Seneca's Wisdom: Aging Well
MurrellB
Many of the great Stoic thinkers, like Seneca, were quite
down-to-earth and talked in a universal language that holds
meaning for most of us today. These philosophers spoke to and
wrote for their friends, for the citizenry of the Greco-Roman
world, and maybe they just might speak to us!
As for aging in this life, that's one item we all have in common.
As for aging *well,* that's not so common. This is an area
where the words of Seneca might seem quite applicable. Let
us proceed with his good, practical wisdom.
"Often an old man will have nothing but the calendar to prove
that he has lived a long time."
[Moses Hadas (translator), THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY OF SENECA,
W.W. Norton & Co., 1958, p. 84.]
So many of us complain that life is so short, but for Seneca
it's only short "when it is squandered through luxury and
indifference, and spent for no good end..." For him it's all a
matter of how we use our life, how we engage in life. "The
life we receive is not short but we make it so; we are not
ill provided but use what we have wastefully."
[Ibid, p. 48.]
Rather "it takes a great man...to allow none of his time to
be frittered away; such a man's life is very long because he
devotes every available minute of it to himself. None of it
lies idle and unexploited, none of it is at the disposal of another."
[Ibid, p. 55.]
I don't think Seneca is advocating a narcissistic selfishness
in this above statement. In this case he is talking about a person
who is sufficient unto himself, a person who knows his likes
and dislikes, a person who can carry out pursuits effectively,
and a person who can plan ahead.
For Seneca "the man who puts all of his time to his own
uses, who plans every day as if it were his last, is neither
impatient for the morrow nor afraid of it."
[Ibid, p. 56.]
Conversely, those "busy over nothing" can never restore
their years--and no one can gain lost time back.
Seneca is especially discussing how we employ our leisure.
Naturally, as a Stoic , he considers that the best way to
engage in this time we have to ourseves is to "take time
for philosophy." In a sense he is referring to our grasp of great
human works down through history, and how we may take such
unto ourselves and make it part of our own life's continuum!
"Only men who make Zeno and Pythagoras and Democritus
and the other high priests of liberal studies their daily
familiars, who cultivate Aristotle and Theophrastus, can
properly be said to be engaged in the duties of life."
[Ibid, p. 66.]
As for these ancient philosophers, as for all the great modern
thinkers in many fields, whose disciplines we select to study
today, "It is not their lifetime alone of which they are careful
stewards: they annex every age to their own and exploit all
the years that have gone before."
[Ibid, p. 65.]
Interestingly, Seneca draws an analogy regarding these
studious pursuits. "It is a common saying that a man's parents
are not of his own choosing but allotted to him by chance. But
we can choose our geneaology. Here are families with noble
endowments: chose whichever you wish to belong to."
[Ibid, p. 67.]
The more we connect to great and noble thinking, the more
noble we become, and the more noble our efforts as life unfolds.
Moving even more precisely, towards a deeper personal level,
Seneca believes that in order to age well we need also to
develop a stability of mind. By this he means the "well-being
of soul," which he calls *tranquility.*
Seneca puts the question: how can the mind "maintain a
consistent and advantageous course, be kind to itself and
take pleasure in its attributes...[and] abide in its serenity,
without excitement or depression?"
[Ibid, p. 80.]
For Seneca it's easy to observe the general populus, full of
people "who are afflicted with fickleness and ennui and
continual shifting of aim." These are people who blow
with the wind and oft are blown away by the wind, so to
speak. They are not able to settle. They don't know their
own mind. And many abhor innovation. Seneca realizes that
this common malady "has countless symptons but its effect
is uniform--dissatisfaction with self."
[Ibid, p.80.]
This ancient malady is also extremely modern, as Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyi--the exponent of "Flow" psychology--
points out: "In normal everyday existence, we are the prey of
thoughts and worries intruding unwanted in consciousness...
Consequently the ordinary state of mind involves unexpected
and frequent entropy interfering with the smooth run of
psychic energy."
[Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, FLOW: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF OPTIMAL
EXPERIENCE, Harper Perennial, 1991, p. 58.]
This common condition reflects the vacillation of minds
that seemingly can find no outlet. Seneca describes such
minds in that they are "naturally restless, and obviously without
internal resources." These are people who are never at rest,
always in need of entertainment--and when this is
"withdrawn, their mind cannot endure home, loneliness,
walls, and cannot abide itself left to itself."
[Hadas, STOIC PHILOSOPHY OF SENECA, p. 81.]
So, is there a remedy?
Yes, but the responsibility for aging well rests squarely upon
the individual. Seneca provides a general outline for a balanced
life: though a man may seemingly lead a life of "insulated" leisure,
it still is his duty "to be of service to individuals and to mankind
by his intelligence, his voice, his counsel."
[Ibid, p. 83.]
For those embarking on such a noble course, Seneca stresses
that "our first duty will be to examine ourselves, next the
career we shall undertake, and finally our associates in the
work and its beneficiaries." What he is describing is that we
develop an ability for strategic thinking, quietly studying and
determining our course before we set sail from one point in
our life to the next.
[Ibid, p. 87.]
Beyond this, be realistic! Regarding any endeavor, Seneca
stresses that you "put your hand to one you can finish or at
least hope to finish..."
[Ibid, p. 88.]
And realistic goal-setting, according to Csikszentmihalyi,
is psychologically positive and enjoyable---because
"clear goals, stable rules, and challenges [that are] well
matched to skills [present] little opportunity for the self
to be threatened."
[Csikszentmihalyi, FLOW, p. 63.]
Of course life is not all work and service to others. We need
to well serve ourselves also. If we are to lead a successful
life, one of our crucial choices will center upon friendship.
"Nothing can equal the pleasures of faithful and congenial
friendship." But Seneca gives warning! We need to be mindful
over the choice of our friends. Rather than moving into diatribes
about choosing good or bad people as friends, Seneca puts it
simply: "To mingle the healthy with the sick is the beginning
of disease."
[Hadas, STOIC PHILOSOPHY OF SENECA, p. 89.]
Senca's wisdom is reflected by Csikszentmihalyi when
he exclaims that besides enjoyable work, "studies on
Flow have demonstrated repeatedly that more than
anything else, the quality of life depends on...our relations
with other people." He proceeds: "We are biologically
programmed to find other human beings the most important
objects in the world." And as Seneca stressed, and
Csikszentmihalyi states, we need to be discernful about our
choice of friends..."because they can make life either very
interesting and fulfilling or utterly miserable...how we
manage relationships with them makes an enormous
difference to our happiness."
[Csikszentmihalyi, FLOW, p. 164.]
It pays to be thrifty, too! Of course there's the woes of
materialism and ostentation, but Seneca focuses especially
on spiritual thrift. "We must learn to strengthen self-restraint,
curb luxury, temper ambition, moderate anger, view poverty
calmly, cultivate frugality...keep restive aspirations...and make
it our business to get our riches from ourselves rather than
from Fortune."
[Hadas, STOIC PHILOSOPHY OF SENECA,p. 91.]
Not forgetting that a balanced life is a better life, Seneca
alerts us that we must also engage in solitude as well as
service. "It is important to withdraw into one's self."
We need respite for ourselves, time to relax and enjoy life.
So go ahead and pursue the joys of the intellect or the
athletic life. Pursue, too, simplicity: "We ought to take
outdoor walks, to refresh and raise our spirits by deep
breathing in the open air. Sometimes energy will be
refreshed by a carriage drive, a journey, a change of scene,
good company, and a more generous wine."
[Ibid, p. 105.]
But Csikszentmihalyi realizes that solitude is a major
concern for modern people. Talking about ways to grow,
about ways of creating higher forms of order in our lives
in order to forestall entropy, he points out that we need
to take time for quiet learning and improving our skills.
And, especially, when "physical vigor fails with age...it
means that one [should] be ready to turn one's energies
from the mastery of the external world to a deep exploration
of inner reality." But--"it is difficult to accomplish any
of them unless one has earlier acquired the habit of using
solitude to good advantage." We need to "tame" solitude,
and Seneca's excellent suggestions above provide a fine
foundation.
[Csikszentmihalyi, FLOW, p. 172.]
Nonetheless, Seneca is no pollyanna. He realizes the adversities
that all of us must face in this life. It's seemingly our condition
in this world. Still we have the ability to cope and adapt, if we
so choose--even with this! "Man must...complain of it as little as
possible, and grasp whatever good lies within his reach." Again,
"apply good sense to your problems; the hard can be softened,
the narrow widened, and the heavy made lighter by the skillful
bearer." And for what is seemingly impossible, leave it alone!
[Hadas, STOIC PHILOSOPHY OF SENECA, pp. 93-94.]
For Csikszentmihalyi Seneca's above advice is about "taming chaos."
As he puts it, "sooner or later everyone will have to confront
events that contradict his goals: disappointments, severe illness,
financial reversal, and eventually the inevitability of one's death."
Thus, "It is for this reason that courage, resilience, perseverance,
mature defense, or transformation coping--the dissipative
structures of the mind--are so essential. Without them we would
be constantly suffering through the random bombardment of
stray psychological meteorites."
[Csikszentmihalyi, FLOW, p. 202.]
And, finally, any life well spent must look bravely at the issue
of death. If we fear too much and dwell on death, it will bring
us down. "A man afraid of death will never play the part of a live
man." Rather than dwell on death, depression, and discouragement,
Seneca wisely advises that we "take the lighter view of these
things...it is more civilized to laugh at life than to lament over it."
[Hadas, STOIC PHILOSOPHY OF SENECA, p. 102.]
Beatrix Murrell <> Murr...@aol.com
Stoa del Sol <> San Diego, CA
www.bizcharts.com/stoa_del_sol
Charles Davis
Nice selection.