Becky Mayer has contributed an interesting post, "The Difference Between Amateurs and Professionals", from the Farnam Street blog. In addition to its content, it includes some very interesting links. Thank you, Becky!
Good Life Seminar November 10-12, 2017
Dear Seminarians,
During fraught times can we reach out to stoicism, or its cousin epicureanism for guidance? The mere act of searching with others for understanding and pursuing a good life is a healthy step.
Pete, Negar and I struggle (pleasantly) with the right mix of ideas and art to make a Good Life Seminar event you carry out with you. We believe the fecund acts of learning and sharing have special powers. We have learned over the years to honor philosophers for their mighty questions while looking to poets, essayists, dramatists, for joy, insights, and passion.
But, in the end, it is the quality of thinking and high energy for sharing that separates a Good Life seminar experience from others. In this regard we have been very fortunate. The richness of diverse backgrounds and shared curiosity and insights transforms and lifts the readings to a whole new level of understanding and joy.
We look forward to seeing you in November 10-12 at Cavallo Point.
Cheers,
John, Pete and Negar
Good Life Seminar November 10-12, 2017
Dear Seminarians,
During fraught times can we reach out to stoicism, or its cousin epicureanism for guidance? The mere act of searching with others for understanding and pursuing a good life is a healthy step.
Pete, Negar and I struggle (pleasantly) with the right mix of ideas and art to make a Good Life Seminar event you carry out with you. We believe the fecund acts of learning and sharing have special powers. We have learned over the years to honor philosophers for their mighty questions while looking to poets, essayists, dramatists, for joy, insights, and passion.
But, in the end, it is the quality of thinking and high energy for sharing that separates a Good Life seminar experience from others. In this regard we have been very fortunate. The richness of diverse backgrounds and shared curiosity and insights transforms and lifts the readings to a whole new level of understanding and joy.
We look forward to seeing you in November 10-12 at Cavallo Point.
Cheers,
John, Pete and Negar
How to be a Stoic
Pete has contributed a review of “How to be a Stoic: using ancient philosophy to live a modern life ” by Massimo Pigliucci(Basic Books, 2017)
”The spirit ought to be brought up for examination daily.”
Seems to me a fundamental cornerstone of living a Good Life.
Pete
On Living a Meaningful Life
Becky Meyer has contributed a very nice summary of Arnold Bennett’s book How to Live on 24 Hours a Day which, despite having been published in 1910, remains a valuable resource on living a meaningful life within the constraints of time.
Thank you, Becky
Seneca Update
Hi,
There was a problem with the link in yesterdays post about Seneca's Living a Happy Life. The problem has been resolved.
Read: Seneca: book XX ‘Of a Happy Life’
Seneca A Happy Life
Becky Mayer brings us an essay on living a happy life from the Roman Philosopher Seneca.
Read: Seneca: book XX ‘Of a Happy Life’
Living Well
A thought for today:
Perhaps the secret of living well is not in having all the answers
but in pursuing unanswerable questions in good company.
Rachel Naomi Remen
50 Ways Happier, Healthier, And More Successful People Live On Their Own Terms
Jill Monk has drawn our attention to an article by Benjamin P. Hardy: "50 Ways Happier, Healthier, And More Successful People Live On Their Own Terms".
Dealing With Uncertainty: From the Crucible of Anxiety to the Chalice of Change — Lessons in Leadership
Ricardo Levy has contributed an article, " Dealing With Uncertainty: From the Crucible of Anxiety to the Chalice of Change — Lessons in Leadership".
Dear Good Lifers:
I published last Sunday a long article in my web site www.ricardolevy.com to serve as the basis of a workshop that I will be leading on May 19, 2017 at the International Association of Management, Spirituality and Religion Conference at the University of Arkansas. The title of the article is “Dealing With Uncertainty: From the Crucible of Anxiety to the Chalice of Change — Lessons in Leadership.” The article discusses a very difficult situation I faced on a Board last year and how I managed to cope. It has led me to think deeply about my own leadership challenges and what this tells me about helping other in complex situations. My bottom line is that we ALL have in us leadership capacity. Yet so often it is deeply buried as a result of our training, life struggles, and fears. The challenge is to uncover those protective layers and let our leadership voice emerge. Two wonderful passages speak to this, and I want to share them with our Good Lifers:
From Father Ricard Rohr’s book “Eager to Love”:
Paradox held and overcome is the beginning of training in non-dual thinking or contemplation, as opposed to paradox denied, which forces us to choose only one part of any mysterious truth. Such a choice will be false because we usually choose the one that serves our small purposes.
And from Thomas Merton’s “Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander”:
"Again, that expression, le point vierge (I cannot translate it) comes in here. At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God, which is never at our disposal, from which God disposes of our lives, which is inaccessible to the fantasies of our own mind or the brutalities of our own will. This little point of nothingness and of absolute poverty is the pure glory of God written in us, as our poverty, as our indigence, as our sonship. It is like a pure diamond blazing with the invisible light of heaven. It is in everybody, and if we could see it, we would see these billions of points of light coming together in the face and blaze of a sun that makes all darkness and cruelty of life vanish completely. I have no program for this seeing. It is only given. But the gate of heaven is everywhere.”
Ricardo