Cattāri Brahmavihārā

“Set aside a certain number of days, during which you shall be content with the scantiest and cheapest fare, with coarse and rough dress, saying to yourself the while: ‘Is this the condition that I feared?’” – Seneca

I’ve been finding so much inspiration in the Stoics lately and, here again, it’s another gem. It’s too bad that the ancient Stoics had no concept of kamma and were, instead, fatalists but that really only serves to point out the excellence of the Lord Buddha as a teacher of the Dhamma.

Practicing poverty will be somewhat different for me as it will entail refraining from buying anything outside of food and only using what I’ve bought to make meals. In other words, no eating out. Let’s try for a month and see how it goes.