What answer are we to make to the
reflection that pleasure belongs to good and bad men alike, and that bad men
take as much delight in their shame as good men in noble things?
This was why the ancients bade us lead
the highest, not the most pleasant life, in order that pleasure might not be
the guide but the companion of a right-thinking and honorable mind; for it is
Nature whom we ought to make our guide: let our reason watch her, and be
advised by her.
To live happily, then, is the same
thing as to live according to Nature: what this may be, I will explain. If we
guard the endowments of the body and the advantages of Nature with care and
fearlessness, as things soon to depart and given to us only for a day; if we do
not fall under their dominion, nor allow ourselves to become the slaves of what
is no part of our own being; if we assign to all bodily pleasures and external
delights the same position which is held by auxiliaries and light-armed troops
in a camp; if we make them our servants, not our masters—then and then only are
they of value to our minds. . . .
—Seneca
the Younger, On the happy life,
Chapter 8 (tr Stewart)
Again,
happiness isn’t measured by pleasure or pain, because both the good man and the
wicked man will each feel different sorts of pleasures, for different sorts of
reasons. Seneca understands that the very exercise of philosophy will collapse
if there is no higher way to determine whether feelings are good or bad.
There
are many things in life that will always be there with us, but some of them
will accompany us as companions, while others will lead us a guides. Some will
walk next to us, and others will go out ahead. A life lived in harmony with
Nature will be one where these different roles are rightly distinguished, where
I allow my reason to be my guide, and where my pleasures are my companions. It
will be the judgment of the former that will determine the benefit of the
latter.
So it
must be in all things, such that all of the conditions of my life are directed
by the guidance of the mind. I may receive a pleasure of the body, or some
wealth, or the esteem of others, but I will know what to make of these changing
situations if I know where I should be going, and how I should be living.
Fortune is fickle, and as soon as I depend upon her, I am enslaved to her.
Nature offers a deeper permanence of meaning to all of these things that are
passing, and the apprehension of Nature provides a constancy of purpose.
For many
years, I enjoyed the pleasures of cigarettes, because I craved the numbing
relaxation that came along with the consumption of nicotine. It didn’t take me
long to perceive how this was harmful to both my body and to my mind. The
constant shortness of breath that soon became a ritual of morning hacking, and
the mental obsession with getting to that next smoke caused me hurt, but I
could only think of being consumed by that brief feeling where the world cut
into me just a little but less. It was killing my body, and enslaving my
thinking, because I was making pleasure my master, and not my companion.
No
amount of brute willpower or clever cures ever really worked for me, until I
had the sense to apply Stoic practice to my daily addiction. After many years
of wallowing, I stopped smoking cigarettes from one day to another, and the
only thing that worked for me was a form of making my reason lead the way, and
letting my feelings walk alongside.
After a
prudent pause, I did something that flew in the face of contemporary fashion,
and I took an interest in the art of smoking a pipe. Now our unbridled hatred
of tobacco tells us that the evil weed must be removed entirely from society,
but the untrendy Stoic in me thought of it a bit differently.
I found
that I could actually enjoy the occasional pipe of fine tobacco, not greedily drawing
the smoke into my lungs, but sipping at it in contemplation. For me, this was
no different than the man who can find enjoyment in a single tumbler of fine whiskey,
and who does not need to guzzle a whole bottle of rotgut.
Nothing
given by Nature is evil, but only our abuse of things is evil. What makes
moderation so distinct from excess or denial is the understanding of whether my
mind rules a pleasure, or whether the pleasure rules me. It is no different
with, food, drink, sex, money, fame, or power.
I would
never suggest simply replacing cigarettes with a pipe as a remedy, because fixing
ourselves has nothing to do with how much of something we enjoy, or of what
certain kind, or in what specific manner. It has everything to do with discerning
the greater and the lesser.
Written in 2/2007
No comments:
Post a Comment