Although Seneca employed the term “virtue” inconsistently, his incoherence did not prevent him from making profound observations about human nature, virtue, personal success and happiness.
In his 71st Letter to Lucilius, he uses a beautiful metaphor to define a virtuous life. He compares good persons to archers who choose their target carefully. Good individuals are able to shoot their arrows in the right direction, taking the wind and other elements into account.
In contrast, foolish people are like unskilled archers that will shoot without choosing their target carefully. They do not pay attention to an essential factor. At some point, their arrows will be wasted or attain the wrong target. That’s what happens to individuals who get carried away by their emotions, explains Seneca.
What should we do to become good archers? Seneca is giving us great hands-on advice in his 40th Letter to Lucilius. I regard this letter as one of Seneca’s best in terms of practicality that possesses permanent value.
Let us pass review to the messages conveyed in this Letter.
Harmony as an indicator of virtue
Harmony is an indicator of a well-functioning lifestyle, explains Seneca, and disharmony indicates the opposite. Fear and anxiety are signals that we should not ignore. When our mind is not at peace, it is giving us a warning that we are doing something wrong.
Our emotions are not precise enough to tell us what to do in order to achieve our goals, but they can surely help us identify our errors. When we feel anxious or fearful, we should take a step back and figure out what we are doing wrong.
Seneca frequently employs the term “universal order” as a synonym for “virtue.” His thesis is that we grow more resilient and happier when we live in harmony with the universal order.
I would rather employ the word “smooth” as a modern translation of Seneca’s “harmony.” If our lives are not running smoothly, we are not aligned with the “universal order.” Self-awareness constitutes the prerequisite of virtue. Before we take measures to improve, we must first grow aware of the issues.
The natural order is omnipresent
The natural order is omnipresent, argues Seneca, and we should open our eyes to see how things are connected. Seneca is referring to the divine omnipresence of the natural order, but he is defining God as equivalent to nature.
Seneca doesn’t go in his pantheism as far as Spinoza (1632-1677) would go sixteen centuries later. Seneca’s advice is more direct and straightforward. He is encouraging us to grow aware of disharmony or anxiety in our lives, so that we can focus on solving that problem.
The writings of Seneca emphasize the connection amongst all aspects of human life. If we are experiencing disharmony in our finances, the resulting anxiety may have a negative impact on our health, relationships and productivity.
Seneca remains optimistic about the outcome of our efforts to restore harmony. Due to the connections amongst all aspects of human life, if we solve the most severe problem in one area, we could enjoy improvements in other areas.
He describes the human soul as “an element of the divine” or “an element of the natural order.” In doing so, he is pointing out that our feelings of harmony or happiness are derived from the smoothness of our lifestyle.
The subjective aspect of harmony
Harmony comes from aligning our philosophy and goals with our actions, and with the natural order as a whole. Thus, it is a uniquely personal phenomenon.
Depending on our desires and interests, we may experience harmony and happiness in circumstances that other people find detrimental. Seneca explains that our spiritual alignment with the natural order should be personal, not standard or ritualistic.
Seneca’s emphasis on individual harmony is reminiscent of the personal virtues favoured by Aristotle (384-322 BC) in his “Nicomachean Ethics.” Seneca and Aristotle acknowledge the social benefits of individual virtues, but the latter represent the first step towards harmony with the natural order.
Seneca’s rejection of moral rituals includes the rejection of donations for religious purposes. Rituals are unlikely to help us regain the missing harmony because, instead of sharpening our self-awareness, they tend to suppress it.
Spinoza would have endorsed Seneca’s statement that “God is around us, with us and within us,” but Seneca’s idea of the divine is at odds with Christian theology. His repeated calls for perceiving the omnipresence of the divine are referring to a natural order that lacks the benevolence of the Gospels.
Let us heed Seneca’s advice of seeking harmony as a crucial prerequisite of happiness. Let’s pay attention to our feelings of serenity or anxiety, so that we can identify their cause, remove it quickly, and regain alignment with the natural order.
If you are interested in applying rational ideas in all sorts of situations, I recommend my book “The 10 principles of rational living.”
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