. . . If you choose to pursue this
digression further, you can put this same idea into many other forms, without
impairing or weakening the meaning.
For what prevents our saying that a
happy life consists in a mind which is free, upright, undaunted, and steadfast,
beyond the influence of fear or desire, which thinks nothing good except honor,
and nothing bad except blame, and regards everything else as a mass of mean
details which can neither add anything to nor take anything away from the
happiness of life, but which come and go without either increasing or
diminishing the highest good?
A man of these principles, whether he
wills it or not, must be accompanied by a continual cheerfulness, a high
happiness, which comes indeed from on high because he delights in what he has,
and desires no greater pleasures than those which his home affords.
Is he not right in allowing these to
turn the scale against petty, ridiculous and short-lived movements of his wretched
body? On the day on which he becomes proof against pleasure he also becomes
proof against pain.
See, on the other hand, how evil and
guilty a slavery the man is forced to serve who is dominated in turn by
pleasures and pains, those most untrustworthy and passionate of masters. . . .
—Seneca
the Younger, On the happy life,
Chapter 4 (tr Stewart)
I need
only reflect on how much of my life has been foolishly determined by fear and
desire, in avoiding pain and in seeking pleasure, to recognize the root of my
weakness. It is not the feelings of pleasure and pain that are flawed in
themselves, but rather allowing myself to be ruled by them. The Stoic does not
deny his passions, but he understands how to put them in their proper place.
Being steadfast proceeds not from brute strength, or from any heartless
indifference, but simply from learning to care more for what is superior, and
less for what is inferior.
It is my
own estimation that will make all the difference. We are surely all familiar
with that liberating sense, when we hardly desire something that we know is bad
for us, and we hardly fear something that we know can never hurt us. I am not
drawn to accumulating many possessions, or seeking the company of untrustworthy
people, because I know there is nothing good in them. I have learned not to
fear being alone, because I know I always have myself.
I must
apply that same standard to anything and everything that is part of my
circumstances. I have no power over them, and should therefore hardly worry
about their coming and going. I do have power over my own judgments, values,
and choices, and I can remember that my own good rests only in the exercise of
my character. Pleasure and pain will be as they will be, but the effect they
may have depends only upon how much I care for them.
Becoming
upright in my own principles is the source of my freedom from hurt and want,
which in turn yields the fruits of joy and cheerfulness. I have known many people
who struggle to be good, and who are sometimes angry or dissatisfied with their
failures; I have often counted myself as such a man. I have, however, yet to
meet someone who has rightly made the Stoic Turn who does not also display the
deepest contentment under all types of conditions. This is not because he is
oblivious to pleasure and pain, but because he has learned to gauge their meaning
and importance.
The
slavery that follows from being mastered by our passions is only a servitude of
our own choices, and we are, in turn, the only sources of our own emancipation.
Written in 6/2009
Image: Leonardo da Vinci, Allegory of Pleasure and Pain (c. 1480)
No comments:
Post a Comment