In this episode, my guest is Dr. Bruce Tallman the author of the new book God’s Ecstatic Love. Bruce is a Spiritual Director and Marriage Counselor. He is the author of four books and has written hundreds of articles on spirituality published in the London Free Press and other newspapers and is an adjunct faculty for the Haden Institute for Spiritual Directors Training. 

 In the conversation, Dr. Tallman and I discuss:

• Spiritual direction and formation
• Searching for meaning
• The paradox of love and wisdom
• Navigating suffering in relationships
• Wisdom in daily life and much more

Connect with Dr. Bruce Tallman: brucetallman.com/

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Is it possible to know too much? According to Leo Tolstoy (regarded as one of the greatest writers of all time), “It is better to know a few good and necessary things than many useless and mediocre things.” Basic knowledge is necessary to be a human being; until a person has acquired this knowledge, all other knowledge is harmful, stressed Tolstoy.

In A Calendar of Wisdom, Tolstoy wrote, "It is better to know several basic rules of life than to study many unnecessary sciences." [...]

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In today’s episode, my guest is Chris Fisher, the host of the Stoicism on Fire podcast and the creator of TraditionalStoicism.com. Chris started his blog in 2015 to provide material for those who are interested in Traditional Stoic theory and practice. In 2018, he started the Stoicism on Fire podcast. Chris now serves as the second Scholarch of The College of Stoic Philosophers.

 In the conversation, Chris and I discuss:

• The search for Stoic wisdom
• Traditional Stoicism
• The need for responsibility
• How worldviews shape our actions
• Wisdom in daily life and much more

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When we search for practical wisdom today — we are wise to look to Buddhist teachings. What distinguishes the Buddha’s teaching from other religious approaches to the human condition is its directness, thoroughness, and practical nature.

The Buddha explained, "The teaching begins by calling upon us to develop a faculty of careful attention." [...]

***If you're interested in a deeper dive, you can subscribe to In Search of Wisdom, a conversational podcast that interviews leading thinkers in search of timeless lessons for daily life. You can also read articles on ancient lessons for modern life at the PERENNIAL publication on Medium.

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Is the fear of death inevitable? In the classic Denial of Death, Ernest Becker stressed, “The idea of death, the fear of it, haunts the human animal like nothing else; it is a mainspring of human activity — designed largely to avoid the fatality of death.”

Although 2,000 years before Becker, the philosopher Epicurus asked, “Why should I fear death? If I am, then death is not. If Death is, then I am not.” [...]

***If you're interested in a deeper dive, you can subscribe to In Search of Wisdom, a conversational podcast that interviews leading thinkers in search of timeless lessons for daily life. You can also read articles on ancient lessons for modern life at the PERENNIAL publication on Medium.

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Today's reflection comes from a portion of The PATH weekly email meditation we send every Monday, and it's on potential. 

One of the heartbreaking things about humans is our tendency to settle, to place false limits on our true potential. The theologian Thomas Merton said, “The biggest human temptation is to settle for too little.”

In Meditations, Marcus Aurelius wrote this himself, “If you find something very difficult to achieve yourself, don’t imagine it impossible — for anything possible and proper for another person can be achieved as easily by you.” [...]

***If you're interested in a deeper dive, you can subscribe to In Search of Wisdom, a conversational podcast that interviews leading thinkers in search of timeless lessons for daily life. You can also read articles on ancient lessons for modern life at the PERENNIAL publication on Medium.

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In this episode, my guest is Ryan Hawk (@RyanHawk12), the author of the new book The Pursuit of Excellence. Ryan is the founder and host of The Learning Leader Show (a podcast with nearly 500 episodes). He’s an avid speaker on leadership and personal and professional development.

In the conversation, Ryan and I discuss:

• Leadership and excellence
• Loving what you do
• The connection between gratitude and excellence
• Humility and patience on the path
• The wisdom of reading
• How to be consistent and much more

Selected books/resources mentioned: 

• The Greats on Leadership by Jocelyn Davis
• The Score Takes Care of Itself by Bill Walsh
• Good to Great by Jim Collins

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Are you on the path to becoming who you truly are? The American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson believed, “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” 

If you're interested in a deeper dive, you can read articles on ancient lessons for modern life at the PERENNIAL publication on Medium or check out our YouTube Channel.

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How do we know virtue is the only good?  Although the Stoics and Epicureans agreed on finding tranquility in life, they differed drastically on the topic of virtue.

In Letter 76, titled Only the honorable is good, Seneca wrote,

Seneca warned Lucilius, “If you accept the view that something besides the honorable is good, then every virtue will have a hard time.” Virtue cannot be maintained by looking beyond itself. If so, it is contrary to reason — which virtue depends. [...]

If you're interested in a deeper dive, you can read articles on ancient lessons for modern life at the PERENNIAL publication on Medium or check out our YouTube Channel.

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In this episode, my guest is Dr. Lisa Miller, the author of the new book The Awakened Brain: The New Science of Spirituality and our Quest for an Inspired Life. Dr. Miller is a New York Times bestselling author and a professor in the Clinical Psychology Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. She is the Founder and Director of the Spirituality Mind Body Institute, which is the first Ivy League graduate program and research institute in spirituality and psychology.

In the conversation, Dr. Miller and I discuss:

• Navigating science and spirituality 
• Finding meaning in life
• The science of desire and clinging
• Wisdom and nature 
• Letting life unfold and much more

Connect with Dr. Lisa Miller:  lisamillerphd.com/

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