Training for Tranquility
Got pulled over the other day! Cop does the usual, “Y’know why I pulled ya over?” “Uh, no,” I reply. “You didn’t stop for that stop sign back there,” he tells me. Frustrated, I retort, “Yeah, but I slowed down, and no one was there. What difference does it make?” Then he has me step out of the vehicle, handcuffs me, whips out his baton… and starts beating me senseless! “Now, would you like me to SLOW DOWN or STOP!?” He yells.
Okay, that might not have happened quite like that… but it IS sort of happening all the time, and we all need to do something about it.
See, we each have a little inner popo patrolling our consciousness, hard at work against the drivers of desire.
Not all drivers are bad. Some roll too fast. Some roll too slow. But let’s all hope we can adequately police ourselves, because the ones that don’t stop, will eventually destroy something, if not kill you. These drivers are otherwise known as vices.
It’s always good to have articulate words to put to abstract ideas, and I don’t think we’ve sufficiently understood this one as a society. The stoics did though!
If you look up the standard definition for vice, its usually circling something to do with relativistic immoral habits. Drinking. Gambling. Drug addiction. Etc. And how are we handling these issues with our surface level understanding of vice?
It’s simple. Be smart, don’t start. Not even once! Just say no.
But what if we’re already addicted? Well, it’s time to quit! Choose life, not drugs. More hugs, less drugs! Choose recovery. Addiction is a disease.
Oh sweet, introspective ancients, unbridle us from the confusion of modernity. Twat, sayeth ye!?
Ye calledeth, and thus we shall speaketh!
Vice isn’t the substance. It’s not the meth, or the pills, or the beer, or the cards, or the phone, or the food. It’s not even, strictly speaking, an immoral behavior.
Vice is a cognitive error, whereby we conflate externals with “goods.” All these things, from heroin to bulimia, from doomscrolling to over eating, stem from the same mechanism: vice.
Vice whispers stories of future satisfaction, if we would only pursue our desire over this or that external thing. When, in reality, once we develop a need for something external to make us happy, we have dug a hole for ourselves to climb out of.
If our stability depends on externals, things which are never fully within our control, we have weakened ourselves, opening ourselves to pain, when our environment doesn’t conform to our desires. If our tranquility or happiness depends on approval, pleasure, comfort, or external control, we are under the spell of vice.
The primary reason for understanding vice in this way, is to better combat it. Because becoming less of an addict for many means transferring that addiction elsewhere.
Years ago, I smoked a pack a day. How did I beat it? With gum, Diet Coke, coffee, food, and anything else I could shove in my hole. Unfortunately, this can just lead us into other habits. In fact, part of what made my smoking habit so bad was that I leaned on cigarettes to quit eating so much.
We have an alternative option. If we acknowledge the greater mechanism of vice, we can begin chipping away at the mechanism by regaining control in a variety of little incremental ways.
Is sex addiction your biggin’? Good news! You don’t have to “just say no” to boinking. We all need a good sexin’ now and then You can start with anything you’re capable of regaining control over.
Without altering your sex habits, maybe you can slow down on the food and smoking (it’ll make the sex better anyway).
Eventually, you’ll begin to realize that tranquility becomes overshadowed by desires. And when you feel that alleviation, not only does it motivate you to conquer vice, it makes you more capable of overcoming the hardest battles, like a kind of training.
Most importantly, we develop a taste for the more delectable flavor of internal control over external control, and with each new bite, nourish ourselves into a strength of mind more capable of beating whatever habit ails us.
