A Different Way to Achieve Happiness
Many of us go to school, and we learn what everyone else does, or what the province wants us to learn. But have you ever heard of a school called “School for Happiness”? Probably not. But the crazy thing — it existed, and a man named Epicurus was behind it.
He called it the “Garden”, a place where he and his students would come together to find a way to achieving the most pleasant life possible.
Epicurus was an ancient Greek philosopher, who believed that “Pleasure is the principle and end to a happy life.” What made him famous was that he focused on the subject: happiness.
Ataraxia 💡
While other philosophers wanted to know how to be good and moral, Epicurus focused on how to be happy. His idea of happiness was not something a lot of people agreed with. For Epicurus, the most pleasant life came from where we abstain from unnecessary desires and achieve a sense of inner peace — ataraxia.
This could be achieved by:
- Being content with the simple things
- Choosing the pleasure of philosophical and deep conversation with friends instead of physical pleasures like food.
Main Teachings 🧠
Being unhappy
Epicurus believed that there are self-imposed beliefs that we have that make our lives unhappy or full of pain:
- Belief that we will be punished by the gods for our bad actions
- Death is something to be feared.
To him, both these beliefs produce fear and anxiety and he felt they were unnecessary since we don’t if they are actually true.
“Death is nothing to us.”
One of Epicurus’ most important goals was to free people from fearing death, by helping them to seek both happiness AND fulfillment.
For him, you stop existing when you choose to fear death. The Epicureans believed in the maxim “Death is nothing to us.” There were four fundamental truths in Epicureanism:
- There are no divine beings that can threaten us.
- There is no afterlife.
- What we actually need is easy to obtain.
- What makes us suffer is easy to endure.
On Desires
“He who is not satisfied with a little is satisfied with nothing.”
The Epicureans claimed that all the desires we have are all derived from three main sources, the ones that are essential for life:
- Food and shelter
- Natural desires that one can’t live without, like the ones that cause jealousy or make you feel bored.
- Narcissistic desires like wealth and fame.
Necessary vs Unnecessary Desires
Epicurus often highlighted the difference between necessary and unnecessary desires.
Necessary desires: those that are necessary for us to feel happy (etc.pain)
Unnecessary desires: those that we want but don’t need to be happy (etc. a new phone)
Pain ➡️ pleasure ➡️ pain
In this, he introduces the pain-pleasure-pain cycle.
When we are in pain we feel the need to seek pleasure → which then produces more pain → cycle repeats
To avoid this, we need to have a mindset where there is no pain. This is the fundamental focus of Epicurus, to attain a neutral state of no pain.
Conclusion
Now, this all sounds cool, but it also seems kind of unreachable — how do we know this will actually work?
Well, Epicurus claimed that in his last days, he lived in pleasure.
I have written this letter to you on a happy day for me, which is also the last day of my life. I have been attacked by a painful inability to urinate, and also dysentery, so violent that nothing can be added to the violence of my sufferings. But the cheerfulness of my mind, which comes from the recollection of all my philosophical contemplation, counterbalances all these afflictions. And I beg you to take care of the children of Metrodorus, in a manner worthy of the devotion shown by the young man to me, and to philosophy.
⭐ He highlighted an important hack here to avoid pain and achieve that neutral state — instead of dwelling in pain, choose to recollect a moment in the past where you were happy.
Many researchers have had different theories on how to become happy. But Epicurus although he had the same goal, his path was different.
🔑 ACTION ITEM: Every time you are feeling unhappy, instead of dwelling on the pain and your feelings, think of a moment where you felt happy. And as a bonus, this will also make you so much more grateful, and gratitude, in general, has proven to make people happier.
Questions? Send me an email: rnavya2012@gmail.com
You can also follow me on LinkedIn to see what I’m up to or sign up for my monthly newsletter to get updates from me:
