The Socrates Express: In Search of Life Lessons from Dead Philosophers

by Eric Weiner

Jefferson was less familiar with the teachings of the Buddha, but the similarities with Epicurus are striking. Both men identified desire as the root of all suffering. Both identified tranquility as the ultimate goal of their practice. Both saw the need for a community of like-minded thinkers: the garden for Epicurus, the sangha for the Buddha. And both men apparently liked the number four. The Buddha had the Four Noble Truths, Epicurus the Four-Part Cure. These similarities might be more than coincidental. Two of Epicurus’s early influences, Democritus and Pyrrho, traveled to India and encountered Buddhist schools there. Perhaps Epicurus had learned of the Buddha’s teaching. Or perhaps both men, journeying by different routes, arrived at the same destination.