Thank you for the welcome, Cassius and it's a pleasure to meet you all!
I believe it's fair to state the reasons of my presence on this forum, as I will probably post and reply less often.
In the past decade I have been going through tough times and sought advice from people that lived before on how to live a good life. I briefly studied pre-socratic philosophers, Socrates, the Stoics, but didn't feel their teachings to be bringing fulfilment. I then decided to investigate other Greek philosophers and, for a time, avoided Epicurus on the grounds that he's advocating hedonism - hedonism, much of what's plaguing our society today.
But if one does not investigate all possible options, weighing the good and the bad before making a decision, how can one decide what makes a good life? So I bit the bullet, so to speak, and listened to Wes Cecil's "Epicurus Life and Philosophy" lecture and I realised that I probably have found the missing piece in my search; for the past 3 years I've been practicing and reading Epicurus' teachings as well as reading and listening what other say about his teachings, and, although I confess I am still ignorant in some areas, I began to find the peace of mind I was looking for.
In addition, I found that, at roughly the same time as Epicurus, in Asia two other philosophies became as relevant as Epicureanism: Buddhism and Daoism, both rejecting the idea of supernatural and putting the spotlight on the individual, as the sole responsible for how one lives, but these are for different forums.
Thanks for the reading list suggestion, and as Thomas Jefferson put it in 1819: "As you say of yourself, I too am an Epicurean".
