Meaning

Stoicism truly means. It is the attempt by man to get even with probability. I need not be nasty at all and break the spell of the poem and its message, but I cannot resist some cynicism. A couple of decades later, Cavafy, while dying of throat cancer, did not quite follow the prescription. Deprived of his voice by the surgeons, he used to randomly enter undignified spells of crying and cling to his visitors, preventing them from leaving his death room. Some history. I said that stoicism has rather little to do with the stiff-upper-lip notion that we believe it means. Started as an intellectual movement in antiquity by a Phoenician Cypriot, Zeno of Kition, it developed by Roman time into a life based on a system of virtues—in the ancient sense when virtue meant virtu, the sort of belief in which virtue is its own reward. There developed a social model for a stoic person, like the gentlemen in Victorian England. Its tenets can be summarized as follows: The stoic is a person who combines the qualities of wisdom, upright dealing, and courage. The stoic will thus be immune from life’s gyrations as he will be superior to the wounds from some of life’s dirty tricks.

Memento Mori

In Meditations Marcus Aurelius wrote “You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.” That was a personal reminder to continue living a life of virtue NOW, and not wait. The French painter Philippe de Champaigne expressed a similar sentiment in his painting "Still Life with a Skull," which showed the three essentials of existence - the tulip (life), the skull (death), and the hourglass (time). The original painting is part of a genre referred to as Vanitas, a form of 17th century artwork featuring symbols of mortality which encourage reflection on the meaning and fleetingness of life. We remind us to not obsess over trivialities, or trying to become famous, make more money than we could ever spend, or make plans far off in the future. All these are negated by death. It’s time we stop pretending otherwise.

Amor Fati

Amor fati is a mindset that you take on for making the best out of anything that happens: Treating each and every moment—no matter how challenging—as something to be embraced, not avoided. To not only be okay with it, but love it and be better for it. So that like oxygen to a fire, obstacles and adversity become fuel for your potential. The flame on the front is inspired by Marcus Aurelius’ timeless wisdom: “a blazing fire makes flame and brightness out of everything that is thrown into it.” The back features an excerpt of the great philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s formula for greatness: “Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it …but love it.”

The Obstacle Is The Way

“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.” - Marcus Aurelius The world is constantly testing us. We set out to do something and it’s more trying than we expect. We face resistance. We get criticized. We run out of options. We experience technical difficulties. What will we do? Marcus would say that the Stoic finds a way to turn every negative into a positive. In this famous line, what he’s suggesting is that—no matter how bad or seemingly undesirable a situation becomes—we always have the opportunity to practice virtue, to use the situation as an opportunity to be our best selves. We don’t control when things get hard, but we always control how we respond. We can show patience, courage, humility, resourcefulness, reason, justice, and creativity. The things that test us make us who we are. The Stoic grows stronger and better with every obstacle they face. They rally to every challenge and thrive as a result. So can you. The front features a great mountain. As the Haitian proverb puts it: Behind mountains are more mountains. One does not overcome one obstacle only to enter the land of no obstacles. No matter how successful we are or will be, we’re going to find things that stand in our path. Our hope is that when you encounter these obstacles, you’ll feel the weight of the coin in your pocket and remember that each obstacle offers a chance to thrive not just in spite of whatever is in front of you, but because of it.

Four Virtues

"If, at some point in your life, you should come across anything better than justice, truth, self-control, courage—it must be an extraordinary thing indeed.” —Marcus Aurelius The Stoics believe in Four Virtues: Justice. Temperance. Wisdom. Courage. Compared to these things, everything else is cheap, if not worthless. Every situation, every moment is an opportunity to exemplify these forms of human excellence. There is no challenge, no problem so big that it does not call for courage, moderation, justice or wisdom. Representing the Four Virtues: a lion (Courage), a man sprinkling water into a jug of wine (Temperance), a set of scales (Justice), and an owl (Wisdom). And an admonition not to exchange the Four Virtues for others—for there is no other set of virtues that will serve you better than these. In a world where so many people seek out empty goals and follow false promises to get what they want, this medallion is a perfect reminder that you can have everything you want if you just make the effort to take the road that leads through virtue. The Four Virtues Medallion is designed to make that effort just a little bit easier.

Premeditatio malorum

“The pre-meditation of evils” is a Stoic exercise of imagining things that could go wrong or be taken away from us. It helps us prepare for life’s inevitable setbacks and develop resilience in the face of uncertainty. We don’t always get what is rightfully ours, even if we’ve earned it. Not everything is as clean and straightforward as we think they may be. Psychologically, we must prepare ourselves for this to happen. Seneca wrote: “What is quite unlooked for is more crushing in its effect, and unexpectedness adds to the weight of a disaster. This is a reason for ensuring that nothing ever takes us by surprise. We should project our thoughts ahead of us at every turn and have in mind every possible eventuality instead of only the usual course of events… Rehearse them in your mind: exile, torture, war, shipwreck. All the terms of our human lot should be before our eyes.” By doing this exercise, Seneca was always prepared for difficulty and prepared to meet any fate. Which is a good thing - because nearly every single one of those things actually happened to him. And from what we know, he faced each with bravery, strength and understanding. and always working that disruption into his plans. He was fitted for defeat or victory. Seneca’s quote “_All the terms of our human lot should be before our eyes.” w_rapped around the border are the situations Seneca instructs us to rehearse: Exile. Torture. War. Shipwreck. Anticipation doesn’t magically make things easier, of course. But the more prepared we are, the abler we are to proceed despite the potential difficulties. With anticipation, we have time to raise defences, or even avoid them entirely. We’re ready to be driven off course because we’ve plotted a way back. We can resist going to pieces if things didn’t go as planned. With anticipation, we can endure.

Summum Bonum

Summum Bonum is an expression from Cicero, Rome’s greatest orator. In Latin, it means “the highest good.” And what is the highest good? What is it that we are supposed to be aiming for in this life? To the Stoics, the answer is virtue. If we act virtuously, they believed, everything else important could follow: Happiness, success, meaning, reputation, honor, love. The Stoics didn’t claim this path was easy, or that it would always be recognized or appreciated by those closest to us, only that it was essential. And that the alternative–taking the easy route or the shortcut even if unethical or immoral–was considered only by cowards and fools. As Marcus Aurelius writes in Meditations: “Just that you do the right thing. The rest doesn't matter. Cold or warm. Tired or well-rested. Despised or honored**. Dying…or busy with other assignments.”** To the ancients, if we let virtue lead the way, every step we take will be safe. In Greek mythology, Arete in Ephesus was the goddess of virtue. The model for us to follow–the embodiment of this idea of doing and living right. It is a simple token that prompts us to do what we know in our hearts is right, even if every incentive or interest pulls us away from that. We live in a world awash with corruption, with selfishness, with cruelty and pain. We need virtue more than ever. We need heroes. We need those who stand up for the common good–no matter the circumstances. We need you to be one of those people.

Ego Is The Enemy

Ego is that outsized sense of self-importance, that malignant self-absorption, a belief that one is somehow inherently better and entitled to more than everyone else, what NBA Hall of Fame coach Pat Riley famously called “the disease of me.” It’s the voice whispering in our ear, alternatively, that we’re invincible or that we suck and everyone is plotting against us. Ego is that toxic force that makes real teamwork, empathy, vulnerability and artistry impossible. Name one situation you’ve ever been in that called for more ego. It repulses advantages and opportunities. It’s a magnet for enemies and errors. Whatever we’re doing in life–whether we’re aspiring to do something, experiencing success or in the middle of difficulty–ego is the enemy every step along the way. The three stages of this cycle: Aspiration. Success. Failure. The purpose of this principle is to remind us to be:

Humble - when ambitious
Gracious - when successful
Resilient - when we fail

These stages circle the wisdom: "Ego sucks us down like the law of gravity." The bust without a head. A reminder that ego can topple us at any moment. In an era that glorifies selfie culture, reality TV, and other forms of shameless self-promotion, the battle against ego must be fought on many fronts.

Sympatheia

Perhaps the most radical idea in all of Stoicism: Sympatheia is the belief in mutual interdependence among everything in the universe, that we are all one. You will find this link between all beings throughout the works of Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, and Seneca. “Meditate often on the interconnectedness and mutual interdependence of all things in the universe. All things are mutually woven together and therefore have an affinity for each other—for one thing follows after another according to their tension of movement, their sympathetic stirrings, and the unity of all substance.” —Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.38 Marcus knew that reminding himself of the limitations of his individual perspective would help him be a better person and a better leader. Taking the ‘view from above’ as he termed it, would challenge his preconceptions down at ground level and help him see the world around him more accurately, fairly and empathetically. Symbolized by the famous 1972 “Blue Marble” earth, which instantly changed man’s perspective on himself. It is a view Marcus Aurelius could only imagine but still understood. The image is a prompt to zoom out of your own bubble and see the world as a whole and understand the interdependence of everyone on it. This is something we can all do. Sympatheia is an invitation to us to take a step back, zoom out and see life from a higher vantage point than our own. It changes our value judgments, weakens the power that luxury and temptation have over us, reduces the seemingly insurmountable differences between people and races and turns the worries of daily life from anxiety attacks to absurdities. You are not alone. You are part of something bigger than yourself. There is a greater good to which we all owe a duty above and beyond our own selfish concerns. Ask yourself: Who am I? What am I doing? What is my role in the world? Are my problems really that big of a deal? Or are they pretty small in the bigger picture? We are all connected and unified and made for one another. The Stoics know it, the Buddhists know it, and so could we. This fact should never be far from our minds.