Being entrusted with time

We are entrusted by nature with time; therefore gather and save your time by being aware of how purposefully time is used. – paraphrased from Seneca

I have just completed a course on stoicism and consequently discovered the Epistles of Seneca. I found his writing surprisingly relevant to a modern world and easy to associate with. As a result I had been starting to ponder the stoic philosophy a bit more deeply. In the first letter Seneca writes to his friend Lucilius about time and our use of time.  The stoics endeavoured to live fully in accordance with the nature of man. Two aspects of the nature of man is being highlighted. The first is that man has an objective experience of time as a limited resource that is continually getting less. Of course the Rosicrucian teaching also sees that time is a perception and give evidence of a timeless state. But seneca is firstly concerned with the present and the material realities of life.  Man is the only creature as far as we know that is aware of time and the passing of time and therefore must play adefining role in defining human nature. Seneca claims that although our nature as humans is to be purposive we waste a lot of time.  Again human nature is defined as being purposive.  Human nature therefor has two elements to it – the awareness of time and the ability to be consciously purposive. It does not really matter whether there are other creatures that shares in these two traits but it gives an important context and clue to our human nature and what makes up for good judgement. My understanding is that stoicism will assert a close relationship between purpose and virtues because our purpose will be to express virtues.  We must use our time to the best of our ability and that does not mean running after money or ticking off things from a To-Do list. No it means using every moment to become a better member of humanity…a  better man. We need to daily look at what where we should grow and when we retire ask ourselves whether we go to bed a better man than when we woke up that morning. I tend to hark back again to Gurdjieffian thinking that stated that man must grow in terms of knowledge and being. I claimed recently that virtue is the glue that binds together being and knowledge is knowing how to express virtue. So within that context we need to use our time not just to chase after external results but to also, and primarily, be concerned with our inner growth.