Socrates was an ancient Greek philosopher who was born in 470 BC in Athens [1]. He had quite a following but this also stirred up jealousy among some of the leaders of Athens. As a result, he was falsely accused and sent to court. But instead of begging and pleading as most would do in his situation, especially as the penalty was certain death, he suggested that he was the key reason why he kept them conscious and awake. And due to his services, he should be maintained in honour with free meals in the Prytaneum, a place reserved for heroes of the Olympic games [2] [3]. This was a shock to everyone in the court and resulted in Socrates being sentenced to death. But why would an intelligent man like Socrates, someone who was known for his adroit skills in arguments do such a thing? Some say it was on purpose, to teach his followers another lesson – his final lesson.
But what could this lesson be? Acceptance! Socrates, one of the wisest men who ever lived knew that rebelling, fighting against and not accepting the current situation at hand only lead to despair, discomfort and futility.
“When the friendly jailer gave Socrates the poison cup to drink, the jailer said: "Try to bear lightly what needs must be." Socrates did. He faced death with a calmness and resignation that touched the hem of divinity.” - Dale Carnegie, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living
In the blog post "Acceptance: The Key To Your Liberation", we discussed the power of acceptance and how to implement acceptance in our daily lives. However, can we really exercise acceptance so easily in the face of death? Well, there's a much more recent example of a happy acceptance of death. A Russian spy smiled moments before his execution by a Finnish soldier in 1942. A photograph of this incident is given below [4]:
These wise men have demonstrated the power of acceptance, even in the face of death. And if they can practice acceptance, even in the worst-case scenario where death is imminent, why can't we? From this point onwards, whenever we are in a situation that is not to our liking, let's before anything else, practise acceptance. For it is with acceptance we become calm, conscious and take back our power. With these chains of enslavement evaporating in light of our new attitude, we stand the best chance in constructing a plan to move forward from the corner life has backed us up in. Free yourself – it only takes accepting the situation mentally!
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