The Daily Stoic - We Can’t Let This Go On | The Portable Retreat

Episode Date: March 22, 2021

“No man is an island. We’ve taken the line from the John Donne poem and turned it into a common expression, but we’ve missed the point. It’s not simply that we can’t exist by ourselves. It’s much deeper than that.”Ryan explains why we must recognize that we are all a part of the whole, and reads this week’s meditation from The Daily Stoic Journal, on today’s Daily Stoic Podcast.This episode is also brought to you by Blinkist, the app that gets you fifteen-minute summaries of the best nonfiction books out there. Blinkist lets you get the topline information and the most important points from the most important nonfiction books out there, whether it’s Ryan’s own The Daily Stoic, Yuval Harari’s Sapiens, and more. Go to blinkist.com/stoic, try it free for 7 days, and save 25% off your new subscription, too.Today’s episode is brought to you by Munk Pack, Keto Granola Bars that contain just a single gram of sugar and 2 to 3 net carbs—and they’re only 140 calories. They’re not just keto-friendy: they’re also gluten and grain free, plant based, and non GMO, with no soy, trans fats, sugar alcohols, or artificial coloring. It’s backed with a 100% satisfaction guarantee — so if you don’t like it for any reason, they'll exchange the product or refund your money, whichever you prefer. Get 20% off your first purchase of ANY Munk Pack product by visiting munkpack.com and entering our code STOIC at checkout.***If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podcast, the more we can invest into it and make it even better.Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/signupFollow Daily Stoic:Twitter: https://twitter.com/dailystoicInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailystoic/Facebook: http://facebook.com/dailystoicYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/dailystoicSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey, prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stoke Podcast early and add free on Amazon music. Download the app today. Welcome to the Daily Stoke Podcast. Each day we bring you a meditation inspired by the ancient Stokes, illustrated with stories from history, current events, and literature to help you be better at what you do. And at the beginning of the week we try to do a deeper dive setting a kind of stoke intention for the week something to meditate on something to think on something to leave you with to journal about whatever it is you happen to be doing. So let's get into it. Hi I'm David Brown the host of Wunderree's podcast business wars and in our new season Walmart must fight off target, the new discounter that's both

savvy and fashion forward. Listen to business wars on Amazon music or wherever you get your podcasts. We can't let this go on. No man is an island. We've taken that line from the John Dunn poem and turned it into common expression, but we've missed the point. It's not simply that we can't exist by ourselves. It's much deeper than that. What this poet was trying to express is something akin to the collectivism of the Stoics, the idea that we are all in this together, that we were put here for each other,

that our fates are bound up inseparably from each other. To be indifferent to the sufferings of others, to harden your heart, that we were put here for each other, that our fates are bound up inseparably from each other. To be indifferent to the sufferings of others, to harden your heart, it is to harm yourself as well as others. Every man is a piece of the continent, the poem reads, a part of the main, if a cloud be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manner of thy friends or of thy own were. Any man's death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind.

2020 has been a year of adversity and difficulty in death, from George Floyd to the lives cut short by COVID-19 to the dreams deferred, damaged, and destroyed by the economic devastation that followed. It is so easy to turn inward in moments like this, to focus on all the things you have to deal with. It's easy to be callous. It's easy to look for excuses and rationalizations. The death toll is actually very low. Most of the victims were already old. We cannot accept that of ourselves or of anyone. We can't let this go on. It was preventable and even today it remains stoppable. If only we would just wear our shields. If we could just understand that magical thinking doesn't exempt your wedding,

your Thanksgiving travel plans from spreading the virus. Why do you think Marcus are really as wet for the victims of the plague, even though most of them would have been faceless strangers from a population of 50 million? Because he believed that Rome was not a collection of individuals, of islands, but a continent, part of the main. We owe it to each other, to ourselves, to get our act together. We must be involved in mankind. We cannot give in to selfishness or stupidity. We cannot be indifferent.

Not about this. We are made for each other. Our duty is to the common good. We cannot keep neglecting it. The portable retreat. It is in the future, on a vacation, on your day off. That's when we plan to get out into nature. We think there we'll find peace and release from the crush of the everyday demands of life. Yet this never seems to really happen as often as we think does it. And when we do

get that peace, it is difficult to keep it once we go back into the fray. So for a stoic, all this is madness. The true retreat is to the freedom of our own mind and our own soul. To consider the gifts we already have that can be a refuge for all time. If we take the time, daily, to do so. That's from the daily stoic weekly meditation Meditation in the Daily Stoic Journal, which I hope you check out. We've got some quotes from Marcus Realius and Epictetus here to round it out. People seek retreat for themselves in the country by the sea or in the mountains.

You are very much in the habit of yearning for those same things, but this is entirely the trait of a base person when you can at any moment find such a retreat in yourself. For nowhere can you find a more peaceful and less busy retreat than in your own soul, especially if on close inspection, it is filled with ease, which I say is nothing more than being well ordered. Treat yourself often to this retreat and be renewed.

Marcus Aurelius' meditations, 4.3. Remember that it is not only the desire for wealth and position that debases and subjugates us, but also the desire for peace, leisure, travel, and learning. It doesn't matter what the external thing is, the value we place on it subjugates us to another, where our heart is set, there are impediment lies. That's Epic Titus' discourse is 4.4. Remember that your ruling reason becomes unconquerable when it rallies and relies on itself,

so that it won't do anything contrary to its own will, even if its position is irrational. How much more unconquer if its judgments are careful and made rationally. Therefore, the mind-free from passions is an impenetrable fortress, and a person has no more secure place of refuge for all time. That's Marcus Realis' meditations, 8.48.

You know, it must have been really hard to be markets. I mean, we think about sometimes the American media teases presidents for how much they play golf or, you know, jet off tomorrow, logo or camp David or any of those sort of retreats. But the truth is it must be extraordinarily hard to be the head of state. Endless meetings, endless responsibilities, endless criticism, endless pressure, you're trapped in this house. You live at the office literally. And so leaders need escapes. They need hobbies. Talk about this and stillness is the key. Churchill's, you know, hobby of brick laying and painting, you know, eyes and hour place golf. All that's important. But what

Mark is really just saying is, and I think this is true for all of us, you're not actually able to get away from it all with a hobby, with a trip, with a vacation. And in fact, in my own experience, often I come back to the office from vacation more stressed out. When I had Matt Bernerger on the podcast from the National, we talked about how, you know, you think, hey, I'm going to take a couple of week vacation and relax, get down to a lower pace of life. Recharge, then when I come back, I'll be better. It probably took me like eight, nine months into the pandemic to really detox from the daily grind of work to adjust to a slower pace of life. So the idea that two weeks

are a trip to the beach or a trip to the mountains, it's gonna help you get away from it all that a seven day meditation retreat is gonna do it for you. It's not, it can help, but it's not a mat, there's no magical solution, there's no pill you can take, there's no trip you can take, there's no dark room in the back of your house, you can go to, there's no beautiful landscape backyard

that will do it, no. You have to be able to turn inward. You have to be able to cultivate that piece in yourself. That's better too. Don't you want it on demand? Vacations are expensive. You got to get on planes. They can be blocked from a pandemic or scrutiny from a whatever.

You can't flee. Epicurus has every man flees himself. Emerson has a great essay on travel and he talks about how many of us bring ruins to the ruins we visit. No, you stay put, you do the internal work, you find the retreat, the refuge inside your own mind, inside your own soul, inside your own principles, inside your own meditation, inside your own journaling, inside the walk that you take, right? You've got to be able to find it and cultivate it on demand much better for you. I promise, focus on that. Focus on cultivating the inward retreat as Marcus had to do. You never know, right? It's a pandemic.

A war. Things can block us from the trips, right? A travel delay, a bad weather. Things can prevent us from having that. But if we have it on the inside, you can feel at peace and even as you are sitting in the airport waiting for your delayed and delayed and delayed flight. That's what you want.

You can have it even at court, as Marcus really said. You can have it even when you're president. Good systems, good internal discipline, good thoughts, a good soul. This is the best place of refuge and relaxation. So I hope you give yourself that gift and I hope you put in the work so you can have it when you need it. Thanks so much for listening to the Daily Stoke Podcast. Again, if you don't know this, you can get these delivered to you via email every day.

Just go to dailystoke.com slash email. So check it out dailystoke.com slash email. Hey, prime members, you can listen to the daily stoke early and add free on Amazon music. Download the Amazon music app today, or you can listen early and add free with Wondering Plus in Apple podcasts. download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen early and add free with Wondering Plus in Apple podcasts.