Peeling Onions with Seneca
Written and Hosted by: Bud Wonsiewicz
You know you’ve hit a nerve when a twenty minute meditation triggers a two week discussion. The meditation, Peeling the Onion by Tony D’Souza, asks us to imagine peeling off aspects of our personality that give us joy, happiness and security and examine what of ourselves remains when the onion is completely peeled. The exercise prompted consternation, moments of enlightenment and lots of interaction as we tried to figure it out.
At the same time, I was reading a new book Breakfast with Seneca by David Fideler about the writings of Seneca, a Roman Stoic philosopher. The similarities between the contemporary meditation and the 2000 year old writing of a Stoic sage were striking.
Guided Meditation - Peeling the Onion
The best way to experience Peeling the Onion is to do the guided meditation perhaps repeating it several times.
It begins by imagining peeling an onion one layer at a time. We imagine that we are composed of layers of personality similar to the layers of an onion. Who do we think we are? What aspects of our self make us feel worthwhile, somebody? We pick one aspect and ask how does this make us feel worth while? What do we do to maintain and support this aspect? What good feelings (Joy, Happiness, Security) does it bring? What bad feelings (Fear, Anger, Hurt)?
For example, I may feel worthwhile because I am a good friend. I attend to my friends, care about them, listen carefully to them. My friendships are a profound source of joy, happiness and security. I feel worthwhile and secure. On the other hand if a friend hangs up the phone on me and refuses to communicate and wants nothing to do with me, I may feel hurt, angry and fearful. My feeling of being worthwhile might vanish in an instant.
Imagine peeling off the layer. Imagine that you no longer value it as an important part of your self. Say I am worthwhile without this. I am worthwhile without any friendships. Notice your feelings, thoughts and physical reactions.
One by one you peel off all the layers that make you feel worthwhile and secure until you reach the core of who you are. What is in the core?
In the western tradition, we believe that all humans have intrinsic worth. In the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) humans are “created in the image and likeness of God” which gives everyone inherent dignity. “We are all equal before the law” for example. A similar idea exists in Buddhism. We all share a Buddha nature. The core of the onion is the realization that we are worthwhile and somebody just as we are. Our worth does not depend on the layers. Just by being we have worth. We only imagine that we don’t and cling to the external layers that provide a fragile security that we desperately try to grow, protect, and maintain.
Breakfast with Seneca
Seneca was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman and dramatist. He was a contemporary of Jesus of Nazareth, a tutor of Nero and a much admired writer of Stoic philosophy. I’ve been reading David Fideler’s new book Breakfast with Seneca during our discussion of Peeling the Onion and was struck by how much the Stoics view and practice lent support and nuance to our discussion.
For example the Seneca believes we all have inherent worth…
Once we have driven away all things that disturb or frighten us, there follows unbroken tranquility and unending freedom. For when pleasures and pains have been banished, a boundless joy come in to replace all that is trivial, fragile and harmful—-a joy that is unshaken and unwavering. Then follows peace and harmony of the mind and true greatness coupled with gentleness, since ferocity is always born from weakness. (Seneca, On the Happy Life 3.4. quoted on p, 212.)
Contrast that with what Aristotle (and the Nazis) believed:
...Aristotle believed that only men fully possessed reason. In comparison to men, women possessed a lesser degree of reason, while “natural slaves” and “barbarians” (or non-Greeks) lacked reason altogether.
The Stoics, by contrast, believed that all people possess reason in exactly the same way. In other words, everyone who is a human being—-including men, women, slaves and people from every country—-all possess reason, and the human soul is “always and everywhere the same.” (Breakfast with Seneca, P 139)
Here are other passages that echoed our discussion.
All human beings are born for a life of fellowship and society can only remain healthy through the mutual protection and love of its parts. Seneca, On Anger 2.32.7
Human freedom involves our capacity to pause between stimulus and response and, in that pause, to choose the one response towards which we wish to throw our weight. The capacity to create ourselves, based on this freedom is inseparable from consciousness or self-awareness. Rollo May quoted on p70.
In one definition Seneca offers of freedom, he states “It means not fearing humans or gods, not craving things that are low or excessive, and having complete power over yourself. Just being your own person is a priceless good.” When Seneca mentions “having complete power over yourself”, he’s referring, at least in part, to the freedom of being able to make sound judgments, the opposite of being enslaved by false beliefs and negative social conditioning. P. 207.
I hope these fragments will help you clarify your own thinking and experience. Who knew that Seneca, the Stoic, had so much to say about our lives and times.
Breakfast with Seneca is a fine book and will repay the time spent reading.