This Isn’t The Way To Practice Detachment | Ask Daily Stoic

Ryan Holiday (0:00)

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Welcome to The Daily Stoic Podcast where each day we read a passage of ancient wisdom designed to help you in your everyday life. Well, on Thursdays, we not only read the daily meditation, but we answer some questions from listeners and fellow Stoics who are trying to apply this philosophy just as you are.

Some of these come from my talks. Some of these come from Zoom sessions that we do with Daily Stoic Life members or as part of the challenges. Some of them are from interactions I have on the street when there happened to be someone there recording.

Thank you for listening. And we hope this is of use to you. Thank you.

Seneca wasn't fond of philosophers you could recognize, not by their fame or by their uniform.

In his time, just as it is in ours, there was a type of person who in reading about the Diogenes types or the tough Stoic type, thinks that philosophy required that they give up their worldly possessions, start dressing like a bum. These types try to signal their virtue by driving a beat up old car or showing you how little they own. See, they say, I am practicing detachment. See, I don't want like you want. But these appearances can be deceiving. As Seneca reminds us, we should not believe the lack of silver and gold to be proof of the simple life. The simple life is not a matter of externals. It's about what's going on inside. Someone can be a billionaire flying on a private jet, totally at peace and indifferent to money, just as someone else, much less well off, might be grinding their teeth in envy and resentment. You can swear off materialism, but if you trade it for demanding to be recognized for your superiority and purity, is that really an improvement? Or if you live frugally but obsess over every dollar, miserly extracting as much savings from every situation and interaction, what kind of peace is that?

The simple life is defined by its simplicity, by its gratitude, by the ability to enjoy, by the ability to enjoy whatever is in front of you. Whether that's millions of dollars or a nice chicken sandwich. It's not the lack of money that we should be pursuing, but a lack of angst, a lack of resentment, a lack of insecurity.

That's what wealth is.

Lance (4:34)

So I guess I'm kind of working through some career stuff right now, but I think this kind of applies to anything, you know, and I like this idea of where you are is where you need to practice your philosophy, right? You can just do that anywhere, right?