. . . "What? Does virtue alone
suffice to make you happy?" Why, of course, consummate and god-like virtue
such as this not only suffices, but more than suffices, for when a man is
placed beyond the reach of any desire, what can he possibly lack? If all that
he needs is centered in himself, how can he require anything from without?
He, however, who is only on the road to
virtue, although he may have made great progress along it, nevertheless needs
some favor from fortune while he is still struggling among mere human
interests, while he is untying that knot, and all the bonds which bind him to
mortality.
What, then, is the difference between
them? It is that some are tied more or less tightly by these bonds, and some
have even tied themselves with them as well; whereas he who has made progress
towards the upper regions and raised himself upwards drags a looser chain, and
though not yet free, is yet as good as free.
—Seneca
the Younger, On the happy life,
Chapter 16 (tr Stewart)
A good
business sense, the same one that tells us the buyer should beware, reminds us
that if something seems to good to be true, it probably is. Whenever the media
says that the government is going to make things easier for me, or a Nigerian
prince tells me he will share his millions of dollars, I should rightly be
suspicious.
Now why
should I believe these Stoics, who are insisting that happiness is so simple? It
may actually be simple, but it isn’t always easy. It is simple, because all
higher truths admit of simplicity, of being one, and not being divided. It is
also difficult, however, because the weight of my habits and the pull of social
custom tells me it can’t possibly be right. It only seems too good to be true
because we are so out of touch with what is good and true.
In the
world of business, full of liars and crooks, I can never assume that another
person is reliable. In the world of happiness, which depends entirely upon
myself, I am only as reliable as I let myself be. It was when we started being
convinced that happiness was a commodity to buy and sell that it all became a confusing
game. Life sadly ends up being more about the art of playing than the art of
living.
My only
opposition to the simplicity of happiness proceeds from the complexity of
dependence, when I believe I need so many things I don’t really need at all.
Those ties of dependence are easy to bind, but hard to break. I was already
convinced of them as a child, and I still struggle with them as I slouch toward
the end of things. For someone who has made the Stoic Turn, the goal may be
completely clear, but it may also take some effort to get there.
Like
Plato’s philosopher returning into the Cave, or some heretical Rabbi telling us
that we need not worry about what we eat or wear, we will be deemed insane as
soon as we try to strip away the illusions. I know I have begun to free myself
from the ties that bind when I no longer care about being thought insane, and
when I no longer worry about playing the game.
I can’t count
the times I have made a sincere commitment to the fullness of life in the
evening, and I then immediately begin to make excuses for myself the next
morning. That only happens because I haven’t removed all the chains.
Yes,
Nature will suffice. Whatever circumstances may befall me, I need only my own
power of judgment and choice to live with excellence. It may, however, take me
some time to untie the knots, and I will doubt and grumble as I wean myself
from the habits of dependence. One day at a time.
Written in 1/2012
Image: William Blake, Christian Reading in His Book, from the Pilgrim's Progress (c. 1825)
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