The Wisdom of Hypatia: Ancient Spiritual Practices for a More Meaningful Life (11 page)

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a state that will continue until pain, desire, or some other disturbance arises.
Active pleasure
arises from the act of satisfying some desire, that is, in eliminating some pain, or in doing anything else that produces enjoyment in body or mind. For example, quenched thirst is a static pleasure but the act of quenching it is an active pleasure. Another kind of active pleasure is when you vary the pleasure without increasing it, for example, drinking when you’re not thirsty.

Other things being equal, Epicureans prefer static pleasures to active pleasures because the static ones are more enduring; the absence of pain continues without effort until something happens (either inside the body or outside of it) to cause pain. Active pleasures, in contrast, require some effort to continue, which is a kind of pain or can lead to pain. Furthermore, they continue only until the original pain or discomfort is eliminated, and so they are limited in duration, whereas static pleasures continue indefinitely.

Nevertheless, active pleasures are essential to living well, if for no other reason than as a side effect of eliminating pain. The Epicurean sage does not reject active pleasures, but prefers static pleasures. Furthermore, pursuing an active pleasure can divert your mind from an unavoidable pain and in this way eliminate it or diminish its strength, at least for a while; this is the valuable practice of
replacing a pain by a pleasure
. For example, if you are suffering from some unavoidable physical or mental pain, you can try to replace it by doing something pleasant (say, eating a good meal or enjoying a conversation with friends), by remembering some past happy time, or by imagining some pleasure to come. We can focus

our attention on only one thing at a time, and so the idea is to focus on something pleasant.

This might not be easy at first, but it comes with practice. As you will see, spiritual progress depends on developing better control of your thoughts.

Passive and Active Pleasures:
Take your list of desires and classify each as
passive
(requiring no effort) or
active
(requiring some effort). Think about each and notice how passive pleasures can continue indefinitely, but active pleasures are

self-limiting.

According to the philosophers of the Garden, the greatest pleasure is the absence of pain, for its absence is filled with enjoyment and delight (essentially the organism’s recognition that it is flourishing). Further, they teach that mental pleasures are greater than bodily pleasures. Therefore, the principal goal of the philosopher, the greatest static plea-seeking tranquility in the garden 53

sure, is a state of
tranquility
, a state in which the mind is not disturbed, uncomfortable, troubled, or in need; it is content.

But pleasantest of all is to be master of those high

and tranquil regions fortressed by the teaching of the wise.38

These lines remind us to take the philosophical “view from above” of troubles so that we are not caught up in the storm, and so we can act and react more wisely.

What you are doing in these and other Epicurean spiritual practices is gradually to

reprogram yourself so that you are happy most of the time, and especially so that you are usually tranquil, which is the happy state that is easiest to maintain and the best for spiritual progress. It’s hard to focus on spiritual practices if your mind is in turmoil. Achieving a state of tranquility may seem an unlikely possibility, but you still have much to learn in the Garden.

Sufficiency

Now that you know the different kinds of desires and their pros and cons, we come to the question, “How much is enough?” Epicurus explains that when we properly understand

pleasure, pain, and desire, we make a happy discovery. For satisfying a desire that is natural and necessary achieves the maximum pleasure by eliminating the corresponding need, and whatever satisfies that need yields the maximum pleasure. For example, hunger and thirst can be satisfied by simple food and water. (But, you might ask, don’t I get more pleasure by eating tasty food and drinking wine? Perhaps, but the desire for this more interesting taste is a different desire, which is natural but unnecessary.) Therefore desires that are natural and necessary—the basic requirements of survival and of physical and mental comfort—are relatively easy to satisfy (that is, not expensive or hard to obtain). In this sense, like other animals, humans are by nature well adapted to existence; we and our natural environment fit together well.

Thanks be to blessed Nature that she has made

what is necessary easy to obtain,

and what is not easy unnecessary.39

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The difficulties come when our desires go beyond the necessary and beyond the natu-

ral, for they involve pain. But Epicurus does not say we should restrict our desires to the strictly necessary; on the contrary, the Golden Mean is best:

There is also a limit in simple living. He who fails to heed this limit falls into an error as great as
that of the man who gives way to extravagance.40

Rather, as dwellers in the Garden we are contented with simple pleasures, and so if a more luxurious pleasure is available we are able to enjoy it all the more. Thus Epicurus wrote to a friend:

Send me a little vessel of cheese,

so that I can feast whenever I please.41

Someone who continually expects gourmet foods will be less likely to be satisfied with Epicurus’ jar of cheese, and so Epicurus has more opportunities for pleasure than the gourmand. The poet Euripides (c.480–406 BCE) wrote,

For the wise man the sufficient is enough.42

Therefore you must apply your judgment to deciding what is sufficient. Because your

happiness depends on it, it is important that you can obtain what is sufficient and be satisfied by it.

We regard self-sufficiency as a great virtue

not so that we may only enjoy a few things,

but so that we may be satisfied with a few things

if those are all we have.43

In other words, Epicureans are content even if they do not have much, but can enjoy

themselves even better when they have more. For example, I try to pay attention to how good a slice of bread and butter tastes. It really does! Or how satisfying a bowl of oatmeal or beans and rice is on a cold day. Or how refreshing a glass of water is when I’m thirsty.

If you appreciate simple things (not just food), then you can be delighted and grateful if

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you have the money and opportunity for fancier things. They are like surprise gifts. These maxims put it more succinctly:

Self-sufficiency is the greatest wealth of all.44

Freedom is the greatest fruit of self-sufficiency.45

Freedom is certainly important for happiness, and it’s difficult to be happy if you are trapped, for example, in a miserable job so you can satisfy your unnecessary or non-natural desires.

The goal of self-sufficiency does not imply, however, that the philosophers of the Garden are egoistic isolationists, striving to be independent of everyone else, for mutually dependent friendship is an essential part of Epicurean blessedness, as we will see.

Satisfying Your Desires:
Given the result of the exercise “Classify Your Desires,” you are now going to determine how difficult it will be to satisfy them. Begin with

your
necessary natural
desires, and for each one write down what you need to do to satisfy it. Then determine what is needed for
moderate
satisfaction of your
unnecessary natural
desires, and finally do the same for your
non-natural
desires. For a desire like food, this could be a monthly cost, but other desires,

such as love, companionship, or time for meditation, will not depend on mon-

ey. If you have done your classification well, this exercise should give you a

good idea what you need in order to satisfy your most important desires, that

is, to become self-sufficient in this important sense. Record your conclusions in

your journal along with a tentative plan for achieving your desires.

Simple Pleasures:
Make a list of your simple pleasures, that is, natural desires that are easy or inexpensive to satisfy. Make sure to indulge in them regularly and

pay attention to the pleasure you feel. Everything else is icing on the cake.