From simpleton to sage -- Seneca, pt. 3

On Tranquility of Mind

In this Dialogue, Seneca’s friend, Serenus, finds himself tossed about by conflicting impulses. [“I try to be practical, but I slip up all the time.”] The resulting mental agitation, which ill befits a person named, “Serenus,” is too much for him and he writes to Seneca for advice. And Seneca provides plenty of it. His guidelines for maintaining mental tranquility form a source text of Stoic philosophy. The platitudes come fast and furious, together with musings and illustrations from lives of personalities of the time.

The “Great Ideas”:
-- Don’t worry.
-- Be satisfied with yourself, shame is not a great alternative. With shame comes malice, which brings aggravation, which leads to brooding, which causes boredom.
-- Get politically involved, make yourself useful to fellow-citizens.
-- Choose friends carefully.
-- Stay detached from possessions.
-- Avoid ostentation, prefer function.
-- Be thankful for good fortune, for when it vanishes “there is no shame in returning to the point from whence you came.”
-- Don’t waste energy pointlessly.
-- Regard vices not as hateful but ridiculous.
-- Relieve extended periods of concentration with amusing diversions.

It’s a meandering text with a deceptive breeziness. I hope I’m correct to claim that Seneca resists taking his own advice too seriously. Though the sheer length of the dialogue suggests a confidence in his own ability to give advice, he concludes that no means of preserving and restoring tranquility “is strong enough for those who want to preserve such a fragile thing, unless the wavering mind is surrounded by attentive and unceasing care.”

And that, friends, is quite enough Seneca for the time being.