We get asked often about daily practices to better apply Epicurean philosophy.





My thought on daily practice is in three areas:





(1) Read and get familiar with the core texts. Many people read the Menoeceus letter and seem to stop. The Herodotus letter is very important, and you should eventually work yourself through Lucretius and Diogenes Laertius and even the fragments of DIogenes of Oinoanda, and also Cicero's Torquatus section of On Ends. You're not going to really understand the philosophy til you go through these yourself and can say "now I see why Lucretius was talking about x, y, and z." it may seem like he is droning on and on about unimportant matters, but you need to see *why* Lucretius / Epicurus thought those areas were important.





(2) Find a place to talk with like-minded friends about Epicurus, preferably locally, but online if necessary. Epicurus specifically advised this to live as a "god among men", and he also advised:





(3) Prepare your own 'outline' of Epicurean thought as you work through it. That specific advice is given in the letter to Herodotus. You don't always need the details of the philosophy, but you regularly need the main points, and you can't internalize what the "main" points are unless you identify them in your own mind and see how they relate to, and arise from, the details.