The Wisdom of Reading (Best of Reading & the Good Life)
Selected Passages on the Art of Living
Reading & the Good Life
Join the conversation! Every Friday at Noon EST (No meetup this Friday), Perennial Meditations readers are welcome to gather for Reading & the Good Life, a space for connection, contemplation, and conversations on the art of living! Last week, we concluded our exploration of the writing and wisdom of C.S. Lewis (through his short book — The Abolition of Man). For December, we are turning to Breakfast with Seneca: A Stoic Guide to the Art of Living by David Fideler (a previous podcast guest).
The Wisdom of Reading
As mentioned in a letter titled Break Bread with the Dead, reading as a path to the good life is a timeless practice. Even Socrates—who did not write anything down himself—stressed the wisdom of reading. He suggested improving ourselves through other men's writings to come easily by what others have labored hard for.
The British writer C.S. Lewis put it best in his classic The Reading Life,
Those of us who have been true readers all our life seldom fully realize the enormous extension of our being that we owe to authors. We realize it best when we talk with an unliterary friend. He may be full of goodness and good sense, but he inhabits a tiny world. … The man who is contented to be only himself, and therefore less a self is in prison. My own eyes are not enough for me, I will see through those of others. The reality, even seen through the eyes of many, is not enough. I will see what others have invented.
It is easy to forget how special books actually are. They are so readily available in modern life. It is difficult to imagine a time when books were transcribed by hand.
The next time you have a book in your hands, consider reflecting on the lives that may have read it. What they might have been dealing with—the answers they may have been searching for.
Reading & the Good Life is an exclusive benefit for paid members of the newsletter. However, if you cannot afford it, feel free to request a complimentary membership or use this discount link.
Reading & the Good Life (Best of Selected Passages)
Over the last year, we’ve explored over a dozen books on the art of living and gathered for casual conversations on selected passages (Fridays at Noon EST). Here are some of the most insightful passages (in no particular order):
The remedy, Spinoza reminds us, is not to retreat into the pre-scientific world-view, but to go further along the path of disenchantment; losing both the old superstitions and the new, we discover at last a meaning in truth itself. By the very thinking that disenchants the world we come to a new enchantment, recognizing God in everything, and loving his works in the very act of knowing them. […]
— Spinoza: A Very Short Introduction
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I was saying that we don’t want to be happy. We want other things. Or let’s put it more accurately: We don’t want to be unconditionally happy. I’m ready to be happy provided I have this and that and the other thing. But this is really to say to our friend or to our God or to anyone, “You are my happiness. If I don’t get you, I refuse to be happy.” It’s so important to understand that. We cannot imagine being happy without those conditions. […]
— Anthony de Mello, Awareness
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