TruePresence Developer Reference

A Pig and a Sheep grazed together in a meadow, and over time they became companions. The Pig, however, was devoted to the pursuit of every pleasure that came before him. He would wallow in mud for hours, consuming without restraint whatever food he could find. His approach to life was one of unlimited indulgence in every appetite that arose.

The Sheep, by contrast, practiced temperance in all things. Though she had access to the same foods and the same opportunities for indulgence as the Pig, she consumed only what was necessary for her health and strength. She did not spend every moment wallowing and seeking pleasure, but instead devoted time to rest, contemplation, and the company of others.

The Farmer who owned them both observed their different approaches to life. He noted that the Pig, through his excessive indulgence, grew sickly and lethargic. His body, engorged with too much food and without adequate exercise, became weakened and prone to illness. The Sheep, meanwhile, remained strong and healthy, her temperance maintaining her vigor and vitality.

One day, the Farmer came to the meadow with the intention of selecting one of the animals to slaughter for food. He examined both creatures carefully. The Pig, despite his size, was found to be of poor quality—his flesh was weak and unpalatable due to his excesses. The Sheep, by contrast, was found to be strong and excellent, her flesh sweet and nourishing due to her temperate life.

The Farmer selected the Pig for slaughter, considering him less valuable due to his poor quality. The Sheep lived on, having been preserved by the very temperance that had preserved her health.

In this manner, the Pig learned too late that temperance in consumption and pleasure is not a deprivation, but a preservation of true well-being. The Sheep's temperate approach to life had granted her not only health and strength, but ultimately her survival.

Throughout his journey home, Odysseus faced repeated temptations to abandon his quest and remain in places of ease and pleasure. The Lotus-Eaters offered drugged contentment that would have made him forget home. Circe offered comfort, pleasure, and power if he would remain as her consort. The nymph Calypso offered immortality itself if he would stay on her island. At each point, Odysseus's companions sometimes succumbed; they forgot their homes, abandoned their purposes, and surrendered to immediate gratification.

Yet Odysseus's defining characteristic was temperance—the virtue of restraint and the refusal to be enslaved by appetite or pleasure, no matter how seductive. He recognized that permanent ease represented a kind of death to meaningful life. Comfort without purpose, pleasure without dignity, contentment bought at the price of forgetting family and home—these seemed to him a betrayal of his humanity. He maintained his commitment to return home not because home offered more pleasure—Calypso's island offered far greater comfort—but because home represented his authentic life.

Odysseus's temperance was not grim asceticism; he enjoyed the hospitality offered him, appreciated beauty and pleasure when they came. Yet he refused to lose himself in them, maintaining always the capacity to say "no" when pleasure or comfort threatened to distract him from his true purpose. Homer emphasizes that temperance is the virtue that preserves human dignity by ensuring that external goods—pleasure, comfort, wealth—remain subject to our will rather than controlling us. Without temperance, human beings become enslaved to appetite, losing the freedom and dignity that constitute true human flourishing.

A poor fisherman casts his line and catches an enchanted flounder who speaks human words. The flounder begs for his life, claiming to be a prince under a spell. The fisherman, moved by pity, releases him.

When the fisherman returns home and tells his wife, she becomes enraged: "You should have demanded a reward! Return at once and claim wealth!" The fisherman, reluctantly, returns to the water and calls the flounder. The fish, grateful for being spared, grants him a modest cottage.

But the wife, dwelling in comfort, becomes restless. "Demand a palace!" The fish grants it. "Now demand that he make you a queen!" The flounder, though reluctant, makes her a queen. Yet even as queen, she is not satisfied.

"Demand that I make you empress of all the land!" The fish grants this too. Still unsatisfied, she demands to become pope, then the ultimate ruler of all creation. "Make me your equal! I wish to have power over you as well!"

At this, the fish falls silent. The enchantment unravels. The wife and the fisherman find themselves back in their original hovel, poorer than before. The flounder, no longer bound by his promise to a husband seeking only temperance and modest improvement, has vanished.

Temperance—the virtue of accepting modest sufficiency and being grateful for what one has—is essential to happiness. Intemperance—endless wanting, refusal to be satisfied—leads to the destruction of all one has gained. The fisherman's wife learned too late that wanting more than one needs guarantees the loss of everything.

Pythagoras was born around 570 BCE on the Greek island of Samos and became one of ancient philosophy's most influential figures. His greatest contribution involved not mathematical theorems bearing his name but rather his establishment of a disciplined philosophical community at Croton in southern Italy, demonstrating how temperance—moderation and self-discipline—could structure human flourishing. Pythagoras traveled extensively before settling at Croton around 530 BCE. He gathered followers committed to a distinctive way of life emphasizing mathematical and philosophical study combined with rigorous discipline of bodily appetites and emotional impulses. The Pythagorean community became legendary for its strict regimen and the commitment it demanded of members. The Pythagorean community practiced extraordinary temperance. Members followed strict dietary rules, avoiding meat and beans—rules that seemed arbitrary to outsiders but reflected the community's understanding of how food affected consciousness and spiritual development. Members practiced silence, particularly novice members who studied for years before earning the right to speak directly with Pythagoras. Members engaged in meditation and intellectual study. They practiced physical discipline, including physical exercise and movement practices aimed at harmonizing body and mind. These disciplines were not arbitrary but reflected the conviction that temperance of bodily appetite enabled clarity of mind and purity of spirit. Pythagoras taught that the soul's development required moderating bodily impulses. Excessive consumption of food, sexual indulgence, emotional reactivity, and pursuit of wealth distracted from intellectual and spiritual development. Instead, disciplined simplicity—consuming adequate but not excessive food, moderating sexual activity, restraining emotional reactivity—freed mental capacity for important pursuits. Pythagoras emphasized that temperance enabled justice and social harmony. Individuals unable to moderate their own appetites became tyrannized by desire, vulnerable to injustice. Communities where people pursued moderation could establish just relationships based on mutual respect rather than dominated by those pursuing excessive power and wealth. Pythagoras' community pioneered what might be understood as philosophical discipline or systematic mind-training. Members studied mathematics intensively, believing that numerical relationships expressed fundamental principles of reality. They studied music, understanding harmony as reflecting mathematical proportions. They studied the movement of heavenly bodies, seeking to understand cosmic order. These studies were not mere intellectual exercises but ways of training the mind to perceive deeper order underlying apparent chaos. The Pythagorean community became influential throughout southern Italy. It eventually encountered political resistance, partly because its emphasis on communal dedication seemed to threaten traditional political structures. The community was attacked and dispersed around 500 BCE, though Pythagoreanism persisted through various philosophical schools influenced by his teachings. Pythagoras himself lived until advanced age, remaining devoted to the philosophical and spiritual vision that had guided the community's establishment. Pythagoras' influence extended far into the future. Plato was influenced by Pythagorean philosophy and incorporated mathematical and mystical elements into his own thinking. The Pythagorean emphasis on temperance, discipline, and intellectual development influenced subsequent philosophical traditions. The medieval Christian monastic movement incorporated Pythagorean ideals of disciplined community dedicated to intellectual and spiritual pursuits. Pythagoras' life demonstrates that temperance—moderate restraint of bodily appetite and emotional impulse—is not joyless deprivation but liberation of mental capacity for intellectual and spiritual development. His community showed that humans could voluntarily embrace discipline not as punishment but as pathway toward higher purposes.