Hello there, Following last week’s exercise, there was a great discussion on hierarchy and how we can reconcile the equality of all with the hierarchy we see as almost necessary around us (and throughout our history). Let’s get things started with Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations II 1: “My city and country, as Antoninus, is Rome; as a man, the world.” Let […]
Hello there, I don’t know where you live, but where I am the rules have been getting progressively looser and laxer. And as we emerge back into society after a year of isolation, we need to remind ourselves that we are living as PART of the world. The world is not an accessory that caters to our whims. Instead, the […]
Hello there, Our school is a pragmatic one that concerns itself with the “Here & Now”. As such, when it comes to the philosophical divide between Determinism and Free-Will, our school does not take a side. Instead, we use the logical reasoning of BOTH sides, and apply it to the present moment in our continued drive to live a purposeful […]
Hello there, From time to time I try to look outside our school for some inspiration (while looking to apply our school’s precepts) and I found one such occasion last weekend. One of my neighbours is Austrian and we got to chatting last Sunday. We spoke about all things primordial for life: What is the purpose of it all, how […]
Hello there, Work. Work. Work. Work. Work. Work. Work. Work. Work. Work All we do is work. We work at work to make a living. We work at home to make a nice living space for ourselves and our families. We work hard at school to get good grades as an investment in our future, we work hard at the […]
Hello there, Summer is around the corner…spring is in the air…vaccines are finding their ways into arms…oh yeah,, I foresee lots more human interaction in our future. With that in mind let’s look at some words from Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations X 9: “Drama, combat, numbness, and subservience – everyday these things wipe out your sacred principles, whenever your mind entertains […]
Hello there, We can make all the excuses we want (time, logistics, motivation, etc…), but in reality journaling is not difficult. It can be done in a notebook, in a letter, it could be done during a quiet meditation or reflection…or (in this case) it could be a post. Usually when I write these weekly exercises, they often double as […]
Hello there, For this week’s practical exercise, let us seek some inspiration from Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations V 8: “And so accept everything that happens, even if it seems disagreeable, because it leads to this, to the health of the universe and to the prosperity and felicity of Zeus (the universe). For he would not have brought on any man what […]
Hello there, For this week’s exercise, I will let the words of Marcus set the stage. This is from his Meditations IV 47: ” If any god told you that you will die tomorrow, or certainly on the day after tomorrow, you would not care much whether it was on the third day on the morrow, unless you were in […]
Hello there, Last week I went off a little hard on the text, so this week I will keep things nice and simple to atone for my ambition. Let us find some simple inspiration from the king of objectivity. This is form Epictetus’ Discourses I 6/ 6-8: “Who fitted the sword to the scabbard and the scabbard to the sword? […]