Who am I? Am I the mind? Am I the body that contains the mind? Am I a descendant of an alien race that, long ago, set foot on Earth? Am I created by God? The English philosopher, writer, and speaker Alan Watts believed that the most important question a human could ask is this: […]
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Be Like Water
Water is the softest and most yielding substance. Yet nothing is better than water, for overcoming the hard and rigid, because nothing can compete with it. Lao Tzu Many people are hijacked by the rigidity of their minds. Thinking in categories and fixed ideas can be a great crutch for survival, as it creates clarity […]
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Philosophy for Breakups | Buddhism
That breakups can be horrifyingly painful isn’t a secret to people who have gone through one. The amount of suffering some people experience after a breakup is a symptom that something about this situation isn’t quite right. From a Buddhist point of view, the breakup itself isn’t the problem, because losing the people that we […]
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When Life is Meaningless 📽️
You know, man doesn’t stand forever, his nullification. Once, there will be a reaction, and I see it setting in, you know, when I think of my patients, they all seek their own existence and to assure their existence against that complete atomization into nothingness or into meaninglessness. Man cannot stand a meaningless life. Carl […]
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How Epicurus Keeps Calm 📽️
The ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus may seem an unlikely figure to teach us how to achieve a calm mind because of his reputation as an indulgent pleasure-seeker. Unfortunately, the teachings of Epicurus are gravely misunderstood by many. While it’s true that, according to Epicurus, pleasure leads to happiness, his philosophy leans much more to asceticism […]
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Hated, Ignored, Rejected & Happy 📽️
Do we need a good reputation to be happy? The Black Mirror episode ‘Nosedive’ takes place in a futuristic world in which reputation is the main currency. The story revolves around a young woman named Lacie who desperately wants to raise her social credibility, so she can apply for a residence in a fancy community. […]
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Win Without Trying 📽️
Competitions can be nerve-wracking. The more we live up to the day on which we are supposed to shine, the more anxiety builds up. What if I perform badly? What if something goes wrong? An Olympic swimmer trains thousands of hours, just to get that medal. A musician practices for days on end, just to […]
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The Art of War 📽️
If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle Sun Tzu, The Art of War War is part of life. It’s in the nature of most living organisms to engage in battle, defeat opponents, and to dominate. With humans, we see this happen in war, in business, on the soccer […]
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The 4 Stoic Sins 📽️
A Stoic’s end goal is to achieve ‘eudaimonia’, which is a state of flourishing that arises when we live in accordance with nature. But how do we live in accordance with nature? The Stoics believe that this requires living ‘rationally’, and that rational perfection can be found in virtue. Simply put: virtue is the path […]
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The Power of ‘No’ 📽️
It’s a short simple word: ‘no’. But for some people, it’s extremely difficult to use nonetheless. Especially so-called ‘people pleasers’ have difficulties saying ‘no’ to the people they intend to please. Which is a shame, because the ability to say ‘no’ not only helps us to not do things that we don’t want to do; […]
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