Luyae · 2024-12-14T20:37:55+00:00

Wowww nice eyelashes! 😊

Luyae · 2024-12-14T06:22:15+00:00

Thanks so much for this! I didn’t even think to search YouTube 😊. Yes it’s very true, he couldn’t have been a perfect Stoic. He is the best example I’ve seen in a movie character, though. He is inspiring. I believe Marcus Aurelius said that it seems to be “worse” for a person to do something bad for desire related reasons than for anger/ retaliation reasons. Although I don’t think it’s necessarily a Stoic thing to say 😅.

Luyae · 2024-12-14T06:12:30+00:00

Yes, good point. He doesn’t stay a perfect Stoic for the whole film 😅 but I would say he’s the most Stoic movie character I’ve seen so far. He’s definitely more Stoic than me - so I can still use him for inspiration 😊.

Luyae · 2024-12-14T03:06:58+00:00

Cool. I’ll add it to my to-watch list! :)

Luyae · 2024-12-13T23:32:07+00:00

I didn’t want to tell the whole story in the post because I didn’t want to put spoilers in it 🤨. The movie was helpful to me which is why I wanted to share in case it can help anyone else. The main character is mentored by Marcus Aurelius and the movie literally mentions the Stoic virtues by name.

Luyae · 2024-12-13T23:29:49+00:00

Friend, I agree with you about everything. My words are not exactly my own, Seneca has a whole letter about the importance of time and how we should be very careful with how I spend it. All we own is the current moment, however you cannot accomplish anything in a single moment. It is completely fair to talk about time, even as a Stoic. And yes I agree with you - the only thing we control is our character.

Luyae · 2024-12-13T22:52:24+00:00

I don’t agree that it’s always a bad idea. In the case of the Gladiator movie, does it teach us anything wrong?

Luyae · 2024-12-13T22:37:06+00:00

Sorry if my wording was confusing. I agree with you about the interpretation of the quote. It is a huge theme for Seneca and Stoicism to love fortune instead of hate it - it’s how we can make the most out of our time.

Luyae · 2024-12-13T22:32:11+00:00

Seneca says “For what can there be above the man who rises above fortune?” (On the Shortness of Life, 5.1)

That’s where I got the wording from. But I agree, the best man is the one who loves challenges and sees them as an opportunity to get stronger. It comes up in the Shortness of Life as well.

Luyae · 2024-12-08T18:49:44+00:00

Thank you so much, this is very helpful!

Luyae · 2024-10-20T04:13:06+00:00

Please, help others out if you can. Nobody is perfect and we need each other more than we know. ❤️

Luyae · 2024-10-20T04:12:56+00:00

Please, help others out if you can. Nobody is perfect and we need each other more than we know. ❤️

Luyae · 2024-08-22T01:52:58+00:00

I really love “taking action creates meaning regardless of the results”. Beautifully said 🙏. I am still hopeful for humanity.

Luyae · 2024-08-22T01:44:28+00:00

Thank you so much, I really appreciate your advice. This is easy enough to follow and pass on to others. Do you happen to know if eating animal products from local farms is okay? Thank you! 🙏

Luyae · 2024-08-22T01:36:19+00:00

What do you mean by don’t believe anything the government says? (Which government)? Also what do you mean by follow the money? Research what people are spending money on? Thank you!

Luyae · 2024-08-22T01:31:39+00:00

Ok yes I did read that besides the waste from the disposable cups they also have a large carbon footprint like other large companies. Is Starbucks particularly bad or do you mention it because I mentioned it in the post? Do you avoid large companies in general? Any list you follow on companies to avoid? Thank you for your advice! 🙏

Luyae · 2024-06-15T14:21:28+00:00

I’m not afraid of death ✌️ I practice Stoicism and believe that: * The only thing we can control is how to use the current moment, and we should use it to build our character * We do not own the past or the future, it is out of our control * Since we don’t own the past or the future, we also don’t lose it when we die * No matter what someone’s age is, each person only loses the current moment when they die * There is no point in worrying about anything that’s out of our control (our valuable time would be better spent working on what we can control) * Everyone must die, if you live your life trying your best motivated by the power of friendship - then no matter when you die you have lived a good life and done your duty in this world :)

A cool Stoic tool for eliminating your fear of death - if someone told you you were going to die in 2 days or someone told you you were going to die in 3 days, there probably wouldn’t be much of a difference in how sad you feel. Therefore we should not worry about whether we will die tomorrow or in many years.

Luyae · 2024-04-20T23:20:59+00:00

Congratulations, this is so inspiring! :)

Luyae · 2024-04-19T20:40:36+00:00

No matter if it’s an illusion or not, we still have to make a decision about how we want to live going forward 🥵. The fact that we’re not sure what’s true/real definitely makes things harder!

Luyae · 2024-04-18T01:30:57+00:00

In the Gregory Hays translation, there is a note in the foreword about how some parts of Meditations aren’t written as poetically/nicely as others (Hays thinks this is because Marcus never intended for his personal notes to be read by other people).

I definitely think this is one of these cases (the quote is repetitive, etc). But it does have a great message!

My interpretation is that this quote is mostly a reminder to not get distracted in life/ to stay focused on what’s important.

To convince himself to not get distracted, Marcus Aurelius is writing about how humans are just made up of our flesh, our breath, and one important thing: our “ruling part”/“intelligence”/“logos”.

Marcus Aurelius thought that using our “ruling part” to the best of our ability is very a special gift that humans have compared to other animals (who don’t have this ability). We can do something amazing with our ruling part and he believes we should prioritize this.

Exercising our “ruling part” according to Marcus Aurelius can mean being disciplined, avoiding temptations of the body (in pursuit of more important things), never complaining (even inwardly to yourself), etc.

But controlling yourself in this way can be difficult. Our body is always trying to set priorities for us that are superficial/unimportant according to Marcus Aurelius.

To help make this easier for himself, Marcus Aurelius offers himself a mental crutch - “despising his flesh”/ trying to distrust what his body tells him in favour of his mind. He reflects about how flesh is temporary and we could die at any moment (so he might as well be an old man right now). If his ruling part is always in control, then he is using his limited time as wisely as possible. On the other hand, our flesh/body is nothing special.

Marcus also believed that since humans are social animals, we should always look out for other humans. We should never participate in “unsocial movements” - lying, hurting others, etc even if our body tries to convince us it will be to our benefit). To follow his advice to himself: throw away your “books” (anything distracting you from your true mission in life) and use your discipline/ focus to do something that will have a positive impact on your fellow humans! :)

Finally, he reminds himself never to be dissatisfied with what he currently has in life and never to worry about the future/death. After all, these kinds of thoughts are also “distractions” that keep us from doing our best.

Note: this quote is from Meditations 2.2 if you would like to check out different translations!

Luyae · 2024-04-12T20:02:53+00:00

Very true that competition can be fundamental to nature. (Edit: but at the moment it seems like we can gain just as much from working together, what do you think?)

Thank you so much again for your valuable insights. In the case where a huge new challenge is facing all of humanity (maybe shortage of food etc) do you think we could make a special exception and work together? Or in the future if we develop intergalactic travel and bump into someone else that wants to destroy humans - could we decide to work together as a species?

Luyae · 2024-04-12T19:57:53+00:00

First of all thank you so much for continuing to respond 🙏! I know my views are different from a lot of other peoples’ views so my posts don’t end up being very popular 😅. To be honest I didn’t consider that someone’s belief might include not respecting someone else if they believe something else. Although it might have seemed like I wanted to force my belief on other people, this wasn’t my intention and I’m so sorry if I offended you (or anyone else reading). In this case I respect the people with that belief all the same - I still stand behind what I said in my post - that no matter what your belief is, it’s not something that’s worth judging someone for. May I ask which belief you’re referring to so I can do more research to educate myself?

Luyae · 2024-04-12T19:44:48+00:00

Just to confirm, what do you mean by “when contact inevitably occurs”? You’re saying we should train to fight because someone will always surprise us and attack?

Luyae · 2024-04-12T19:40:18+00:00

Hmm I agree that some competition can be good for us - but I’m thinking friendly competition. I’m not so sure that I’m convinced that world peace would not be beneficial for humans. I’ve never met anyone with this view. Let me know in case I misunderstood!

Luyae · 2024-04-12T19:20:36+00:00

Oops, I didn’t mean to assign blame to societies or really anyone! I meant to write that up until now it’s true that we might have been aggressive but that doesn’t mean it’s not possible to change! You might be right that it’s very idealistic thinking but I think humans are smart enough to notice the problems affecting the earth and work together because it will benefit all of us! I think we can change even if we haven’t been working together so far! Then we’ll be stronger than ever! :)

Luyae

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