A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy by William B. IrvineMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book is an account of author's practice of stoicism as a philosophy for a good life. He presents different facets of stoicism as taught or practiced by the ancient greek and roman philosophers. Seneca, Zeno, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius are some of the renowned practitioners of stoicism that have been cited in the book. It talks about how we can deal with negative emotions like anger, jealousy, consumerism, desires, repulsion from annoying company, lust, the fear of death and of old age or ill health etc.
It talks about the practice of negative visualizations in life (for example, thinking if what we love today in our life may go away, die or perish the next moment), and this will enable us to give more attention to the things we cherish in the present (now) when we are fortunate to have it/them. For example, our kids who we love but are too busy in our lives to give our due attention at times. This practice of negative visualization will shape our minds to not suffer as much from the loss of our beloved ones and in the mean time also let us cherish the moments with them we are blessed to have in the present.
The goal of a stoic is to look for inner peace or tranquility. If the inner peace is lost due some act then that act is not worth doing. A good read.
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