Seneca, Moral Letters 23.4

Therefore I pray you, my dearest Lucilius, do the one thing that can render you really happy: cast aside and trample under foot all those things that glitter outwardly and are held out to you by another or as obtainable from another; look toward the true good, and rejoice only in that which comes from your own store. 

 

And what do I mean by "from your own store"? I mean from your very self, that which is the best part of you. 

 

The frail body, also, even though we can accomplish nothing without it, is to be regarded as necessary rather than as important; it involves us in vain pleasures, short-lived, and soon to be regretted, which, unless they are reined in by extreme self-control, will be transformed into the opposite. 

 

This is what I mean: pleasure, unless it has been kept within bounds, tends to rush headlong into the abyss of sorrow. 

—from Seneca, Moral Letters 23

 

It is no secret that so many of us are dreadfully unhappy. If you aren’t quite convinced, don’t just look around at the frowns and the empty stares, but note how incredibly nasty we can be to one another. I know from looking within myself that such anger and hatred are invariably the symptoms of a miserable soul. 

 

We search far and wide for things, people, or situations to “make” us happy, and then we wonder why there still seems to be something missing. We buy more toys, move into bigger houses, remake our images, and create the illusion of doing important work, yet it falls flat. 

 

The proof of this is how we continue to crave more and more, and how quick we are to lose our tempers and bicker with our neighbors. 

 

Rather than frantically chasing after glittering prizes, certain that the big one is just around the corner, we forget that we don’t need to go very far to be happy. Look in the mirror. All you need is yourself. 

 

The bits of flesh on the outside are no doubt useful tools, though the stuff on the inside is the critical component: a mind and a will capable of understanding and love. These can be joyfully exercised in any situation, and no trinkets or trophies are required. 

 

It should be obvious to go right to the source, to the elevation of the soul itself, but a creature gifted with freedom of judgment is always prone to getting confused, and the constant pressure to keep up with the obedient herd hardly helps matters. 

 

We all know that pleasures can be both very good and very bad; no one is immune to the painful regret of having sought a thrill that ends up biting back. This is the clue to figuring out why the value of a feeling has nothing to do with the objects that act upon us, and everything to do with the attitude we bring to it. 

 

Temperance isn’t restrictive, it is liberating. The chain of bondage is broken. 

—Reflection written in 9/2012