Today I wanted to quickly discuss one of my favourite philosophers of all time. His name was Seneca and he lived in Rome (4BCE-65CE) during the reigns of five of the more polarising Emperors in Roman history - Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero. The last three on the list didn't make life easy for Seneca. Granted Caligula and Nero didn't make life easy for many people. Claudius however exiled Seneca to the island of Corsica (41-49CE) so he didn't have it easy with Claudius either.
Seneca was considered a Stoic philosopher. A stoic sought a way of life that was free from suffering (ultimate goal). To get there a stoic had to incorporate daily practice in self-control, overcoming destructive emotions, abstaining from worldly pleasures, developing clear judgement, and generating an inner calm. They also trained their attention to the present moment.
Seneca, however, was more than just a stoic. He learnt from a lot of different philosophers and philosophical constructs, in particular Epicureanism. And whilst I can't prove it, there was a lot about Seneca that was Buddhist. What I can't prove here is whether Buddhism had inserted itself into the minds of any Westerners at this point in history. It's certainly possible, and because this era pre-dated Roman Christianity, then any philosophical construct was accepted in Rome at that time.
In a way, Seneca had his own philosophy, which he geared around the Goddess Fortuna. She is often depicted as carrying a set of scales in one hand and a ships rudder in the other. She would weigh up an outcome, and however the scales fell, she would shift the course of the rudder to give you something good or something bad, or even something in between. Fortuna couldn't be swayed by popularity, wealth, or prestige. If she was feeling cruel then she would be cruel to anyone, anywhere, anytime. She was the perfect foil to base Seneca's philosophical system.
What fascinates me the most about Seneca was the way he viewed the world. For starters he was one of the wealthiest people in Rome. Some of my research suggests he was even wealthier than the Roman emperor Nero. So here we had a wealthy philosopher. This was relatively rare in ancient times in the West. Most philosophers were poor and so tended to associate only with poor people. But Seneca was loaded, and conveniently, he hung around with wealthy people. And guess what he discovered? That rich people have the same emotional turmoil as poor people. This was ground breaking at the time, because the view was that if you were wealthy you had no problems.
What Seneca was best at though, was advising people on how to stay emotionally stable. And the single best way to do that, according to Seneca, was to be ready for anything.
But how do you prepare yourself for anything that could happen in a day? Seneca proposed that you did a morning meditation, or praemeditatio. You do it before you get up and it will fortify you for the day ahead, whatever unfolds for you. It goes like this:
“The wise will start each day with the thought…
Fortuna [Goddess] gives us nothing which we can really own.
Nothing, whether public or private, is stable; the destinies of
men, no less than those of cities, are in a whirl.
Whatever structure has been reared by a long sequence of years,
at the cost of great toil and through the great kindness of the gods, is
scattered and dispersed in a single day. No, he who has said ‘a day’ has
granted too long a postponement to swift misfortune; an hour, an instant of
time, suffices for the overthrow of empires.
How often have cities in Asia, how often in Achaia [Western
Greek province], been laid low by a single shock of earthquake? How many towns
in Syria, how many in Macedonia, have been swallowed up? How often has this
kind of devastation laid Cyprus in ruins?
We live in the middle of things which have all been destined to
die.
Mortal have you been born, to mortals have you given birth.
Reckon on everything, expect everything.”
Pretty powerful stuff isn't it? Basically Seneca is encouraging the person to prepare for the worst possible outcome imaginable. And because, typically, the worst outcome doesn't eventuate, then it's been a good day.
Seneca believed that the most powerful emotional responses occur as a result of not being prepared. If you knew there was a possibility, however slight, that the shit could hit the fan, then when the shit does hit the fan, you were prepared. Hopefully with some sort of protective garb because nobody wants poo on them.
Point being is that if you consider the possibility of a bad outcome and then the bad occurs, you will be more emotionally stable because you didn't get surprised. You were ready, in other words.
I personally like the praemeditatio and I also don't. Part of me likes it because it fires us up for the day ahead. It also prepares us for any eventuality, which should have you ready to act when any of these possibilities occur.
But I also don't like it because it forces us to focus on the negative. And because I believe that 'Like Attracts Like' we could effectively be manifesting the wrong thing. Therefore, I wake up in the morning believing it will be a great day. Sometimes the Universe shoots me down as soon as I get out of bed, but mostly I start the day, in a positive and happy manner. And I wouldn't want it to be any other way.
Seneca didn't get to die easy. I'm assuming he did his praemeditatio on the morning of his forced suicide? The emperor Nero decided that Seneca was conspiring against him so that he could take the Roman thrown for himself. This couldn't have been further from the truth, but once Nero got something into his head there was no changing it. He sent one of his praetorian guard to Seneca's house with the suicide note. Upon receiving the letter, Seneca sat down to write out his will and a list of who he owed money to so that the debt could be settled posthumously. The guard felt he was taking too much time so he hurried Seneca along.
Seneca's wife Paulina, in a fit of despair also wanted to end her life, and Seneca didn't stop her. But as soon as she slit her wrists the guard bandaged her up again. Seneca was already quite old by the time the suicide was ordered, so when he slit his wrists the blood didn't flow quickly. So he slit more blood vessels and still he didn't die. So he ordered a cup of hemlock (poisonous parsley alkaloid) to be brewed so that he could die in a similar vein to the famous Greek philosopher Socrates. But after drinking two cups of hemlock, Seneca still wasn't dead so he asked to be placed in a vapour-bath, where he slowly suffocated to death.
From all reports, Seneca died gracefully, in true stoic fashion. He wasn't going to let the Goddess Fortuna beat him during his final minutes on Earth.
Love and light to you all
David Hartmann
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