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5 Things To Avoid According to Pythagoras and His Followers

By Effluo | Published February 15, 2022 | 1 Comment

Pythagoras and his followers may be long gone, but they are not forgotten.  Pythagoras beliefs and teachings remain as relevant today as they were 2500 years ago.   You may know him as a mathematician and have studied his Pythagorean Theory in your Algebra class.    Aside from mathematics, Pythagoras was associated with, and excelled in; philosophy, science, medicine, music, astronomy, and religious mysticism. 

He literally had a cult following, a secret society he developed with rules that both Pythagoras and his followers were keen on adhering to.

Pythagoras beliefs are best captured in “The Golden Verses of Pythagoras”.  These verses are a collection of rules that Pythagoras and his followers lived by.  14 Rules to Live By article provides a high-level overview.

Within “The Golden Verses”, Pythagoras and his followers were very particular on 5 things they specifically focused on overcoming and conquering. The following is a list of these verses out of their teachings.

09. Know that all these things are as I have told thee; and accustom thyself to overcome and vanquish these passions:  10. First gluttony, sloth, sensuality, and anger.  11. Do nothing evil, neither in the presence of others, nor privately; 12. But above all things, respect thyself.  

Pythagoras

In short, Pythagoras and his followers avoided gluttony, sloth, sensuality, anger, and doing evil.  So, let’s unpack these further.

1 Gluttony

This term may not be very popular today; you know it as overeating or overindulgence.  Why would gluttony be one of the first passions listed?  As the first one to overcome and vanquish?  Interestingly, Pythagoras was on to something. Overindulgence will typically lead and cause the remainder of the passions, and therefore should be acknowledged first and vanquished. Pythagoras and his followers knew that gluttony has negative physical and emotional consequences.

Physical consequences of gluttony lead to obesity and lack of physical stamina.  If your health is failing, nothing else matters.  If you don’t have the energy to go through the day, it is hard to focus on anything else.

Emotional consequences result in a vortex of cause and effect. Negative emotions often lead to overeating and, as a result, bring out more negative emotions, that again lead to more overeating.  This is a vicious cycle, and should be avoided at any cost.  

There are two types of hunger, physical and emotional.  We eat when we are stressed, bored, sad, etc. Eating will satisfy the physical need, but not emotional.  It is imperative that you learn to identify the differences and separate them out. Stay alert and mindful of the fact that there are different triggers for overeating.  Satisfy your physical hunger by eating, and satisfy your emotions by acknowledging them and addressing the underlying issues. 

2 Sloth

The second passion to overcome is sloth.  Yet another antiquated term, that simply means laziness.   Again, similar to gluttony, laziness is tied to both emotional and physical aspects of our well-being.  Psychologists today correlate causes of laziness to both physical and emotional factors.  No one is intrinsically lazy; it results from low energy levels or lack of motivation. 

From a physical perspective, laziness is directly tied to your energy levels.  When you overeat, most of the energy will be used to digest the big meal.  If you undereat, you will not have enough energy because energy comes from food.  When you skip that exercise, you will have lower levels of energy because exercise creates extra energy.  Without the physical energy, you literally will not have the strength to pursue your goals and reach your dreams. 

From an emotional perspective, laziness can be caused by a lack of interest in the task, lack of motivation, or being overwhelmed.  How often have you put something off because it was too complicated to finish?  Feelings of fear and hopelessness have proven to cause inaction and drain all joy out of any task. Similarly, if you are not interested in the task, you are not motivated. What ends up happening is procrastination, or as Pythagoras and his followers liked to call sloth.

Whatever the cause of sloth may be, the faster you address it, the sooner you can get on to accomplishing your goals and living your best life possible.

3 Sensuality

The third passion to vanquish is sensuality.  The word sensuality is derived from the word senses.   Our senses include touch, sight, hearing, taste, and smell.  Extreme preoccupation with gratifying our senses leads to sensuality.  Today, psychologists associate extreme preoccupation with own sensual desires as narcissistic personality disorder.   It is a medical condition and should be diagnosed by a medical professional.  The less extreme form of narcissism is selfishness, and that is something that most people do have and should take care to address.

This passion of sensuality is also tied to physical and emotional cues.   Senses of touch, sight, hearing, taste, and smell are all physical and are very necessary.  They make life enjoyable and interesting.  On the other hand, they are also closely tied to emotions.  Pythagoras and his followers understood that very well and ensured that they are not using the physical senses to address emotional issues.  Doing that leads to sensuality and as we know it today, which may in turn lead to an actual psychological disorder.

It is important to understand and address the underlying emotions that may drive a specific action.  Low self-esteem and low self-confidence lead to increased selfishness.  Increased selfishness leads to increased sensuality, gluttony, and sloth, which in turn begin the cycle of the downward spiral.

4 Anger

The fourth passion to vanquish is anger.   So, of all of the emotions, why did this one get called out?  I believe that Pythagoras and his followers understood what psychologists tell us today.  According to Psychology Today anger is not a primary emotion.  It is a result of negative emotions such as hurt, fear, guilt, etc.  Simply put, anger allows us an escape for negative feelings.  So, instead of dealing with the negative emotions, anger gives us an escape.

Is it possible to vanquish anger? Well, that is open for debate.  Pythagoras, however, seemed to believe so.  The key to vanquishing anger is to understand the specific triggers for this secondary emotion.   By addressing the underlying triggering emotions, it is possible to vanquish anger. You will no longer need to escape negative feelings through anger but will be able to address them and deal with them accordingly.     

5 Do Nothing Evil

Finally, the fifth thing to conquer is evil.  Specifically doing nothing evil in public or in private.   This is at the same time a simple concept and a very difficult concept to understand.  What is evil?  It is something that causes harm to self or others, it is the opposite of good.  In other words, anything that harms, that does not build you up or brings you energy and strength.  This can be either negative emotions or negative actions.

It is a beautiful culmination of everything that was listed previously.  Pythagoras pointed out specific actions such as gluttony, sloth, sensuality, and anger that you should avoid.  He finally concluded that reaching your ideal self is not only limited to the listed actions, but is expanded to anything else that can bring you or others harm.

Above All Respect Yourself

Pythagoras completed the list of things to be avoided, by emphasizing what we should do. 

12. But above all things respect thyself.

Pythagoras

Self-Respect is a powerful tool that will help in vanquishing all of the listed passions. Removing gluttony, sloth, sensuality, anger, and other evils will raise your self-respect, which in turn will make it easier not to fall into the trap of these passions. 

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