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Robert
October 1, 2025 at 10:58 PM Replied to the thread 2022 Epicurus vs Buddhism Compare and Contrast Thread.Post[…]
I have a similar take. I do feel that the engagement with Buddhism helped prepare me, though--not sure what would have happened if I'd encountered Epicureanism first! -
Robert
October 1, 2025 at 10:54 PM Replied to the thread 2022 Epicurus vs Buddhism Compare and Contrast Thread.Post[…]
This makes a lot of sense. It also helps explain a phenomenon that used to puzzle me; I'd experience these very nice states of tranquility during meditation, often with a feeling of bliss mixed in there as well, and it would feel like I'd accessed… -
Rolf
October 1, 2025 at 11:16 AM Replied to the thread Happy Birthday General Thread.PostHave a great one, Adrastus!! -
Kalosyni
October 1, 2025 at 11:13 AM Replied to the thread 2022 Epicurus vs Buddhism Compare and Contrast Thread.PostThis Vatican Saying comes up:
VS54. We must not pretend to study philosophy, but study it in reality, for it is not the appearance of health that we need, but real health.
I always interpret this as a combination of both physical and mental health.
And this… -
Adrastus
October 1, 2025 at 10:22 AM Replied to the thread Happy Birthday General Thread.PostThank you so much, Kalosyni and Cassius!
I believe it shall be a very good day. -
Kalosyni
October 1, 2025 at 9:00 AM Uploaded the image Personal Narratives.Image/Video -
Cassius
October 1, 2025 at 7:47 AM Replied to the thread Forum Operation Update.PostThanks Martin. Mine have come back too even though I am not aware of having fixed anything. Weird. -
Kalosyni
October 1, 2025 at 7:11 AM Replied to the thread Happy Birthday General Thread.Post -
Cassius
October 1, 2025 at 4:08 AM Replied to the thread Happy Birthday General Thread.PostHappy Birthday to Adrastus! Learn more about Adrastus and say happy birthday on Adrastus's timeline: Adrastus -
Martin
October 1, 2025 at 2:29 AM Replied to the thread Forum Operation Update.PostYes, I have the icons/avatars on my screen instead. -
Kalosyni
September 30, 2025 at 6:34 PM Replied to the thread 2022 Epicurus vs Buddhism Compare and Contrast Thread.Post[…]
I never considered myself an "intense" meditator. Some of the people attending the Buddhist group would be meditating every day for 40 minute sessions, at home.
For me it might have been just 5 or 10 minutes at home, but on Sundays I would attend the… -
Robert
September 30, 2025 at 6:00 PM Replied to the thread 2022 Epicurus vs Buddhism Compare and Contrast Thread.PostKalosyni , I'm always interested to hear about the experiences/trajectories of others who have been involved with Buddhism at some point, so thank you for sharing yours--and for the links. Some of those communities look inviting.
I still feel gratitude… -
Kalosyni
September 30, 2025 at 2:49 PM Replied to the thread VS14 - "Occupied" vs. "Without Allowing Himself Leisure.".Post[…]
Is this perhaps coming up because of the differences in ancient Greek language vs modern Greek language?
Also, could it imply "being busy and therefore not getting around to studying the true nature of things" and then coming to one's death without… -
Pacatus
September 30, 2025 at 2:44 PM Replied to the thread 2022 Epicurus vs Buddhism Compare and Contrast Thread.PostI seem to recall that Douglas Bates (whose site Kalosyni linked above), in his book Pyrrho's Way: The Ancient Greek Version of Buddhism – a thick, small-print tome in paperback – said that he gave up meditating because there was no record of… -
Bryan
September 30, 2025 at 2:10 PM Replied to the thread VS14 - "Occupied" vs. "Without Allowing Himself Leisure.".PostYes the take-away from VS 11 seems to be a reminder to always hold in mind the goal of tranquil activity -- that we want to be tranquil without becoming listless, and we want to be active without becoming agitated.
On the original topic, I wanted to point… -
Kalosyni
September 30, 2025 at 1:55 PM Replied to the thread VS14 - "Occupied" vs. "Without Allowing Himself Leisure.".PostRevisiting Vatican Saying 14 ...
...rushing around without considering that life has a finite length of time.
If what you do is always done with the thought that you have wisely chosen what you are doing and you know (and remember) that you only have a… -
Cassius
September 30, 2025 at 11:43 AM Replied to the thread Forum Operation Update.PostMartin are we speaking about the same thing? Mine is showing this as an example from the "Latest" page (this used to be a set of icons, now it's the text of the names)
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Martin
September 30, 2025 at 10:46 AM Replied to the thread Forum Operation Update.PostIt shows the avatars on my PC screen as usual. -
Cassius
September 30, 2025 at 10:35 AM Posted the thread Forum Operation Update.ThreadIt has been reported that the "users online" right sidebar box (displayed at very bottom if you have a small screen device) has begun displaying user names in text rather than showing their avatars as normal. This applies to both users on in the last 24… -
Kalosyni
September 29, 2025 at 9:43 PM Replied to the thread 2022 Epicurus vs Buddhism Compare and Contrast Thread.PostThomas Jefferson had this to say about ancient philosophers (in the forward letter of his "Jefferson Bible"):
[…]
And it does seem that much of this could be said of Epicurean philosophy. -
Kalosyni
September 29, 2025 at 9:27 PM Replied to the thread 2022 Epicurus vs Buddhism Compare and Contrast Thread.Post[…]
Started briefly with a Tibetan Buddhist group, then interspersed for a few times with a visit to a bay area Soto Zen Center, also once attended a Thai Forest Tradition short retreat for lay practitioners, and my main practice of several years of… -
Robert
September 29, 2025 at 8:33 PM Replied to the thread 2022 Epicurus vs Buddhism Compare and Contrast Thread.PostKalosyni Glad to meet another Epicurean former Buddhist! Were you affiliated with a particular Buddhist school/tradition? I started off with Zen but gravitated towards Theravada, in part because I like reading those ancient texts.
Yes, the idea of… -
Eikadistes
September 29, 2025 at 2:54 PM Replied to the thread 2022 Epicurus vs Buddhism Compare and Contrast Thread.Post[…]
I include a brief mention of those parallels in my paper about holy shit. There is a historical possibility that Nāgārjuna (the founder of the Madhyamaka philosophy, one of the primary influences of Mahāyāna Buddhism which represents the majority of… -
Pacatus
September 29, 2025 at 1:22 PM Replied to the thread 2022 Epicurus vs Buddhism Compare and Contrast Thread.Post[…]
Undoubtedly the best scholarly introduction to Pyrrhonism is Adrian Kuzminski’s Pyrrhonism: How the Ancient Greeks Reinvented Buddhism. Although Kuzminski uses (particularly Nagarjuna’s) Buddhist philosophy as a helpful interpretive lens, the book… -
Kalosyni
September 29, 2025 at 9:00 AM Replied to the thread 2022 Epicurus vs Buddhism Compare and Contrast Thread.Post[…]
There are within ancient Theravadin Buddhist texts - the Pali Sutta - certain passages which point to how conciousness is dependent on factors (Eye-consciousness: Arises dependent on the eye and visible forms. Ear-consciousness: Arises dependent on… -
Robert
September 28, 2025 at 8:58 PM Replied to the thread 2022 Epicurus vs Buddhism Compare and Contrast Thread.PostEikadistes
This thread is of great interest to me. I was involved in Buddhism, fairly seriously at one point, for more than a decade. It's what finally led me to Epicureanism: in a nutshell, I saw that Epicureanism contains many of the things I like… -
Martin
September 28, 2025 at 10:29 AM Replied to the thread On Latin and Cicero's eloquence.PostThe meme seems to be at least 7 years old. I found no definite source. -
Martin
September 28, 2025 at 10:28 AM Posted the thread On Latin and Cicero's eloquence.Thread -
Cassius
ThreadSeptember 28, 2025 at 9:12 AM I can't endorse or oppose this book, but this might be worth checking out from a post by Peter Forster at Facebook in the Epicurean group:
I'd like to recommend this book which debunks quantum mysticism. Although it's not related to Epicurean Philosophy I… -
Cassius
September 27, 2025 at 7:49 PM Replied to the thread Episode 301 - TD29 - Cicero Accuses Epicurus Of Improperly Separating Virtue From "The Good".Post -
Cassius
ThreadSeptember 27, 2025 at 7:48 PM Welcome to Episode 301 of Lucretius Today. This is a podcast dedicated to the poet Lucretius, who wrote "On The Nature of Things," the most complete presentation of Epicurean philosophy left to us from the ancient world.
Each week we walk you through the… -
Kalosyni
September 26, 2025 at 2:37 PM Replied to the thread On the Good King According to Homer (Overview).PostFurther Philodemus study resources pertaining to "The Good King..." :
https://www.classicalstudies.org/annual-meeting/231fish
https://www.jstor.org/stable/297438
https://www.academia.edu/104512832/Some…ording_to_Homer
… -
Kalosyni
September 26, 2025 at 2:24 PM Posted the thread On the Good King According to Homer (Overview).Thread -
Kalosyni
September 26, 2025 at 1:56 PM Replied to the thread Improvement of Society and the Role of Work.PostFurther thoughts from the quote from above website entry:
[…]
I just realized that the author of this short entry contradicts himself, because he wrote that perfect implementation is unattainable... and ....therefore perfect technology (where no one needs… -
Cassius
September 26, 2025 at 11:30 AM Replied to the thread Episode 300 - TD28 - An Epicurean Twist On The Legend of King Canute.PostEpisode 300 of the Lucretius Today Podcast is now available. Today we mark our 300th episode, and in reflecting we end up with an episode entitled: "An Epicurean Twist On The Lesson Of King Canute"
[media]https://www.spreaker.com/episode/67909782/media -
Cassius
September 26, 2025 at 10:56 AM Replied to the thread Episode 300 - TD28 - An Epicurean Twist On The Legend of King Canute.PostReferences in this episode:
King Canute and the Tide:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Canute_and_the_tide
Nietzsche on Dictating To Nature:
[…] -
Eikadistes
September 26, 2025 at 10:12 AM Replied to the thread 2022 Epicurus vs Buddhism Compare and Contrast Thread.PostHuh ... I guess my brain is set to auto-update my file on the Dhammapada once a year.
Anyway, I came back to ask myself the exact opposite question, for an unrelated reason, and I came across these verses that strike me as being very "epicurean" in tone:
… -
Kalosyni
September 26, 2025 at 9:40 AM Replied to the thread Happy Birthday General Thread.Post -
Kalosyni
September 26, 2025 at 9:13 AM Posted the thread Improvement of Society and the Role of Work.ThreadI happened upon this page: "What would make the best society?", which has a number of entries, and found this to be a rational answer, and it ends on an "Epicurean" note.
[…] -
Cassius
September 26, 2025 at 4:11 AM Replied to the thread Happy Birthday General Thread.PostHappy Birthday to Pimagus! Learn more about Pimagus and say happy birthday on Pimagus's timeline: Pimagus -
Cassius
September 24, 2025 at 6:36 PM Replied to the thread How to place Epicureanism in relation to the modern tool of the scientific method.PostThis is the level at which these issues of what "science" says really concern us. This, from that article, is what I would say Epicurus was concerned about too.
[…] -
Kalosyni
September 24, 2025 at 6:08 PM Replied to the thread How to place Epicureanism in relation to the modern tool of the scientific method.PostAristotle...
[…]
Here is an interesting article - "Why does Francis Bacon Criticise Aristotle in the Novum Organum?"
https://medium.com/@byte-pages/wh…um-e0377168370a -
Robert
September 23, 2025 at 8:44 PM Replied to the thread How to place Epicureanism in relation to the modern tool of the scientific method.PostThank you for these resources, and for the topic! The question has been on my mind as well, as I've been seeking to learn more about the vectors o influence that connect Epicurus with later empiricists, e.g. Locke. I know very little about Locke, hut… -
Kalosyni
September 23, 2025 at 1:56 PM Replied to the thread How to place Epicureanism in relation to the modern tool of the scientific method.PostHere at this link is a diagram on inductive and deductive reasoning in the scientific method:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Indu…ific_method.png
[…] -
Kalosyni
ThreadSeptember 23, 2025 at 1:40 PM I'd like to compare the tools of the Epicurean canon with the tools of the modern scientific method. Firstly, it is important to understand what the scientific method is.
Here is a good article excerpt on the scientific method (source link posted below):
… -
Bryan
September 23, 2025 at 12:30 PM Replied to the thread Epicureanism as the spiritual essence or 'religion' of an entire community.PostWe'll need to keep in mind that "religio" is a "bad" word in Lucretius, with implications of being bound up by nonsense, (ligō = “to bind”) -
Kalosyni
September 23, 2025 at 10:52 AM Replied to the thread Epicureanism as the spiritual essence or 'religion' of an entire community.PostThis thread has had a long and winding road (and haven't re-read through before typing this...and it may need to be summarized or outlined for key points that have come up).
This morning I was thinking about "The religion of De Rerum Natura", or other… -
Cassius
September 23, 2025 at 6:50 AM Replied to the thread Episode 295 - Plutarch's Absurd Interpretation of Epicurean Absence of Pain.Post[…]
Since that is the analogy that is explicitly stated at the opening of Lucretius Book 6, I think you are on firm ground:
[…]
also:
[…]
What you wrote is very clear and makes complete sense. When you see that the vessel has a limit then you see that it can… -
Rolf
September 23, 2025 at 5:13 AM Replied to the thread Episode 295 - Plutarch's Absurd Interpretation of Epicurean Absence of Pain.PostHey folks! I’ve been pondering this again and it seems as if “absence of pain” as a concept denoting the limit of pleasure is primarily intended as proof that a life of consistent pleasure is possible and attainable. If pleasure had no limit, then we’d… -
Julia
September 23, 2025 at 3:16 AM Replied to the thread Forum Glitch 09/22/25 And Recovery - Notice To Users.PostThank you for all the work and effort you do to keep the forums up and running.It is very much appreciated! 🏆
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