I am reading Seneca: Letters From a Stoic. This was written in the year 64.
What is amazing is the wisdom that he imparted as he neared death. How pertinent it was then, how pertinent it is today.
I have decided to go back and read some of the “self-help” books of ancient times. And yes, they even existed all the way back to “Before Christ.”
Self improvement, as we like to call it is just philosophy really. It is the search for meaning, the search for a more fulfilled type of living.
My wife always gives me a bad time. She jokes of my obsession with self-help. Honestly it is not about the self-help, it about finding wisdom in a sea of uncertainty.
Three Books I am going to focus on right now: Cost $2.00 for the digital versions (I love the modern world!)
1. Letters from a Stoic [Annotated]
2. The Improvement of the Mind (Classic Reprint)
3. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
As I study the wisdom of these ancient Romans it is striking how close it is to the philosophy of Eastern thought. This leads me to believe that in essence: Once a Sage then always a Sage. In other words we all really want the same thing. For that reason the wisdom of our elders mirrors that of ours today. It is just under different circumstances that we exist!