The Daily Stoic - Seneca on Conquering the Conqueror

Episode Date: March 19, 2023

In today’s episode, Ryan presents an excerpt from The Tao Of Seneca produced by Tim Ferriss’ Audio. In this letter, Seneca talks about examining the causes of our fear, the unavoidable threat of death, and more. 📖 Check out the PDF of The Tao of Seneca for free and the Penguin Edition of Seneca’s Letters at the Painted Porch. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey, prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stoic Podcast early and add free on Amazon Music. Download the app today. Welcome to the weekend edition of the Daily Stoic Podcast. On Sundays, we take a deeper dive into these ancient topics with excerpts from the Stoic texts, from the Stoic texts, audio books that we like here recommend here at Daily Stoic, and other long form wisdom that you can chew on on this relaxing weekend. We hope this helps shape your understanding of this philosophy and most importantly that you're able to apply it to actual life. Thank you for listening. a life. Thank you for listening. Hey, it's Ryan Holiday. Welcome to another weekend episode of The Daily, still podcast. Today we're doing a deep dive into Seneca, specifically from Tim Ferris' wonderful audiobook edition of Seneca's Letters, The Doubt of Seneca,

to produce this a couple of years ago. He's been nice enough to let us run it on the podcast. If you haven't bought it or read the PDF, highly recommend it. You can actually get the PDF totally for free at tim.blogslashsenica. But in today's episode, Senaika is talking about conquering a conqueror. Talks about examining the causes of our fear.

Talks about the unavoidable threat of death. She says, we do not fear death. We fear the thought of death. And I'll just get right into it. My favorite translation of Seneca's letters is his penguin edition, which I carry at the Payton Portsch. I'll link to that in today's show notes. And we'll just get into it. The Dell Technologies Black Friday in July event is on with limited quantity deals on top business PCs with Windows 11 Pro. Save on select Vostro laptops with built-in OS recovery fingerprint readers and antivirus protections. Plus you can save on select latitude laptops with a wide range of built-in privacy collaboration

and connectivity features. Enjoy unmatched productivity and connectivity with incredible savings on our best tech. Get free shipping and special financing with Dell Business Credit. Dell Technologies recommends Windows 11 Pro for business. Find the right tech for your needs by calling a Dell Technologies Advisor at 877-Ask-Dell. That's 877-Ask-Dell, offered to business customers by Web Bank, who determines qualifications for in terms of credit. Letter 30 on Conquering the Conqueror

I have beheld of Fidius Basus, that noble man, shattered in health and wrestling with his years. But they already bear upon him so heavily that he cannot be raised up. Old age has settled down upon him with great, yes, with its entire weight. You know that his body was always delicate and sapless. For a long time he has kept it in hand, or to speak more correctly, has kept it together. Of a sudden, it has collapsed. Just as in a ship that springs a leak, you can always stop the first or the second fissure, but when many holes begin to open and let in water, the gaping hull cannot be saved. Similarly, in an old man's body, there is a certain limit

up to which you can sustain and prop its weakness. But when it comes to resemble at a crepid building, when every joint begins to spread, and while one is being repaired another falls apart, then it is time for a man to look about him and consider how he may get out. And it is time for a man to look about him and consider how he may get out. But the mind of our friend Basu's active, philosophy bestows this boon upon us, it makes us joyful in the very sight of death, strong and brave no matter in what state the body may be, cheerful and never failing though the body fail us. A great pilot can sail even when his canvas is rent. If his ship be dismantled, he can yet put in trim what remains of her hull and hold

her to her course. This is what our friend Basus is doing, and he contemplates his own end with the courage and countenance which he would regard as undue indifference in a man who so contemplated another's. This is a great accomplishment, Lucilius, and one which needs long practice to learn, to depart calmly when the inevitable hour arrives. Other kinds of death contain an ingredient of hope. A disease comes to an end. A fire is quenched. Falling houses have set down in safety, those who they seemed certain to crush. The sea has cast ashore unharmed, those who midded engulfed, by the same force through which it drew them down. The soldier has drawn back his

sword from the very neck of his doomed foe, but those whom old age is leading away to death have nothing to hope for. Old age alone grants no reprieve. No ending to be sure is more painless, but there is none more lingering. Our friend Basu seemed to me to be attending his own funeral, and laying out his own body for burial, and living almost as if he had survived his own death, and bearing with wise resignation his grief at his own departure. For he talks freely about death, trying hard to persuade us that if this process contains any element of discomfort or of fear,

it is the fault of the dying person and not of death itself. Also, that there is no more inconvenience at the actual moment than there is after it is over. And it is just as insane, he adds, for a man to fear what will not happen to him as to fear what he will not feel if it does happen. Or does anyone imagine it to be possible that the agency by which feelings are removed can be itself felt? "'Therefore,' says Bussus. Death stands so far beyond all evil that it is beyond all fear of evils.

I know that all this has often been said, and should be often repeated, but neither when I read them were such precepts so effective with me, nor when I heard them from the lips of those who were at a safe distance from the fear of the things which they declared were not to be feared. But this old man had the greatest weight with me when he discussed death and death was near. 4. I must tell you what I myself think.

I hold that one is braver at the very moment of death than when one is approaching death. For death, when it stands near us, gives even to inexperienced men the courage not to seek to avoid the inevitable. So the gladiator, who throughout the fight has been no matter how faint-hearted, offers his throat to his opponent and directs the wavering blade to the vital spot. But an end that is near at hand and is bound to come calls for tenacious courage of soul. This is a rare thing, and none but the wise man can manifest it. Accordingly, I listened to Basus with the deepest pleasure. He was casting his vote concerning death, and pointing out what sort of a thing it is when it is observed, so to speak, nearer at hand.

I suppose that a man would have your confidence in a larger degree, and would have more weight with you, if he had come back to life, and should declare from experience that there is no evil in death, and so, regarding the approach of death, those will tell you best what disquiet it brings who have stood in its path, who have seen it coming, and have welcomed it. Basus may be included among these men, and he had no wish to deceive us. He says that it is as foolish to fear death as to fear old age. For death follows old age precisely as old age follows youth.

He who does not wish to die cannot have wish to live. For life is granted to us with the reservation that we shall die. To this end our path leaves. Therefore, how foolish it is to fear it, since men simply await that which is sure, but fear only that which is uncertain. Death has its fixed rule, equitable and unavoidable. Who can complain when he is governed by terms which include everyone? The chief part of equality, however, is equality.

But it is superfluous at the present time to plead nature's case, for she wishes our laws to be identical with her own. She but resolves that what she has compounded, and compounds again, that what she has resolved. Moreover, if it falls to the lot of any man to be set gently adrift by old age, not suddenly torn from life but withdrawn bit by bit, oh, verily he should thank the gods one and all, because, after he has had his fill, he is removed to arrest which is ordained for mankind, a rest that is welcome to the weary. You may observe certain men who crave death even more earnestly than others are want to beg for life, and I do not know which men give us greater courage, those who call for

death, or those who meet it cheerfully and tranquilly. For the first attitude is sometimes inspired by madness and sudden anger. The second is the calm which results from fixed judgment. Before now, men have gone to meet death in a fit of rage. But when death comes to meet him, no one welcomes it cheerfully, except the man who has long since composed himself for death. Life can get you down. I'm no stranger to that. When I find things are piling up, I'm struggling to deal with something. Obviously, I use my journal. Obviously, I turn to stochism,

but I also turn to my therapist, which I've had for a long time and has helped me through a bunch of stuff. And because I'm so busy and I live out in the country, I do therapy remote, so I don't have to drive somewhere. And that's where today's sponsor comes in. Toxbase makes it easy to find a therapist that you like. It's convenient, it's affordable. By doing everything online, Toxbase makes getting the help you want easy and affordable, so why wait? And Toxbase can help with any specific challenge you might be facing. That's why it's the number one online therapy platform with license therapists. And over 40 specialties, it's secure and private and in network with most

major insurers. As a listener of this podcast, you can get 80 bucks off your first month with talk space when you go to talkspace.com slash stoic. To match with a license therapist today, go to talkspace.com slash stoic to get 80 bucks off your first month and show your support for the Daily Stoic. That's talkspace.com slash Stoic. It's funny, I talked to lots of people and a good chunk of those people haven't been readers for a long time. They've just gotten back into it. And I always love hearing that and they tell me how they fall in love with reading. They're reading more than ever and I go, let me guess, you listen audiobooks don't

you? And it's true. And almost invariably, they listen to them on Audible. And That's because Audible offers an incredible selection of audio books across every genre from bestsellers and new releases to celebrity memoirs, and of course, ancient philosophy, all my books are available on audio, read by me for the most part. Audible lets you enjoy all your audio entertainment in one app, you'll always find the best of what you love, or something new to discover, and as an Audible member you get to choose one title a month to keep from their entire catalog, including the latest best sellers and new releases. You'll

discover thousands of titles from popular favorites, exclusive new series, exciting new voices in audio. You can check out stillness is the key. The daily dad I just recorded. So that's up on audible now coming up on the 10 year anniversary of the obstacle is the way audio books. So all those are available. And new members can try audible for free for 30 days, visit audible.com slash daily stoke or text daily stoke to 500-500. That's audible.com slash daily stoke or text daily stoke to 500-500. I admit, therefore, that I have visited this dear friend of mine more frequently on many

pretexts. But with the purpose of learning, more frequently on many pretexts, but with the purpose of learning whether I should find him always the same, and whether his mental strength was perhaps waning in company with his bodily powers. But it was on the increase. Just as the joy of the charioteer is want to show itself more clearly when he is on the seventh round of the course and near as the prize. Indeed, he often said in accord with the councils of Epicurus. I hope, first of all, that there is no pain at the moment when a man breathes his last.

But if there is, one will find an element of comfort in its very shortness. For no great pain lasts long, and at all events, a man will find relief at the very time when soul and body are being torn asunder. Even though the process be accompanied by excruciating pain, in the thought that after this pain is over, he can feel no more pain. I am sure, however, that an old man's soul is on his very lips, and that only a little force is necessary to disengage it from the body. A fire which has seized upon a substance that sustains it needs water to quench it, or sometimes, the destruction of the building itself, but the fire which lacks sustaining fuel dies away of its own accord.

I am glad to hear such words, my dear Luke-ill-use, not as new to me, but as leading me into the presence of an actual fact. And what then? Have I not seen many men break the thread of life? I have indeed seen such men. But those have more weight with me who approach death without any loathing for life, letting death in, so to speak, and not pulling it towards them. Bossus kept saying, It is due to our own fault that we feel this torture, because we shrink from dying only when we believe that our end is near at hand. But who is not near death? It is ready for us in all places and at all times.

Let us consider, he went on to say, When some agency of death seems imminent, how much nearer are other varieties of dying, which are not feared by us. A man is threatened with death by an enemy, but this form of death is anticipated by an attack of indigestion. And if we are willing to examine critically the various causes of our fear, we shall find that some exist, and others only seem to be. We do not fear death. We fear the thought of death. For death itself is always the same distance from us. Therefore, if it is to be feared at all, it is to be feared always.

For what season of our life is exempt from death? But what I really ought to fear is that you will hate this long letter worse than death itself. So I shall stop. Do you, however, always think on death in order that you may never see it? Farewell. Thanks for listening to The Daily Stoke Podcast. Just a reminder, we've got signed copies of all my books in The Daily Stoke Store.

You can get them personalized, you can get them sent to a friend. The Ops goes the way. You go as, the op-score is the way. You go as the enemy, still in this is the key, the leatherbound edition of the Daily Stoke. We have them all in the Daily Stoke store, which you can check out the Daily Stoic early and ad free on Amazon music. Download the Amazon music app today, or you can listen early and ad free with Wondery Plus in Apple podcasts. Celebrity feuds are high stakes. You never know if you're just gonna end up on page six or Du Moir or in court. I'm Matt Bellesai.

And I'm Sydney Battle, and we're the host of Wondery's new podcast, Diss and Tell, where each episode we unpack a different iconic celebrity feud. From the buildup, why it happened, and the repercussions. What does our obsession with these feuds say about us? The first season is packed with some pretty messy pop culture drama, but none is drawn out in personal as Britney and Jamie Lynn Spears. When Britney's fans form the free Britney movement dedicated to fraying her from the infamous conservatorship, Jamie Lynn's lack of public support, it angered some fans, a lot of them. It's a story of two young women who had their choices taken away from them by their controlling parents,

but took their anger out on each other. And it's about a movement to save a superstar, which set its sights upon anyone who failed to fight for Britney. Follow Dissentel wherever you get your podcast. You can listen ad free on Amazon Music or the Wondery app. you get your podcasts. You can listen ad-free on Amazon Music or the Wondering app.