The Wisdom of Hypatia: Ancient Spiritual Practices for a More Meaningful Life (13 page)

My purpose is not to convince you that there is no afterlife; people much smarter

and wiser than me have believed and continue to believe in an afterlife or in reincarnation. However I do think our growing understanding of neuropsychology must inform

our views, for our mental lives are highly dependent on the brain. Evidence comes from developmental psychology, for the child’s mind changes as its brain changes, from mind-altering substances, which alter the chemical balance of the brain, and from brain injuries and degenerative diseases, which affect the mind. Also, diseases like Alzheimer’s show that memory degenerates along with the brain, and it would be astonishing if memory

were suddenly restored after death, when the brain is completely gone. Therefore, at least during life, the mind is highly dependent on the brain, and so it seems that if anything of 60 seeking tranquility in the garden

the mind survives the dissolution of the brain, it would have to be rather ephemeral and loosely connected to the living personality. Contemporary embodied psychology has also concluded that human intelligence cannot exist or be understood independently from a body purposefully acting in the physical world. Nevertheless, some have argued that the brain acts more as a
receiver
of the mind than as its
generator
, and so the mind could exist without the brain. In any case you have to use your own judgment and reach your own

conclusions. Even if your beliefs about death do not agree with the Epicureans’, thinking about their view may help alleviate any anxiety you have about it.

We may return to our imaginary discussion between Epicurus and his students.

Reclining together are Idomeneus, a dignitary of Lampsacus who came with Epicurus

from that city, and his wife Batis, who is the sister of Metrodorus; recently they lost their only child. Epicurus has just explained that our state after death will be the same as our state before our birth: non-existence.

“Explain to me then,” says Idomeneus, “why we should not choose the oblivion of

death, and therefore absence of pain? This seems to me the best: eternal tranquility.”

“We should not despise life,” says Epicurus, “for life is fundamentally pleasurable.

Remember:

The wise neither renounce life nor fear not living.

Life does not offend them,

nor do they suppose that death is any kind of suffering.52

“This is because a wise person knows how to choose pleasure and avoid pain, and

so to live a blessed life.”

“It seems you have contradicted yourself,” says Leontion. “Shouldn’t we fear death

because it puts a limit on pleasure?”

“A long life is not necessarily better than a shorter one,” Epicurus explains. “For

just as the sage chooses the pleasantest food, not simply the greater quantity, so too he enjoys the pleasantest time, not the longest.53 That is, the
quality
of his life is more important than its
quantity:

Unlimited time and limited time afford an equal amount of pleasure,

if we measure the limits of that pleasure by reason.54

seeking tranquility in the garden 61

“This is perhaps a difficult idea, but think of it this way. Pleasure and pain are experienced in the present moment. Even if we remember past pleasures or pains, or anticipate future ones, that recollection or anticipation is experienced
now
, in the present.

The present is the only time that exists. Therefore present experience is eternal in the sense of being timeless, that is, outside of time altogether. Hence the present experience of pain or pleasure is a
quality
of the moment not a temporal
quantity
. The perfection of pleasure that the sage experiences in any given moment is like the perfect roundness of a circle. This perfection is not altered by the size of a circle; a small circle may be just as perfectly round as a large one. Likewise the perfection of a sage’s life is a quality that is not dependent on its length (its quantity). All sizes of circles offer the same degrees of roundness. Think about it.”55

In summary, the proper cure for the fear of death is to begin living the true Epicurean life immediately so that in every moment you are tranquil and content, so far as possible.

During your evening Examination of Conscience you can assess how well you have done

and how you can do better.

Fear of Death:
Meditate on your own feelings about death. If you fear it, what is it about it that you fear? Do you fear death itself or the process of dying? What

do you think happens to you when you die, and what is the reason for your

beliefs? Record your thoughts in your journal.

The Fourfold Cure

The preceding observations on sufficiency, pain, gods, and death are summarized in one of Epicurus’ most famous slogans, the
Tetrapharmakos
or
Fourfold Cure
:

God presents no fear,

death no worry.

The good is easy to obtain,

but evil easy to endure.56

62 seeking tranquility in the garden

Live Hidden

We have seen how the philosophers of the Garden make choices in their individual lives in order to be tranquil and happy, but how will they live in the larger world? The image of an enclosed garden suggests that they will withdraw from wider world of business and politics, and to an extent that was true of ancient Epicureans. Indeed, the master teaches that we do not have to be very ambitious in order to live happily:

One who perceives the limits of life

knows how easy it is to expel the pain produced by want

and to make one’s entire life complete;

so that there is no need for the things

that are achieved through competition.57

If we satisfy our natural and necessary desires, and the unnecessary ones in moder-

ation, and pay little attention to the non-natural ones, then we will not have to work so hard. On the contrary, we should enjoy our limited lives, for we never know how long we have left, and should make sure to include leisure time:

We have been born once and cannot be born a second time;

for all eternity we shall no longer exist.

But you, although you are not in control of tomorrow,

are postponing your happiness.

Life is wasted by delaying,

and each one of us dies without enjoying leisure.58

Those in the Garden tell us that the stress, anxiety, and lost leisure of business and politics do not compensate for the empty desires they may satisfy.

We must free ourselves from the prison

of public affairs and ordinary concerns.59

Does this imply you should not be the CEO with multiple mansions? If you are not

enjoying your life, and if you are experiencing stress and anxiety, or wonder if your work is meaningful, you might reassess costs and benefits (pains and pleasures). Of course each

seeking tranquility in the garden 63

person must make the Epicurean calculation for them self, but the master of the Garden reminds us that the highest pleasure is tranquility.

The crown of tranquility is incomparably superior

to the crown of the greatest political power.60

Therefore one of the most famous Epicurean maxims suggests that is better to live

happily in obscurity rather than unhappily in prominence.

Live hidden!61

We will see in the next chapter that the Porch is more open to involvement in the wid-er world, and that it teaches techniques for living philosophically while doing so. But it’s worth returning to the Garden whenever ambition becomes an end in itself.

The Epicurean idea of tranquility is summarized well by Synesius in his first hymn, which he probably wrote while he was studying under Hypatia:

But I would choose to lead a life serene,

Humble, by all, except my God, unseen—

A life most fit for youth, most fit for age,

In which wise poverty can calmly smile,

Untouch’d by all the bitter cares that rage

Round those who with the world their hearts engage.

Let me have but enough to keep me free

From suing beggary at my neighbor’s door,

Lest hungry want should bend my soul to see

Nought but the loathsome cares that grind the poor.62

Ambition Assessment:
Spend some time thinking about your career and your ambi-tions. What are your goals? What desires are you attempting to fulfill? You are

probably choosing present “pains” (work, stress, lack of leisure, competition,

etc.) for the sake of future pleasures (wealth, recognition, power, influence,

leisure, etc.), but what exactly are those hoped-for pleasures? Classify them and

do the Epicurean trade-off. Record your conclusions in your journal.

64 seeking tranquility in the garden

Justice

Although the ultimate ground of Epicurean ethics is individual experience of pleasure and pain, the philosophers of the Garden were well aware that it is difficult to be happy in isolation, first because we benefit from mutual aid, and second because companionship is itself a natural pleasure. Therefore, while the master pointed out the disadvantages of political and social ambition, he was also aware of the importance of society to human happiness.

In fact, Epicurus taught a kind of evolutionary anthropology, tracing the development of human culture from a primitive and brutal “every man for himself ” state to a social system recognizing justice as a central principle.63 The Garden’s justice is built on human nature refined by rational norms. The basis is “nature’s justice,” which is neither to harm another nor to be harmed:

Natural justice is a covenant for mutual benefit,

to not harm one another or be harmed.64

This justice, which is grounded in mutual aid, extends even to domesticated animals; they help us and in turn we care for them. Although animals cannot make contracts,

among humans there should be an implicit social contract to neither hurt nor be hurt, as the master said:

Absolute justice does not exist. There are only mutual agreements among people,

made at various times and places, not to inflict nor allow harm.65

Evildoers are prevented from harming people by the threat of punishment. Epicurus

is not concerned about punishment in an afterlife, for he says that the criminal cannot escape pain, either punishment now, or present anxiety in anticipation of future punishment.

Even up to the moment of death, he says, criminals can never be sure they have escaped, and so they will be afraid. On the other hand, the life of the just person is free of such worry, as the following maxim reminds us:

The just man is the freest of anyone from anxiety;

but the unjust man is perpetually haunted by it.66

Therefore you can see that the philosophers of the Garden are not “noble savage”

primitivists urging that everything would be well if we went back to living like our Pa-seeking tranquility in the garden 65

leolithic ancestors. Instead, they saw that human happiness depends on rational laws and constitutional government grounded in human nature.

Laws are made for the wise:

not to keep them from doing wrong,

but to keep them from being wronged.67

The Greek word
dikê
, which I have been translating “justice,” means to give everyone what they are due.68 All people are equal in that (1) they aspire to tranquility, (2) they have a right to it, and (3) they can achieve it. The means to achieving it is (4) the philosophy of the Garden. (These four truths are analogous to the “Four Noble Truths” of the Buddha.) Thus the Garden is democratic and egalitarian, and you can see why it welcomed everyone who wanted to pursue the Epicurean way of life. When everyone is Epicurean, they predicted, the whole world will be a Garden, a home for everyone, all living in justice and mutual friendship, with no need for laws. Thus Diogenes of Oenoanda, an ardent Epicurean of the second century CE, commissioned a public colonnade and engraved on 260