You can only be anxious about the future if you view your present moment as being unfulfilling.
Calling your mind back from the future to live fully in the present because the future doesn't even exist.
Do you want to know why people are greedy for the future? It's because no one has yet found himself. - Socrates Letters 32.4
If you're always choosing remote spots to chase after leisure, you'll find sources of distraction everywhere.
We live in an incredibly beautiful tapestry of a cosmos, governed by universal laws and harmonies, which we ourselves have emerges from, and to which we ourselves are inextricably bound.
If we could see and understand how the universe operated as a whole, from a cosmic vantage point we would see it as a perfect and beautiful model of excellence.
Complaining about some trivial event is an insult to the goodness of the universe itself.
"Don't wish things to happen as you desire, but with them to happen as they do. Then your life will flow smoothly." -Epictetus. We need to accept fate and whatever the laws of nature are destined to bring. Id not, we will never experience peace of mind."
Because even if we stumble on life's journey or get splashed by a bit of mud, that's no reason to complain about the beautiful world that brought us into being.
The poor person is not someone who has too little but someone who always craves more" - Seneca, Letters 2.6
"You should measure all things by your natural needs, which can be satisfied for free or at very little cost...Nature desires nothing beyond some food" - Seneca
The person who has enough is truly rich, and the fastest ways t become rich is to give up on the endless pursuit of wealth.
"A person who lives within the bounds set by nature will never feel poor, but someone who exceeds those bounds will be chased by poverty even amidst the greatest wealth. The worst kind of poverty is those who feel poor in the midst of their riches." - Seneca
If you possess wealth or any gift of fortune, you shouldn't become attached to it. People with wealth can use it wisely to benefit others and society.
"Its better to be scorned for ones natural state than to be tormented by constant pretense." - Seneca
"How long I might live is not up to me, but how I live is within my control." - Seneca, Letters 93.7
If you don't remember that your time is limited and finite, you are much more likely to take things for granted.
"What you have actually achieved will only be clear when you take your last breath. I welcome this test and do not fear the judgement" - Seneca
Once we have achieved true happiness, or a blessed state of mind, living longer will not make us happier, While living longer wont make us more content, those extra days or years will be like icing on the cake of an already happy life.
It's the quality of a person's life that allows someone to live fully, not the length.
"What matters is not how long you live, but how nobly you live" - Seneca
People become anxious by worrying about the future, But that because they haven't yet "found themselves" enough to fully live in, and to deeply to enjoy, the present moment.
We should live each day as "a complete life", as if its out last day of being alive.
"Let us compose our thoughts, as if we've reached the end. Let us postpone nothing. Let's settle our accounts with life every day". This practice encourages one to take nothing for granted, to look back on one's life with gratitude, and it reminds us to live as fully as possible, according to our deepest values.
"The happiest and most cheerful possessor of himself awaits the next day without anxiety. Anyone who says "I have completed living" rises each morning with a profit, having gained an extra day." - Seneca
Everything we have, or believe that we possess, is just "on loan" from the universe. Everything. And one day all those things will need to be returned.
"We must love them with the awareness that we have no promise we will have them forever, nor any promise we will have them for long. We must remind ourselves often that we should love things as if they are sure to leave us, or that they are leaving already. That what Fortune gives, but realize that it comes with no guarantee." Seneca.
Someone who views the world correctly will realize that all his property, and even his life, is a temporary gift of Fortune. He'll then live as if everything were a loan, and hell be prepared to return those gifts without sorrow when the universe finally reclaims them.
Knowing that nothing is permanent is just accepting a fact of nature. If has nothing to do with a persons ability to love deeply. Realizing that my loved ones are all impermanent encourages me to treasure them more deeply.
"Anxiety is not appropriate for a grateful mind. On the contrary, all worry should be dispelled through deep self-confidence and an awareness of true love" - Seneca, On Benefits 6.42.1
Pantheists believe that these is no god "outside" the universe. Instead they believe the entire universe is God including the laws and principals that shape it.
"Any correct evaluation of nature's generosity will force you to admit you have been her sweetheart" - Seneca
While our real goods lie within, we can still feel a deep sense of gratitude for every gift the universe offers to us. At the same time we can come to see, through the eyes of appreciation that the finest gits from the universe are often free or freely given. Because of that, we can take pleaser in the simple things, like a cup of tea on a sunny morning. We can also experience profound happiness and satisfaction without seeing out an endless flow of expensive luxuries.
What freedom means for Seneca is not being enslaved by false judgements, extreme negative emotions, anger, compulsions, unhappiness, anxiety about the future, a desire for external objects, feelings of emotional injury and the opinions or actions of others.
Freedom also means belonging to yourself, living a life that is already complete, and being self-sufficient.
The more we grant importance to external things outside our control, the less free we will become.
"how pleasant it is to ask for nothing, how wonderful it is to be satisfied without depending on Fortune. I can show you many things that, once acquired, stole our freedom away. We would still belong to ourselves if those things did not belong to us. - Seneca
"The person who reached the heights knows the source of real joy- finding happiness beyond the control of anyone else" - Seneca
The wise person will appreciate and us all the gifts of Fortune he or she might possess, but will not rely upon those things for happiness.
Once a Stoic begins to live "a life that is already complete," at that moment, he truly belongs to himself, having achieved a state of inner freedom.
"Once we have driven away all things that disturb or frighten us, there follows unbroken tranquility and unending freedom. For when pleasures and pains have been banished, a boundless joy comes in to replace all that is trivial, fragile, and harmful - a joy that is unshaken and unwavering. Then follow peace and harmony of the mind, and true greatness coupled with gentleness, since ferocity is always born from weakness" - Seneca
