6/75: Personal Progress, East And West

     In his sixth letter to Lucilius, Seneca mentions the Stoic notion of progress to his friend:
          "You cannot imagine how much progress I see myself making every day. 'What remedies are these that have done so much for you?' you say. 'Send them to me too!' Indeed, I am longing to shower you with all of them. What gives me pleasure in learning something is that I can teach it. Nothing will ever please me, not even what is remarkably beneficial, if I have learned it for myself only. If wisdom were given to me with this proviso, that I should keep it shut up in myself and never express it to anyone else, I should refuse it: no good is enjoyable to possess without a companion. So I will send you the books themselves; and I will annotate them too, so that you need not expend much effort hunting through them for the profitable bits, but can get right away to the things that I endorse and am impressed with."
     Seneca discusses progress toward wisdom further in Letter 75, noting that there are three categories of persons making progress. Some Stoics say that the first group of progressors have eliminated their mental infirmities but not their emotions. The second type have put aside the worst of the emotions, but have not yet achieved tranquility and are liable to backsliding. The third kind of progressors has gone beyond many serious faults (like greed, lust, and desire) but not all faults (like anger, ambition, and fear). Seneca tells Lucilius that he believes they both have made it, or will make it, into the third species. The Stoic goal is to become a wise person, or sage; such people are not troubled by anxiety, not defiled by pleasure, and fear neither the gods nor death. However, few humans have ever achieved this status (a notable example of a sage, for the ancient Stoics, was the Athenian philosopher Socrates).
   An interesting parallel (at least to me) can be drawn with the Theravada Buddhism of the Pali Canon. According to Bhikkhu Bodhi, the Buddha's disciples can be divided into four classes. The "stream-enterer" has eliminated doubt and certain other fetters. The "once-returner" has not eliminated additional fetters, but has weakened hatred and delusion and lust. The "non-returner" has eliminated lust and ill will. The goal of the Theravada Buddhist is to become an "arahant" who has eliminated the desire for existence -- along with conceit, restlessness, and ignorance -- and will not undergo any future rebirths in any realms.
     Whether or not Seneca believed in reincarnation or immortality is a subject for a future post.
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     Bhikkhu Bodhi, In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon (Boston,Wisdom Publications, 2005), pages 373-384.
     Seneca, Letters on Ethics to Lucilius, Translated with an Introduction and Commentary by Margaret Graver and A.A. Long (University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 2015), Letter 6, 3-5 , pages 33-34; see also Letter 75, 8-18, pages 237-239.