An idea for a useful and necessary new practice emerged in Tuesday's class. I'm tentatively calling it Premeditatio Bonorum; preparing in advance for the best things that can happen.
Similarly to how our fears of the future compromise our tranquility in the present moment, our hopes and dreams pull us away from the present, placing our happiness in some uncertain future. Just as we prepare to face our fears with Premeditatio Malorum/Negative Visualization, we should also prepare to meet what we mistakenly think of as excellent fortune with Premeditatio Bonorum/Positive Visualization.
Beside our secret list of things we really don't want to happen, we keep another list of things we really hope will. These are the things we are most likely to purchase with our very freedom, given the opportunity.
For me, a few of these things include meeting a significant other, coming into money, and being a guest on my favorite podcasts. All of these have the potential to cost me much more than I receive from them, but remembering that when they are actually happening will be very difficult.
Seneca's critics, and many of those who admire him, acknowledge that his great mistake was returning to Rome from exile. Exile was a gift, and returning cost him peace, freedom, and in the end, his very life. I think he probably knew it was a mistake too, but how do you turn down the thing you want the most?
You practice in advance.
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
