SENECA

LETTER II

Restlessness is yearning: desires unfulfilled. Desires are either within oneself and within reach or without oneself and out of reach. You have been told that “what nature requires is close by and easy to obtain; all that sweat is for superfluities”. - (Seneca) 

Do you not see how they soil themselves with acts of greed due to their desire for wealth when they could give themselves frugality, which is needed both in wealth as well as in poverty? Do you not see them degrade themselves with acts of flattery, when they could make themselves worthy of their own approval, which is needed both in fame as well as in obscurity? They seek without what they are neglecting within and make themselves undeserving of it. 

Stop your perspiration for gratification; there is only one good: that which you can give yourself. There is only one bad: that which will make you morally worse; and only you can allow that. 

LETTER III

We are born crying, unknowingly, for attention and continue the practice, knowingly, for quite some time; some do forever. Anyone who gives us what we are crying for, we take to be a friend. We must be careful what we wish for; attention is of the same nature as the consciousness from which it emanates. The attention of a dim and lame consciousness will further darken and deform the consciousness that desires any and all attention. Like really does seek like but it is up to us to determine our like, to improve our own self and to then give free reign to seeking. 

Once a likeable like is found, we must commit fully: this is a fellow, this is a friend, and it is unto them that we practice the appropriate virtues such as generosity, in time and in resources. Those who are too generous with their generosity find nothing to give to those who deserve everything. 

This commitment should be awarded not only to whomever is at the top of the class, but to those who cross the threshold too; expect that even the top may fall short of it and do not be afraid to dismiss the whole class. You are looking for gold, not the next best thing in the dirt. 

LETTER V

If I still hold the belief that I have been born into my identity, that identity is something that one can be born into at all, that one’s identity needs to be expressed, showcased and in any way affirmed by anyone or anything, then I am still a very little soul. 

If I still talk about the past conquests of an army that marched in the name of some governing body that administers the patch of land that I was born on as being “my” conquest and “our” patch of land, then I have walked into a cage, for I have made the imagined identity of a mob consisting of past, present and future people my own; their pride, fears, complexes, glories, defeats, dreams and horrors are brooding within me now too. 

If I still think that, much like the victory of a small nation must be recognized by at least most of the world to become history, my little self too must be affirmed, confirmed and recognized by at least most people to become my identity, then I am still very weak. Each objector and denier of global or personal history threatens my existence then; and indeed, don’t wars break out over this? 

The world is not so mean as I make it out to be. My struggle for existence, my fight to be allowed to be, is self-imposed while my true self is always ready to receive whatever higher good I come across: that which neither needs confirmation or affirmation nor even looks for it. 

If I identify with honesty, will I not be honest? 

If I identify with kindness, will I not be kind? 

If I identify with justice, will I not be just? 

Who can affirm me in this; who can deny it to me? And whether I would prefer to be the citizen of this or that country, a part of this or that culture, would that country and culture not benefit from me as an honest fellow, a just citizen, the most? 

I must stop then, at once, to put my worth within the reach of others and start to put it higher, higher still, where it belongs and where no one can touch it. This is what they mean, do they not, when they say: know thyself. 

LETTER IV

It is high time now for us to outgrow the toys and trinkets we have become accustomed to and to not replace them with other playthings. It hardly does any good to throw out the toy house and to go on desiring one in full scale; rather, learn to be at home where you are now and to make your home wherever it is that you must take your leave to, sooner or later. 

And is death not where we are all headed? Does the master not say that “to learn how to live is to learn how to die”? Go on then to your final aim, leave the toys and distractions to those who have a need for them. In your own case, if you see them playing with wooden swords, be reminded of courage, if you see them emulating domestic duties, be reminded of the household and governance that is the universe, of unity and of infinity. If they trip over their toys and cry, be reminded of transience and that profane pleasures are always followed by tears. As you wipe their eyes, be reminded of kinship and your common nature, that you are born for each other. 

“Will you not play with us, have you had enough?” It is not that I had enough, but that I want more. I realize that I do not yet have the highest Good: I am still afraid to die when I could rejoice in life; I am still harsh with others when I could be kind to myself, I am still greedy for what I can’t have when I could be rich with what I do have. I am not yet simple, honest, just, modest, kind and reasonable. 

“Come then, let’s make a start today and I will surprise you with the resonance of your echo; how once spoken, these things ring out and become amplified both within oneself as well as in others.” 

LETTER VI

It is an occasion of utmost joy and pride to the learned person to come to the realization that, a year ago this time, they were being foolish, ignorant of this or that, so silly. They shake their heads with a smile on their faces. The shake refers to the past, the smile to the present and the combination hopes to repeat itself a year from now, and forever thereafter. 

While foolishness is within all individuals and merely indicates the absence of rational and proper thought, genuine fools are those who are hardened in their condition and try to escape their better judgements. They have a deep-rooted aversion to any instance of the realization of having been foolish; a realization they could only avoid either by being born wise or by never replacing the present thought with the better thought, act and belief. The prior is impossible, the latter is consistent foolishness. So it is that their very aversion to foolishness becomes their method for becoming fools. 

Test yourself, examine your beliefs; perhaps they are still worthy of you or perhaps they no longer deserve you. Both a failing and a passing grade in this examination is desirable since you will either have rid yourself of fault or have maintained correctness. The only undesirable condition is that in which no examination takes place, for it is here that faults hide, survive and even thrive to the detriment of the best part of yourself which desires to be on its way to liberty, tranquility and happiness. 

Get into a habit, then, of rejoicing at the discovery of a fault just as much as at the preservation of a virtue. On this highest journey, each step is the justifier and enabler of the next and prior step; the left foot needs the right foot and the right, the left. Often the right is borne out of the wrong. 

Letter VII

Epictetus points out that when two pieces of coal are put together, one burning, the other cold, either the cold one starts to burn or the one burning goes out. So it is with minds too; are we not put out and put off by those who only smolder or have never had a fire in them at all? And are we not ignited by those who emanate heat, spark, light? 

Also, even when we experience a certain burning and are lit with ideas strong enough to transfer to others, are we not in peril if dropped into a pile of cold coals, a crowd of people, a gathering of indolent minds? It takes an exceptionally bright and hot coal to face an unlit pile and to ignite them all, let alone to have any fire left of and for itself. 

We must stay away, then, from piles of people, hordes of coal, and admit them, if at all, only one at a time; either because they stand a good chance of lighting up or because we stand a good chance of burning hotter through the company of a brightly lit mind. 

Our forms of entertainment too are great hordes of people in disguise. Do they not sneak into our homes and minds, speak to us, affect and defect us? Much of the so-called entertainment value of popular entertainment is derived from depictions of conflict, intrigue, violence, betrayal, indulgence in bodily pleasures and depend on drama overall. Notice that the more popular a form of entertainment is, the more it relies on this kind of drama and that there is no such drama without vice and that no type or degree of vice is good for us. 

Here again, our absence is required; for no one can reform another without having reformed oneself and no one can reform oneself without communing with oneself and no one can commune with oneself without foregoing association with the crowd. We are called back in due time to join society again in a state better for ourselves and better for all others. Here is your transmutation; from cold to hot, dim to bright, extinguisher to igniter, vice to virtue, merely alive to properly living. 

Letter VIII

In the renovation or conservation of a room, one does not confine the discerning gaze to any one wall but steps back to see all that needs to be done. The grander the scope, the further one must step back so that the mind may wrap itself around its own ambition. 

Similarly, all that is truly loveable, is best loved from afar. How easy it is to love humanity when viewed, rather than in the context of centers of towns and the busyness of today, in the frame of continents and millennia instead. So many glowing ideas, shining acts, a species like no other, existing despite unfathomable odds and united through time and space.  

If I look backwards with the scope of millennia rather than minutia, I look forwards with the same long sight. I cannot feel otherwise than wanting to see this amazing trajectory continued, the potential to be actualized and enlarged; the star of humanity to radiate, whether lone or among others, brimming with curiosity, honor, tolerance, kindness, intellect, mortal yet divine. 

How difficult it is to love humanity, on the other hand, in close quarters with those engaged in a quarrel, one owing another a sum of money or apology, unable or unwilling to make the transaction and the resulting feud, the preceding resentment; I want nothing to do with it.  

The greatness of the species is not apparent in every individual. But sample broadly and you will learn what there is to love about it. Learn what there is to love about it, and you will learn to incorporate all that into your own self. If, during life, you have attached yourself to these greatest ideas; If you have dedicated mind to reason, ambition to justice, pleasure to kindness, desire to honesty, mortality to immortality, finity to infinity, your best to the best, then you will stand not as a human, but as humanity; and though your body must perish, all that there ever was to love about you will live on. 

Letter IX

Those slight course variations early on in a journey and the vast drift they cause toward the end; simple misunderstandings and their deleterious effects on the way to the good life and the misconception that the price of wisdom is asocial behavior or even hatred of humankind stemming from an inability or unwillingness to participate in life: this is not quite right as well as disastrously wrong. 

It is true that the wise do not need friends, but to suppose that they do not want them, that they do not love calling on them and even desire their warmth, is akin to arrive at the Americas when the destination was Asia. 

Who can enjoy a proper pleasure more deeply and deservingly than the one who is adorning their heart with it rather than stuffing a whole with it; one who is not miserable in its absence and all the more grateful in its presence; one who holds their friend’s hand not out of a need but out of affection? 

This is the wise person: always content, whole and fulfilled in the present moment and in no nervous need of others, but wanting those who are also complete without others; two closed links in the chain of fellowship. “I have a friend, I will enjoy their thoughts and being; I presently do not have a friend, I will enjoy my own thoughts and being. For if I cannot enjoy my own self, I cannot enjoy another; if I cannot enjoy my own self, another won’t suffer me either.  

Although I do prefer one outcome over another, I will be happy with whatever since life handed it to me and I know that there is no other building block for happiness than the material of life. I do not need you, I want you!”. 

Letter X

 What one escapes, another seeks; what is dangerous for one only furthers another and there is nothing more sought after for some and despised by others than this: time with oneself. 

It is here, in the open arena of thought, that the true nature of the spectacle of one’s mind is determined; a stage play, a bloody battle, a symphony, a competitive match. If what you see here would not even be worthy of its admission fee in the physical world, remember that the performers act out, sing and express only that which is to the taste, liking and nature of their sole patron: you 

If you are in constant avoidance of this internal stage of thought and being, you are in futile avoidance both of who you are as well as who you should be and occupy the gap of conflict between proper spaces; for the last hour of this performance is mandatory and you will have to endure the culmination of these avoidances, sins and the very nature of the person whom you have your most direct connection with: you 

The time is now to meet the cast, players, performers and to reform them once and for all so that, after the final curtain falls, you may cheer and applaud rather than boo and cuss. While it is them who are on stage and in the arena, it is you who is on trial with an omnipresent, incorruptible, most competent and unavoidable judge: you. 

Letter XI

Those too are friends whom we will never greet and meet, whose bodies have decades and centuries ago rejoined the oblivion from which they had spawned, but who dwell in our adoration for having been not only humans but humanity. They are those who became worthy of their place in the Universe by having used their bodies to navigate their minds through the physical domain onto which they exerted the highest ideas existent in the Universe which they honored and improved thereby. 

Ideas rule the Universe; they may result in this or that tree, but the concept of a tree never dies even if the last extant tree should drop its final seed or send its concluding pollen onto depleted ground. 

So it is that such ideas as honesty, justice, temperance, piety and friendship never die because they have existed in at least one such person who has received them and taken them out of dormancy and into active practice. Humanity being the forest comprised of such individuals who see the eternal and universal plan and decide to grow into a physical tree that not only can lay root, but does lay root, that not only can sway with the wind but does indeed brave the storm and perpetuates its physical seed in order ro propegate its ideal wisdom. 

Fill your mental domain with all the friends who have demonstrated their sincerity, acuity and fidelity to the highest ideas. Pick freely too, not letting continent or century seperate you from that which knows no such boundaries: kinship. Once picked, keep them always with you and your conscience will drive you to be nothing less than them, for no one sins in the presence of a friend who abhors it; not only because they fear to lose their friend, but because they fear to lose the idea, ideal and virtue of friendship. 

Letter XIII

The challenger has arrived and goes by the name of present circumstance. But present circumstance knows not how to challenge eternal intellect; how to meet in the same arena: wanting to face the challenge, we descend to it and this is part of our downfall. Eternal intellect stoops down to become unexamined impulse; low enough to come within reach of the missiles of present circumstance. 

Each report made to us of incoming difficulty, misery, drudgery, poverty, severity, tragedy is yet another costume of the one and only challenger to achieve the single and same aim: to get us to count today as a loss and to hope to be able to start living tomorrow. 

Yet, this too is a bounty that the Universe bestows on us: that even the challenger is sent to us not as an enemy but as a friend; or rather, that the Universe is so bountiful that we may find it within ourselves to receive the challenger as a friend. That bequeathment of the bounty is the work of the Universe; the proper dispensation and use of it is ours. 

And the proper use of a challenge is to unveil the opportunity for advancement within it: if the challenge is overcome, we have advanced; if the challenge is failed, we have advanced towards advancement. Where is pain, where is misconception, where is conflict, where are unexamined beliefs; is it not the challenger who does us the service of pointing these out, which is something that we had not been able to do, otherwise it would have already been done? 

Letter XII

We fear not being granted another day as much as we take that day for granted and so it is that tomorrow is both our biggest uncertainty as well as our strongest presupposition. 

There is an area in human experience in which this fear is justified. Those who are on the heels of freedom, who have discovered the door to their intellect and divinity within, but did not yet enter it, have reason to dread not waking to another day; for the prize is so near. They are sure it exists, yet they lack possession of it. And so fear gives them the urgency to make haste towards the edge of finity and to cross over into themselves. 

This is a sweet fright for it is the last angst they will feel and its elevating effect makes it right and proper. Otherwise fear is improper and misplaced since those who have not discovered that door can hardly find a reason to live while those who passed through that door can hardly find a reason to fear. 

Letter XIV

The validity of any endeavor is determined by the desire that motivated it; for there can be no motivation for, and compliance with, an action that does not hold the promise of the fulfillment of a certain desire.  

There are those who desire desires based on their desirability to other desirers. All such comparison-based desires are hollow, shallow and futile: they bring forth a constant state of anxiety interrupted only by short moments of a sense of victory based on nothing other than the defeat of another.  

It is not about the prize but about the differentiation that the prize brings: "You and I, formerly competitors and therefore similar, now, loser and victor and therefore dissimilar." To try to become dissimilar, to achieve distinction like this, is fatal because it necessitates competition and competition turns fellows into competitors and competitors into enemies and enemies into each other. 

To fight fire with fire and to take an eye for an eye are ruinous actions practiced only between enemies. And so it is that the purpose is defeated: all those who were seeking differentiation become more similar and even identical, perfect mirror images, exact reactions to actions, equal weights on a scale, as ugly as the other, as mean as the other in a game of ever-increasing hostility and ever-decreasing humanity.  

To desire differentiation is to desire smallness also, for the Universe is singular and infinite while all that desires to be apart from it is multiple and finite. To desire similarity with infinity is to become infinite and all that is infinite is too plentiful to fight over, too beautiful to soil with the ugliness of battle; it is away, above and out of competition.  

The path that leads beyond competition is picked clean of gold but littered with sharp stones meant to prevent the enemy. Those who have survived the path without fatal cuts to their feet, have their predecessors with restraint, clemency and rationality to thank, but they are thankless and they show no such grace to their brothers, sisters and children who have no other path to walk on also. They see not the sharp stones on the path but only the gaps between them and they see no reason to clear the stones but to fill the gaps. They choose to point to stones as justifications for more violence rather than to gaps as opportunities for peace.  

To move beyond competition, to reject ugliness is the only human victory and prize worth chasing; all else consists of unjustifiable means to defeated purposes.