Perennial Meditations

📮 Want tools for the art of living? Sign up here: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribeWelcome to Perennial Meditations, a podcast (and newsletter) by the Perennial Leader Project - an organization dedicated to providing tools for the art of living. To learn more and subscribe to our newsletter, visit perennial.substack.com.--- 🖇️ Stay Connected:· Twitter: https://twitter.com/PerennialPods· Instagram: https://instagram.com/PerennialPods· YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PerennialPods---🦉 Additional Resources:Explore the Perennial Meditations archive: https://perennial.substack.com/archiveListen to more podcasts: https://www.perennialleader.com/podcasts 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 tools for the art of living? Sign up here: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribeWelcome to Perennial Meditations, a podcast (and newsletter) by the Perennial Leader Project - an organization dedicated to providing tools for the art of living. To learn more and read the transcript from this episode, visit perennial.substack.com.For full episodes of In Search of Wisdom, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.--- 🖇️ Stay Connected:· Twitter: https://twitter.com/PerennialPods· Instagram: https://instagram.com/PerennialPods· YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PerennialPods· Substack: https://perennial.substack.com/---🦉 Additional Resources Related to the Podcast:Explore the Perennial Meditations archive: https://perennial.substack.com/archiveListen to more podcasts: https://www.perennialleader.com/podcasts 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 tools for the art of living? Sign up here: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribeWelcome to Perennial Meditations, a podcast and newsletter by the Perennial Leader Project - an organization dedicated to providing tools for the art of living. To learn more and subscribe to our daily newsletter, visit perennial.substack.com.--- 🖇️ Stay Connected:· Twitter: https://twitter.com/PerennialPods· Instagram: https://instagram.com/PerennialPods· YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PerennialPods· Substack: https://perennial.substack.com/---🦉 Additional Resources Related to the Podcast:Explore the Perennial Meditations archive: https://perennial.substack.com/archiveListen to more podcasts: https://www.perennialleader.com/podcasts 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 tools for the art of living? Sign up here: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribeHere is the latest Monday Muse with an audio meditation from the Dying Every Day series, a perennial reminder, insight, reflection, and a recommendation to consider. Be wise and be well this week!For full episodes of In Search of Wisdom, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.--- 🖇️ Stay Connected:· Twitter: https://twitter.com/PerennialPods· Instagram: https://instagram.com/PerennialPods· YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PerennialPods· Substack: https://perennial.substack.com/---🦉 Additional Resources Related to the Podcast:Explore the Perennial Meditations archive: https://perennial.substack.com/archiveListen to more podcasts: https://www.perennialleader.com/podcasts 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 tools for the art of living? Sign up here: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe💀 Welcome to another episode of the Dying Every Day series, part of the Monday Muse email on Perennial Meditations. This series delivers Stoic meditations on the art of living. Each meditation provides a quote, a selected passage, and a daily exercise to consider contemplating.🎧 For more tools, subscribe to The Wisdom School on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.---🖇️ Stay Connected:Twitter: https://twitter.com/PerennialPodsInstagram: https://instagram.com/PerennialPodsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PerennialPods---🦉 Additional Resources Related to the Podcast:Explore the Perennial Meditations archive: https://perennial.substack.com/archiveListen to more podcasts: https://www.perennialleader.com/podcasts 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 daily meditations (and courses) on the art of living? Sign up for Perennial Meditations: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribeRegarding the art of transformation, the topic of our new series is Becoming Every Day; it is essential that we are able to work with the mind skillfully. This series offers brief guided meditations (with many ideas and concepts) connected with our upcoming course — Wisdom is the Way.Previously, I asked — “What does it actually mean to self-improve?”We discussed how transformation is not as straightforward as we think. In this episode of the podcast, we are turning our attention to the role the mind plays in the art of transformation. [...]To learn more (and support the show), visit https://www.perennialleader.com/. ---🖇️ Stay Connected:· Twitter: https://twitter.com/PerennialPods· Instagram: https://instagram.com/PerennialPods· Website: https://www.perennialleader.com/· Substack: https://perennial.substack.com/---🦉 Additional Resources Related to the Podcast:- Explore the Perennial Meditations archive: https://perennial.substack.com/archive- Listen to more podcasts: https://www.perennialleader.com/podcasts 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 daily meditations (and courses) on the art of living? Sign up for Perennial Meditations: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribePardon the interruption from our regular Sundays with Seneca series. Today, I’m sharing a selected reading from what is often referred to as The Stoic Manual for Living or Enchiridion by Epictetus. It’s part of a new project I’ve been working on called Perennial Audiobooks, intended to deliver audio productions of ancient philosophical and spiritual writings. Perennial Audiobooks is a private feed exclusively for members of the Perennial Meditations newsletter.The Enchiridion by EpictetusThis short book is a distillation of Epictetus's teachings produced by his pupil Arrian, who collected and published the master's lecture notes. It’s an instruction manual for life full of practical advice for modern living. The opening passage reads as follows, "There are things which are within our power, and there are things which are beyond our power. Within our power are opinion, aim, desire, aversion, and, in one word, whatever affairs are our own. Beyond our power are body, property, reputation, office, and, in one word, whatever are not properly our own affairs." [...]Thank you for listening; I hope you found something useful.P.S. Perennial Meditations members will receive instructions on how to gain access to Perennial Audiobooks in the coming days! 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

In this episode, my guest is Dr. Brian Russell, the author of Centering Prayer. The episode is a recent recording from our last virtual meetup on The Art (and Wisdom) of Contemplative Practices, which was part of our Perennial Habits course. Brian is a professor of biblical studies and a transformational coach for pastors and spiritually-minded professionals. You can learn more and connect with Brian at brianrussellphd.com/In the conversation, Brian and I discuss,* The benefits of stillness practices* Knowing ourselves* The challenges of sitting quietly* Centering prayer (and the four R’s)* The Art of Acceptance* Knowing what matters in life and much moreSome of you may already be familiar with Brian; he is a previous guest on In Search of Wisdom, where we’ve explored centering prayer, forgiveness, discernment, and other topics. Although the episode focuses mainly on the Christian contemplative practice of centering prayer, many of the ideas and strategies discussed are helpful across stillness practices and traditions.To learn more (and support the show), visit https://www.perennialleader.com/. ---🖇️ Stay Connected:· Twitter: https://twitter.com/PerennialPods· Instagram: https://instagram.com/PerennialPods· Website: https://www.perennialleader.com/· Substack: https://perennial.substack.com/---🦉 Additional Resources Related to the Podcast:Explore the Perennial Meditations archive: https://perennial.substack.com/archiveListen to more podcasts: https://www.perennialleader.com/podcasts 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 daily meditations (and courses) on the art of living? Sign up for Perennial Meditations: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribeIn a letter known today as On the Fear of Death, Seneca wrote, "I have already ceased to be anxious about you. “Whom then of the gods,” you ask, “have you found as your voucher?” A god, let me tell you, who deceives no one—a soul in love with that which is upright and good. The better part of yourself is on safe ground. Fortune can inflict injury upon you; what is more pertinent is that I have no fears lest you do injury to yourself. Proceed as you have begun, and settle yourself in this way of living, not luxuriously but calmly." […]--- 🖇️ Stay Connected:· Twitter: https://twitter.com/PerennialPods· Instagram: https://instagram.com/PerennialPods· Website: https://www.perennialleader.com/· Substack: https://perennial.substack.com/---🦉 Additional Resources Related to the Podcast:Explore the Perennial Meditations archive: https://perennial.substack.com/archiveListen to more podcasts: https://www.perennialleader.com/podcasts 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 daily wisdom? Sign up for Perennial Meditations to receive ancient lessons for modern life: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribeThe late spiritual teacher Ram Dass told a story of when he asked his guru about the path to wisdom. His guru responded, “Feed people.” Ram Dass, not entirely satisfied with his answer, rephrased the question to “How does one become enlightened?” To this question, his guru said, “Serve people.”What if the path to peace is thinking less about ourselves and our outcomes? [...]STAY CONNECTED:Twitter: https://twitter.com/PerennialPodsInstagram: https://instagram.com/PerennialPodsWebsite: https://www.perennialleader.com/ 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 daily wisdom? Sign up for Perennial Meditations to receive ancient lessons for modern life: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribeWhat should we do about anxiety? Does anxiety stand in the way of finding peace and tranquility? In part 1 of our series, Peace is the Project; we discussed learning to relax. And how, in truth, learning to relax is often far more challenging than it sounds.In his classic book The Meaning of Anxiety, existential psychologist Rollo May explained that we still cling to the illogical belief that “mental health is living without anxiety.” We seem unaware that the delusion of living without anxiety reveals a radical misperception of reality. May stressed that we have “anxiety because it is possible to create—creating one’s self, being willing to be one’s self, as well as creating in all the innumerable daily activities. One would have no anxiety if there were no possibility.” [...]STAY CONNECTED:Twitter: https://twitter.com/PerennialPodsInstagram: https://instagram.com/PerennialPodsWebsite: https://www.perennialleader.com/ 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 daily wisdom? Sign up for Perennial Meditations to receive ancient lessons for modern life: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribeWelcome to Sundays with Seneca on the Perennial Meditations podcast. Join the search for ancient lessons on the art of living from the writings and Stoic philosophy of Lucius Annaeus Seneca.In a letter known today as On Ill-Health and Endurance of Suffering, Seneca wrote, "If I may begin with a commonplace remark, spring is gradually disclosing itself; but though it is rounding into summer, when you would expect hot weather, it has kept rather cool, and one cannot yet be sure of it. For it often slides back into winter weather. Do you wish to know how uncertain it still is? I do not yet trust myself to a bath that is absolutely cold; even at this time, I break its chill. You may say that this is no way to show the endurance either of heat or of cold; very true, dear Lucilius, but at my time of life, one is at length contented with the natural chill of the body. I can scarcely thaw out in the middle of summer. Accordingly, I spend most of the time bundled up; and I thank old age for keeping me fastened to my bed. Why should I not thank old age on this account? That which I ought not to wish to do, I lack the ability to do. Most of my converse is with books. Whenever your letters arrive, I imagine that I am with you, and I have the feeling that I am about to speak my answer instead of writing it. Therefore let us together investigate the nature of this problem of yours, just as if we were conversing with one another." [...]STAY CONNECTED: Twitter: https://twitter.com/PerennialPods Instagram: https://instagram.com/PerennialPods Website: https://www.perennialleader.com/ 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 daily wisdom? Sign up for Perennial Meditations to receive ancient lessons for modern life: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribeWelcome to Sundays with Seneca on the Perennial Meditations podcast. Join the search for ancient lessons on the art of living from the writings and Stoic philosophy of Lucius Annaeus Seneca.In a letter known today as On Meeting Death Cheerfully, Seneca wrote, "Let us cease to desire that which we have been desiring. I, at least, am doing this: in my old age, I have ceased to desire what I desired when a boy. To this single end, my days and my nights are passed; this is my task, this the object of my thoughts—to put an end to my chronic ills. I am endeavoring to live every day as if it were a complete life. I do not indeed snatch it up as if it were my last; I do regard it, however, as if it might even be my last." [...]STAY CONNECTED:Twitter: https://twitter.com/PerennialPodsInstagram: https://instagram.com/PerennialPodsWebsite: https://www.perennialleader.com/ 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 daily wisdom? Sign up for Perennial Meditations to receive ancient lessons for modern life: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribeToday’s episode is a follow-up to a previous meditation titled; The Sun is Always Shining and Three Ways to Say “Yes” to Life. One reader raised a thoughtful and essential question: How should we think about happiness, suffering, or gratitude amid physical pain and illness?***Friday episodes are typically for paid members, but I’m making this one available to all subscribers. If you find something useful, please consider becoming one.Is it even appropriate to think (or say) words like happiness and suffering in the same sentence? To start, let’s distinguish physical pain from suffering. We’ll turn to a well-known Buddhist parable (The Dart of Painful Feeling).The Buddha taught his followers, “Monks, when the uninstructed worldling experiences a painful feeling, he sorrows, grieves, and laments; he weeps, beating his breast and becomes distraught. He feels two feelings—a bodily one and a mental one.” [...]STAY CONNECTED:Twitter: https://twitter.com/PerennialPodsInstagram: https://instagram.com/PerennialPodsWebsite: https://www.perennialleader.com/ 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 daily wisdom? Sign up for Perennial Meditations to receive ancient lessons for modern life: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribeThe devotional Remember Your Death, by Sr. Theresa Aletheia Noble, opens with the words, “You are going to die.” Sr. Noble writes, "The moment you are born you begin dying. You may die in fifty years, ten years, perhaps tomorrow — or even today. But whenever it happens, death awaits every person, whether rich or poor, young or old, believer or nonbeliever."As many of you know, I am interested in principles and practices that reveal themselves across wisdom traditions. One of those practices is remembering your death (or Memento Mori). Many people rightfully connect the practice of Memento Mori with Stoicism, but it is also part of Buddhism and Christianity. [...]STAY CONNECTED: Twitter: https://twitter.com/PerennialPods Instagram: https://instagram.com/PerennialPods Website: https://www.perennialleader.com/ 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

Do you have someone in your life (past or present) that you look to as an example of virtue in action? The Stoics did. They turned to the life of figures like Socrates and Cato. Similarly, many spiritual traditions have great Saints and theologians as models or guides to follow.In a passage from the Enchiridion, Epictetus says, “From now on, then, resolve to live as a grown-up who is making progress, and make whatever you think best a law that you never set aside. And whenever you encounter anything that is difficult or pleasurable, or highly or lowly regarded, remember that the contest is now: you are at the Olympic Games, you cannot wait any longer, and that your progress is wrecked or preserved by a single day and a single event. That is how Socrates fulfilled himself by attending to nothing except reason in everything he encountered. And you, although you are not yet a Socrates, should live as someone who at least wants to be a Socrates.” 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 daily wisdom? Sign up for Perennial Meditations to receive ancient lessons for modern life: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribeWelcome to Sundays with Seneca on the Perennial Meditations podcast. Join the search for ancient lessons for modern living in the writing and Stoic philosophy of Lucius Annaeus Seneca.In a letter known today as On the Shortness of Life, Seneca wrote, "Infinitely swift is the flight of time, as those see more clearly who are looking backwards. For when we are intent on the present, we do not notice it, so gentle is the passage of time’s headlong flight.Do you ask the reason for this? All past time is in the same place; it all presents the same aspect to us, it lies together. Everything slips into the same abyss. Besides, an event which in its entirety is of brief compass cannot contain long intervals. The time which we spend in living is but a point, nay, even less than a point. But this point of time, infinitesimal as it is, nature has mocked by making it seem outwardly of longer duration; she has taken one portion thereof and made it infancy, another childhood, another youth, another the gradual slope, so to speak, from youth to old age, and old age itself is still another. How many steps for how short a climb!" [...] 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 daily wisdom? Sign up for Perennial Meditations to receive ancient lessons for modern life: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribeThe Stoic philosopher Epictetus once asked, “How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself?” But what does it actually mean to demand the best for yourself? What is the path to peace, tranquility, or happiness? How does one become a better parent, leader, friend, or anything else? The answer to these types of questions generally points to wisdom.In a Letter to Menoeceus, Epicurus wrote, "Let no one be slow to seek wisdom when he is young nor weary in the search thereof when he is grown old. For no age is too early or too late for the health of the soul." [..]As many of you know, I have an interest in the topic of wisdom. I started a podcast called In Search of Wisdom a couple of years ago. I believe, like Epicurus (and many others), that there is no time like the present to begin the search for wisdom.***For this reason, I’m offering a free 5-Week Wisdom 101 Course (for Perennial Meditations members). It’s going to be an informal exploration of timeless perspectives, principles, and practices (based on a previous article called The Timeless Art of Leading a Life) to help us live our highest good. The course will consist of an email meditation every Monday (beginning on 16 Jan) and a live meetup every Wednesday at Noon EST (ending on 15 Feb). 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

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit perennial.substack.com📩 Want daily wisdom? Sign up for Perennial Meditations to receive ancient lessons for modern life: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribeWelcome to Sundays with Seneca on the Perennial Meditations podcast. Join the search for ancient lessons for modern living in the writing and Stoic philosophy of Lucius Annaeus Seneca.In a letter known today as On the God Within Us, Seneca wrote, "You are doing an excellent thing, one which will be wholesome for you, if, as you write me, you are persisting in your effort to attain sound understanding; it is foolish to pray for this when you can acquire it from yourself. We do not need to uplift our hands towards heaven, or to beg the keeper of a temple to let us approach his idol’s ear, as if in this way our prayers were more likely to be heard. God is near you, he is with you, he is within you." [...]STAY CONNECTED:  Twitter: https://twitter.com/searchwisdompodInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/searchwisdompodWebsite: https://www.perennialleader.com/

📩 Want daily wisdom? Sign up for Perennial Meditations to receive ancient lessons for modern life: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribeWelcome to Sundays with Seneca on the Perennial Meditations podcast. Join the search for ancient lessons for modern living in the writing and Stoic philosophy of Lucius Annaeus Seneca.In a letter known today as On Noble Aspirations, Seneca wrote,"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. But I shall give you abundant opportunity for both. A man like you should not ask me for this authority or that; he who furnishes a voucher for his statements argues himself unknown." [...]STAY CONNECTED:  Twitter: https://twitter.com/searchwisdompodInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/searchwisdompodWebsite: https://www.perennialleader.com/ 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