Welcome to Perennial Meditations (Saturday Review) — A weekly recap and reflection of ancient lessons for modern life. Below you’ll find links, notable quotes, transcript summaries, and videos below.
1. Three Ancient Maxims for Modern Living (Read here)
Our Monday Meditation (The PATH) searched for ancient lessons inspired by three maxims inscribed at the Oracle at Delphi. According to the Greek writer Pausanias, there were three Delphic maxims inscribed in the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi: know thyself, nothing to excess, and certainty brings insanity. The ancient Greek aphorism “Know thyself” was made famous by Socrates (by way of his student Plato). Although, Socrates stressed that “true wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.” […]
2. The Suffering of Certainty (Read here)
What is certainty? And how could certainty possibly cause insanity?
The question of certainty may sound straightforward. Most modern dictionaries point to a “firm conviction that something is true” or the “quality of being reliably true.” But from a philosophical perspective (not my area of expertise), certainty becomes a little more complicated (check out Stanford’s Encyclopedia of Philosophy take on certainty for a deeper dive).
What is the goal or project of wisdom traditions? […]
3. Stoic Wisdom for Modern Leaders (Listen here)
In this episode, my guest is Donald Robertson, the author of the new graphic novel Verissimus: The Stoic Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius. Donald is a cognitive-behavioral psychotherapist and the founder and president of the Plato’s Academy Centre, a nonprofit in Athens, Greece (which you’ll hear more about in the episode). He is also the author of How to Think Like a Roman Emperor and many others. […]
4. Untangling Anxiety (Read here)
How should we think about anxiety in daily life? The existential psychologist Rollo May wrote in The Meaning of Anxiety (1950) that we still cling to the illogical belief that “mental health is living without anxiety.”
What if anxiety is inevitable?
What if someone said anxiety was your greatest teacher?
According to May, we seem unaware that the delusion of living without anxiety reveals a radical misperception of reality. […]
5. How to Get Out of Bed (Listen here)
Do you ever have trouble getting out of bed in the morning? If so, you’re in good company; the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius did as well. In his personal journal, known as Meditations, he wrote, “At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: “I have to go to work — as a human being.”
You might not think you have much in common with Marcus Aurelius. He was a Roman emperor who commanded an army of nearly half a million men and ruled over an empire that comprised one-fifth of the world’s population. […]
6. How to Lead Like a Citizen of the World (Read here)
The notion of being a citizen of the world is an ancient concept. It initially dates back to the Greek philosopher Diogenes the Cynic, a pretty interesting character, to say the least. According to legend, when Alexander the Great approached Diogenes (depicted in the painting above): “He found the philosopher looking attentively at a pile of human bones. Diogenes explained, “I am searching for the bones of your father but cannot distinguish them from those of a slave.” […]
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Thank you for reading; I hope you found something useful for daily life.
Until next week, be wise and be well,