. . . A man should be unbiased and not
to be conquered by external things: he ought to admire himself alone, to feel
confidence in his own spirit, and so to order his life as to be ready alike for
good or for bad fortune.
Let not his confidence be without
knowledge, nor his knowledge without steadfastness. Let him always abide by
what he has once determined, and let there be no erasure in his doctrines. It
will be understood, even though I need not say it, that such a man will be
tranquil and composed in his demeanor, high-minded and courteous in his
actions.
Let reason be encouraged by the senses
to seek for the truth, and draw its first principles from there. Indeed, it has
no other base of operations or place from which to start in pursuit of truth:
it must fall back upon itself.
Even the all-embracing universe, and
God who is its guide, extends Himself forth into outward things, and yet
altogether returns from all sides back to Himself. . . .
—Seneca
the Younger, On the happy life,
Chapter 8 (tr Stewart)
There is
a grave danger, especially in our age of egoism, of misunderstanding
self-reliance, what it truly means to fall back upon oneself. The crucial
distinction, I think, must come from whether we see ourselves as a source of
good, or as the end of good. A decent man recognizing that he is responsible
for himself, and depending upon his own character, acts for the sake of all of
Nature. He shares his good with others. A wicked man, in contrast, believing
that the world is responsible to him, and depending upon his own desires, acts
as if Nature exists for his sake. He expects to receive all other goods.
It is tragic,
of course, that the selfishness of the arrogant man is hardly strong or
confident at all. Such selfishness is weak, because it expects and demands that
the world provide for him. The arrogant man does not rely on himself, but relies
on everything else. He is actually a slave to Fortune, and not its master.
True
self-reliance means trusting only on one’s own merits, and only such a life can
rise above the shifting circumstances of Fortune. It is an attitude of service,
and not of being served. The beauty of this is that I will only become great
within myself when I do not expect the world to treat me greatly, and I will
immediately become weak within myself when I offer the world my list of
conditions and demands.
I have
learned to suspect someone may be self-serving, instead of self-reliant, when
his words and actions reveal a desire for leverage over others. He defines his
success by things he has conquered, or expects to conquer, rather than by
conquering himself. He is quick to criticize and blame his neighbor, but he
does not criticize or blame himself. His words often go sideways, and they are
rarely direct. His strength is not in being content with his own thoughts and
deeds, but in making the thoughts and deeds of others appear to be weak.
We may
express this concept in whatever philosophical or religious manner we wish, but
there is something Divine about true self-reliance. The Ancients often spoke of
the degrees of perfection in terms of how much or how little something moved
itself, by its level of sufficiency. By such a standard, God is pure
perfection, because He depends upon nothing beyond himself, and by comparison a
self-reliant and self-sufficient man, who always falls back upon himself,
shares and participates in that which is Godlike.
Written in 11/2004
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