The doctrine that the world is a living being, rational, animate and intelligent, is laid down by Chrysippus in the first book of his treatise On Providence, by Apollodorus in his Physics, and by Posidonius… And it is endowed with soul, as is clear from our several souls being each a fragment of it. (DL 7.142-3)[1] Some people think the idea of a conscious cosmos is an antiquated relic of the ancient Stoics that must be abandoned to modernize Stoicism....
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What is most important in human life? That is a perennial question which all of us ask ourselves, in one form or another, at some point in our lives. Unfortunately, many of us only confront that question either late in life or when tragic circumstances force the question upon us. Often, it is only after the raging fires of our youthful passions and career ambitions have exhausted our enthusiasm that we stop long enough to contemplate what is truly important...
“We have the greatest technological knowledge of any civilization, but we have forgotten what it means to be alive in the world, to be alive in a living universe. Yet without this living connection to the world, our lives become trivial, routine, and mechanical. Being cut off, we start to wonder about the meaning of life and raise other abstract questions, while meaning itself is an experience of being bonded to the world and others at the very deepest level.”...
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