Define Your Own Wealth
Who is rich? One who is happy with his portion.
Ben Zoma was a second-century sage known for compact questions that flip ordinary assumptions about wisdom, strength, honor, and wealth. Living under Roman rule, in a world of real scarcity and visible disparity, he taught that richness was not a sum of possessions but a measure of satisfaction with what one already held. This reframes equanimity as something achievable regardless of circumstance, since it depends on perspective rather than accumulation. The teaching has outlasted the empire that produced the scarcity it answered.
Reflection
Ben Zoma measured wealth by contentment rather than accumulation. What do I already have today that I once hoped for?