Our Need for Solitude
Seneca’s advice on finding peace and tranquility
Seneca’s advice on finding peace and tranquility
In a world filled with constant distractions, how do we find time to process anything? Unlike any other time in history, today we receive a barrage of situations and distractions coming at us that require our attention. We receive texts and notifications, phone calls and packages, interruptions and urgent requests.
While we deal with a daily life that pulls for our attention, it is not new. In fact, the Stoics spoke of distractions often and the need to find solitude, either within oneself while in a crowd, or by literally being by oneself.
Seneca, writing to his friend Lucilius in moral letter 56, stated:
“I force my mind to pay attention to itself and not to be distracted by anything external. It does not matter what is making a noise outside, so long as there is no turmoil inside as long as there is no wrangling between desire and fear, as long as greed is not at odds with self-indulgence, one carping at the other.”
Solitude for the mind, therefore and according to Seneca, is not necessarily ridding oneself of the constant distractions — it is being able to quiet one’s inner desires. It is the ability to sit silently, while chaos swirls around, and just be with one’s own thoughts.
Blaise Pascal similarly stated in the 1600s:
“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”
There is a desire to find peace and tranquility, a desire for us to be still and alone with our thoughts. Yet, far too often, our external circumstances lead to our inner turmoil. The judgments and desires we place on the external things (did this person text me? Did my photo on Instragram get more than X amount of likes?) bleeds into our inner sanctity. By attaching ourselves to these desires, when we attempt to think deep within ourselves, we can’t, there is a thin layer of insatiability that keeps us from ever being able to be alone with our thoughts.
But if we can avoid this, if we can actually find more pleasure within our thoughts and reflections than with these external desires, we can find the solitude Seneca speaks of.
The monk Thomas Merton similarly advised:
“The way to find the real “world” is not merely to measure and observe what is outside us, but to discover our own inner ground. For that is where the world is, first of all: in my deepest self.”
It is those with a “lightweight” mind, according to Seneca, who, when attempting to find solitude within oneself, are easily distracted by others speaking. But by having more interest and desire to observe one’s own thoughts, to have time for introspection, one is able to leave behind this lightweight sense of mind.
As Seneca finishes up his advice to Lucilius:
“Therefore you may be sure that your mind is settled only when no outcry reaches you, when no voice distracts you from yourself, whether with blandishments or with threats or just with meaning less noise.”
When you are able to be either alone or in a crowd, and be focused on your thoughts and not all the other distractions swirling around, that is when you know you have conquered your lightweight mind.
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