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Healing with philosophy
The book talks about the role of philosophy in our lives to live a simple life with which we can face the harshest circumstances of life.
What is the simple life?
After the writer recalled everything said by the philosophers of the art of living (Jalaluddin Rumi, Plato, Spinoza...etc.)
He concluded that the characteristics of a simple life are based on five components:
1- A life I live with as little misery and pain as possible
2-A life in which I am reconciled with my own destiny
3-A life in which I am myself
4-A life in which I extend my authority over myself
5-A life where I make fun with the least things
The first question: Does philosophical thinking have a role in building contemporary civilization?
Philosophy has a major role in our lives, as it is what makes us think through concepts and not just language. What will the state of the human mind be like today if there is nothing that improves its ability to coexist with misery and human violence?
All people philosophize, but to continue philosophizing is something that requires exceptional effort and a mind that is not committed to sanctifying certainties.
What if the tragedy did not exist?The theory founded by Rousseau influenced the concept of the social contract and Voltaire’s message of tolerance, which still influences our current generation (post-modernism).
Would we think and act as we do now? Until the architect began to draw inspiration for his theoretical entity from Jacques Derrida's deconstruction. When we defend philosophy, we defend ways to improve living and thinking.
Philosophical Sufism aims to change the relationship between man and God to become a relationship based on love and not on fear and dread.
The second question: Are you sorry?Have we accustomed philosophy to facing the difficulties of daily life?
Of course, because philosophy helps us change the way we think about the difficulties we face in our lives, such as failure and illness.
It also helps us to rethink our thinking pattern, so why do we get angry when someone insults us?
Philosophy helps us improve our ability to live because of its role in changing our outlook on life.
But there are three objections that may affect our view of philosophers?
1- Many philosophers did not care to answer the question: How do we live? On the contrary, the majority of philosophers, from Plato to Hegel, were interested in politics and logic and neglected the body in favor of the mind.
2- Even the philosophers of the art of living themselves (Seneca, Rousseau) did not live a good life.
3-There are many wise men They learned the art of living without having to learn philosophy (Buddha).
Let us discuss the writer's responses to all these objections
1- Response to the first objection: The goal of philosophy is to develop the ability to live when facing the most severe difficulties, and all the concepts that philosophy issued in politics and logic are what made us understand the world.
2- Response to the second objection: Philosophers are the ones who tasted the bitter taste of life in order to teach us how to live it, and when a person falls into the most harsh circumstances, he is more willing to live.
3-Reply to the third objection: Buddha and other sages were liberated by changing their thinking towards bad emotions and primitive instincts, and they became aware of themselves.
We all suffer from problems in our lives, such as divorce and failure, and the role of philosophy here is to change the way we think about these issues. There is nothing miserable except what you consider it to be (the consolation of philosophy). When you face the harshest circumstances, and you are about to fall, keep your calm, for at this moment your destiny may change (fate is not fixed) by now looking at (his thoughts). Dostoyevsky was about to be executed, and his fate was changed by being exiled to Siberia in order to present to us his philosophical novels, which kept him alive among us.
The third question: What is the therapeutic function of philosophy?
The function of philosophy is to treat the soul, and the function of the philosopher is to diagnose the ills of civilization, to search for cures for everything related to civilization, from language to politics.
Let us now go back to the Greek era and talk about a person called Epictetus, who was a philosopher and a slave at the same time. He was subjected to severe torture by his master, who was greatly disturbed by Epictetus's ability to bear pain, so his master decided to place his leg as a torture instrument in order for him to hear his screams. However, he did not scream, so his master was astonished, so he freed him and he became free, but he became disabled. After that, he established a school and became a philosopher from whom we learn many lessons. Epictetus was a slave in the outside world (prisoner, paralytic, etc.)
But he was free in his inner world (his thoughts, imagination, dreams...etc.), a world subject only to him and no one could control him.
The secret of our misery that we suffer from may be due to our ideal expectations regarding our external world. What happens in the external world is outside our control, so we must follow its rules.
What happens in our inner world is what we can control and do what we want, and when we surrender our inner world to the expectations of others, we lose our worlds.
What Seneca tells us is that the source of our anger is our belief. That others should behave according to our expectations.
(The Consolation of Philosophy): ((Whoever wants to have true authority, let him first extend his authority over himself)).
The problems we suffer Of the past and the future, it is the problem of how to think about the past and the future.
Wondering Third: Why? NashAre you bored?
The reason for this is simpleThis is that boredom is inherent in anything that involves repetition, and in order to expel boredom from our lives, we must change the things that happen in our lives.
Boredom is not a bad thing in itself.It may be a motivation for human vitality, as things may not get worse, but our thoughts about things get worse.
We always try to escape boredom by having fun and wasting time in front of the TV or in the café instead of innovating to explore new possibilities, discover what others have not discovered, and penetrate the farthest regions of the unknown.
To be free from boredom, we must surprise ourselves and others in the simplest ways and with the fewest words, because surprises mean the unexpected in our lives, and they are what will free us from boredom and make us taste happiness, even if only for a moment. Surprises do not come to us when we hold our phones for hours in front of social media programs while lying in bed, but rather we create them with our vitality in conquering life and increasing our knowledge.
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