Nishak Malavalli
Aug 25, 2017 · 2 min read

Live like a stoic day five- Friday(relationships)

The stoics firmly believed that it was necessary to have good relations with everyone. Not just family, but strangers as well. “A virtuous person displays love for his fellow human beings, as well as goodness, justice, kindness, and concern for his neighbour”. A way to practise this was by doing the “circle” mediation activity. This activity definitely had a purpose, that being, to accept everyone in this world as “family” to you. Because at the end of the day we are all human beings and it’s important to show compassion for every other human being, regardless of what they are to you. It doesn’t matter if they’re family, friends or strangers, it’s important that they are all treated with compassion. I agree with this statement, it is right to treat every human being with compassion, but the question is, to what extent do you show compassion to people you don’t know? You would certainly not treat them in the way you’d treat your own family members or close friends. Of course you’d still show them compassion and treat them in a nice manner, but not to the same extent as you would with your family or friends. An example of this is with homeless people. If your family member was homeless or your friend it’s quite natural for you to help them in any way possible, it would make sense to say that you’d let them live with you or give them a place to live. But would you do the same to a homeless person you don’t know? Surely you’d help them by tipping them some money, maybe if you’re generous you’d give them a maximum of $50. But you wouldn’t let them stay with you or give them a place to stay. Mainly because you don’t know them as well as your friends or family and if you don’t know them then it would be quite hard for you to feel the need to do such things. I’m not saying people don’t do these things, some people may, but speaking generally I don’t think it’s possible. The reason being, the lack of a strong relationship with the stranger. If you had a strong relationship with them then yes it would be possible to give them a place to stay. The point is this, it is definitely possible to treat people you don’t know with compassion, there’s no doubting that, but the question is, to what extent do you show them compassion? Is it how much you think you should? The stoics believed that you should show them compassion like they’re your family, but I disagree with this. I believe the compassion you can show, is how ever much you feel comfortable, and that differs from person to person. The stoic topic of relationships and the circle meditation has been an insightful topic, it has made me reconsider how I treat strangers and has given me a stronger understanding about the complexity of practicing stoicism.

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    Nishak Malavalli

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