Hi,
Many thanks for the Welcome.
I'm not sure I would have been able to articulate exactly what I was looking for at the time, but I began reading everything I could on philosophy and religion and this led me on a journey thru the major religions, and the Hellenistic Philosophies and I have until recently been interested and doing my best to practice Stoicism.
Whilst this has been helpful I returned to Sarah Bakewell's book on Montaigne and this threw up a lovely image where she illustrated that Stoics are like Boxers (Training themselves to take punches) while Epicureans are more like Oriental Martial Arts practioners. (Training themselves to step aside from punches). This resonated with me insomuch I'd be happier if I turned my vision from concentrating on "terrible" things to concentrating on the more positive.
I was also struck by:
“Nothing satisfies the man who is not satisfied with a little,” and “Don't spoil what you have by desiring what you don't have; but remember that what you now have was once among the things only hoped for.”
This reminds me to "be here now" something I liked about Stoicism and Buddhism.
I've also found the Epicurean system which allows us to judge whether the things we let into our lives deserve to be there, (eg is it natural and is it necessary) rewarding as ways to living well.
So with all the rambling set aside, that explains a little of why I'm here. I've also been impressed by the content and forum discussions here and so I'd like to continue to develop and deepen my understanding of the Canon, Physics and Ethics (acknowledging I've only scratched the surface) and in time put into practice Epicureanism.
