Paths to the Present

THE HISTORY OF NATURAL HEALTH, NATURAL HEALING, NATURAL HEALTH AND WELLNESS FROM ANCIENT PHILOSOPHERS TO STOICISM TO THE PRESENT

Eugen Weber wrote quite a remarkable book called Path to the Present. The Path to the Present was published in the new year of 1960. 1960 was the beginning of a new era of dynamism in America and the modern world. America has now reached each zenith as the ultimate superpower in the world, and Europe was its major colony, economically speakin.

Of course, on the other side, there was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic that was a thorn in the flesh of America. But despite that, America was recognized as the ultimate authority on earth.

Eugen Weber was Professor of History at University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). He arrived at UCLA in 1956 after some year of teaching at the University of Iowa. And before that he was teaching at University of Alberta in Canada.

He was educated in Cambridge University. Eugen Weber went on to become one of the great leaders who took a humble public University to make UCLA what it is today. He became head of the History Department in 1965. And later was to be appointed by both students and the senate as the Dean of the Social Sciences.

He was stellar in that role to the point that he was made to be the Dean of College of Letters and Science. The College is the largest academic unit at UCLA.

It encompasses the Life and Physical Sciences, Humanities, Social Sciences, Honors Program and other programs for both undergraduate and graduate students. It is often called UCLA College or the College, which is not ambiguous because the College is the only educational unit at UCLA to be currently denominated as a “college.” All other educational units at UCLA are currently labeled as schools or institutes.

The Paths to the Present was published by Dodd, Mead. Dodd, Mead and Company was one of the pioneer publishing houses of the United States, greatly extolled for its New International Encyclopedia, a successor of the International Cyclopaedia (1884). Initially, The International Cyclopaedia was largely a reprint of Alden’s Library of Universal Knowledge

By this time in 1960, Eugen Weber was fairly a young man of 35 years of age. Though Eugen Weber did not go further back, in the book, when he was tracing paths to the Present, he however started at a critical moment of history. He started tracing the paths to the Present from the Romantics Age. The Romantics Age was anchored by one of the great philosophers Jean Jacques Rousseau who sparked a movement of the return to nature. Nature, argued, Rousseau, is enchanting: powerfully pleasing, appealing, and delightful.

Rousseau was calling us to go back to our roots, our connection with who we are. We are connected with nature, we get fresh air and vitality from nature and not from politicians, political parties, presidents or kings.

And if you look around today, the ideas of Rousseau are rising and gathering strength. We are see such movements as green movement, natural health and wellness as well as natural healing and protection of natural resources.

I want to talk about the personal life of Zeno. Zeno as you might know was a great philosopher who lived around two hundred years before Christ. He was a profound teacher adored and respected so much so that he was considered to be more god than man.

Zeno weaved several strands of philosophy from various angles into one whole coherent philosophy that has come to us as Stoicism. Stoicism stood the test of time, has weathered all forms of attacks, mutilation and abuse. And today the world is now waking up from slumber to embrace Stoicism.

Stoicism is rooted in the understanding of the natural science. As you know at the very core of Stoicism is the teaching that you must harden your mind. Of course this is a simplistic way of explaining Stoicism, but it does make a point.

What does hardening of your mind mean? This is very deep.

To harden your mind comes from the understanding of nature and life in general. Life is ever moving and is not static. The purpose of you hardening your mind and not changing course is to allow nature to work itself.

Let me give you an example, you and your brother are fighting. You are fighting so hard that you have reached a point that you are no longer in speaking terms. So what should you do? You harden your mind and take it calmly. You look at the whole ugly situation and keep quiet, do nothing. So what is the reason and purpose in doing that? The purpose is simple but very deep.

What you are doing when you harden your mind is based on your knowledge of natural life.

In natural life when you have a wound, say for example by accident you cut partvof your hand with a kitchen knife while preparing food. Now you have a cut, a wound.

Naturally and ordinarily what you will do is to wash your hand and keep still, and harden your mind against that pain that is now shooting through your body. Just wait and see things changing by themselves.

Within several minutes the blood will clot and stop bleeding. And further several minutes later the pain will go away, and you will feel yourself at peace. Have you ever noticed that if you have a small to moderate wound you will start feeling excruciating pain, and after that, following from that pain you have deep peace?

That is nature my friend, when you allow nature to take over to do its natural God given work of healing. And the only thing to can really allow nature to do its work is to surrender everything to it. It is to harden your mind not to do things that will sabotage nature to heal the wound.

Still on the wound, that wound after several days and weeks will heal completely by itself.

“Don’t seek for everything to happen as you wish it would, but rather wish that everything happens as it actually will—then your life will flow well.” — EPICTETUS

That is what lay behind the Stoicism concept of hardening your mind when you are confronted with difficulties, adversities or sorrows.  Just harden your mind, and allow nature to do its job for you.

Stoicism is a complex path of living the natural life and letting your mind to be at rest. It is a path of connecting yourself to nature.

Zeno started teaching Stoicism at the age of forty. He was a son of a wealthy merchant. He read and studied Socrates, Plato and Aristotle at a very young age.

There are conflicting accounts from historical records as to the age Zeno died. The dominant account being the one published on Wikipedia.

However I will run with yet another account, one by St. George William Joseph Stock. St George William Joseph Stock is the author of the math treatise Deductive Logic, which was first published in 1889. St George William Joseph Stock also wrote a book called A Guide To Stoicism.

According St George, Zeno lived up to be 98 years of age, afterwards he died full of life and satisfied with the contributions he made to human progress and human evolution. Think about it. Zeno started teaching at the age of forty. And he died at the age of 98. So he has been teaching for 58 years. He was a celebrity philosopher and crowds of people came to listen to him from afar. Think about it, 58 years of solid teaching. Jesus taught only about three years and his teachings turned the world upside down.

Zeno at the age of 98 was still very much healthy, still very much active, still very much wise. Some of the contributory factors for his good vibrant health, according to St George William Joseph Stock was that he ate simple meals consisting of figs, natural home cooked bread and raw natural honey.

Bread you buy from the grocery stores may taste fresh alright, but in a number of cases is loaded with preservatives to extend their shelf life. The making of the bread is about business sense more than bread baking. If you want to be healthier, you can create your own breads loaded with nutritious ingredients, like whole wheat bread made with honey.

We are tracing the paths from history to learn from history even on simple matters.

Making your own bread from scratch, at home; seeing and experiencing the entire value chain until the bread is done is one of those simple natural joys and natural enchanting pleasures that gives you a great sense of satisfaction. This is one of those intangible joys Jean Jacques Rousseau talks about.

We are entering a new territory now, a new avenue where we are beginning to not only enjoy the natural things but also explore them.

I do not want to live this research blog post at the abstract level. So let me descent down and become personal.

One of those natural pleasure exploration that I have went on doing for myself, the extended family and friends was the establishment of my own home based dental practice, in a very simple yet powerful natural way.

In order to share such deep sheer joy of developing this home based dental practice and the great benefits accruing from the dental practice in the form of strong solid teeth, healthy gums, sound breath and destruction of mouth, tooth and gum infections, and total reversals of dental plagues, stopping of toothaches, I wrote a digital book. Please take the time to consider downloading it right here.

We human beings, we express our deep humanity by sharing of personal experiences. That is how we evolve. That is how we learn. That is how we expand our horizons and that is how we develop.

This digital book is a very simple but powerful practice. Check it out.

  • The Sophists
    As the 5th century BC ended a group of philosophers called the sophists appeared. The word sophiste means either one who makes wise or possibly one who deals with wisdom. These… Read more: The Sophists
  • Great Books By Eugen Weber
    Eugen Weber by common concern is the weightest historian in this today. I am exploring his history that is practical by ordinary people and their struggles on life, his great… Read more: Great Books By Eugen Weber

• • •