up:: [[Stoicism MOC]] Tags:: #🌿 Links:: # Everlasting happiness comes from living a life in accordance with virtue One of the main Stoic tenets was that to achieve everlasting happiness you have to live a life in accordance with virtue. Worldly pleasures are second rate because they leave us feeling happy for a moment but quickly dissipate after they are over (See: [[Desire is distortion]]). Virtue is pleasurable for itself. [[The truly heroic person is the one that shows virtue when no one is watching]]. #### Caveats This doesn't mean you should put yourself through purposeful hardship to build virtue. That's [[Masochism isn't the path to virtue|masochistic]]. Putting yourself through a degree of hardship is fine (taking a cold shower) but not something like a concentration camp is extreme. This is one of the main realizations that Siddhartha comes to in Herman Hesse's novel, [[Siddhartha]]. The Buddha himself, learned that prolonged ascetism and deprivement of all desire is in itself another kind of foolhardiness (see: [[Introduction to Tantra#Story of Tantra|Story of Tantra]]). Related: [[Preferred Indifference]] Created: [[24-09-2022]]