Stoic philosophy - Business as a distraction from true Life.

 Stoic philosophy is a regular feature of UU A Way Of Life ministries blog which appears on Saturdays.

Most people keep very, very busy. What is all this business about? Some philosophers say business is a distraction from our fears of our mortality, that is the fear that we all will some day die.

Are we bodies with a spirits or spirits with bodies? This is not a cute quip but a serious question. 

Most of us, all of us for some part of our lives, believe that we are primarily bodies. We are taught by others, and/or come to discover ourselves, usually with great pain and suffering, that in fact we are not bodies, but spirits. This is what Jesus was trying to teach us in His crucifixion. Most Christians have failed to get Jesus' point. The idea that Jesus died for our sins sacrificing His body as some sort of blood atonement is a sick and insane belief. Jesus was trying to demonstrate the opposite - that the body can be killed but the spirit is alive and well.

As Senca tells us, this lesson, that we are spirits not bodies, is hard to learn. It is difficult because we are focused on our fears instead of on our love and Creation's love for us.

Seneca encourages us to set our business aside and start living with an awareness of the Divine. It is outside of business, sitting with our fears of bodily death, and moving past them, that we find peace and bliss. Jesus told us clearly that the way to the Kingdom is "to love as I have loved."