"The treasures of Croesus and Cinyras we shall condemn as the last degree of poverty. One man and one alone shall we consider rich, the man who has acquired the ability to want for nothing always and everywhere."
--Musonius Rufus, Fragments 34 (tr Lutz)
If I am asked who I am, I will immediately respond with my name. But this is a social convention. I may then give my trade or profession. But this is simply one of the things that I do. I may offer my ancestry or lineage. But that is just where I came from. I may tell you where I live. But that is just a location.
We are too fond of defining ourselves by what is outside of us, and the most telling sign is that we identify who we are by what we possess. This is my house, this is my car, this is my income, this is my career, this is my reputation. These things have nothing to do with me, and I do not even possess them at all. They have come to me through the whims of circumstance, and they will leave me by the will of fortune.
I may be convinced that something is mine because I have earned it. I then realize that it was simply given to me, regardless of my merit. How many times have I lived well, and received nothing from the world? How many times have I lived poorly, and the world has applauded and rewarded me? It all comes and goes, and does not depend upon me.
I am often baffled by the the fact that a man will reach far outside of himself because he is empty inside of himself. I am considered prosperous if I have accumulated wealth, power, or status. Yet to do so is much like defining a man by his clothes or a book by its cover.
A treasure is indeed a possession, but this only makes sense if I understand that I possess nothing outside of me. I possess only myself. I will become richer inside the less I ask of the world, and the richer I become in the world the more my soul will be impoverished.
Written on 2/1/2000
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