Welcome to Perennial Meditations (Saturday Review) — A weekly recap and reflection of ancient lessons for modern life. Below are links, notable quotes, transcript summaries, and a Saturday Meditation.
Dear Perennial Meditations Reader,
As mentioned previously, moving forward, only the Monday and Saturday meditations will be for free subscribers; all other posts will be reserved for paid members. Thank you so much for your generous support thus far; I am humbled and deeply appreciative of every reader and member. Your support enables not only these daily meditations on the art of living but also helps produce two ad-free podcasts (In Search of Wisdom and Perennial Meditations).
***As always, if you would like to become a paid member but are unable to afford it at the moment, feel free to reach out and request a free membership (no questions asked).
1. Seneca | On Noble Aspirations (Listen here)
On Sundays with Seneca this week, we explored a letter known today as On Noble Aspirations. Seneca wrote to Lucilius,
I shall indeed arrange for you, in careful order and narrow compass, the notes which you request. But consider whether you may not get more help from the customary method than from that which is now commonly called a “breviary,” though in the good old days, when real Latin was spoken, it was called a “summary.” The former is more necessary to one who is learning a subject, the latter to one who knows it. For the one teaches, the other stirs the memory. […]
2. How to Think Like a Monk (Read here)
This week's Monday Meditation (The PATH) searched for ancient lessons on how to think like a Trappist Monk.
Contemplation — According to Thomas Merton, “Contemplation is always beyond our own knowledge, beyond our own light, beyond systems, beyond explanations, discourse, beyond dialogue, beyond our own self."
Integrity — Merton writes, “In great saints, you find that perfect humility and perfect integrity coincide. The two turn out to be practically the same thing. The saint is unlike everybody else precisely because he is humble.”
Solitude — Merton put it this way in his classic No Man is an Island, “The man who fears to be alone will never be anything but lonely, no matter how much he may surround himself with people.” […]
3. How to Journal Like a Stoic (Read here)
In the new book How to Journal Like a Stoic, Brittany Polat (an upcoming podcast guest) explains,
Stoicism is a philosophy of life in the fullest sense. As a framework for daily living, it can guide every decision we make, … What’s more, it helps ground us when we’re living through what feels like unprecedented times.
We all typically know firsthand that leading the type of life we want to live is easier said than done. Although if one adopts a philosophy (or guide) of life, it becomes much easier. The Stoic and Roman statesman Seneca believed journaling to be inextricably linked to the practice of philosophy. […]
4. How to Use Both/And Thinking (Listen here)
Wisdom Notes this week comes from my conversation with Dr. Wendy K. Smith, the co-author of Both/And Thinking: Embracing Creative Tensions to Solve Your Toughest Problems. Prof. Smith is the Dana J. Johnson professor of management and faculty director of the Women’s Leadership Initiative at the University of Delaware. She earned her Ph.D. in organizational behavior at Harvard Business School, where she began her intensive research on strategic paradoxes—how leaders and senior teams effectively respond to contradictory yet interdependent demands.
In the conversation, Prof. Smith and I discuss,
The Meaning of Paradoxes
How to Use Both/And Thinking
The Challenges of Navigating Paradoxes
Wisdom in daily life and much more
5. The Wisdom of Maxims (Read here)
In a letter titled On Consistency, Seneca wrote to Lucilius, “Adopt once and for all a single rule to live by, and make your whole life conform to it.” Do you have a single rule to live by? Are any maxims running in the background of your mind as you navigate daily life?
The notion of maxims came up in my conversation with Prof. Karen Stohr, the author of Choosing Freedom: A Kantian Guide to Life. According to Kant, we should “act only on that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.” […]
6. The Wisdom of Making Mistakes (Listen here)
How comfortable are you with making mistakes? Does perfectionism ever creep into your life? A curious paradox is a need to loosen our grip on perfection to achieve success. The wisdom of imperfection is a perennial lesson from some of the greatest thinkers throughout history.
For example, Vincent Van Gogh stressed this point,
If one wants to be active, one must not be afraid to do something wrong sometimes, not afraid to lapse into some mistakes. To be good — many people think that they will achieve it by doing no harm — and that’s a lie. That leads to stagnation, to mediocrity. Just slap something on it when you see a blank canvas staring at you with a sort of nonsense. […]
7. The Present Moment is Equal for All
Moving forward, our Saturday meditation will consist of a short passage and two questions (or prompts) to contemplate and reflect on. Today’s passage comes from the journal (or Meditations) of Marcus Aurelius:
Even if you were to live for three thousand years or ten times as long, remember that the only life anyone loses is this one, the one he’s living, and the only life anyone lives is the one he loses. It follows that the longest life and the shortest life come to the same thing. The present moment is equal for all, and therefore its passing is equal for all, and therefore what is lost turns out to be a mere instant. After all, no one can lose either the past or the future, because no one can lose what he doesn’t have.
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 2.14
Contemplation Questions (Pick one or create your own):
How will you remember to live in the present moment?
Are you too focused on the past (or the future)?
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Thank you for reading and listening this week; I hope you found something useful for daily life.
Until next time, be wise and be well,
P.S. As always, feel free to comment, ask questions, or make requests.