1. The Stages, and Process, of Stoicism
In Life, we exist in three main spheres: Self, Community and Universe.
As soon as we come into this world, we have a self and therefore, over the years, we must learn to develop it and live with it as graciously as we are able - not always an easy task, as we all know! By the natural order of things, we are also raised and spend our lives in relationship and community (family, friends, neighbours, school-mates, colleagues, society, nature). We are obviously not just individuals but we also social creatures - even though we may have mixed feelings about our relations. And finally, we exist in a much larger setting, beyond Self and Community - we are creatures that are embedded and entirely dependent upon the elements, the earth, the Sun, and the larger Cosmos.
Due to our inherently conscious, or self-aware, nature we are also confronted with the grandest existential questions - Who are we? How should we live? What happens to us when we die? Since we are endowed with self-awareness and reason, we are also directly confronted with the whole question of the meaning of Life, of the Universe and of our specific place in it. In other words, by necessity - or as Stoics say by cosmic Fate - we are obliged to philosophise, to try to make sense of things, and to be in relationship with the Universe. And we are forced to find, if we can, a correct understanding and a proper place in this larger whole. This is quite a bit to take on.
Thankfully though, Stoicism is of great assistance in helping us to address the three universal spheres of existence: Self, Community and Cosmos. And they are universal of course because no matter your beliefs, your culture, your ethnicity or nationality, you are forced to relate, to try to make sense of and to navigate the realms of Self, Community and Cosmos. The only ones who are not are those who are deeply unconscious, or deeply conditioned by their upbringings and cultures (such that the ways of relating to the three spheres are set for them); or finally those that abdicate this primary existential condition, for a variety of complex reasons. Incidentally this was one of the central tenets of Existentialism: that we are, by necessity, confronted with various dimensions of life, including existential freedom, but not all of us want or can bear this responsibility.
Stoicism would agree with Existentialism - even though we are being anachronistic here - that we are inevitably confronted with various existential dimensions, and we must choose to take this on squarely, if we really wish to live a good life. They really took the Socratic commandment to heart: “The unexamined life is not worth living.” In other words, to put this in the positive: the examined life, the one we are really and fully confronting, is the one worth living. And the Stoics are right of course, because we can only live well - our overarching aim - if we really confront the whole of existence, examine it, make sense of it, and learn the art of handling it well. And this art, of course, is what is called philosophy, and in our tradition, Stoicism.
Care-take this moment. Immerse yourself in its particulars. Respond to this person, this challenge, this deed. Quit evasions. Stop giving yourself needless trouble. It is time to really live; to fully inhabit the situation you happen to be in now.
– Epictetus
This is the grand starting place on the overall path of Stoicism and its subsequent stages: the central aim, and the life-long commitment, to study and practice Philosophy or the Art of Living. And in truth, all the major philosophers - Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Zeno, Epicurus, Diogenes, Epictetus - and all the ancient schools of philosophy (whether Cynicism, Epicureanism, or Stoicism), despite their differences, shared this foundational perspective: the whole point of philosophy was to confront yourself with the whole of life, to really examine and understand it in all its dimensions (Self, Community, Cosmos), and to learn to live it well. In fact, most other spiritual traditions share this central objective as well, whether it is animism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism or Zen.
Stoicism has traditionally been divided into three main fields - Logic, Ethics and Physics - corresponding to the three main spheres of existence. The field of Logic is centred on the Self, and concerns the art of self-development, particularly as it pertains to the health and the proper command of the mind. In a more modernised sense, on the path of philosophy, and in the realm of self-development, we seek to transform ourselves, to deal with sufferings and to heal, to develop our reasoning abilities, to cultivate the Virtues, and to access and grow the universal principle of Logos within ourselves.
The realm of Ethics addresses the art of living as it pertains to the sphere of Community. Since by Nature, or necessity, we are social beings, we must learn to relate well within our various communities (family, friends, school, work, society, natural surroundings). The better we become at the art of living socially, the more our life will flow well and lead to well-being. In modern parlance, this is the realm one might call “people skills,” with the caveat that, for Stoics, “people skills” must always be fashioned by, and subordinate to, the central aim of living virtuously - which also means caring for the overall well-being of our communities.
And finally Physics helps us to relate to the grander dimensions of life. Its principal aim is to help us understand the underlying cosmic order of all things - the Logos - and its universal principles. In this manner, we can truly perceive our proper place in the universal, cosmic order, our own deeper natures and our inherent belonging to the world at large. And furthermore, we can learn to cultivate universal principles and to properly align ourselves with Logos, within Self, Community and Cosmos, for therein lay the foundational elements of the well-lived life. In other words, profound and lasting well-being is a direct function of our perception and cultivation of the Logos within the three spheres (Self, Community, Cosmos).
Now it’s important to understand that while the three spheres, and the three fields of Logic, Ethics and Physics, are divided in this manner, and to a degree treated separately, this is primarily for pedagogical reasons: to help us get a better understanding of the main dimensions of life, to give order to the philosophical path and to give us better command of theory and practice. In reality of course the three spheres of life, and the three fields of philosophy, constitute an integrated whole. Indeed, it is a universal principle that all things in life are both a self and a whole. Another way to put this is that all living things are both an independent unit and a sub-component of a larger interdependent system, which is itself always embedded in a series of greater wholes, reaching all the way to the greatest system of all, the Cosmos.
You didn’t come into this world. You came out of it, like a wave from the ocean. You are not a stranger here.
– Alan Watts
A single tree is an independent unit, but it is also, by design, inherently interdependent and embedded within larger wholes. It is planted in soil, dependent on rain-fall, interacting with air, altered by seasons, living in a larger forest, tributary to sun … As the Buddhist philosopher Thich Nhat Hanh says: “If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees cannot grow: and without trees, we cannot make paper. The cloud is essential for the paper to exist. If the cloud is not here, the sheet of paper cannot be here either.”
The same goes for the human being of course. You are an independent self, to be sure, but you are also Community and Cosmos, by inherent design, by Nature, or as the Stoics like to say … by Logos. You are an independent person but you were literally born, raised, and are entirely sustained and dependent upon Interdependence. Without a mother, a father, a family, a community, a society, you would simply not exist, in any meaningful or human way. It’s so easy to be oblivious, or to forget, but also without soil, clouds, rain-fall, trees, water, food, sun, you would also simply not exist. In other words, a human being is Self, but also a human being is inherently Community and Cosmos.
Now having well covered the three spheres of existence, and the corresponding three fields, we are well placed to discuss the main stages of work on the Stoic path. In the beginning stages of Stoicism, our energies will be focussed on the two primary spheres of Self and Community. We work mostly on self-development (Logic) and we learn the art of living well in community (Ethics). The first order of business on the path is to cultivate well-being in ourselves, and in relationship to others (partners, families, friends, co-workers etc.), because in truth this is what is most pressing and urgent for the vast majority of people. First things first, as the saying goes.
This whole stage is about addressing our difficulties and sufferings: our anxieties, fears, sadness, alienation, low self-esteem, aloneness, grief … It only makes sense: if we seek well-being, we must first go where it actually hurts, and tend to our weaknesses and wounds. And it is also about building up our personal strengths and cultivating the virtues in us, whether awareness, courage, discipline, patience, compassion, justice …
At the same time, since we are by necessity social beings, we are always embedded and living within various communities, and therefore “fated” to relate. Just think of how much of our lives are made of, and spent in, romantic partnership, family, friendship, work and society! Since we will be in relationship for the rest of our days, and since many of our existential difficulties, aspirations, joys, sufferings, are precisely relational, the whole realm of Ethics is foundational to the whole art of living well. You are always going to be with your self, and you are always going to be relating to others - to various degrees - and so if you seek to live well, it is necessary to make these two realms (Logic and Ethics) a first priority and an on-going one.
What’s bad for the bee-hive is bad for the bee.
– Marcus Aurelius
Learning to develop ourselves, to better cope with our personal difficulties, to grow our strengths and cultivate the Virtues, to relate better in our various familial and social roles, to lighten our baggage and heal … all this grand work of self and relational development corresponds to the “Therapeutic” stage of the path. And in truth, it is not only a stage, but a process we cultivate our whole lives, even though we do get better and better at it with study and practice. It is a stage and an on-going process because since life is change so will we need to continue cultivating the “Therapeutic” dimension to keep adapting and doing well with self and others.
In fact, because so much of the path was “therapeutic,” philosophy itself was known as a “therapy of the soul” and this was, and still is, a great description of the whole philosophical endeavour. We really are, with the whole art of living, caring for our souls so that we may live in greater well-being, within ourselves and within our community of relations. And the best part of this is that philosophy, as a “therapy of the soul,” really works, and when practiced in earnest, it leads to profound and lasting changes for the good.
As the “Therapeutic” dimension of the path unfolds, and we make real gains there, we also gradually enter into the “Illuminative” portion of the path. The “Therapeutic” and “Illuminative” are in reality quite intertwined and reinforce one another. The more we develop our self-awareness, learn about our difficulties and histories, heal our wounds and transform ourselves - all aspects of the “Therapeutic” stage - the more we are illuminating various dimensions of our lives. And what is true for the sphere of the Self also holds for the sphere of Community. As we transform and heal not just our individual selves but also our relational selves, we also learn to see much more clearly into the social dimension of well-being (family, work, culture, society). And this makes an enormous difference.
In other words, the “Therapeutic” dimension of philosophy greatly expands our overall awareness of both our individual and community selves. And the more we practice in the “Therapeutic” dimension, the more we help unfold the “Illuminative” stage of the path.
At the heart of the whole “Illuminative” stage lie two master faculties: awareness and reason. The Stoics had a term for the first faculty, which they sought to cultivate on a daily basis: they called it “Prosochē” or the practice of attention. In order to progress on the path, we have to pay careful, and persistent, attention to the self in relationship to itself (mental activity, feelings, impulses, impressions we receive) and to the self in relationship to community (our relational lives). Because, of course, it is a universal rule that you cannot change anything unless you first perceive it clearly. Again, the Socratic commandment, mentioned earlier, comes into fuller meaning here: the life worth living is the examined one.
If we really wish to live better lives, we must cultivate awareness. And not only is daily attention essential, but so is the exercise of our critical and rational faculties. For indeed, if awareness corresponds to observation (of Self, Community, Cosmos), then we must also examine what has been observed. Namely we must exercise a central Stoic faculty: Reason. It is through the use of our reasoning, or thinking, abilities that we make sense of what we observe, and then assess and make existential decisions.
In Stoicism, these twin faculties - awareness and reason - are considered master practices for they lie at the heart of our responses to pretty much everything that we encounter in our lives (whether mental impressions, feelings, speech, ideas, the actions of others, social events etc.). And we want to emphasize the word “practices”: awareness and reason are skills, and therefore if we wish to become better, we must really work at cultivating them, day in day out. And for Stoics, whether ancient or modern ones, the daily exercise of these faculties lies at the heart of both the “Therapeutic” and the “Illuminative” stages.
Earlier, we explained how the more we practice the “Therapeutic” dimension of the work, and the more we help unfold the “Illuminative” stage. As may be clear by now, the process also works in the reverse. The more we develop our “Illuminative” capacities (awareness, examination, reason), and the deeper and more powerful becomes our “Therapeutic” work. Because to transform and to heal, we really need to carefully observe, examine and understand. These two dimensions of the philosophical path are truly interdependent and mutually reinforcing. The “Therapeutic” is inherently “Illuminative” and the “Illuminative” is “Therapeutic.”
A simple yet powerful example of this is the central Stoic precept of the Dichotomy of Control. This foundational tool of the path is clearly an “Illuminative” principle (based on awareness and examination of reality). Yet when it is clearly perceived, and dutifully practiced, the principle becomes profoundly “Therapeutic.” For indeed, it clarifies, heals and leads to lasting well-being.
Once the practitioner has cultivated these two central faculties for a few years, they become great allies and create a virtuous and ascending circle of greater awareness begetting greater understanding, begetting greater transformation and healing. Truly, the mature combination of the “Therapeutic” and the “Illuminative” are akin to accessing higher powers, which in turn seriously accelerate our well-being and human potential.
It’s important to realise that just like for the “Therapeutic” portion of philosophy, the “Illuminative” dimension is both a stage and an on-going process. Initially, our “Illuminative” skills are centred on the spheres of “Logic” and “Ethics,” because, as we explained earlier, this is what first requires more attention on our part. As time unfolds, and we become more healed and self-realised, more of our “Illuminative” capacity is freed up, and can be applied to the higher sphere of “Physics.” It’s not that before issues relating to “Physics” might not come up, it’s just that we had less time and energy reserves for this dimension; precisely because we must prioritise our inner work and address what is most pressing (healing ourselves and living well with our relations).
In this sense, there is an unavoidable and stage-like quality to the “Illuminative” dimension of philosophy: “Logic” and “Ethics” first, then “Physics.” Furthermore it is necessarily stage-like, and now we briefly enter into very advanced territory, because some of the “Illuminative” faculties that are unfolded in the realm of “Physics” are singularly different from those that are applied in the earlier two stages of “Logic” and “Ethics.” Indeed, in a reversal of the earlier thrust of the work, they precisely require a notable diminishment of mental activity and a general stilling of the cognitive-rational mind.
At the same time, the “Illuminative” is an on-going and life-long process for Stoic practitioners because there is always scope to cultivate its master practices. In reality awareness and reason are central facets of being alive and human, and by correspondence the more we practice them the more alive and human we become. And this is precisely why the “Illuminative” dimension of philosophy is not simply a stage, but more akin to an on-going and life-long process - that will unfold, mature and change as we progress along the three realms of “Logic,” “Ethics” and “Physics.” To seek to observe, examine, reason, make sense of, in other words to seek to illuminate Life itself is really an attempt to fulfil our real human condition and potential - or to live according to Nature, as the Stoics say. Therefore the “Illuminative” faculties in us will always be engaged, in various ways, in “Logic,” “Ethics,” “Physics,” and through all the stages of life.
Finally the last of the three stages of Stoicism is what we refer to as the “Unitive.” Through dedicated practice, the “Unitive” process, as the term implies, brings us into greater and greater unity within the three spheres of Self, Community and Cosmos. The principal aim of the path is learning the art of living well, and when we reach the more advanced stages this manifests as a form of true contentment and harmony with Life itself, in all its dimensions.
When the five senses are stilled,
When the mind is stilled,
When the intellect is stilled,
That is called the highest state by the wise.
They say yoga is this complete stillness
In which one enters the unitive state,
Never to become separate again.
– The Upanishads
As our “Unitive” powers truly mature we come into higher and higher alignment with Self, Community and Cosmos, and this in turn leads to profound and lasting well-being. And this lies at the heart of the motto of the whole Stoic school: live according to Nature. In the last “Unitive” stages of the path, this means to actually live in harmony, or unity, with Nature, which in the ancient sense of the Greek word “Physis” means “all Life” or “the Cosmos.”
The reason the “Unitive” process is last in sequence is that it depends greatly on the work we have done during the “Therapeutic” and “Illuminative” stages. In reality, like we alluded to earlier, the three stages are not separate, but constitute a mutually self-reinforcing whole. Just like the “Therapeutic” and the “Illuminative” were allied forces, so goes it with the “Unitive.” The more we advance in our “Therapeutic” work - tending to what hurts, healing our wounds, growing our strengths - and the more we reclaim lost and wounded parts of ourselves, the more we heal and the more whole we become.
In other words, the “Therapeutic” is quite literally a “Unitive” force, as far as the Self is concerned. And when you work as a counsellor, helping people from all walks of life, you see the “Unitive” power of the “Therapeutic” process unfold over and over again, like the universal pattern that it is. Whether it is anxiety, depression, fear, PTSD, grief, when we heal from these difficult states, we quite literally reclaim various lost and hurt parts of ourselves, and become more whole or united in our bodies, hearts and minds.
And what goes for the “Unitive” powers of the “Therapeutic” with the Self, also applies to the sphere of Community. The more the “Therapeutic” work advances in the social realm, the more we heal, have compassion and are at peace with our relations (family, friends, culture, society). In other words, the unfolding of the “Therapeutic” in “Logic” and “Ethics, ” leads to the “Unitive” in “Logic” and “Ethics.” And in turn, further down the line, this lays the foundation for greater “Unitive” powers in the realm of “Physics.”
Everything that is harmonious to You, Oh Cosmos, is harmonious to me. Nothing that comes to fruition for You, comes to me either too early or too late. Everything is fruition to me of what Your seasons bring, Oh Nature. All things come from You, all things are in You, all things return to You.
– Marcus Aurelius
As you can already imagine, the same process applies with the “Illuminative” in relationship to the “Unitive.” The more we grow in our capacity to illuminate life - through awareness and reason - and the more we comprehend and align ourselves with its various dimensions in Self, Community and Cosmos. Once we truly understand and practice “Illuminative” Stoic principles, such as the “Discipline of Desire” or the “Dichotomy of Control,” these help to unfold our “Unitive” abilities, and we feel more and more united with the various dimensions of Life itself.
Of course, these unfolding forces do not work just in one direction, from the “Therapeutic” and “Illuminative” towards the “Unitive.” Indeed, when we cultivate the “Unitive” dimension of Stoic principles, this has real “Therapeutic” and “Illuminative” effects upon us. For example, when you really understand and practice the “Unitive,” or “physical,” dimension of the “Discipline of Desire” it is very enlightening, in terms of how Life really works. It is also deeply “Therapeutic” in that it helps us to abide in our proper place in the grand order of things and it helps us to heal from our detrimental or unhealthy desires (a force which can wreak real havoc in our lives).
As we have seen, the dimensions of the “Therapeutic,” the “Illuminative” and the “Unitive” operate in the three spheres of Self, Community and Cosmos, and they constitute a mutually reinforcing triptych. However, we must remember that as we practice philosophy, we are nonetheless regularly cultivating these distinct forces in a stage-like process. Like we explained earlier, we begin the path with a clear focus on the spheres of Self and Community, in Logic and Ethics, where we are most in need of help. Thus, in the Stoic tradition, the first stages of the philosophical path are necessarily centred on the “Therapeutic” and “Illuminative” dimensions, applied to the personal and interpersonal realms (Self and Community). This focus remains such for some time, not only by simple necessity - we seek to get better and heal - but also for reasons of prudence and wisdom.
No different. Only different in your mind.
You must unlearn what you have learned …
– Yoda
Indeed, if we neglect the “Therapeutic” dimension, as can happen, and skip ahead to the higher realms of Stoicism in their “Illuminative” and “Unitive” manifestations, first we will have neglected to properly transform and heal ourselves - a central aim of the whole path - and secondarily we risk inflicting serious damages not just upon ourselves but upon others as well.
In other words, before fully wielding “the Force” - or the “Unitive” powers - an aspiring Jedi-philosopher learns to really see, clean, unlearn and heal the Self, through the “Therapeutic” and the “Illuminative.” Otherwise, he or she will poorly access and badly wield “the Force,” and harms will surely follow, both to self and to others. And indeed, across all fields, the world is filled with “leaders” who pretended, or felt, they had higher powers while in fact badly damaging other people. This is one of the main reasons, out of prudence and ethics, why we cannot just rush and jump ahead. The philosophical path must necessarily unfold in gradual stages, within the framework of a tradition and with the guidance of real teachers (as is done on all serious philosophical paths, such as for example Buddhism, Taoism or Zen).
At the same time, while Stoicism requires a stage-like process, from the “Therapeutic” and the “Illuminative” towards the “Unitive,” we have seen how all three forces mutually reinforce one another and constitute a whole, which in reality unfolds gradually and surely, if a prudent and wise method is adopted. So in truth, the stages of Stoicism constitute a form of paradox: they are both sequential and holistically dynamic. We emphasize this because in laying out that Stoicism has a stage-like quality, that really must be respected, we must be careful not to fall into the trap of an excessively goal oriented path (as can happen in some traditions, when they are not fully understood).
The aim of Stoicism is not the achievement of the “Unitive,” or the full realisation of the Logos, or becoming a sage (the Stoic ideal). The aim of Stoicism, wherever we find ourselves in the “Therapeutic,” “Illuminative” or “Unitive” portions of the path, is simply to learn and to practice the art of living well. We are all working at becoming better people (to ourselves, our relations, and the world at large), and we are all trying to lead better, or more virtuous, lives in the here and now. Therefore, wherever we find ourselves in life, and on this noble path, that is exactly where we belong. We are all works in progress and Stoicism welcomes us all, as we are. Indeed, Stoicism has always had the wisdom to know that the destination is the journey, and therefore our aim is not arrival but learning the art of journeying well.