Philosophysm Daily - Zeno of Citium

Ever wanted to just say 'fuck it' and go with the flow? This guy did - his name is Zeno, and he's today's philosopher.

Zeno of Citium was around shortly after Aristotle's death (+/- 300 BCE), and as a result was surrounded by theories of Ethics. He managed to create his own understanding around the subject - developing what we today call Stoicism, which is pretty much what every typical stoner inadvertently falls into!

The idea of Stoicism revolves around Zeno's beliefs of an overriding natural law that superseded mankind's will and dogma. According to Zeno, life followed a certain flow, one which we have no power over - if a meteor happens to crash into earth one day, for example, then it has nothing to do with us or our beliefs, it is simply the natural process of the universe.

However, one should not allow this idea to make life meaningless, in fact it should do the very opposite. See, although Zeno wrote of this inert powerlessness of man to control the flow of nature, he countered this by acknowledging man's free will within the flow. Zeno encouraged living alongside nature, in complete acceptance of it, enjoying the good times, and respecting the bad times - understanding that the universe is unraveling in-spite of man's actions.

Zeno was convinced that by achieving this kind of passive acceptance of things, that mankind would then live in harmony with the universe.

In today's society, there's so much emphasis on self-creation, the 'power of attraction' this and 'positive visualization' that - but what happens when things don't work out the way we want? What happens when after visualizing, meditating, and willing the universe to work out for you, you lose your job, your dog gets run over, and you find out that you have testicular cancer? (God Forbid)

As much as we want to believe that we can control the way the universe unfolds, the truth is, shit happens. Zeno knew this, and his writings hold an important message in regards to it - As much as we may wish for good in all of our lives, we cannot control everything, and the universe unfolds in ways beyond our understanding - so at the very least, accept it for all it may be - good or bad- and live through it as best you can.

Thank you for reading, I hope you learnt as much as I did from Zeno of Citium. If you enjoyed the article, please give it a like, and comment if you have any thoughts! I'm always open to your ideas.

Till next time... Stay woke!

Images:
https://howtobeastoic.files.wordpress.com
https://historicalder.wikispaces.com