"Natural desires are limited; but those which spring from false opinion can have no stopping-point." - Seneca, Letter 16
Out with friends yesterday, I found myself at a little specialty ingredient store, with a whole wall devoted to hot sauces. I enjoy spicy food once in a while, but it occurred to me that this wall was just what Seneca was warning about. Eating food to satisfy hunger is a natural desire. Adding a little sriracha sauce to make bland food more appealing is giving into a small unnatural desire, which if left unchecked, can lead you down a path towards needing to add 100% Pain to your food to enjoy it.
I'm doing alright with appreciating plain food, but I need to stop trying to spice up the rest of the things I do.
I'm going to stop using this site and switch over to a more interactive version at community.stoalogos.com. Please use the link below to join!
Join us this Sunday, December 29th for the forty-sixth Sunday Stoa!
We'll kick things off at 4pm EST with 10 minutes of guided meditation, followed by 15 minutes of reflection journaling or doing a Stoic writing practice. If you'd like to skip the meditation and journaling, please join us at 4:30pm. After that, we'll use a combination of break out groups and larger group discussion to go deeper into a specific topic.
This weeks theme is progress: we'll be listening to Letter 32 from Seneca's Letters from a Stoic, and Book 1, Chapter 4 of the Discourses of Epictetus, and then discussing the ideas they puts forth.
Here's the and text if you want to check it out before Sunday:
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius/Letter_32
Click here to join the event:
If you're all caught up on your meditation and journaling ...
Join us this Sunday, December 22nd for the forty-fifth Sunday Stoa!
We'll kick things off at 4pm EST with 10 minutes of guided meditation, followed by 15 minutes of reflection journaling or doing a Stoic writing practice. If you'd like to skip the meditation and journaling, please join us at 4:30pm. After that, we'll use a combination of break out groups and larger group discussion to go deeper into a specific topic.
This week, we'll be listening to Letter 18 from Seneca's Letters from a Stoic, On Festivals and Fasting, and then discussing the ideas it puts forth.
Here's the video and text if you want to check it out before Sunday:
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius/Letter_18
Click here to join the event:
If you're all caught up on your meditation and journaling and want to skip right to the discussion, please join at 4:30pm
