In Buddhism, it’s said that “life is suffering”. Though some Stoics may argue that this is not the Stoic view on life, it does seem to be unequivocally true that the philosophy of Stoicism exists because of that very fact – that life is suffering. Stoicism, like all philosophies, only exists because we must contend with that fact. Suffering, then, they seem like the most real thing, and that position could certainly be well-argued. But then the question becomes: if a philosophy is able to successfully transcend the suffering that is life, then wouldn’t that make the tenets of that philosophy even more real than suffering itself? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices