Introduction: Buddhism and Stoicism agree on the centrality of ethical conduct as the foundation of happiness, proposing specific methods to channel character: the art of living in Stoicism and the eightfold path in Buddhism .
The transition from the highest moral philosophy of the West, Stoicism, to the noblest Eastern philosophy, Buddhism, can be problematic for the thinking of a Westerner. Here Schopenhauer comes to the rescue with the core concept of his theory, the will to live, as an innate and immutable character trait.
Stoicism postulates that the stoic character is made up of four cardinal virtues: justice, temperance, courage and wisdom. The cultivation of these virtues is the art of living , the result of which is eudaimonia ( well-being or happiness ). The training program of the art of living applies to three areas: thought, desire and action, whose ideal is a subject with self-control, autonomous, imperturbable and noble. Discipline and permanent monitoring are therefore necessary, since learning to capture the thoughts that arise is an important part of the art of living. training , supported by three cognitive processes: mindfulness, disidentification from thoughts and less reactivity to their contents.
Stoic ethics is the technique of living rationally , to achieve happiness and peace of mind through the perfect development of practical reason. The Stoics wanted to identify virtue with happiness, making them depend on the principle of reason. However , Schopenhauer tells us, every virtue that is practiced to obtain a reward is based on self-interest , even if it is prudent, methodical and provident. The Stoic source of the ethical principle is the desire for personal well-being (eudaimonia), and no virtuous action in itself can have selfishness as its source. In short, it is an eminently practical doctrine without a metaphysical or transcendental foundation.
Buddhism , on the other hand, starts from cardinal vices, in overcoming which lies the emergence of happiness. The vices are: lust, laziness, anger and greed, and the paramitas or virtues are: generosity, right conduct, patience, diligence, meditation and wisdom. This Eastern doctrine proposes the eightfold path of the four noble truths for access to Nirvana , a state of undifferentiation between I and not I, whose requirement to reach it is the elimination of the veil of Maya or illusion of the phenomenal world , which in the manner of Plato's cave, hides the truth of who we are. The first of the four noble truths refers to the suffering ( Dukkha) inherent in life; the second, to the origin of suffering or afflictive states (Karma) generated by fundamental ignorance; The third, the cessation of suffering (Nirvana) which is achieved by adopting an ethical code to correct emotional imbalances and eliminate the ego; and the fourth, the method to achieve it, the eightfold path (Dharma). To this end, they propose a series of techniques aimed at achieving serenity and mental clarity, which in turn facilitates the accumulation of positive Karma on the eightfold path to Nirvana. Through meditation and correct conduct, individual consciousness, desire and suffering are eliminated, and with it the cycle of rebirths (Lama Rinchen Gyaltsen, 2023. The Noble Path. Online course transcript).
Self-awareness: Stoicism and Buddhism in the light of Schopenhauer's thought
For Schopenhauer , self-consciousness is achieved through the will, that is to say, the subject knows himself as the subject of desire , and not as the subject of knowledge . The latter is constituted by the a priori forms of all experience and all knowing: time, space and causality ; the subject of knowledge will never be known, because he himself is the condition of possibility of his own knowledge (space, as the form of intuition, time, as the form of mutation, and the law of causality, as the regulator of cause-effect changes, are given a priori in the intellect, and for that reason, are its foundation and condition of possibility). That is to say, there is no external origin of time, space and causality since they are categories of thought. There is no knowing of knowing. What is known is the subject of desire or of wanting, the “I want,” and in this sense the identity of knowledge with the subject of desire , by means of which the pronoun “I” designates both, is inexplicable . For Buddhists the "I" is an illusion, it does not exist.
As a subject or "I", I can only think and perceive the relationships between external objects or internal representations, through, or mediated by, the rules of understanding (time, space and causality).
However, the identity between the "I" that knows and the "I" that desires manifests itself immediately, without the mediation of understanding, and so the interior of this process is unfathomable . We do not know why our attention is directed to certain objects and not to others. Why we desire certain objects and not others. It is something that is presented to us as if by impulse, in Buddhist words, by karmic tendencies.
Well, it is in this identity of the subject of desire with the subject of knowledge, where lies the influence that the will exerts on knowing , since the will directs attention. And assuming that the will is of a transcendental order, that it is a karmic tendency that is known a posteriori of the act, the process remains indecipherable. According to Buddhists, moral and intellectual merits do not have a physical or empirical origin but rather a metaphysical one, they are the product of the karma of other lives . They do not adhere to determinism or free will; nor to eternalism or nihilism. Instead, they propose the middle path as a way of access to well-being, whose technique is meditation .
The failure of Stoicism
The human being, says Schopenhauer, is a metaphysical animal, whose authentic way of inhabiting the world leads him beyond the phenomenal experience. Temples, churches, stupas and mosques reflect this human tendency towards transcendence , as indestructible as the search for happiness. At this point, his thought meets Buddhism.
If individual character is the manifestation of the will to live, that is, of the original and fundamental being, there would be no possibility of free will, as Stoic doctrine maintains; the human being acts with strict necessity, he can never act otherwise. On the other hand, insofar as the will is determined by the law of motivation, it exerts an influence on knowledge, since it forces the subject to repeat certain representations and to direct attention to this or that, or to evoke any series of thoughts; in short, the will is the intimate guide of the association of ideas (Schopenhauer, 1998: pp. 209). Each subject is only stimulated by the motives for which he has a predominant receptivity, that is why motivation is causality from the point of view of the subject's interior . In other words, it is the will that sets in motion the circuit of thought, driving the intellect in accordance with interest, to produce the association of ideas.
Now, what about acts? In humans, as in any other sentient being or natural phenomenon , Acting is derived from being , that is, it responds to stimuli according to its karma, and knows itself a posteriori . To the extent that it cannot anticipate its actions, the direction of its thinking and consequently its world, will likewise be determined by will or karma . Then, taking into account that the tendency of the will is innate, ethics is not susceptible to being transmitted through the learning of axioms or rules of conduct, as the Stoics postulate. This is why Schopenhauer's philosophy is more in line with the Buddhist doctrine of metempsychosis (rebirth), to the extent that human action is not guided by reason but by character (Schopenhauer, 2023, Volume II: 246), and the mental flow is formed and transformed in accordance with this action, or karma . The ethics of the Stoics has the laudable aim of leading us to a happy life, but affirming the will to live, since phenomenal life seems certain and real to them. Buddhist ethics, on the other hand, seeks to free the subject from the veil of Maya that hides the truth, and to redeem it from the phenomenal world or samsara , by denying the will to live (Schopenhauer, 2023, Volume II: 328).
Character is innate
From early childhood, the character traits that will accompany him throughout his life are observed in the child. Only a subject possessing a strong and virtuous character trait can achieve sanctity or Buddhahood, and this result does not depend on learning. Schopenhauer calls them pure subjects of knowledge. They are those whose will or desire to live has been nullified by their actions, based on a tendency towards transcendence or desire to escape from immanence; examples of these subjects are Jesus Christ, Buddha, Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint John of the Cross, Saint Teresa of Jesus, Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
Since the will to live is an endless and termless tendency, generating desire, need and pain, the impossibility of reaching a lasting happiness through the satisfaction of desires becomes evident. Human life cannot provide us with happiness, since it is nothing more than constant pain disguised in a thousand ways. This is why for Schopenhauer happiness is by nature negative , that is, it is the absence of suffering, and in this sense, it is the pure subject of knowledge, free from the will to live, the only one truly free and happy.
According to Schopenhauerian philosophy, pure and free knowledge of the will is achieved when the consciousness of external things is sublimated to such an extent that self-awareness disappears. Thus, the state of purely objective intuition is a state of perfect happiness, in which desires, passions, emotions and worries are eliminated (Schopenhauer, 2008, Volume II: 454). Examples of this state of consciousness are: aesthetic contemplation, meditation, artistic creation, etc.
In conclusion , True virtue and happiness do not belong to the phenomenal world, since they are of a transcendental order.
Literature
Cultivating happiness. An inner journey towards well-being, at https://www.lorenamartin.org/post/cultivating-happiness-an-inner-journey-towards-well-being
Brief training in Stoicism and psychological well-being, at https://www.lorenamartin.org/post/training-brief-in-stoicism-and-psychological-well-being
Dalai Lama (2010). The art of living in the new millennium, retrieved on February 13, 2024, from chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/ https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/el-arte-de-vivir-en-el-nuevo-milenio-pag-30-77/DALAI%20LAMA%20-%202010%20-%20EL%20ARTE%20DE%20VIVIR%20EN%20EL%20NUEVO%20MILENIO%20PAG.%2030-77.pdf
The Noble Path. Online course transcript. Lama Rinchen Gyaltsen. Spain. Paramita Editorial. Paramita, Sakya Buddhist Center. Retrieved March 7, 2024, from https://cursos.paramita.org/course/el-sendero-noble
Schopenhauer, A (1998). On the fourfold root of the principle of sufficient reason. Madrid. Gredos.
—-------- (2008). The World as Will and Representation Vol. I and II, Buenos Aires, Losada. [Translation, introduction and notes by Pilar López de Santa María]
-----------(2013). Art of Good Living. Madrid. Edaf Library.
—-------- (2016). The two fundamental problems of ethics. Spain. 21st century
—-------- ( 2023). Parerga and Paralipomena Vol. I and II. Madrid. Editorial Trotta.
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