Greetings Readers!
Here is the latest Monday Muse with a morning meditation, perennial reminder, question, and recommendation(s) to consider.
Be wise and be well this week!
📿 Morning Meditation
This week’s morning meditation is courtesy of The Wisdom School podcast (Apple or Spotify). Today’s meditation is a short selected reading (delivered in a Lectio Divina style) inspired by the writings of Søren Kierkegaard.
📌 Perennial Reminder(s)
Just as soldiers become braver by repeatedly practicing military maneuvers until they become instinctive, and the religious become more devout by repeatedly partaking in rituals, so people become more civil by practicing small daily acts of politeness, which although mere “trifles” allow “an easy Transition to something more material.” This observation reflects a feature of Hume’s moral philosophy. Hume believed that habit was the key to virtuous behavior: practice doing the right thing in every situation, trivial or important, and you will build the kind of character that tends to act well in all situations. Good moral thinking “by proper representations of the deformity of vice and beauty of virtue, beget correspondent habits, and engage us to avoid the one, and embrace the other.”
Source: The Great Guide by Julian Baggini (Listen to the conversation)
💡 Perennial Question(s)
How can you remember to see what is small and overlooked?
If you adhere to nature, to what is simple in it, to what is small and overlooked, but can so unexpectedly become great and immeasurable; if you have this love for things that are most small and wholly simple, striving like a servant to gain their trust, even though they are obviously poor: then everything will become easier, more harmonious, and at some level reconciled, maybe not in the sense of explicit understanding, which stands back amazed, but in your innermost consciousness, in wakefulness and knowledge.
Source: Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
🔥 Recommendation(s)
This week’s recommendation is a Youtube video by After Skool. It’s based on a talk by the late spiritual teacher and author Ram Dass. The notion that all is well shows up across philosophical and spiritual traditions. Yet, there is immense suffering in the world. Let me know what you think in the comments!
🎧 Recent Podcast(s)
Thank you for reading/listening; I hope you found something useful.
Until next time, be wise and be well,
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Ram Dass video is hard to watch, but the truth of it is overwhelming.