"It is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely and honorably and justly, and it is impossible to live wisely and honorably and justly without living pleasantly. Whenever any one of these is lacking, when, for instance, the man is not able to live wisely, though he lives honorably and justly, it is impossible for him to live a pleasant life."
- Epicurus (Principal Doctrines, 5)
My own ideas on the quote:
There are striking similarities between the Epicurean way of thinking and the original Buddhist school of thought. It has been also suggested that there is a possibility of certain Buddhist influences could have reached Epicurus in his time. Even if there is no direct evidence of such influence, there are striking similarities in their basic approach to life in complex and evolved societies.
On the other hand, when one does analyze life in a more evolved and complex human society, one can end up thinking very similarly in different parts of the world at the same time. This can be the case, if the state of development of the respective societies is similar enough.
Humans are after all at the very heart of it very similar products of the same evolutionary processes everywhere. Cultural developments and cultural artifacts can jiust hide this very basic fact from clear view. The modern Buddhist approach is in many ways also very different from the Epicurean world-view. On the other hand, the Buddhist influences that could have reached Epicurus in time must have been very original and early ones.
The possible influence are so necessarily from a time when Buddhism was not contaminated with influences from neighboring religions; mostly Hinduism. These did bring more and more of the supernatural elements into Buddhism, which originally was just a form of philosophy quite like Epicureanism.
So, they need to from the time before the the layers upon layers of cultural sediments that did eventually come to cover the original ideas in modern Buddhism. It is extremely easy to forget that the original central ideas of Gautama Buddha did not necessitate the existence of deities or supernatural phenomena of any kind.
However, century after century of new layers and most of all of the new loans from most of all Hinduism have added new supernatural features to the original quite atheistic Buddhism.
In fact, it can be claimed that the original thoughts presented by Gautama Buddha in India were quite similar guides for achieving personal happiness, as were those ideas that were a bit later presented by Epicurus in Greece.
One does not need to believe in any kind of deity or gods or even any kind of supernatural forces to follow the Epicurean path. In the end, it is just all about acquiring a new way for seeing ones own true needs more clearly. This way of seeing things is, in fact, quite similar as was the original message of Gautama Buddha.
(This piece was completely refurbished on 9th of September, 2012)
Epicurus is also in Facebook at:
"Epicurus is a key figure in the development of science and the scientific method because of his insistence that nothing should be believed, except that which was tested through direct observation and logical deduction. Many of his ideas about nature and physics presaged important scientific concepts of our time. He was a key figure in the Axial Age, the period from 800 BCE to 200 BCE, during which similarly revolutionary thinking appeared in China, India, Iran, the Near East, and Ancient Greece. His statement of the Ethic of Reciprocity as the foundation of ethics is the earliest in Ancient Greece, and he differs from the formulation of utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill by emphasizing the minimization of harm to oneself and others as the way to maximize happiness."