Buddhism & Epicureanism
Ancient pathways from the East and West for the Covid isolated
Stuart Nettleton PhD
Which Path: Buddhism or Epicureanism?
In this article we look at reasons why a person who is feeling isolated might choose to follow either the Eastern Buddhism or Western Epicureanism paths.
After looking into each pathway and evaluating the criticisms, we might understand that both pathways are equally viable approaches to addressing social isolation. In fact it hardly matters which path you take, the end destination is the same. This is finding new friends amongst an elite group of thinkers that give you a hand-up to learn some of the secrets of the universities of antiquity. Primary amongst these secrets is that the more you contribute of yourself, then the more you will receive in return, and in greater abundance than you could have ever imagined. Other secrets are the benefits of simple pleasures and moderation in all things.
The Chinese proverb still holds true, “There are many paths to the top of the mountain, but the view is always the same.” So rather than dwelling on which pathway has the greatest degree of verisimilitude or truth, it is more important to understand which choice of pathway best accords with your own objectives, sensibilities and preferences.
A person’s subjective objectives involve a huge range of personality orientations and psychological issues, which are unable to be addressed in this article. So a shorthand heuristic is used here for illustration.
Dr. Helen Fisher at Rutgers University provides a theory of personalities based on two axes of neurotransmitter/hormonal motivation: Dopamine <-> Serotonin and Testosterone <-> Estrogen (or Oxytocin). Dopamine motivated people prefer outgoing, adventurous experiences and social interaction. Serotonin motivated people prefer quiet, calm, structured social situations. Testosterone orientation, whether in a male or female, suggests the person has strong internal drive and sometimes limited emotional awareness. An Estrogen orientation, again whether in a male or female, suggests a person who is nurturing and empathetic. Dr Fisher’s research shows that people high in dopamine or serotonin tend to seek out people like themselves, whereas people high in either testosterone or estrogen tend to seek out their opposites.
In responding to why a person might choose a Buddhist or Epicurean pathway, we might rephrase as the question in terms of personality:
Are you a quiet person, such as a Serotonin or Estrogen motivated person? Do you feel a need to regroup and find yourself? Does some time out as an ascetic resonate with you? Then perhaps Buddhism is the best approach. You will be following the path of many others in the West who have chosen Buddhism to understand their life and maintain internal peace. Your project is twofold. Firstly, to calm your thoughts and ameliorate anxieties by bringing your mind into the here and now. Secondly, to find people with whom you can discuss Buddhism and support and contribute to others on the same journey as you.
Are you a driven person feeling angry and upset, such as a strongly Testosterone motivated person? Have you recognised a need to break your habit of anger and begin to repair the damage to yourself and your relationships? Then perhaps Buddhism is the best approach for you too. Buddhism’s traditional focus is developing strength to resist the relentless demandingness of our ego. You have the same project as in the previous paragraph, which is to deal with your own issues and to support and contribute to others on the same path as yourself.
Lastly, are you mostly managing your issues, maybe even using some Buddhist techniques like mindfulness to manage your life, yet feeling lonely and isolated? Perhaps you are a Dopamine motivated person and not finding yourself fulfilled? Happiness is contagious. Perhaps you might find friendships in places like Meetup and Facebook Groups, with a common activity or project to work on. Do you find Epicurus’ big issues of philosophy and society resonate with you, like democracy, liberty, psychology and ethics? Then perhaps you might follow the Epicurean path and seek out an Epicurean group. Your task is to seek new friends having common interests where you can enjoy simple pleasures and discuss Epicurean philosophy.
The Buddhism Pathway
Eastern Buddhism can appeal to those who aspire to the ascetic life. Buddhism is a system to attain inner peace by eliminating negative thoughts. It is a philosophy that is also a religion because of its belief in a universal force and life after death called reincarnation. Western Buddhism has withdrawn somewhat from the religious aspects: for example, by substituting reincarnation with the thought that the Universe somehow accounts and rewards each person’s karma so that “what goes around comes around.” Many Westerners practice Buddhism for its goals of a peaceful pacifist existence, maintenance of mindfulness and healthy vegetarian or vegan diet that does no harm to sentient beings.
In many ways Buddhism and Christianity are similar, such as beliefs in life continuing after death, pacifism in turning the other cheek to aggression, and ethics. Buddhism’s four traditional ethics are: to act in good faith; to do no harm; to be honest and not gossip; and to not kill, engage in misconduct or consume intoxicants. Its four extended ethics are: to compassionately alleviate suffering; to bring happiness through loving-kindness; to celebrate rather than envy the achievements of others through sympathetic joy; and to regard one’s own and others’ well-being as being of equal importance.
Buddhism addresses what it sees as humans’ main existential problem, which is how to minimize the suffering of self and others. Traditionally, Buddhism’s solution is to manage one’s own thinking in ways that lead to serenity and the ultimate destination of Nirvana, which is a psychological state of blissful nothingness, serenity and contentment where the individual has no desires or experiences. Nirvana is the Buddhist concept of happiness.
The main technique for transitioning to the nothingness of Nirvana is anger elimination. Anger and its derivatives jealousy and desire are regarded as expressions of the ego, which is rapacious, prone to rage, and both the greatest cause of one's own pain and suffering and the cause of others' pain and suffering. Tools for controlling the ego and eliminating anger are developing the wisdom that everything including your family, possessions and yourself are impermanent and that there is no immutable state of yourself, developing mindfulness, and practicing Buddhism’s ethics. Buddhism advocates letting go of all attachments including family, friends and humans in general. Once in Nirvana, a Buddhist would no longer require Buddhism or the tools of Buddhism.
The main criticism of Buddhism is its definition of happiness being Nirvana, where the ego has been totally controlled. Many Western Buddhists find Buddhism tools, such as meditation, very useful but are not seeking the traditional Buddhists’ Nirvana state of nothingness. These Western Buddhists recognise that positive pleasurable emotions of happiness can come from other experiences, for example relationships, and give rise to subjective feelings and emotions such as joy, well-being, prosperity and growth. Western Buddhists also recognise that some levels of anger can be normal and appropriate, if moderate and managed. More intense psychological emotions such as extreme anger, resentment, blame, anxiety and depression that are not managed are nowadays regarded as mental health issues. These mental health obstacles are seen as blocking access to a more balanced existence where a person successfully lives a stable life while maintaining whole object relations that include the ability to experience both happiness or pleasures and sadness or pain.
The Epicurean Pathway
Among other things, Epicureans seek life, liberty and happiness, which are immediately recognisable as the three unalienable rights of all humans incorporated by Thomas Jefferson in the American Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson was an Epicurean.
The Epicurean Philosophy Garden was founded by Epicurus in Athens around 300BCE. It is one of six major colleges that comprised the pre-Socratic school of Pythagoras, the Platonic Academy of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, and the post-Socratic schools of Cynicism, Skepticism, Stoicism and Epicureanism. The main characteristics of Epicureanism are an indifference to the impact of gods in one’s life; independence of thought; preference for actions having the greatest excess of pleasure over pain or cost; and moderation or voluntary simplicity in all things to reduce the hurdle for happiness by deleveraging one’s life. This is similar to the Western idea of using Buddhism to live a modest life.
The easiest definition of Epicureanism is that it’s exactly the opposite of Aristotlian and Stoic virtue-ethics. It's a philosophy of personal choice and perhaps the earliest spark of the liberalism that now underpins our Western democracies. And it's as messy as democracy itself because Epicureanism is pluralist. There are no fixed rules for behaviour. However, neither is it Crowley’s chaotic “do what thou wilt” liberalism where anything goes. Instead Epicureanism is a remarkably modern philosophy of successfully living in society: it embodies what we now understand as existentialism, personal cognitive psychology and normative ethics.
To describe all of Epicureanism is a huge endeavour because it encompasses all of existentialism, personal cognitive psychology, normative ethics and democracy. In a nutshell, Epicureanism’s existential characteristics are the acknowledgement of physical existence and independent thought, the choice to continue to exist and preferring pleasure over pain. Epicureans are also very keen on the extension of existentialism into phenomenology with empirical research and primary evidence provided by the senses. Friendship is a product of this phenomenology and the cornerstone of its personal cognitive psychology, in the sense that friendship is the ultimate source of all happiness. Lastly, normative ethics is a huge topic that underpins the working of personal life, business and society. As with friendship, normative ethics is a product of the philosophy. Normative ethics is a modern term that refers to the system of democratic, business and personal ethics that have evolved through thousands of years of common-law and government law-making. As in Epicureanism, modern normative ethics rejects Psychological Egoism and Virtue Ethics. Psychological Egoism is the “anything goes” aspect of liberalism and subjectively defined behaviour, which includes selfishness, discrimination and lack of concern for others. Virtue Ethics is an Aristotlian-like definition of the characteristics of an ideal or perfect person. The law has rejected Virtue Ethics for two reasons. Firstly, humans are fallible and can never be perfect, so one always fails in Virtue Ethics and in any case there are no objective measures of compliance. Secondly, the ideals can vary significantly between different philosophical and religious perspectives and legal jurisdictions.
Most of what we know of Epicureanism comes from Roman Lucretius' classic epic poem in hexameter and the criticism of Greek writers, such as the adversarial Stoics Seneca and Epictetus, who had access to the now lost books of Epicurus. The primary criticism was that Epicurus rejected Virtue Ethics and therefore the basic assumption of most philosophy schools, that virtue was its own reward. They also criticised making friends for merely enjoyment as being insufficiently selective, expedient and in fact reprehensible. Other criticisms are Epicurean’s indifference to the importance of gods or pre-determined fate in everyday life and its liberal approach of rejecting the demand of others to perform duties, such as participating in politics.
Perhaps the most familiar criticism of Epicureanism is its intrinsic hedonism of preferring pleasure, which is often misinterpreted as being luxuries like the fine food and jewelry that are featured in the unfortunately titled Epicurean Magazine. As we have seen, this interpretation could not be further from the truth and Epicureans have exactly the opposite worldview of moderation and simplicity. Epicurus himself survived on barley cakes, a little cheese, honey and water. He is noted for commenting that having friends to eat with is more important than having food to eat.
With modern society evolving along Epicurean lines, these criticisms no longer represent serious issues. However, uncomfortable tensions do remain within Epicureanism. For example, while Epicureans feel one’s life is not particularly precious and so don’t fear death, Epicureanism has a moralistic objection to euthanasia. This mirrors the modern view that suicide is more a response to depression than the Stoic resignation to choose death as a logical consequence of the economic and mobility inefficiencies of old-age. Another tension is between Epicureans’ inherent Buddhist-like pacifism and the Epicurean principle of the right to protect liberty and property. John Stuart Mill, the leading liberal and neo-Epicurean philosopher of the Enlightenment, saw no inconsistency in protecting liberty or revolutionaries overthrowing a repressive government. Debate about the Epicurean principle of the right to protect liberty remains highly poignant, for example in the context of geopolitical security, defence capabilities and investments to protect Western liberal ways of life and the status of the warrior class in modern society.
Conclusion
The pathways of Buddhism and Epicureanism each provide comprehensive responsible trajectories for addressing isolation. Differences between the pathways are more in the nature of the journey than in the destination. The Buddhist pathway is predominantly ascetic and deals with personal psychology. It may best suit those people who seek a quiet, stable, healthy existence or are keen to resolve anger issues. In contrast, the Epicurean pathway is outwardly focused on enjoying experiences with friends and discussing how Epicurean philosophy itself might evolve with our changing world. The Epicurean pathway may better suit those people who feel they are successfully managing their life and interested in a greater depth of social engagement.
