Perennial Meditations

📩 Want ancient lessons for modern life delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the Perennial Meditations newsletter.What does it mean to learn how to live? Where does one even begin? The existential philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre once said, “Everything in the world has been figured out, except how to live.” [...]Support the show:Subscribe to Perennial Meditations on SubstackRead articles on Medium, and become a memberRecord a studio-quality podcast on Squadcast (start a free trial today) Follow us: Instagram | Twitter | Youtube | Website This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit perennial.substack.com/subscribe

📩 Want ancient lessons for modern life delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the Perennial Meditations newsletter.In this episode, I share a short clip from a recent conversation with Massimo Pigliucci, the author of the new book The Quest for Character: What the Story of Socrates and Alcibiades Can Teach Us about Our Search for Good Leaders. The full conversation will release next week on In Search of Wisdom. Support the show:Subscribe to Perennial Meditations on SubstackRead articles on Medium, and become a memberRecord a studio-quality podcast on Squadcast (start a free trial today) Follow us: Instagram | Twitter | Youtube | Website This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit perennial.substack.com/subscribe

📩 Want ancient lessons for modern life delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the Perennial Meditations newsletter.Welcome to Sundays with Seneca on the Perennial Meditations podcast. Join us as we search for ancient lessons for modern life in the writings and Stoic philosophy of Lucius Annaeus Seneca.Follow us: Instagram | Twitter | Youtube | WebsiteIn a letter known today as On Sharing Knowledge, Seneca wrote, “I feel, my dear Lucilius, that I am being not only reformed, but transformed. I do not yet, however, assure myself, or indulge the hope, that there are no elements left in me which need to be changed. Of course there are many that should be made more compact, or made thinner, or be brought into greater prominence. And indeed this very fact is proof that my spirit is altered into something better—that it can see its own faults, of which it was previously ignorant." [...]Support the show:Subscribe to Perennial Meditations on SubstackRead articles on Medium, and become a memberRecord a studio-quality podcast on Squadcast (start a free trial today)  This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit perennial.substack.com/subscribe

📩 Want ancient lessons for modern life delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the Perennial Meditations newsletter.Follow us: Instagram | Twitter | Youtube | WebsiteWhy does criticism impact us? Even feedback from someone we don’t know can affect us. This episode explores what wisdom traditions (like Stoicism and Buddhism) can teach us about responding to criticism.Strangely, many great thinkers and traditions offer detailed advice on dealing with difficult people and how to respond wisely to criticism.For example, in 1910, President Theodore Roosevelt discussed the topic in one of the most famous speeches of all time, titled Citizenship in a Republic. Roosevelt said, “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better….”In Meditations, Marcus Aurelius wrote,“When another blames you or hates you, or people voice similar criticisms, go to their souls, penetrate inside and see what sort of people they are. You will realize that there is no need to be racked with anxiety that they should hold any particular opinion about you. But you should still be kind to them. They are by nature your friends…” [...]Support the show:Subscribe to Perennial Meditations on SubstackRead articles on Medium, and become a memberRecord a studio-quality podcast on Squadcast (start a free trial today)  This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit perennial.substack.com/subscribe

📩 Want ancient lessons for modern life delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the Perennial Meditations newsletter.Welcome to Sundays with Seneca on the Perennial Meditations podcast. Join us as we search for ancient lessons for modern life in Stoic philosophy. Today’s selected reading comes from a letter titled On the Philosopher’s Seclusion.In addition to the selected reading from Seneca, I’m grateful to share a recent conversation with my good friend Simon Drew from the Walled Garden Philosophical Society and the Soul Searching with Seneca podcast. Simon is a poet, musician, philosopher, and someone with a deep appreciation for Seneca’s wisdom and writing. In On the Philosopher’s Seclusion, Seneca stressed to Lucilius, "I point other men to the right path, which I have found late in life, when wearied with wandering. I cry out to them: “Avoid whatever pleases the throng: avoid the gifts of Chance!" [...]Support the show:Subscribe to Perennial Meditations on SubstackRead articles on Medium, and become a memberRecord a studio-quality podcast on Squadcast (start a free trial today) Follow us: Instagram | Twitter | Youtube | Website This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit perennial.substack.com/subscribe

📩 Want ancient lessons for modern life delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the Perennial Meditations newsletter.How do you see your place in the world? The late Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh suggested, “When you ask the question, ‘Who am I?’ — if you have enough time and concentration — you may find some surprising answers.” [...]Support the show:- Subscribe to Perennial Meditations on Substack- Read articles on Medium, and become a member- Record a studio-quality podcast on Squadcast (start a free trial today) Follow us: Instagram | Twitter | Youtube | Website This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit perennial.substack.com/subscribe

📩 Want ancient lessons for modern life delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the Perennial Meditations newsletter.Welcome to Sundays with Seneca on the Perennial Meditations podcast. Join us as we search for ancient lessons for modern life in Stoic philosophy. Today’s selected reading comes from a letter titled On Crowds. Seneca stressed to Luciulius:“Do you ask me what you should regard as especially to be avoided? I say, crowds, for as yet you cannot trust yourself to them with safety. I shall admit my own weakness, at any rate, for I never bring back home the same character that I took abroad with me. Something of that which I have forced to be calm within me is disturbed; some of the foes that I have routed return again. Just as the sick man, who has been weak for a long time, is in such a condition that he cannot be taken out of the house without suffering a relapse, so we ourselves are affected when our souls are recovering from a lingering disease.To consort with the crowd is harmful; there is no person who does not make some vice attractive to us, or stamp it upon us, or taint us unconsciously therewith. Certainly, the greater the mob with which we mingle, the greater the danger.” […]Support the show:Subscribe to Perennial Meditations on SubstackRead articles on Medium, and become a memberRecord a studio-quality podcast on Squadcast (start a free trial today) Follow us: Instagram | Twitter | Youtube | Website This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit perennial.substack.com/subscribe

📩 Want ancient lessons for modern life delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the Perennial Meditations newsletter.Is the happiest person you know—the wisest person you know? According to the American philosopher William James, there is a direct connection between philosophy and joy. Similarly, Montaigne called cheerfulness the surest sign of wisdom. [...]Support the show:Subscribe to Perennial Meditations on SubstackRead articles on Medium, and become a memberRecord a studio-quality podcast on Squadcast (start a free trial today) Follow us: Instagram | Twitter | Youtube | Website This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit perennial.substack.com/subscribe

📩 Want ancient lessons for modern life delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the Perennial Meditations newsletter.Welcome to Sundays with Seneca on the Perennial Meditations podcast. Join us as we search for ancient lessons for modern life in Stoic philosophy. Today’s selected reading comes from a letter titled On the Philosopher’s Mean. Seneca stressed to Luciulius: “I commend you and rejoice in the fact that you are persistent in your studies and that, putting all else aside, you make it each day your endeavor to become a better man. I do not merely exhort you to keep at it; I actually beg you to do so. […]Support the show:Subscribe to Perennial Meditations on SubstackRead articles on Medium, and become a memberRecord a studio-quality podcast on Squadcast (start a free trial today) Follow us: Instagram | Twitter | Youtube | Website This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit perennial.substack.com/subscribe

📩 Want ancient lessons for modern life delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the Perennial Meditations newsletter.According to psychologist Carl Jung, “The first half of life is devoted to forming a healthy ego; the second half is going inward and letting go of it.” Jung believed our vision only becomes clear when we dare to look into our own hearts.In the classic Modern Man in Search of a Soul, Jung wrote, "To find out what is truly individual in ourselves, profound reflection is needed; and suddenly, we realize how uncommonly difficult the discovery of individuality is." [...]Support the show:Subscribe to Perennial Meditations on SubstackRead articles on Medium, and become a memberRecord a studio-quality podcast on Squadcast (start a free trial today) Stay Connected: Instagram | Twitter | Youtube | Website This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit perennial.substack.com/subscribe