Pleasure is inversely proportionate to demands

by Chandan Bandyopadhyay

Epictetus was a poor slave, and yet how much we owe him! “How is it possible” he says, “that a man who has nothing, who is naked, house-less, without a hearth, squalid, without a city, can pass a life that flows easily? See, God has sent a man to show you that it is possible. Look at me who am without a city, without a house, without possessions; I sleep on the ground; I have no wife, no children, no practicum, but only the earth and heavens, and one poor cloak. And what do I want? Am I not without sorrow? Am I not without fear? Am I not free? When did any of you see me failing in the object of my desire? Or even falling into that which I would avoid? Did I ever blame God or man? Did I ever accuse any man? Did any of you ever see me with a sorrowful continence? And how do I meet with those whom you afraid of and admire? Do not I treat them like slaves? Who, when he sees me, does not think that he sees his king and master?Marcus Aurelius has drawn for us a most instructive lesson in his character of Antonius: Do everything as a disciple of Antonius. Remember his constancy in every act which was conformable to reason, and his evenness in all things, and his piety, and the serenity of continence, and his sweetness, and his disregard of empty fame, and his efforts to understand things; and how he would never let anything pass without having first most carefully examined it and clearly understood it; and how he bore with those who blamed him unjustly without blaming them in return; how he did nothing in a hurry; and how he listened not to calumnies; and how exact  an examiner of manners and actions he was; not given to reproach people; nor timid, nor suspicious, nor a sophist, with how little he was satisfied, such as lodging, bed, dress, food, servants; how laborious and patient; how sparing he was in his diet; his firmness and uniformity in his friendship; how he tolerated freedom of speech in those who opposed his opinions; the pleasure that he had when any man showed him anything better; and how pious he was without superstition. Imitate all this that there mayest have as good conscience, when the last hour comes, as he had. Sir Arthur Helps has said, “While all the time nature is inviting you to talk earnestly with her, to understand her, to subdue her, and to be blessed by her! Go away, man; do something, understand something, and let me hear no more of your dullness”. 

If, indeed, we cannot be happy, the fault is generally in ourselves!