💀 Dying Every Day
The Dying Every Day series delivers guided Stoic meditations on the art of living. Each meditation provides a quote, a selected passage, and a journaling prompt to consider. These meditations are designed to help you (and me) reflect on what it means to live a ‘good’ life.
Seneca on the ‘Good Life’
‘Do you want me to be poor?’ Bring it on, and you will learn what poverty is when a good actor plays that part. … ‘Do you want me to endure pains?’ Bring them on as well. ‘And exile?’ Wherever I go, I will be fine because I was already fine here—not because of the place but because of my principles. …
— Epictetus, Discourses
Selected Passage
In this week’s Dying Every Day meditation, we’re exploring what it means to live the ‘good life’ — through a selected passage from Seneca.
We rail daily at Fate, saying, ‘Why has A. been carried off in the middle of his career? Why is not B. carried off instead? Why should he prolong his old age, which is a burden to himself as well as to others?’
But tell me, pray, do you consider it fairer that you should obey Nature, or that Nature should obey you? And what difference does it make how soon you depart from a place you must depart from sooner or later? We should strive not to live long but to live rightly; for to achieve a long life, you need Fate only, but for right living, you need the soul. …
Let us see to it, my dear Lucilius, that our lives, like jewels of great price, be noteworthy not because of their width but because of their weight. Let us measure them by their performance, not by their duration. Would you know wherein lies the difference between this hardy man who, despising Fortune, has served through every campaign of life and has attained life’s Supreme Good and that other person over whose head many years have passed? […]
+ Adapted from On the Quality, as Contrasted with the Length, of Life
Reflection Exercise
What does it mean to live a ‘good’ life?
Does it have anything to do with living a ‘long’ life?
For Seneca, it’s not the length that makes a ‘good’ life. “A life is long if it is a full life,” stresses Seneca, “but the fullness is not attained until the soul has rendered to itself its proper Good, that is until it has assumed control over itself.” It’s important to remember that we are not in control of our length of life but how we live it.
Journaling Prompt
Consider reflecting (or journaling) on this question, which the Stoic philosopher Epictetus posed to his students: “If you understand these truths, what will stop you from living in a free and easy way, calmly accepting everything that can happen, and putting up with what has already happened?”
Follow Us: Instagram | Youtube
—
Thank you for reading; I hope you found something useful.
Until next time, be wise and be well,
J.W.
P.S. New here? Catch up on previous volumes in the archive!