Mastering The Stoic Way Of Life

I recently watched the movie Gladiator with Russell Crowe. I had seen it before and enjoyed it, but on this occasion the philosophy it engendered began to resonate with me. I found a youtube video called Like Stories of Old that did an analysis of the stoicism in the movie. At that point I decided I wanted to study stoicism furtherMastering the Stoic way of Life by Andreas Athanas turned out to be the perfect book for me. It is extremely well written and well put together. It begins with the history of stoic thought, from the originators such as Zeno, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius to more modern Stoic thinkers. It has practical advice on how to implement the stoic philosophy into your life and, I believe, can be used by anyone to help achieve happiness, by not rejecting the bad that happens. My favorite quote was, ‘An individual must seek to understand that things which cannot be changed must not suffer the attempt. Rather than wasting energy on a fruitless project, the stoic is more content to work on accepting the adversity for what it is.’I am going to let it marinate on my brain for a while and read it again in about thirty days. I’m betting I’ll see even more on the second go-around.Highly recommended to anyone wanting to learn about the philosophy and way of life of stoicism.

I enjoyed reading a book on a deep topic that is not produced to be a ‘fast food’ version, or a ‘three easy steps’ to mastery-kind of book. -Because stoicism is not an easy way of life! It takes discipline, commitment and practice to gain peace in mind, body and spirit. It takes intellectual understanding, work on the emotions, and physical practice over time. The case for the Stoic way of life is clearly argued in Athana’s well researched book, -outlining the benefits of cultivating something as old-fashioned sounding as virtues. To cultivate impulse control and moderation in a chaotic world that profits from our lack of exactly those virtues, takes effort, courage and dedication. But the effort invested is well worth it. It is an act of meaning making, or as the author puts it, ‘an approach to making sense of the insensible.’I very much recommend this book!

Although having some misconceptions and errors in this book, it offers explanations and tools for living your life as mastering the Stoic way of life, because Stoicism-like all other philosophies of life-is art of living.

Great book but needs to be edited. I noticed run on and incomplete sentences. It appears like it was translated. I learned a great deal about implementing Stoicism into my life. I intend to read it again.

More history than advice

Deriving Stoicism from Cynicism alone is an inaccuracy since Zeno studied at the Academy of Plato. Later Stoics wanted to call themselves Socratics since he was the epitome of a wise man.

A must read if you’re reading or learning the bible

The book has a lot of good information and should be read by Stoics or people wanting to learn at least a little of what Stoicism can do for them. There are some typos but you can work around them. The only factual problem I had was with the assertion that Marcus Aurelius persecuted Christians which is stated as fact and yet does not have a source. I’ve researched this slightly and have found no verifiable proof this is correct and worry when such assertions are made that Christians looking into stoicism or those with other religious beliefs, would then dismiss the philosophy without giving it a fair shot. I’m of the camp that much of Stoicism can be of benefit to all religions and denominations just as many of the Buddhist teachings can be, without the need to wholly adopt the spiritual aspects of the doctrine.The author’s understanding that Grit or Determination is not as a tenet of Stoicism but as a good byproduct of reason and rationality is profound and understated.In the end it is a good primer on Stoicism and luckily we have a lot of other great work out there on the subject.