Note: This is the second post in a weekly series called ‘Seneca Sundays’. Each week, I’m reflecting on one of Seneca’s ‘Moral Letters to Lucilius’, and summarising the most practical and useful principles to share with you.
Summary
Seneca’s main point in this letter is that Fortune can be both kind and violent, and that we must prepare ourselves for both of her moods.
1. Test your resilience by preparing yourself for misfortune.
Seneca challenges Lucilius to “set aside a certain number of days during which you shall be content with the scantiest and cheapest fare.”
To sleep on a straw mat, to wear coarse clothing, and to eat hard and grimy bread.
Seneca’s point is simple: we should “toughen the soul” in good times so we’re prepared for the moments of greater stress that will come in the future. He goes on to say, “If you would not have a person flinch when the crisis comes, train them before it comes.”
It felt a little odd reading this letter, and writing about it, without trying it for myself. So this week, I took 3 days and slept on the floor, wore my plainest clothes, didn’t shave, and ate pasta, canned tuna, and frozen vegetables for every meal.
At the beginning, it felt weird and self-absorbed. Food is never actually missing from my plate, so how could this simulated experience actually be valuable? I felt like a fraud; playing a game that had no purpose.
But over the 3 days, as I asked myself Seneca’s question, “Is this the condition that I feared?” I realised that my imperfect and simulated “scantiest of fare” was teaching me that even with little, I can still sleep soundly and avoid hunger.
2. Learn to love the test, and you won’t be scared of misfortune.
I like how Seneca challenges us to not just endure—or survive—the test, but rather to find pleasure and enjoyment in it. This turns the experience into a psychological advantage we can take into the future.
“It is the highest kind of pleasure to be able to derive pleasure from this sort of food… and you will understand that a person’s peace of mind does not depend upon Fortune; for, even when angry she grants enough for our needs.”
3. Learn to be happy with or without wealth.
As one of the richest people in the Roman Empire, Seneca wasn’t saying we should shun wealth, but encourages us to learn to “live happily without it as well as with it.” And that with the wealth we have—regardless of the amount—we should possess it “dauntlessly”. Unafraid of losing it.
I’m at the very beginning of my learning journey on this topic, but this letter—and my experience this week—has been a small window into preparing my mind for moments of future toil, experiencing the difference between need vs. want, and understanding how little we need to be happy.