Seneca, Moral Letters 15.5

You see, I have relieved you of no slight bother; and I shall throw in a little complementary present—it is Greek, too. Here is the proverb; it is an excellent one: 

 

"The fool's life is empty of gratitude and full of fears; its course lies wholly toward the future." 

 

"Who uttered these words?" you say. The same writer whom I mentioned before. 

 

And what sort of life do you think is meant by the fool's life? That of Baba and Isio? 

 

No; he means our own, for we are plunged by our blind desires into ventures which will harm us, but certainly will never satisfy us; for if we could be satisfied with anything, we should have been satisfied long ago; nor do we reflect how pleasant it is to demand nothing, how noble it is to be contented and not to be dependent upon Fortune.

 

How will Epicurus be helpful for this letter? He can confirm that the wise man, even if he speaks from another tradition, is happy to simply be himself, right here and right now, and does not make any demands about what may still come to him. 

 

I noticed from an early age how those who embrace wickedness may have great power, or the finest possessions, or a whole troop of followers, and yet they are always longing for something else, and they are always anxious about what goes on around them. They are dissatisfied because they do not possess themselves, and they are worried because they are still looking forward to some prize they fear they will never win. 

 

Let me be careful not to point a finger and laugh at all the fools, lest I become the fool myself. Good jesters, like Baba and Isio, have an uncanny knack for drawing attention to our own failings. I shouldn’t think that just because I am less efficient at playing the tyrant, such intentions are not still in my heart. 

 

Always reaching for more and feeling restless about what will be around the corner turn out to be a miserable way to live. Nothing beyond my own character can make me any promises, and there are no guarantees about the circumstances of tomorrow. 

 

Having such high hopes for the body, and all the gratification we think it will bring us if it is strong and attractive enough, will far too easily lead to a neglect of the soul, for which I can be grateful at this moment, and which is not bound to any expectations for the future. 

 

I’m afraid I misunderstood when people told me to appreciate what I already had, and so I felt resentful, since I looked around me and didn’t think I had all that much. The mistake was in looking outside instead of inside. That may seem obvious after making a Stoic Turn, though it seems ridiculous before such a fundamental shift in attitude. 

 

To be someone good I can be content with anything else, and to be happy with myself I need ask for nothing else. The conditions don’t give meaning to the man, but the man makes any conditions meaningful. 

Written in 7/2012

IMAGE: Anonymous Dutch, The Laughing Jester (15th century)

Nature 24

Dhammapada 153, 154

Looking for the maker of this tabernacle, I shall have to run through a course of many births, so long as I do not find him; and painful is birth again and again. 

"But now, maker of the tabernacle, thou hast been seen; thou shalt not make up this tabernacle again. All thy rafters are broken, thy ridge-pole is sundered; the mind, approaching the Eternal (visankhara, nirvana), has attained to the extinction of all desires."

Seneca, Moral Letters 15.4

You need not scorn voice-culture; but I forbid you to practice raising and lowering your voice by scales and specific intonations. What if you should next propose to take lessons in walking! 

 

If you consult the sort of person whom starvation has taught new tricks, you will have someone to regulate your steps, watch every mouthful as you eat, and go to such lengths as you yourself, by enduring him and believing in him, have encouraged his effrontery to go. 

 

"What, then?" you will ask; "is my voice to begin at the outset with shouting and straining the lungs to the utmost?" 

 

No; the natural thing is that it be aroused to such a pitch by easy stages, just as persons who are wrangling begin with ordinary conversational tones and then pass to shouting at the top of their lungs. No speaker cries "Help me, citizens!" at the outset of his speech.

 

Therefore, whenever your spirit's impulse prompts you, raise a hubbub, now in louder now in milder tones, according as your voice, as well as your spirit, shall suggest to you, when you are moved to such a performance. 

 

Then let your voice, when you rein it in and call it back to earth, come down gently, not collapse; it should trail off in tones halfway between high and low, and should not abruptly drop from its raving in the uncouth manner of countrymen. For our purpose is, not to give the voice exercise, but to make it give us exercise.

 

The worship of the flesh, where the trappings on the outside become more important than the dignity on the inside, will reveal itself in many symptoms. Instead of realizing that all human beauty ultimately flows from character, we focus only on the strength in the muscle, or the power in the frame, or the curve in the contour. Rather than being in awe of a greatness in the spirit, we are distracted by the smell of a perfume, or the glimmer in an eye, or the sound of a voice. 

 

We forget that these physical aspects are, quite literally, lifeless without being charged and informed by a glorious soul. Take away that spark, and there is nothing else than a pile of dry kindling. 

 

Filled with dread at the prospect of another night of vacuous socializing, a college friend once raised his glass in mockery: “I want to thank my parents for spending a hundred thousand dollars so I can discover this wisdom of post-modernity, that a woman is measured by her breasts, and a man is measured by his ass. If they aren’t shaped quite right, you can always pad them with cash.” Perhaps said with too much bitterness, but sadly still true. 

 

Given the Roman admiration for fine oratory, it should come as no surprise that Seneca here considers people who worry more about how their voices sound than the content of what they say. Like the bodybuilders who like to admire themselves in the mirror, they fall in love with their own dulcet tones. 

 

When being dragged into teaching became unavoidable, I had to learn the hard way that I spoke too quietly, mumbled behind my hands, and rushed through everything I said. If I was to commit myself to saying something worthwhile, people might as well be able to hear me say it, so I practiced long and hard at articulating, phrasing, and projecting my words. The classroom itself was my training ground. 

 

A few years later, I was asked to help with a school debate team, and I reluctantly agreed, against my better judgment. “I’m not sure I’m the right man for the job.”

 

“Oh no, you’re perfect for it. I notice how the students listen to you.” Who says flattery doesn’t work? 

 

It was a grueling experience, however, because another teacher I was told to work with was convinced that we only needed to train them in precise elocution, impressive vocabulary, clever witticisms, and sweeping gestures. She also liked to tell them that ridiculing an opponent was a great way to gain points. 

 

“I’ll leave all that stuff to you,” I told her, “since I’m not really cut out for it. Maybe I’ll just give them some suggestions on the logical form of their arguments.”

 

“That’s nice, but it isn’t what wins debates. Maybe you can take some notes this year, and next year you can follow the rules you learned.”

 

I can bring myself to tolerate such thinking in others, and yet that is never what I have in mind when I think about winning. My own definition of success, however odd it may seem, comes from a sense of actually doing the job, not from merely being seen to be doing the job. 

 

How it is said does matter, while the meaning of what is said matters more, as the appearance must be in service to the substance, and the body must be in service to the soul. 

 

Yes, employ the rhetorical tricks, if you wish, while never losing track of the truth behind the words, as the means must be in service to the ends, and the relative must be in service to the absolute. 

Written in 7/2012

Abandoned Places 22

Vanitas 45

Anonymous, Bubble-blowing Girl with a Vanitas Still Life (c. 1680)

 

Sayings of Publilius Syrus 15

Even when we get what we wish, it is not ours.

Fractals 17

 

Seneca, Moral Letters 15.3

Now there are short and simple exercises which tire the body rapidly, and so save our time; and time is something of which we ought to keep strict account. These exercises are running, brandishing weights, and jumping—high-jumping or broad-jumping, or the kind which I may call, "the Priest's dance," or, in slighting terms, "the clothes-cleaner's jump." Select for practice any one of these, and you will find it plain and easy.

 

But whatever you do, come back soon from body to mind. The mind must be exercised both day and night, for it is nourished by moderate labor; and this form of exercise need not be hampered by cold or hot weather, or even by old age. Cultivate that good which improves with the years.

 

Of course, I do not command you to be always bending over your books and your writing materials; the mind must have a change—but a change of such a kind that it is not unnerved, but merely unbent. Riding in a litter shakes up the body, and does not interfere with study; one may read, dictate, converse, or listen to another; nor does walking prevent any of these things.

 

People will find their own disciplines to keep their bodies healthy, and I suspect that any number of sensible routines will do the trick, as long they are done regularly and wholeheartedly; the preferences are then in service to the principles. 

 

Groaning and moaning are not required, and there is never any need for putting on an elaborate show. It must also be a natural part of the day, not a burden upon the day. 

 

I noticed how my entire Austrian family seemed to follow a set of morning exercises, a sort of calisthenics, which I imagine they had learned in school. They didn’t take long, but they were clearly an important ritual. I learned the hard way not to interrupt my Uncle Gottfried while he performed them. 

 

I was also taught to enjoy my food, but never to be a glutton. It’s the creeping habits that kill you, they said. You may eat with a bit of recklessness on a holiday, perhaps, but if you do this on every day, you will only bring yourself to grief. 

 

Hence one of my fondest memories, the sacred baking of the Christmas cookies, and the way we rationed them out from Christmas Eve until Epiphany. A true appreciation of quality makes the quantity irrelevant. Eight sticks of butter for that recipe? Yes, but you ate one cookie, and it was something like your first love—what came after felt like a bit of a letdown. 

 

And there’s the thing: always come back to what you know in your mind and heart to be true and good, and all those worries about the body will take care of themselves. Yes, one day that body will start failing, whatever your efforts, and yes, one day it will give out entirely. You have done your duty, and you cared for it as best you could. Did it serve you to be more virtuous? You have then done well. 

 

For my first thirty years, I could keep myself fit and strong by briskly walking most everywhere I went, complete with a bag containing thirty pounds of books, and never taking an elevator when I could rush up and down the stairs. For a time, I bicycled in and out of the city most every day. 

 

Then some things got in the way, or, more precisely, I allowed some things to get in the way. Buying a car destroyed my walking or cycling commute. I began to lean on garbage foods for quick and cheap satisfaction. I drank too much beer in a vain attempt to muzzle the Black Dog. I had never felt physically weak before, but now I did. 

 

As I get older, I see how my mental state is directly responsible for how I cope with my physical state. On a day when our car was in the shop, I decided to walk home from work, a distance of about eight miles, in the Texas heat. 

 

My colleagues thought me insane, and the wife was close to hysterics. You will probably also think that something is wrong with me when I say that it was a painful, as well as deeply satisfying. 

 

It reminded me of a time when I was happy with that one cookie, and I didn’t crave the whole box of cookies. I could now turn back to the power within me, however limited, instead of a noisy engine that spits out filthy fumes while I sit back lazily. 

 

There’s no need to buy the treadmill. Go for a walk, until it hurts a bit. Then, the next day, push yourself some more. Before you know it, the beer belly is gone. Your mind and your will did that, not some prescription drug or a piece of equipment. 

 

Nature provides what sleazy commerce only promises. Sharpen your mind at the same time as you hone your body. Reflect while you stroll, converse while you ride, though not in a car. The South has taught me that a horse is far better than any automobile, though the Yankee can do just as well with a bicycle. 

Written in 7/2012

Michael Leunig 25

Sayings of Ramakrishna 111

In the Bengâli alphabet no three letters are alike in sound except the three sibilants (Sa, sha, and sa), all meaning 'forbear,' 'forbear,' 'forbear.' 

This shows that even from our childhood we are made to learn forbearance in our very alphabets. The quality of forbearance is of the highest importance to every man.

Seneca, Moral Letters 15.2

Accordingly, limit the flesh as much as possible, and allow free play to the spirit. Many inconveniences beset those who devote themselves to such pursuits. 

 

In the first place, they have their exercises, at which they must work and waste their life-force and render it less fit to bear a strain or the severer studies. 

 

Second, their keen edge is dulled by heavy eating. Besides, they must take orders from slaves of the vilest stamp—men who alternate between the oil-flask and the flagon, whose day passes satisfactorily if they have got up a good perspiration and quaffed, to make good what they have lost in sweat, huge draughts of liquor which will sink deeper because of their fasting. 

 

Drinking and sweating—it's the life of a dyspeptic!

 

If I ever dare to suggest that we could spend a bit less of our time and energy grooming, exercising, and decorating our bodies, some people become quite upset.

 

“What, do you want to be a dirty, fat, wheezing slob?” 

 

Not at all, but I also recognize that no amount of glowing skin, rippling muscles, and fabulous hair will do me an ounce of good if I don’t first have a properly formed conscience. Did you, pray tell, commit at least as much effort today to working on your compassion as you did to sculpting your calves? 

 

No, I didn’t think so. Such thinking will be alien to someone for whom the gratification of the body is paramount, and for whom the formation of character is at best a matter of social posturing. 

 

I knew a fellow once, admittedly a bit rough around the edges but the sort of man you could trust, who regularly expressed his bewilderment at the ridiculous amounts of money people spent on what he was convinced should already be part of a regular day. 

 

“If you need to buy an exercise bike for your garage, or join an expensive gym, you should find a better line of work that gets you up and moving.” He was built like an ox, and it all came from delivering the mail every day for twenty years. 

 

Building a healthy body will not be of such great difficulty if I first build a healthy mind, which provides the commitment and temperance necessary to live with vigor and modesty. The craving for fads and gimmicks falls away when I have my house in order. 

 

Otherwise, what they call “staying in shape” demands all sorts of ridiculous extremes, which serve as diversions from the vocation of just being a calm, balanced, and decent human being. Frantic hours are spent in grueling regimens, or on fantasy diets that swing wildly from gorging to starvation. The anxiety this produces helps neither the soul nor the body. 

 

I can’t help but notice how the worshippers of the flesh become awfully cranky and miserable while doing something that’s supposed to make them happy. 

Written in 7/2012

House of Stairs

M.C. Escher, House of Stairs (1951)

Stoic Snippets 99

I consist of a little body and a soul. Now to this little body all things are indifferent, for it is not able to perceive differences. 

But to the understanding those things only are indifferent which are not the works of its own activity. But whatever things are the works of its own activity, all these are in its power. 

And of these, however, only those which are done with reference to the present; for as to the future and the past activities of the mind, even these are for the present indifferent.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 6.32

Sayings of Socrates 59

Socrates was sharply criticized, according to Aristotle in his third book On Poetry, by a certain Antilochus of Lemnos, and by Antiphon the soothsayer, just as Pythagoras was by Cylon of Croton, or as Homer was assailed in his lifetime by Syagrus, and after his death by Xenophanes of Colophon. 

So too Hesiod was criticized in his lifetime by Cercops, and after his death by the aforesaid Xenophanes; Pindar by Amphimenes of Cos; Thales by Pherecydes; Bias by Salarus of Priene; Pittacus by Antimenidas and Alcaeus; Anaxagoras by Sosibius; and Simonides by Timocreon.

—Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers 2.46

Seneca, Moral Letters 15.1

Letter 15: On brawn and brains

 

The old Romans had a custom which survived even into my lifetime. They would add to the opening words of a letter: "If you are well, it is well; I also am well." 

 

Persons like ourselves would do well to say: "If you are studying philosophy, it is well." For this is just what "being well" means. Without philosophy the mind is sickly, and the body, too, though it may be very powerful, is strong only as that of a madman or a lunatic is strong.

 

This, then, is the sort of health you should primarily cultivate; the other kind of health comes second, and will involve little effort, if you wish to be well physically. 

 

It is indeed foolish, my dear Lucilius, and very unsuitable for a cultivated man, to work hard over developing the muscles and broadening the shoulders and strengthening the lungs. For although your heavy feeding produces good results and your sinews grow solid, you can never be a match, either in strength or in weight, for a first-class bull. Besides, by overloading the body with food you strangle the soul and render it less active. 

 

I am always pleased when I come across someone who expresses a greeting with sincerity and understanding, not merely as a mindless formality. To genuinely wish someone well, or to inquire about his life with interest, reveals the good that we are all capable of, even if it may seem that so many people choose to be cynical and fake. 

 

I am similarly inspired when I come across someone who lives philosophically, not merely through thoughtless habits. I do not mean by this the tired image of a scholar with his head in the clouds, but rather the person who is guided in all his actions by a deeper meaning and purpose, and who recognizes that all things must be tempered by wisdom. 

 

I think it no accident that these two qualities will so often be bound together, that the one who shows compassion and concern for his neighbors will also be the one who acts out of a profound love for the truth. Yes, the decent man will offer kindness, and the decent man will do so because he has an awareness of human dignity—he is the true philosopher, the only kind that really counts. 

 

After all, how can I desire what is good for anyone, if I don’t first know what is good to begin with? 

 

A necessary part of that philosophical character involves a formation of priorities, a sense of which aspects of this life are greater or lesser, more important or less important. These different aspects need not ever conflict with one another, though they must always be put in their rightful place. 

 

Let me care for my body, while caring for my soul above all else. Let me do more for my physical health, certainly, while still doing the most for my intellectual, moral, and spiritual health. This isn’t an arbitrary decision; it arises from being conscious of my own nature, as a creature made with a mind and a will, designed to have a power over the flesh and the bones. 

 

A man with a true mastery over his own thoughts can always be happy, regardless of what happens to his body; a man with an imposing physique joined to a weak character is a curse to both himself and others. To not recognize this is the reason we have so many bullies, both big and small, running about. 

 

However mighty the human frame becomes, there will always be something mightier. What we sadly forget is that the mightiest thing of all is a great spirit, for it alone remains invincible. 

 

Where am I primarily focusing my attention? That is what will then get the most practice, and so will become dominant. I must be careful what I spend my time nurturing, for fear that the brawn might make a slave of the brain. 

Written in 7/2012

Do Not Be Ashamed

"Do Not Be Ashamed"

Wendell Berry

  

You will be walking some night

in the comfortable dark of your yard
and suddenly a great light will shine
round about you, and behind you
will be a wall you never saw before.
It will be clear to you suddenly
that you were about to escape,
and that you are guilty: you misread
the complex instructions, you are not
a member, you lost your card
or never had one. And you will know
that they have been there all along,
their eyes on your letters and books,
their hands in your pockets,
their ears wired to your bed.
Though you have done nothing shameful,
they will want you to be ashamed.
They will want you to kneel and weep
and say you should have been like them.
And once you say you are ashamed,
reading the page they hold out to you,
then such light as you have made
in your history will leave you.
They will no longer need to pursue you.
You will pursue them, begging forgiveness,
and they will not forgive you.
There is no power against them.
It is only candor that is aloof from them,
only an inward clarity, unashamed,
that they cannot reach. Be ready.
When their light has picked you out
and their questions are asked, say to them:
“I am not ashamed.” A sure horizon
will come around you. The heron will rise
in his evening flight from the hilltop.

Highest High

As a reference for Cicero, Tusculan Disputations 1.18: 

The mind and the will are a part of the very same Nature as the motions of all matter, yet they behave rather differently than any of the bodies we see around us. 

Love can become stronger against the force of overwhelming hate, triumph is possible in the face of every other defeat. 

This is an old family favorite, once a part of our "Late Night Dance Party". It was never released as a single, as far as I know, and the album was overlooked by many, coming along after the Acid Jazz craze of the early 1990's had died down. 

Some may enjoy not only the classic groove to it, but also the lyrics, concerned with the best things in life, not with dread, lust, violence, or despair. 

Feel free, if you wish, to turn it up very loud, and dance around like a fool, with no concern for whether anyone is watching. A tune like this has a wonderful way of getting stuck in your head. 

The Brand New Heavies, "Highest High" from Shelter (1997)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyosNni-Z9I

Highest high, deep inside

That lifts you up and sets you free, nothin' else can
Highest high, highest high
That takes you there and brings you back again

Big dreams never sleep
I made a promise to myself, I've got to keep
I was down for somethin'

That was so for real
Alway's lookin' outside for the one thing I could feel

But when my faith was under fire
I never turned 'round, and never once backed down
From my desires, my heart and soul still had control and I knew

I had the highest high, that power deep inside
That lifts you up and sets you free, like nothin' else can
I got the highest high, love is the highest high
That takes you there and brings you back again

Ever since that day
I know I'll never feel alone or be afraid
I was on a mission, on a search within
Tryin' to find the reason for the trouble that I've been

'Cause when my faith was under fire
I never turned 'round, and never once backed down
From my desires, my heart and soul still had control and I knew

I had the highest high, that power deep inside
That lifts you up and sets you free, like nothin' else can
I got the highest high, love is the highest high
That takes you there and brings you back again

I'm high, I'm so high
My feet don't touch the ground, my head's up in the clouds
I'm high, I'm so high
My feet don't touch the ground, my head's up in the clouds

I was down for somethin'
That was so for real
Alway's lookin' outside for the one thing I could feel

And when my faith was under fire
I never turned 'round, I never backed down

The highest high, deep inside
That lifts you up and sets you free, like nothin' else can
The highest high, highest high
That takes you there and brings you back again

Dhammapada 152

A man who has learnt little, grows old like an ox; his flesh grows, but his knowledge does not grow.

The Wisdom of Solomon 10:13-14

[13] When a righteous man was sold, wisdom did not desert him,
but delivered him from sin.
She descended with him into the dungeon,
[14] and when he was in prison she did not leave him,
until she brought him the scepter of a kingdom
and authority over his masters.
Those who accused him she showed to be false,
and she gave him everlasting honor.

IMAGE: Damiano Mascagni, Joseph Sold into Slavery by His Brothers (1602)