Seneca - Tao of Seneca

VOLUME 1

VOLUME 1

The Tao of Seneca, Volume 1

Based on the Moral Letters to Lucilius by Seneca,

translated by Richard Mott Gummere.

Loeb Classical Library edition

Volume 1 first published 1917;

Volume 2 first published in 1920;

Volume 3 first published 1925.

Loeb Classical Library is a registered trademark of

The President and Fellows of Harvard College.

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Book Interior Design and Typography by Laurie Griffin

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Printed in U.S.A.

THESE VOLUMES ARE DEDICATED

TO ALL WHO SEEK TO BETTER

THEMSELVES AND, IN DOING SO,

BETTER THE WORLD.

Tim Ferriss

TABLE OF CONTENTS

THOUGHTS FROM MODERN STOICS:

THOUGHTS FROM MODERN STOICS

THOUGHTS FROM MODERN STOICS:

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

by Tim Ferriss

A

Few of us consider ourselves philosophers. Philosophy usual y conjures images of dense textbooks and academic quibbling with no application to real life. Its fun for professors, perhaps, but a waste of time for the rest of us.

I felt this way for decades. Then, in 2004, I found the work of Lucius Annaeus Seneca, better known as Seneca the Younger or

simply Seneca. Born circa 4 BC in present day Spain and raised in Rome, Seneca was simultaneously an esteemed playwright,

one of the wealthiest people in Rome, a famous statesman, and

an advisor to the emperor. He had to negotiate, persuade, and

strategize his way through life. Far from spouting philosophy

from the safety of an ivory tower, he had to constantly deal with uncooperative, powerful human beings and faced disaster, exile, and death head on.

Seneca took risks and did big things.

His primary philosophy, Stoicism, was founded around 300

BC in Athens and can be thought of as an operating system for

thriving in high-stress environments. At its core, it teaches you how to separate what you can control from what you cannot, and it trains you to focus exclusively on the former.

Senecas Moral Letters to Luciliusa distil ation of his lessons

THE TAO OF SENECA | VOLUME 1

learnedchanged my life and continues to do so today. You now

hold a version of those letters in your hands, complete with original il ustrations, original calligraphy from compatible traditions like Zen, links to free audio, and more.

Im giving away The Tao of Seneca in the hopes that it changes your life, and I promise you that it can.

Stoicism was designed for doers, and youll be in fine company as a student.

Thomas Jefferson had Seneca on his bedside table. Michel de

Montaigne had a quote from Epictetusa handicapped slave

turned famous Stoic teachercarved into the ceiling of his house so he would see it constantly. Every year, Bill Clinton reads Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, who was at once a Stoic, emperor, and the most powerful man in the world. Other proponents include

John Stuart Mil , bestselling author Tom Wolfe, and Navy vice

admiral and Medal of Honor recipient James Stockdale, who credited his survival as a prisoner of war (7.5 years, much of it in a windowless 3' x 9' cement cell) to Stoicism.

But far from limited to overcoming the negative, Stoicism can

also be used to maximize the positive.

For this reason, Stoicism has spread like wildfire throughout

Silicon Valley and the NFL in the last five years, becoming a mental toughness training system for CEOs, founders, coaches, and players alike. Super Bowl champions like the Patriots and Seahawks have embraced Stoicism to make them better competitors.

In my own life, the results have been incredible.

Whether early-stage investments (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Uber, Alibaba, and 50+ others), books translated into 40+ languages

(e.g., Tools of Titans), or anything else in the last 20+ years of my life, I credit nearly all of the biggest successesand biggest disasters avertedto my study of Stoicism and, specifical y, the writing of Seneca.

FOREwORD: HOw TO USE THIS BOOk

But keep in mind: reading alone does very little. The ideas in this book are meant to be applied and this requires practice.

Why do I fast for at least one three-day stretch each month?

Why do I often schedule suffer camps of various types, where I might endure cold or eat exclusively rice and beans for 310 days?

Why might I wear the same type of black t-shirt for a week

straight, along with one pair of jeans, al the while remaining unshaven and asking myself, Is this the condition that I feared?

All of the above examples are how I use just one letter

Letter 18, On Festivals and Fasting (eres the gist in a few excerpts:

Set aside a certain number of days, during which you shallbe content with the scantiest and cheapest fare, with coarseand rough dress, saying to yourself the while: Is this thecondition that I feared? It is precisely in times of immunity from care that the soul should toughen itself before-

hand for occasions of greater stress, and it is while Fortuneis kind that it should fortify itself against her violence. Indays of peace the soldier performs maneuvers, throws up

earthworks with no enemy in sight, and wearies himself by

gratuitous toil, in order that he may be equal to unavoid-

able toil. If you would not have a man flinch when the

crisis comes, train him before it comes.

...

Let the pal et be a real one, and the coarse cloak; let thebread be hard and grimy. Endure all this for three or fourdays at a time, sometimes for more, so that it may be a testof yourself instead of a mere hobby. Then, I assure you,

my dear Lucilius, you will leap for joy when fil ed with apennyworth of food, and you will understand that a mans

THE TAO OF SENECA | VOLUME 1

peace of mind does not depend upon Fortune; for, even

when angry she grants enough for our needs.

...

For though water, barley-meal, and crusts of barley-bread,are not a cheerful diet, yet it is the highest kind of pleasureto be able to derive pleasure from this sort of food, and

to have reduced ones needs to that modicum which no

unfairness of Fortune can snatch away.

These types of practices make you less emotional y reactive,

more aware in the present tense, and more resilient. Perhaps

counterintuitively, given the English connotations of stoic, this dramatical y increases your ability to feel joy over the small things.

As you navigate life, this type of mental toughness training

also makes tough decisions easier, whether quitting a job, starting a company, asking someone out, ending a relationship, or

anything else.

So, where to start?

There are many great minds in the Stoic pantheon, including

Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, and Cato. For me, though, Seneca

stands out as easy to read, memorable, and surprisingly practical.

He covers specifics ranging from handling slander and backstabbing, to fasting, exercise, wealth, and death. His letters read like a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book for handling the obstacles