Stoicism is “an ancient Greek school of philosophy founded at Athens by Zeno of Citium. The school taught that virtue, the highest good, is based on knowledge; the wise live in harmony with the divine Reason (also identified with Fate and Providence) that governs nature, and are indifferent to the vicissitudes of fortune and to pleasure and pain.” According to the Oxford Dictionaries.

Stoicism regards the universe as a beautiful, orderly and rational whole. Human is a part of the universe, a little spark. Stoic believe that everyone is a small part of the universe. Every individual is a small “microcosmos” and it is an epitome of the “macrocosmos”. I think that is very interesting angle of looking at the relationship between us and the cosmos, and it is also very romantic and poetic. 

The stoicism in ancient times was a monist and a materialist, which means that they thought that all existing things were made up of one substance. Of course, their precise definition of this “thing” is not correct. Stoicism believes that the basic component of the universe is something they call “vitality”. It has four forms: cohesion, which unifies a physical object; nature, which makes all things become vibrant and alive; soul, which gives animal perception and movement; reason, which gives reason and rationality to human beings. For example, rocks have cohesion, but none of the other three. Plants are both cohesion and nature, but they don’t have soul or reason. Animals have the first three, but not including reason. Human has all four. This is all reality but the existence of things has different forms. 

Stoic emphasizes obedience to the fate, to be comfortable in their position in society, to be indifferent, so that only in this way can we reach happiness. “Throughout each identical phase, every event is predetermined, governed by fate and entirely for the good”. I strongly agree with this theory because I always believed that there is an ultimate law of nature or fate, and with everything being predetermined we just have to live with the flow. Indifference to all events no matter is it good or evil. In addition to the Stoic’s view, I also believe that fate will always take the middle way, and I think I am influenced by Daoism. “The divine plan will work itself out no matter what, and there’s nothing anyone can do about that, but what one can do is react to events in the right way, which is to say harmoniously, virtuously, in tune with the flow of things.” 

Stoic also believes that the conventional goods such as health, wealth, fame and social standing are good depending on situations, but only virtue is good no matter what. The conventional goods are preferable – in Stoic terminology, “preferred indifference” – but whether and when we acquire them is not up to us but up to the divine plan. 

The author of the book Meditation – Marcus Aurelius, a stoic philosopher – also gave interesting explanations about life and death. Even if you want to live three thousand years, or ten times as much, remember: you can’t lose another life than what you are living now, and you can’t live another life than what you are losing. The present is the same for everyone and same as the lost; it should be clear that a short moment is everything that is lost. You cannot lose what you don’t have. And, everything is always the same and keep repeating, whether you see the same thing repeated in 100 years, 200 years, or indefinitely, there is no difference. the longest-lived and those who will die soonest lose the same things. 

We should not be afraid of death, rather, we should even welcome the arrival of death and live towards the death. Suppose that you are now dead, your life is over, and the remaining years will only be regarded as the continuation of your life, and you should live according to the way of nature. Every act, every word and every thought of yours should be like a person who would die at any time. Accept death, it is just like how you anticipate a child’s emergence from its mother’s womb; and that’s how you should await the hour when your soul emerges from its compartment.

Bibliography:

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/stoicism/

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Stoicism

Meditation by Marcus Aurelius