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Morning Meditations
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Morning Meditations
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Morning Meditations
Ebook53 pages55 minutes

Morning Meditations

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About this ebook

The Stoics, a group of philosophers that flourished in ancient Greece and Rome, championed a rigorously practical philosophy: a study meant to help people. This ebook provides a small sampling of their practical advice in the form of meditations you can practice yourself to develop a deeper sense of gratitude, contentment, awe, and connectedness to others. These are feelings that the Stoics celebrated and excelled in. This book also includes meditations that I have developed myself that carry on in the Stoic tradition.

Stoicism’s principle doctrine is that some things are in our control, while others are not. Tranquility, or a “smooth flow of life,” is found by abandoning our desires for things that are not in our control and focusing our efforts on those things that are in our control. The most important thing to focus on is our point of view, our attitude toward a situation. External circumstances, according to the Stoics, are inert—they are neither good nor bad on their own—but it is how we view them and how we react to them that makes them good or bad. According to the Stoics, our happiness is something that is always up to us: it all depends on how we see our circumstances and how we treat others and ourselves.

In brief, we can see Stoicism epitomized in Reinhold Niebuhr’s Serenity Prayer: “Father, give us courage to change what must be altered, serenity to accept what cannot be helped, and the insight to know the one from the other.” The Serenity Prayer has three components: courage, serenity, and insight, and each one of these takes time and effort to develop. But a lifetime spent developing them is the surest way to tranquility, to peace of mind, to an all-pervading joy that delights in the workings of nature and in communion with other humans, and to a robust resilience that stands against the vagaries of Fortune. This is Stoicism.

In the pages that follow I have provided a series of exercises inspired by the Stoic tradition. Some of these exercises come directly from Stoic writings; most I have developed in the course of my personal journey and exploration through Stoicism. All of them are designed to develop habits that over time strengthen Stoic virtues such as resilience, gratitude, charity and joy (or awe). I hope you find them helpful.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherMarc Libre
Release dateOct 10, 2013
ISBN9781301806157
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Morning Meditations
Author

Marc Libre

Like the Ancient Stoic philosophers from whom he draws inspiration, Marc Libre is concerned with bringing philosophical ideas about virtue and wisdom to bear on his everyday life, while devoted to the practical aspects of his beliefs.Libre is a doctoral candidate in philosophy with a speciality in moral philosophy. As a graduate student, he became enamored of Stoicism and soon dedicated himself to the study and practice of this Ancient wisdom tradition. In the years since, he has come to develop his own view of the good life, drawing heavily upon Stoics such as Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, and Seneca, but also infusing their views with other ideas from throughout the history of ethics, including especially Existentialism.Besides his dissertation in moral philosophy, currently in progress, Marc is working on a series of books outlining the Stoic view of the good life and how it can be attained. He is interested above all in communicating the joy in these philosophies, and in providing practical guides for how his readers can incorporate these elements into their own lives.

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