Seneca was one of the richest men in Rome: estates, vineyards, loans across half the empire. His enemies smelled the contradiction and attacked him there: a philosopher preaching simplicity from a palace. In the year 62 Seneca did something unheard of: in a personal audience he asked emperor Nero to take back his entire fortune, so that he could withdraw. Nero refused politely; it would look bad if his teacher left. Seneca bowed in form and changed the substance: he withdrew from court, lived simply, and in those final years wrote his letters to Lucilius, the work for which he is still read two thousand years later.
Being attacked on the gap between what you say and what you own, while the most powerful man in the world will not let you go.
His reputation, the mockery and Nero's answer: not his. What he did with his days and his possessions was. Seneca had already written how the relation should run: the wise man owns his wealth, the fool is owned by it; everything he had, he held with open hands. When leaving was not permitted, he left on the inside.
Where is the gap in your life between what you believe and how you live? And if you cannot close it in one move: what is the inner withdrawal that is possible today?
Yours, Not Yours · A Stoic practice ground · All cases