To Seneca and to his fellow adherents of Stoic Philosophy, if a person could develop peace within themselves - if they could achieve apatheia, as they called it - then the whole world could be at war, and they could still think well, work well, and be well.
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The Buddist word for it was upekka. The Muslims spoke of aslama. The Hebrews, histavat. The second book of Bhagavad Gita, the epic poem of the warrior Arjuna, speaks of samatvam, an "evenness of mind - a peace that is ever the same." The Greeks, euthymia and hesyehia. The Epicureans, ataraxia. The Christians, aequaminitas.
In English: stillness.
To be steady while the world spins around you. To act without frenzy. To hear only what needs to be heard. To possess quietude - exterior and interior - on command.
Buddism. Stoicism. Epicureanism. Christianity.Hinduism. It's all but impossible to find a philosophical school or religion that does not venerate this inner peace - this stillness - as the highest good and as the key to elite performance and a happy life.
And when basically all the wisdom of the ancient world agrees on something, only a fool would decline to listen.
- Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key
[---]
The Buddist word for it was upekka. The Muslims spoke of aslama. The Hebrews, histavat. The second book of Bhagavad Gita, the epic poem of the warrior Arjuna, speaks of samatvam, an "evenness of mind - a peace that is ever the same." The Greeks, euthymia and hesyehia. The Epicureans, ataraxia. The Christians, aequaminitas.
In English: stillness.
To be steady while the world spins around you. To act without frenzy. To hear only what needs to be heard. To possess quietude - exterior and interior - on command.
Buddism. Stoicism. Epicureanism. Christianity.Hinduism. It's all but impossible to find a philosophical school or religion that does not venerate this inner peace - this stillness - as the highest good and as the key to elite performance and a happy life.
And when basically all the wisdom of the ancient world agrees on something, only a fool would decline to listen.
- Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key
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