In this video, I look at Seneca's first letter to Lucilious: On Saving Time. In this letter, Seneca explains the importance of guarding one's time. Why don't we put more of a value on our time? Why are we so happy to waste it? And how should we spend our time?
🔸 What Seneca means by 'guarding your time'
🔸 Why we value wealth over time
🔸 Why our past is in 'the grip of death'
🔸 Why we should 'embrace every hour'
🔸 Why we should spend time with people who value our time
Seneca is urging us to stop and take stock of how we spend our time. It is one of the main goal's of Stoicism - to make best use of our time using our rational mind.
✉️ Letter 1 - On Saving Time
“Do that, dear Lucilius: assert your own freedom. Gather and guard the time that until now was being taken from you, or was stolen from you, or that slipped away. Convince yourself that what I write is true: some moments are snatched from us, some are filched, and some just vanish. But no loss is as shameful as the one that comes about through carelessness. Take a close look, and you will see that when we are not doing well, most” of life slips away from us; when we are inactive, much of it—but when we are inattentive, we miss it all. Can you show me even one person who sets a price on his time, who knows the worth of a day, who realizes that every day is a day when he is dying? In fact, we are wrong to think that death lies ahead: much of it has passed us by already, for all our past life is in the grip of death." And so, dear Lucilius, do what your letter says you are doing: embrace every hour. If you lay hands on today, you will find you are less dependent on tomorrow. While you delay, life speeds on by. Everything we have belongs to others, Lucilius; time alone is ours. Nature has put us in possession of this one thing, this fleeting, slippery thing—and anyone who wants to can dispossess us. Such is the foolishness of mortal beings: when they borrow the smallest, cheapest items, such as can easily be replaced, they acknowledge the debt, but no one considers himself indebted for taking up our time. Yet this is the one loan that even those who are grateful cannot repay. You ask, perhaps, what I am doing—lI, who give you these instructions. I am a big spender, I freely admit, but a careful one: I have kept my accounts. I cannot say that nothing has been wasted, but at least I can say what, and why, and how; I can state the causes of my impoverishment. But it is with me as with many others who have been reduced to penury through no fault of their own: everyone forgives them, but no one comes to their assistance.''
I hope you enjoy this first episode of 'Seneca's Lovely Letter's'. :)
#Stoicism #Seneca #Letters #RitualizeWisdom #Time #Virtue #Philosophy #InnerPeace #Values
🔗 Resources & Links:
👉 Follow me on Substack: https://ritualizewisdom.substack.com/
👉 Read Seneca's Complete Letters: https://archive.org/details/letters-on-ethics-to-lucilius-pdf-room
👉 Listen to the podcast: https://tr.ee/iHw4RCpkth
👉 Need video editing work? Check out my Upwork: https://www.upwork.com/freelancers/~01881ad53b5c0b8cd5?mp_source=share
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