As is now Modern Meditations tradition we ended 2024 with reading Seneca’s “On The Shortness of Life” and sat down for a chat about how we did with this year that is not coming back.

We both saw meaningful ways that Stoicism had major impacts in our lives for the better, whether that be through breakups, travel, making major career moves, graduating college or deaths in the family.

And at the end we have the internationally acclaimed awards ceremony for the best episodes of the year called, “The Aurelis.“

On the 50th episode of Modern Meditations we break our format to give you two audio essays that changed our views on what it means to be a citizen of the world. In Meditations we read, “My city and country, so far as I am Antoninus, is Rome; but so far as I am a human being, it is the world."

The first, by Bruce, from his trip on Thailand and the lessons he learned from the East that would solve many problems in the West. And another from Justin that shows where philanthropy without true understanding of needs and the culture can go wrong.

We intentionally left the commentary out this week and just raise interesting questions. We would love to hear your thoughts on the format and the content at modernmeditationspodcast@gmail.com.

Experience Stoic literature first-hand by listening directly to the audiobook of Mediations by Marcus Aurelius.

Book 9 of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius contains absolute banger quotes such as:
9:20 "It is your duty to leave another man's wrongful act there where it is."
9:27 "When another blames you or hates you, or when men say about you anything injurious, approach their poor sould, look within, and see what kind of men they are. You will discover that there is no reason to take any trouble that these men may have this or that opinion about you. However, you must be well disposed towards them, for by nature they are friends."

But don't let us decide which quotes are worthy of your thought and attention; listen and directly find the quotes that most resonate with you on your Stoic journey to building wisdom and character!

Discussing Book 8 of Marcus Aurelius' meditations is not for those unready to face the existential dread of facing themselves and what they were born to do... Are you?

We start with a fun teaser of "What is required of someone to be a Stoic?" Then we dive into the heavy-hitting themes of this book of Meditations with figuring out what you were born for.

Join to answer the most important question of all! Who will project their biases more onto the world, Justin or Bruce? Find out this episode!

Experience Stoic literature first-hand by listening directly to the audiobook of Mediations by Marcus Aurelius.

Book 8 of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius contains absolute banger quotes such as:
8:16 "Remember that to change your opinion and to follow him who corrects your error is as consistent with freedom as it is to persist in your error."
8:22 "Attend to the matter which is before you, whether it is an opinion or an act or a word."
8:33 "Receive [wealth or prosperity] without arrogance, and be ready to let it go."
8:36 "Do not disturb yourself by thinking of the whole of your life. Do not let your thoughts at once embrace all the various troubles which you may expect to befall you.."

But don't let us decide which quotes are worthy of your thought and attention; listen and directly find the quotes that most resonate with you on your Stoic journey to building wisdom and character!

Happy Halloween! What a perfect time to discuss death! On this spooky holiday we open with Data asking Picard to grant him a gift... mortality. We discuss how we deal with mortality and why it is such a gift to be alive and that we all die.

We go into how we can prepare for our own inevitable death. Part of that is destigmatizing death to not let it be a looming fear, but instead of provider of beauty and meaning. Can it be destigmatized too much? Possibly, but we think the pendulum is swung towards a fear of "tempting fate" by talking about it. How does Marcus respond to people thinking speaking about death is tempting fate? Find out in this episode!

Special for Halloween, we combined the outro and Stoic reimagining with a longer story of "Death's Messengers" by Brothers Grimm, with a symphony playing Danse Macabre to set the tone.

Death’s Messengers Fairy tale (original) - Story by Brothers Grimm
(61) Danse macabre, Op. 40 - YouTube

Can we just say, "What a chapter?!" Book 7 has many riveting themes, including... Simplicity!

Marcus says, "Always bear this in mind; and another thing too, that very little indeed is necessary for living a happy life." To explore that we compare how much it would cost to live the life of an Instagram Influencer compared to a simple life. The happiest *recorded* capacity for happiness was found in a man who lived in absolute simplicity, the lifestyle of a Buddhist monk.

We use the Catchy Quaker Classic, Simple Gifts, as inspiration on what simplicity should bring, freedom. Aside from its catchiness, the song gives some great insights on living a simple life and how that will make life more cohesive.

Elon Musk gives a practical formula for simplifying things in business which we extrapolate to simplifying life. Then Winston Churchill gives a great example of an "Autotelic" activity.

For the Stoic Reimagining we thought we would challenge ourselves to simplify this episode. It may have worked too well...

Book 7 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 considers valuable things such as how little is necessary to living a happy life, what the perfection of moral character looks like, and how the more you dig for good within yourself the more it will bubble up.

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