Reflecting on Words of Wisdom

[Tiga KParticipant 1693]

When reading something, whether it be a philosophy manual or religious text, how do you like to “digest” the wisdom?

Over the past two or three months, I have begun to study the philosophy of Skepticism via Epictetus’ Enchiridion. The work is composed of a collection of aphorisms, averaging around maybe a couple of paragraphs long. I have found that I like to focus on a group of four per month. Every Tuesday and Thursday morning, I take ten or fifteen minutes before class to read over the aphorisms a minimum of a couple times each. Over the course of the week, I keep them in my mind and I have noticed the following: by the end of the month, I have been able to attach a personal example to each aphorism; how it is related to an area of my life that I can improve upon or need to remain vigilant about.

So, like I said, how do you like to learn from a philosophical or religious text.

[HitmanParticipant]

read and be still.
quiet contemplation works best for me.
they may be ideas alien to us at first,
then they begin to make sense.

[RoyDalParticipant]

I am a big fan of Epictetus. What I like to do is read a certain philosopher, set his books aside, read a different one, then come back to the first one after he has had time to sink in.

Society asks MGTOWs: Why are you not making more tax-slaves?

[Jan SobieskiParticipant 28791]

I find that I have to read them several times over period of time. Sometimes I even take notes like in school.

At the end I distill it down to a 1-2 page cheat sheet.

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[Tiga KParticipant 1693]

Skepticism is purposeful retardation.

Thanks for typing that, you made me realize I made a typo in my original post. It should be Stoicism, not Skepticism.

[Tiga KParticipant 1693]

Jan Sobieski wrote:

I find that I have to read them several times over period of time. Sometimes I even take notes like in school.

At the end I distill it down to a 1-2 page cheat sheet.

I like that. I might make a diagram to help visualize how the aphorisms relate to one another. As I understand it, the first one summarizes the whole philosophy of “there are things within our power, and things beyond our power” and then the other aphorisms give examples of the philosophy in everyday living.

[alchemistParticipant 484]

I also take notes, I write down parts relevant to me and elaborate on what they mean to me and how this knowledge can change my life.
It’s acctually very similar to your method Tiga K, except on paper 🙂

[ShinyParticipant 2307]

Walking. Thinking about stuff while moving helps me – get’s the blood flowing and also the rhythm of the walking helps, almost like a mantra. Plus the part of your brain focused on your movements acts like a kind of white noise, occupying part of your mind so you don’t get distracted while the thinking part does its thing.

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