Eudaimonia - A Personal Take on an Aristotelian Philosophy: A Reflective Essay

A personal reflection on the experience of having been to a circus. A connective exploration of Aristotle's Eudaimonia.

We live in a society where the valuable and the valued don’t mean the same, sadly. People may choose to align their lifestyles to suit individuality. However, staying true to yourself by walking your path may not always earn a due response. This may sound counterintuitive to individualism in the first place because ideally, what’s believed is that, one must not call for internal emotional swaying when imprinting your own footsteps on the sands of your life-trajectory. One must consciously stay anchored in what resonates with the self. However, we’re all humans after all, and situations can get overwhelming; feeling lost or let down may feel unavoidable, when a greater segment of the populace around seems to be plotting against you. Speaking from personal experience, stoicism feels beyond reach when your ideals, visions, perspectives, and your core are attacked. It’s not very pleasant to have your near as well the distant, wrinkle their nose in disdain at you. The path that lone wolves undertake maybe free from the crowds, but the journey isn’t any easier.

Eudaimonia - A Simple Introduction

My core speaks that every genuine human deserves respect and appreciation for his personal choices, profession and life. But what brightens the light of eudaimonia in me, is authenticity. Yes, authenticity strikes the chord of ecstatic happiness in me. Eudaimonia takes us to the ancient world of Greece, in the times of Aristotle, who actually coined the term. ‘Eu’ and ‘daimon’ respectively mean, ‘good’ and ‘divine spirit’. Together they refer to ‘a flourishing life’. According to Aristotle, when one leads a life in accordance with her true nature or being, she lives a life of eudaimonia. It refers to a state of being while also connoting eternal peace and bliss. When life is led meaningfully by practising virtue and rationality – in Aristotle’s opinion – we tap into the very essence that holds us.

The Experience

The experience of having been to a circus triggered sympathetic joy, or eudaimonia in me, in the sense I found myself in the still waters of the deep sentiment of altruistic compassion. Having enjoyed the thrill of watching incredible performances, and superhuman contortions, an overwhelming feeling of joy lingered for long, much after the show had gotten over. I realised I felt truly happy, not at the fleeting thrill of watching aerial acrobatics, but for the performers. Yes. It was their authentic joy and display of rare talent that moved me. Why? This takes us to the created societal distinction between the valuable and the valued. The performers’ inherent expertise at kinesthetic intelligence is not just rare but also commendable, which makes it valuable, much like all other commonly known-unknown human gifts. However, sadly, only a few earn the limelight, considered praiseworthy and deemed ‘above all’. Others, howsoever profound, are either selectively cherished or not applauded for at all. Not valued. Kinesthetic gifts at the circus, among several others, fall here.

“Most such performers don’t, or haven’t, study/ied much.”

“Oh, just some practice, and anyone can contort and twirl their bodies with perfection.”

“How much do they earn really?”

I admire, how suddenly money and qualifications (socially appreciated) become determinants to judge everything about an individual. It’s truly an art to adopt a reductionist view, and simplify one’s life and potential to earning and people-approved qualifications. Mind you, most don’t bother about your intelligence and knowledge, or in other words, how truly educated you are. Only and only when your degree lifts heads in feared-awe. Otherwise, it’s equal to not having a degree at all. Addressing the scepticism associated with earning, nobody truly wants to wallow in poverty. If people from all over the globe choose such careers, then there is some paying. Anyone who masters the work at hand, and develops necessary skills to progress in their career, is ensured a good pay. This ultimately spirals down to intrinsic motivation. If you find meaning in your profession and are passionate about it, then come what may, nothing, other than you per se, can make you sidetrack. Or, if you are a pragmatist in societal terms, and are willing to dedicate your life to anything, even if it doesn’t personally tune with you, then go ahead and build a marvellous career. But don’t forget to clap for everyone, from all areas of life, from the heart. To sum it all up, make a discreet choice as to what really matters to you, money-making, meaning, or meaningful making of money.

Watching each one perform with aesthetic grace and sincere joy moved me. It would obviously have been an easier choice to walk the road commonly taken, clearly laid out, than trek the path of rubble winding across lonely mountains. But they didn’t. I have a quiet inner knowing that they’re happy where they are, and no one can silence this knowing. I’m happy for them.

Eudaimonia - An Integration

The beauty of eudaimonia is in its nature to flow. It spreads and expands; expands our assumptions about the ‘limitations’ of happiness to, ultimately, erase it. That we can only feel happy for ourselves. Those who claim to live others’ joys as their own are only deluding themselves, and others, with “too good to be true” angelic ideas. They’re only inviting a fatal death to their ‘pragmatism’ and ‘sanity’ in a world where ‘cruelty’ is the norm and the ‘fittest’ survive. Please take a step back to reevaluate collective ideas. My intuition guides me to a feeling that those performers embody eudaimonic living, which arises the eudaimonia in me, ever-present, but sometimes shadowed by the overcast of competition (unhealthy), exaggerated social masking that goes overboard beyond a point, and crude shallow judgement.

Let’s sail downstream the river of eudaimonia, to merge into the ocean of remembrance, of what it means to be and live human. 

Read "Winter - A Philosophy of Inner Wisdom" to gain similar insights into the beauty of practising everyday philosophy.

https://mindtales2024.blogspot.com/2024/12/winter-philosophy-of-inner-wisdom.html 

Gaurav Chandra Tuli