Reading Notes - Seneca, To You Who Are Losing Today

Reading period

September 4 - September 7, 2026

How I came across this book

I've been following and watching Hawaii Big House (하와이대저택) for a while now.

This book was compiled and translated by Hawaii Big House.

As soon as I saw it on the online bookstore's main page, I bought it right away.

Who was Seneca?

Seneca was a statesman, philosopher, and poet of the Roman Imperial era, and a major proponent of Stoic philosophy.

Works such as On Anger, On Leisure, Moral Letters, and Natural Questions have survived to this day.

This book is a reconstruction that selects the core essence from five of Seneca's dialogues.

Thoughts after reading the book

I came to feel that I need to constantly reflect on myself.

My interest in classical philosophy and literature also grew alongside this.

Keywords of this book

1. Myself
2. Time
3. Health
4. Contemplation
5. Don't compare yourself to others, don't chase comfort
6. View hardship in a positive light

A new perspective on time

Lately, as I've been reading consistently, I made up my mind not to think of money as my ultimate goal,

and this book, right from the start, compares money and time to teach us how precious and important time really is.

I don't know exactly how long my life expectancy is, but given that time is far more definitively limited than money,

it was somewhat shocking to realize that when someone asks to borrow money, I hesitate and refuse for all sorts of reasons after much deliberation,

but when someone asks for my time, I give it away easily.

Having lived over 40 years and worked over 16 years, I've experienced money coming and going, sometimes plenty and sometimes scarce.

But time only keeps decreasing. This was something I already knew but had forgotten, and the book reminded me of it right from the very beginning.

Contemplation is also action.

Until now, I thought action meant moving your body or speaking.

I thought just sitting there blankly wasn't action, and that merely thinking wasn't action either.

This book emphasizes that contemplating and spending time alone doing nothing is also action. Don't feel uncomfortable about it, it says.

I paused for a long time on the question, "Have you ever truly rested until now?"

What does resting even mean to me?

I had never thought about what it means to truly rest.

I thought not working meant resting, but isn't watching over my kids after starting a family not exactly restful either?

It was a great topic to discuss with my wife about rest as well (though it ended up with me getting nagged in the end...).

Wrapping up

Beyond this, it was a great book that gave me a lot to think about, enough that I want to chew on it again.

In the preface, Hawaii Big House says there's no need to read quickly—you can read one chapter at a time slowly, thinking deeply as you go.

He also said you don't have to read it in order from the beginning, and can just read the parts you want, but this book struck so deep into my heart that I ended up reading it all over the weekend.

I plan to read it again at the end of this month and really contemplate it properly.

I want to carry the book's ultimate question, "Are you truly living right now?" in my heart as I live out the rest of September.

Monday, September 7, 2026

Written by codinglee