Seneca's best advice for dealing with pain and suffering

Seneca's best advice for dealing with pain and suffering

Seneca wrote hundreds of pages about how to grief and fear in difficult times. Modern readers can benefit from Seneca’s wise recommendations for dealing with pain and suffering. I am going to summarise those recommendations to the extent that we can still apply them today. Emotional overreaction should be avoided because it’s a sure recipe for disaster. In his essay “On the Constancy of the Wise,” Seneca calls for moral strength in the face of trouble. In this context, I equate “moral strength” to “equanimity,” that is, the capacity to keep an equal temper in good and bad times. If we face severe problems, we should strive to keep a cool head, so that we can identify the best solution. Panic reactions tend to prove counterproductive. Without sufficient serenity, it is simply not possible to assess the facts and weigh the alternatives correctly. Since few problems are really life-threatening, we should take time to reflect. Seneca regards it as particularly foolish to react heavily to insults or moral injuries. We should refrain from reacting in a manner that makes problems worse. Risk prevention and diversification, in modern terms, can provide us with solid protection against life’s misfortunes. Seneca does not employ a modern set of terms concerning risk management, but uses “self-sufficiency” and “self-discipline.” Those words are not equivalent. They are pointing to two strategies that are complementary. In the 66th Letter to Lucilius, Seneca gives a wide meaning to the term “self-sufficiency.” In our century, I find the words “self-reliant” and “independent” better aligned with the ancient meaning. When Seneca speaks about how to protect ourselves against the ups and downs of life, he is calling for serenity as much as he is calling for risk prevention. If we do not get into troubled waters, we do not need to fear shipwreck and drowning. Here is the link to the original article: https://johnvespasian.com/senecas-best-advice-for-dealing-with-pain-and-suffering/

Seneca on leading a life of virtue

The term “virtue” has become so overused that it is healthy to look at it with suspicion. Unfortunately, it often happens that people will invoke virtue to further their personal interests and then try to portray themselves as ethical paragons. Indeed, we should be sceptical of their high motives. Seneca had good intentions, but created ethical confusion. Although he routinely portrayed himself as a philosophical guru, he invoked virtue to promote a humble lifestyle. In doing so, he steered large numbers of people in the wrong direction. Am I exaggerating when I say that Seneca created ethical confusion? Not in the least. In his Letters to Lucilius, he gave the word “virtue” various meanings that are far from identical. Let us review the different meanings employed by Seneca in those letters. Seneca defined virtue as “living in accordance with nature.” He did so, for instance in his 5th Letter to Lucilius. His explanation of “nature” is equivalent to a lifestyle of simplicity. I would personally translate it as poverty or semi-poverty. Seneca employed the term “luxury” as opposed to the term “nature.” He must have assumed that a modest lifestyle, one without any luxuries, is the normal destiny of human beings. I wonder if Seneca had overlooked the fact that humans find “natural” to work and earn money. Why should we categorise our achievements and our wealth as “unnatural”? Why should we favour a lifestyle without any luxuries instead of a pleasant one? Seneca also employed the term “virtue” to mean “living in accordance with reason,” but what did he mean by “reason”? I am afraid that he did not mean “logic” or “consistency”? Seneca was giving rationality a meaning incompatible with the teachings of Aristotle (384-322 BC) in his “Nicomachean Ethics.” While Aristotle had meant “logic” and “consistency,” Seneca made “reason” equivalent to “passive acceptance.” Here is the link to the original article: https://johnvespasian.com/seneca-on-leading-a-life-of-virtue/

Practical advice from Seneca on leading a life of virtue

Although Seneca employed the term “virtue” inconsistently, his incoherence did not prevent him from making profound observations about human nature, virtue, personal success and happiness. In his 71st Letter to Lucilius, he uses a beautiful metaphor to define a virtuous life. He compares good persons to archers who choose their target carefully. Good individuals are able to shoot their arrows in the right direction, taking the wind and other elements into account. In contrast, foolish people are like unskilled archers that will shoot without choosing their target carefully. They do not pay attention to an essential factor. At some point, their arrows will be wasted or attain the wrong target. That’s what happens to individuals who get carried away by their emotions, explains Seneca. What should we do to become good archers? Seneca is giving us great hands-on advice in his 40th Letter to Lucilius. I regard this letter as one of Seneca’s best in terms of practicality that possesses permanent value. Let us pass review to the messages conveyed in this Letter. Harmony is an indicator of a well-functioning lifestyle, explains Seneca, and disharmony indicates the opposite. Fear and anxiety are signals that we should not ignore. When our mind is not at peace, it is giving us a warning that we are doing something wrong. Our emotions are not precise enough to tell us what to do in order to achieve our goals, but they can surely help us identify our errors. When we feel anxious or fearful, we should take a step back and figure out what we are doing wrong. Seneca frequently employs the term “universal order” as a synonym for “virtue.” His thesis is that we grow more resilient and happier when we live in harmony with the universal order. Here is the link to the original article: https://johnvespasian.com/practical-advice-from-seneca-on-leading-a-life-of-virtue/

Seneca's examples of a virtuous life

There is often a considerable distance between the sayings and the actions of philosophers. Especially when they employ a grandiloquent tone, I prefer to look at their biography and see for myself if they are following their own advice. Seneca was better than most in this respect. I admire in particular his strong self-discipline in writing, elaborating and discussing difficult questions. Despite his large wealth and influence, he adopted the humble tone of an elderly friend. His 11th Letter to Lucilius is one the shortest in terms of examples. Seneca recounts stories that he had witnessed with his own eyes, or that he had learned from trustworthy sources. I find those stories particularly compelling because they are aligned with Seneca’s philosophical beliefs at the lowest period of his life, that is, when he was exiled in Corsica, an island in the Mediterranean Sea. Behind each example, we can easily discover a close link to Seneca’s state of mind at that time; when he is giving examples of sickness, loneliness and hardship, he is speaking of himself. We don’t know the exact details of Seneca’s medical issues, but his descriptions show that he was suffering from asthma or some other type of breathing insufficiency. His letters mention as well that he was experiencing pain and feeling weak. Seneca faces his medical issues courageously. His resolve is so strong that I would categorize it as an early form of positive thinking. His 11th Letter to Lucilius tells us that “the mind must remain strong” despite the body’s frailty, and that illness should be regarded as “a test for the mind.” Nevertheless, there is a decisive difference between positive thinkers and Seneca. If we take for instance Emile Coué (1857-1926) and his experiments in auto-suggestion, we can see that those aim at making the patient believe in his own healing. Here is the link to the original article: https://johnvespasian.com/senecas-examples-of-a-virtuous-life/

Seneca on leading a life of moderation

It is easy to preach moderation when one does not have the resources or capability to engage in excesses. If I can afford to eat only bread and cheese, it doesn’t cost me anything to speak against gluttony and luxurious food. Late in life, Seneca was the foremost apostle of moderation, but his previous lifestyle did not always reflect his acquired ideas. Thus, when prompted to declare allegiance to a pure doctrine or inconsistent deeds, I tend to feel closer to the latter. What did Seneca mean by “moderation”? First of all, he was referring to wealth. He knew the widest and broadest meaning of abundance, since he was one of the wealthiest men in Rome. In his 4th Letter to Lucilius, Seneca affirms that wealth isn’t the highest goal in life, and places philosophy above the joys derived from material possessions. Nonetheless, he did not call for poverty or total renunciation. Seneca’s advocacy of moderation is radically different from the Christian defence of poverty as a virtue. For the Christians, wealth is to be freely shared or renounced. I’m speaking of the early Christians as portrayed in the Gospels. For Seneca, wealth is to be enjoyed wisely, so that it doesn’t grow into an obsession driving our life. He categorizes wealth as dangerous because it can easily render us blind to justice or compassion. Pride, according to Seneca, is to be avoided at all costs due to its enslaving power. If we allow wealth to become the driver of our actions, we become slaves, he argues. Steady wisdom is needed to ascertain the right measure in expenditures. We should keep modesty and simplicity as high goals that help us prevent low vices that turn us to fools. Here is the link to the original article: https://johnvespasian.com/seneca-on-leading-a-life-of-moderation/