Modern Meditations - Stoicism For The Real World – Details, episodes & analysis

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Book 6 of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius focuses on Stoic themes like living in harmony with nature, accepting the impermanence of life, and the importance of rationality. 

Marcus emphasizes the interconnectedness of all things, urging a life of virtue and inner tranquility despite external circumstances. He advocates for focusing on the present moment, maintaining humility, and valuing personal wisdom over fame or wealth. 

The chapter is a reminder to align actions with reason and find peace within oneself through disciplined living.

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In Book 5 Marcus deals wrestles with the ideas of failure, imperfection and the love of a craft. To helps us deepen our understanding of how to view mistakes not as problems but as information and what it means to harmonize with nature we brought on Composer and friend of the podcast Matt Lees. 

In this episode we bring back the Lightening round, deeply go through the troubled yet amazing history of Ulysses S. Grant. We explore the tenacity that made Thomas Edison tick. Then go through what it means to slow practice, how to attack the 25% of our lives we don't want to change, and what it might sound like to be out of harmony with nature. 

And much more! 

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This week we explore the Meditations by Marcus Aurelius Book 1, and in the words that Justin says at the book club that Bruce wasn't invited to, "What a Chapter!" We pull apart 11 different phrases from the first chapter of what we would like to be. 

We discuss the forgotten art of learning from the best in other people, and how to find joy in learning from other people's virtues. Then as a treat at the end of the episode for our Stoic Reimagining we share with you some exotic outtakes of some of the more experimental versions we tried of reading Meditations... 

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As part of our Meditations Series we are reading George Long's translation of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius in an Audiobook format. Next week we'll be back with our regular format to discuss themes from this chapter. 

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30 episodes in and we are finally ready to officially introduce you to Marcus Aurelius himself. In this episode we give you a bio of Marcus's life from beginning to end so that you can have a better understanding of who he was and why he wrote the Meditations. 

This episode kicks off "Meditations" series, where we will start by reading you a chapter from The Meditations and then on the next episode we will explore themes and takeaways. 

We also explain why The Meditations is a book that has maintained relevance for close to two thousand years, and how to get the most out of reading it. 

At the end we debunk some of the funny (and bizarre fake history) that we found while researching Marcus. As well as debunking a Steve Jobs letter that he supposedly wrote at the end of his life. 

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The Equanimity Series comes to a close as Justin and Bruce discuss the "Final Remedy" that Seneca teaches his friend about-- Confidence.  Marcus Aurelius' ascension to the throne and the tools he used to  build confidence within himself in preparation for ruling Rome.

After all the tools we have talked about for building equanimity, we talk about how to build confidence in our abilities to cultivate equanimity. We go over some examples of what confidence is not through a song by JP Saxe and Elizabeth Holmes changing her voice.

Bruce explains some principles of  confidence from his book recommendation of  2024 "The Confident Mind" and how those can be applied to having more confidence in our own equanimity.  We end with a quote from Seneca about What the product of virtue  is...

For the Stoic Reimagining we interview random people to  see what people know about Marcus Aurelius and of course if people like tennis or running better...

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We take a brief departure from our study of Equanimity to recap the celebration of the Stoic holiday (we invented) called "Aurelmas" and then introduce you to the world's (probably) first Stoic Rap.

Special audio clips from Aurelmas are heard throughout to help feel what it would be like to throw a stone at a ship or to smash a mug into a bucket. The tantalizing sounds of the mugs breaking and people cheering cap off this celebratory day and episode!
 

Aurelmas Playlist:
https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/aurelmas/pl.u-Ldbqer5t2Na95Al

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One of the most powerful tools in the Stoic arsenal for creating equanimity in our lives is understanding the difference between preferring something and being attached to it. In this episode we explore one of the great examples of this in history, namely Napoleon Bonaparte's temperament on his final exile to Saint Helena. (It will make you hear the song, "Viva La Vida" by Coldplay in a whole new light. 

Then we go through the way that our attachments can be put into their proper place, by talking about some of the people that have the strangest attachments (most of whom happen to have a TV show on TLC.) 

We go on  to talk about emotional minimalism, reserving our energy for attachments and preferences for things that are truly valuable and within our control. 

At the end we discuss the symbolism behind the Stoic holiday of Arelimus that has been celebrated by Stoics around the world since March 16th 2024. 

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In this episode we get personal... We read through the beautiful poem called "True Love" by David Whyte and talk about the struggle that humans have with overcoming both our desires (what we are drawn to) and aversions (what we are repelled from.)

We talk about how literal meditation can help us to see our aversions and desires more clearly and detach from them. We also go through the history of Aurelmas, which is the ancient stoic holiday that predates Christmas... that we invented and will be celebrating on March 16th 2024, details in the episode.

Links Mentioned in the Show:
-   True Love by David Whyte

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Hercules (not the Disney version) is faced with the choice between 2 Goddesses, but one is misleading him on the nature of pleasure. This story sets up the important things to be wary of when dealing with pleasure.

Bruce recounts his experience at hippy camp and a tempting offer to join "The Festival of Yes." Though extremely tempted, he turns down this experience that targets the basest pleasures and we discuss the remedy to the desire for pleasures as an end to themselves. 

We are treated to the "Bruce Talks About Economics Corner" and enlightened by the word-a-day segment. The Stoic Reimagining for today is a Stoic Hymn produced by Bruce and sung by friend of the show Joseph.