Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Tetrapharmakos - Epicurus

The four rules for happiness stated by Epicurus are being given as:

1. Don't fear God

2. Don't fear Death

3. What is good is easy to get

4. What is terrible is easy to endure

Don't fear God

Even people who believe in God should not fear God all the time. God, if we describe as full of good nature, need not be feared.

Death in inevitable and do not worry about death and life after death. While some religions believe in eternal suffering after death, Hinduism advocates that there are multiple births and deaths and there is no eternal suffering. It is not only one chance for you or your soul. There are multiple chances.

What is good is easy to get: This is being interpreted as what is essentially needed is easy to get and do not strain unnecessarily for things which are not really needed and spoil happiness.

What is terrible is easy to endure: Here Epicurus says, injuries and sickness are normal to human beings. They will heal and people ordinarily regain good health. Hence, one should not feel that they are unbearable but have the attitude to endure them and take the pain with understanding and hope that in a short time they will go away and he will be back to healthy and happy state.

Related articles

http://nikki-m.hubpages.com/hub/Epicurus-Tetrapharmakos-and-its-Relevence-in-Todays-World

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrapharmakos

1 comment:

  1. The healing process is a miracle. My life took a turn for the worst a few years ago and it isn't until my birthday last month that I began to see that I'm coming out of the fog and into the light again. Thanks for this post. Happiness, like beauty, is in ourselves.

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