Lessons from Aristotle on the Art of Connection

 Good evening my beloved readers,

Today is another wonderful day sharing amazing content from my currently favourite writer Maria Popova.

This time I bring you the understanding behind the complex yet beautiful concept of FRIENDSHIP as seen through Aristotle's eyes and perception.

Taken from the article cited below:

The Science and Philosophy of Friendship: Lessons from Aristotle on the Art of Connection – The Marginalian

He recognized three types of love — agape, eros, and philia — which endure as an insightful model for illuminating the nature of our relationships. 

Agape is a broad kind of love, the kind that religious people feel that God has for us, or that a secular person may have for humanity at large. Eros, naturally, is more concerned with the type of love we have for sexual partners, though the Greeks meant it more broadly than we do. Philia is the type of love that concerns us here because it includes the sort of feelings we have for friends, family, and even business partners.

Aristotle further classified friendships into three distinct categories: of pleasure, of utility, and of virtue:

In friendships of pleasure, you and another person are friends because of the direct pleasure your friendship brings — for instance, you like and befriend people who are good conversationalists, or with whom you can go to concerts, and so on. Friendships of utility are those in which you gain a tangible benefit, either economic or political, from the relationship. Exploitation of other people is not necessarily implied by the idea of utility friendships — first, because the advantage can be reciprocal, and second, because a business or political relation doesn’t preclude having genuine feelings of affection for each other. For Aristotle, however, the highest kind of friendship was one of virtue: you are friends with someone because of the kind of person he is, that is, because of his virtues (understood in the ancient Greek sense of virtue ethics [and] not in the much more narrow modern sense, which is largely derived from the influence of Christianity.)

Aristotle’s opinion was that friends hold a mirror up to each other; through that mirror they can see each other in ways that would not otherwise be accessible to them, and it is this (reciprocal) mirroring that helps them improve themselves as persons. Friends, then, share a similar concept of eudaimonia [Greek for “having a good demon,” often translated as “happiness”] and help each other achieve it. So it is not just that friends are instrumentally good because they enrich our lives, but that they are an integral part of what it means to live the good life, according to Aristotle and other ancient Greek philosophers (like Epicurus). Of course, another reason to value the idea of friendship is its social dimension. In the words of philosopher Elizabeth Telfer, friendship provides “a degree and kind of consideration for others’ welfare which cannot exist outside

💕 Four Buddhist Mantras for turning FEAR into LOVE 💕

Good evening beloved readers,

How are you today? I'm still doing some web decluttering and among many websites I deleted from my bookmarks I came across yet another article taken from THE MARGINALIAN by Maria Popova. I hope you enjoy reading these pieces as much as I do.

A mantra is therefore not a form of magical thinking, for while there is a sense of magic to how such distillation seems to shift the situation by its very utterance, it is an entirely practical sort of magic, for a mantra simply clarifies, concentrates, and consecrates intent, and all meaningful transformation springs from purposeful, devoted intent.

Thich Nhat Hanh writes:

A mantra is a kind of magic formula that, once uttered, can entirely change a situation. It can change us, and it can change others. But this magic formula must be spoken in concentration, with body and mind focused as one. What you say in this state of being becomes a mantra.

Within this conceptual framework, he offers four mantras for transforming fear into love: 

1. “Mantra for Offering Your Presence.”

The most precious gift you can give to the one you love is your true presence. So the first mantra is very simple: “Dear one, I am here for you.”

When you love someone, the best thing you can offer that person is your presence. How can you love if you are not there? Come back to yourself, look into [their] eyes, and say, “Darling, you know something? I’m here for you.” You’re offering [them] your presence. You’re not preoccupied with the past or the future; you are there for your beloved. You must say this with your body and with your mind at the same time, and then you will see the transformation.

2. “Mantra for Recognizing Your Beloved”

The second mantra is, “Darling, I know you are there, and I am so happy.”

To be there is the first step, and recognizing the presence of the other person is the second step. Because you are fully there, you recognize that the presence of your beloved is something very precious. You embrace your beloved with mindfulness, and he or she will bloom like a flower. To be loved means first of all to be recognized as existing.

3. “Mantra for Relieving Suffering”

Even before you do anything to help, your wholehearted presence already brings some relief, because when we suffer, we have great need for presence of the person we love. If we are suffering and the person we love ignores us, we suffer more. So what you can do — right away — is to manifest your true presence to your beloved and say the mantra with all your mindfulness: “Dear one, I know you are suffering. That is why I am here for you.” And already your loved one will feel better.

Your presence is a miracle, your understanding of his or her pain is a miracle, and you are able to offer this aspect of your love immediately. Really try to be there, for yourself, for life, for the people you love. Recognize the presence of those who live in the same place as you, and try to be there when one of them is suffering, because your presence is so precious for this person.

4. “Mantra for Reaching Out to Ask for Help”

This mantra is for when you are suffering and you believe that your beloved has caused you suffering. If someone else had done the same wrong to you, you would have suffered less. But this is the person you love the most, so you suffer deeply, and the last thing you feel like doing is to ask that person for help… So now it is your pride that is the obstacle to reconciliation and healing. According to the teaching of the Buddha, in true love there is no place for pride.

When you are suffering like this, you must go to the person you love and ask for his or her help. That is true love. Do not let pride keep you apart. You must overcome your pride. You must always go to him or her. That is what this mantra is for. Practice for yourself first, to bring about oneness of your body and mind before going to the other person to say the fourth mantra: “Dear one, I am suffering; please help.” This is very simple but very hard to do.

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Source: The Four Buddhist Mantras for Turning Fear into Love – The Marginalian 

"Love Anyway" - Thank you, Maria Popova!

 Good afternoon, my beloved bloggers!

I hope you are having a wonderful day. I've been really enthusiastic lately about all things related to love, happiness and the idea of feeling every emotion a lot. It started with my obsessive behaviour towards THE SUMMER I TURNED PRETTY (more info about this soon) and then it spread everywhere. 

I've been following a writer for some time now. Her name is Maria Popova. She is the main writer and creator of formerly-known BRAINPICKINGS website and currently rebranded as THE MARGINALIAN. I love the way she writes about everything she finds interesting in life because it really mirrors what I would like to sound like and write about in my own personal writing project.

The latest she uploaded on her beautiful website is an article on LOVE. Reading that, I was immediately drawn to the gorgeous quotation on love and what she said right before: "love alone bridges the impossible and the eternal" 

Isn't it magical? I truly love it. What struck me the most from the whole article is when she quotes a passage from Louise Erdrich’s 2005 novel The Painted Drum:

Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won’t either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself that you tasted as many as you could.

Let THAT sink in, right? Tell me what you think about it.

Thank you for reading!!!

Love you, bye!

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How to Begin Each Day: The Stoic Recipe for Unassailable Sanity and Inner Peace

 Good afternoon my beloved blog readers!!!

I hope you are having a wonderful day. I wanted today to share an amazing and most beautiful excerpt on one highly interesting books I'm willing to start reading very soon: MARCUS AURELIUS - MEDITATIONS.

Not so long ago, I used to receive regular newsletters from a website created by the wonderful Maria Popova. I ended up bookmarking almost all the interesting articles she wrote for a later read because the topics were really engaging to me.

I'd like to share with you the article where I took the excerpt from and maybe interest you in reading Marcus Aurelius as well.

How To Begin Each Day: The Stoic Recipe for Unassailable Sanity and Inner Peace

Enjoy your week ahead and see you soon!

Thank you for reading!

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LEGION - Narrations in Psychology Topics -

I've been obsessed with the concept of including psychology and psychological concepts in shows such as LEGION. I mean the entire premise of the show is amazing for a superhero brand and franchise such as DCU to include topics as deep and relevant as the ones dealt with in this show. 

I've already discussed some of the psychological themes in previous posts so today the topics I'm bringing are further along in the development of the series.

S02E03:

[PART CONTAGION . FIVE]

You've heard of the placebo effect But are you aware of the nocebo effect? In which the human body has a negative physical reaction to a suggested harm. Your mind has the power to create its own physical reality. Why do we yawn when we see others yawn? Throughout history, there have been incidents. The Dancing Plague of 1518... the Tanganyika laughter epidemic... the Hindu milk miracle. Some believe they're a response to stress. Psychologists call it a conversion disorder. In that the body converts a mental stress... to a set of physical symptoms. In this case, a tic, or spasm. And, like any disorder, it can be contagious. This kind of collective behavior is not limited to human beings. What we know is that, in certain communities, under specific circumstances, an involuntary physical symptom developed by one person... can become viral. And spread, from person... To person... To person... Until the entire community is infected. And so, my question to you is, if the idea of illness can become illness, what else about our reality is actually a disorder?

S02E05:

[Chapter 6 CONSPIRACY]

Have you ever seen a shape in a cloud, or a face in a knot of wood? Every few months Jesus appears to the unsuspecting in a piece of toast. Or does he? Human beings are pattern seeking animals. For thousands of years, our survival depended on being able to spot patterns in nature to find predators hiding in the wild. And so now, centuries later, we are still looking, still searching every cloud for faces, as if our lives depend on it. So strong is our belief that a pattern must exist that the human mind will project the pieces that don't fit. So, where the pessimist sees danger hiding behind every back, the optimist sees friendship. Which is why, when we encounter coincidence, we often see conspiracy.