PNTV: Letters from a Stoic by Seneca (#62)

Hey, this is Brian. Welcome to Philosopher's Notes tv. Today we've got an episode on Letters From a Stoic by Seneca. Seneca is one of the three leading Stoic philosophers we profile. The other two are Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus. They make up three of the top ten old school classics we have in the Philosopher's Notes. The other ones include books like the Bhagavad Gita, the Dhammapada, the Tao Te Ching, Emerson, Nietzsche, Confucius, Analects, and a couple of others old school classics. Now they're all saying very similar things, along with all the other of the hundred notes we profile. And the number one thing in this note, and in Stoicism in general as a philosophy, is the idea that our character is the only guarantee, as Seneca says, of everlasting carefree happiness. Our character, the world outside of ourselves, will never give us happiness, nor will it ever be responsible for our unhappiness. It doesn't matter what's happening out there. What matters is how we're interpreting that those events. That's the essence of Stoicism. And in the note, we're going to have fun looking at a couple of my favorite big ideas and how to go about rocking it. The first one is, Seneca says we've got to create a disposition to good, right? He says it in a funny way, but I'll synthesize or paraphrase it. He says we need to work hard such that our willpower, our willpower to do the right thing becomes a disposition to doing the right thing. So when you first build a new habit, for a while you need to actually focus on what you're going to do. Then after a while, that just becomes who you are. It's what you do moment to moment to moment. It becomes your disposition. So your will to good becomes a disposition to good. It's a really powerful thing. It's how all great habits are born and how disposition and character is formed when we've got to do the right thing moment by moment, day by day, such that we have the character that will shape our destiny, which we just talked about in the note on Ralph Waldo Emerson, which you can check out. He also has a great line. He says, how much better is it to pursue a course where what's pleasant for you, what you actually enjoy doing, is what's best for you. It's funny to me, I eat pretty clean. I just turned it up a few notches. Just got back from our honeymoon, where we spent creating an ideal vision of our future. At what I jokingly refer to as health boot camp, Hippocrates Health Institute. And they're all about living foods. So a lot of raw foods, a lot of sprouted foods and grains, which just give you incredible energy and vitality. Now, what I eat now is kind of weird for most people, which is actually kind of weird when you think about it. That eating what we're naturally made to eat abnormal is a whole other conversation. But it's become a disposition for me to do the right thing, and I actually enjoy it. I both enjoy it. It's pleasurable for me, and in my mind, it's the right thing to do. That's what Seneca is talking about. That's a good place to be, where the right thing to do is what you enjoy doing the most. That's where we want to get in our lives. So identify what your values are, what. What your ideals are, and commit to doing them to such a degree that doing them gives you joy and it vitalizes your life. This is what Michael Beckwith calls blissipline, which I mention in every other episode. It seems we want to have joy and bliss in doing the right thing. Blissipline. Discipline, discipline, discipline. Big stuff. Seneca's got another great line. He says, to be everywhere, to be nowhere. To be everywhere is to be nowhere. We've got to focus our energy. When I'm journaling, I often write, you know, these lines that show a focus point. What is my number one now goal? What am I focused on right now? We talk about this in the 80, 20 principle, right? 20% of what you do is going to create 80% of your results. The question is, what are those 20% and are you focusing on them? Are you focused on them? Because 80% of our efforts are not producing much of our results, much of our happiness, much of our profits in business, much of our joy, much of our vitality. So focus on your 20% and then go out and rock it. To be everywhere is to be nowhere. Ken Wilber has a great line as well. He talks about the fact that in our lives we have lines of development. So we can be a great husband or wife, mother or father or athlete, or we have a spiritual line of development, or we have a cognitive, intellectual line of development, a health and fitness line of development. We've got a lot of lines that we can develop. Some of them are low, some of them are high. But he says, look, you need to focus. You can't work on every single one all at once. He calls that metaphysical gluttony. I Love that phrase, metaphysical gluttony. Don't be a metaphysical glutton. To be everywhere is to be nowhere. If you're totally spread out, you're not going to get any results anywhere. We've got to focus our energy. That's where we're going to find results. That's a really cool idea. Hope you dug it. He's got some other great ones. He says, your ideal state. Your ideal state is very simple. It's what nature has destined for you, what your ultimate purpose is. We talk about this with Marcus Aurelius, with everyone. So what is your highest vision of yourself? That's your ideal state. You want to go out and rock and you want to live in accord with your own nature. To be specific is what Seneca says, you want to live in accord with your own nature. Joseph Campbell would say, you want to follow your bliss. Esther and Jerry Hicks would say, we have an emotional guidance system which is telling us whether we're on or off, whether we're living in accord with our own nature or not. Emerson would say, we want to trust ourselves. Self reliance. This is what it's all about. Learning to trust ourselves. Move toward that ideal state. He's got a great line. He says, the worse a person is, the less he feels it or she feels it. The worse a person is, the less he or she feels it. That's pretty funny. So pay attention to that. And when you see people who may not be aware of it at all, maybe have some compassion, remember that line. He has another great line here. He says, there is nothing, nothing the wise person does reluctantly. Do it or don't do it. But if you decide that something is worth doing, do it. As the Buddha would say, with all your heart. The wise person does nothing reluctantly. Don't do something and bitch about it. In other words, right? Don't start doing something and be like, oh, complaining and criticizing whoever made you do it. No one made you do anything. This is the idea of a philosopher and of a creator. You know, if we're going to choose to do something, we do it all the way. We don't do it reluctantly. If you don't want to do it, then communicate, make a new commitment. Or if you're going to do it, do it all the way. Enjoy it, love it. It's a pretty big idea. The path to salvation. He says, the first step in making an improvement in our lives is a consciousness of wrongdoing. The first step is usually before we become aware and we can actually change. We just do the thing that's not good for us. We do it and we do it and we do it. Whether it's drinking alcohol too much or using the Internet too much, which is my advice, primary advice anyway, you know, there's different things we have that are our wrongdoing. Well, he says a consciousness of that wrongdoing is the first step. Awareness is the first step. Vernon Howard, another great teacher we profile, says that's positive negativity. To notice when you're off path is a very good thing. To be able to see that you're over here when you want to be here, that's a positive thing. He calls it positive negativity. So when you find yourself not working out or eating overeating again or whatever it is that you don't want to do, notice that and then celebrate it. Don't waste any time in shame or disappointment. Notice it. See? Wow, I just noticed. Let me get back on track. That's a really cool thing that can really help us out. Another really quick idea, he says, here we want to be harsh with ourselves at times. So be nice when you see yourself off path. And also you got to be willing to be harsh with yourself at times and say, you know what? That doesn't work for me. I'm going to live like this from here on out. Final idea is this. He says it is not because things are difficult that you do not dare. Is because you do not dare that things are difficult. I'll repeat that. It's not because you things are hard that you don't do them. It's because you don't do them that they're hard. Just do it, he says, just go for it. And you're going to see that you have way more power than you thought you had and you're going to be able to do things a lot more skillfully than you may have dreamt of. So there you go. That's a quick look at Seneca. Hope you enjoyed it and look forward to sharing more with you soon. Have an awesome day. See you.