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The Case for Insight
“If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.”
― Epictetus
Enough of improving Epictetus. It seems like everything in Stoicism is about improving, about making yourself better, all the time. But that’s now the only thing I care about.
The concept of insight is superbly interesting, alluring. Just like the concept of hidden knowledge, something buried deep and forgotten by everyone except for a chosen (by themselves) few. Insight, the capacity to see something that has always been there but that you didn’t possess the needed understanding to see it, but now that you do, you’re not blind anymore and you’ve gained insight.
Who’d like to walk blind? Who isn’t interested or curious about existence? Who doesn’t want to search for the philosopher’s stone (maybe hidden in the depths of your mind?)
When I was a kid, I used to ponder over the concept of being sad because I would not be able to invent anything new, or worse, discover anything new. Everything in the world, at least in my eyes, was already discovered or invented. Now I know better, I’ve acquired insight with the years and the world doesn’t do anything than getting more and more interesting. The world is simple and vain for the vain and simple eyes, but complex and alluring to the eyes of these same qualities. The determinant of…
