Ep. 15 - Awakening from the Meaning Crisis - Marcus Aurelius and Jesus

New videos released every Friday.

Podcast Links:

Books in the Video:

•Marcus Aurelius - Meditations
•Julian Barnes – A History of the World in 10 ½ Chapters
•Erich Fromm – To Have or To Be?
•Pierre Hadot - What Is Ancient Philosophy?
•Pierre Hadot - Philosophy as a Way of Life: Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault
•Margaret Visser – Beyond Fate

Fifteenth episode of Dr. John Vervaeke's Awakening from the Meaning Crisis.

[melissachinnici]

This series is single-handedly alleviating a lot of death anxiety that no therapist has ben able to help me with, so thank you. I'm thankful to be alive in a time when the goal of being a centenarian is becoming more and more attainable. I still wish to prolong my life and be as healthy as possible to enjoy those moments, even temporarily.

[HappyHeretic]

If going to church provided inspiration and meaning as these lectures do for me, I wouldn’t miss another Sunday Service ever again.

[a-bis-zett]

Again such an insightful episode. And when you spoke about yourself in third person as, of course, John Vervaeke, my subtitles made "John Verve a Key" out of it – which makes perfectly sense to me :-) 
Key experiences conveyed with a lot of verve. Thank you so much.

[alisaruddell]

As a practicing/believing Christian, I am profoundly moved by how you described Jesus, Logos, kairos, metanoia, and agape. That last section was better than many a sermon I’ve heard! Thank you for showing such respect to all the religious traditions you talk about.

[MattFRox]

“Love is a modal way of being.” Possibly the most important statement I’ve ever heard.

[antoniobarbalau]

God my conciousness has gone up so many times throughout the series I barely feel the same man.

[doubleBbooks]

Thank you for this series Mr Vervaeke. I'm not an uneducated person and yet listening to your lectures I feel like my extended education left me wholly ignorant about the roots of my own culture - no wonder we have a meaning crisis. I didn't go to university until I was in my 30s and I was surprised at how little the kids coming into university straight from A levels seemed to know. This lack of education, as opposed to a lack of schooling, seems to be getting worse as education in the UK is increasingly assessed relative to its utility in producing the right sort of workers with the right sort of skills for the economy we're going to have (in the glorious future). The only sort of education such schooling seems to provide is that one's value lies in what one has (in this instance skills but the lesson generalises) and so, it seems to me, to lead inexorably to modal confusion and to a deepening of the meaning crisis. Adam Curtis's film 'The Century of Self' comes to mind.

[jjasmin]

I almost cried during the "heaven" analogy and your personal stance on immortality.

Thank you for these treasures and wisdom Professor Vervaeke

[OfCourseICan]

I have been living my life as a Cynic and now going to live as a Stoic. Thank You again John.

[vib]

'You can be happy even in a palace'
I love that line. While I greatly admire The Buddha for everything thing he has done which are in some ways greater than what Marcus Aurelius did, but just because of that one line Marcus Aurelius seems so much more moral and good to me.

To achieve his personal wisdom, he didn't abandon everything. He carried it all while on his journey to wisdom. So amazing, that's a great role model.

[tensevo]

I have studied philosophy and psychology, casually for over a decade, but this course continues to provide some real insights that I had not come across before.

[noahweikert]

I have been sitting down on Sunday with the kids and watching an episode of your series after church. It has raised alot of interesting question from them.

[jeoffreywortman]

You are the only genuine ally my generation has ahead, in the name of the milleannial spirit. I most sincerely thank you for your breaking it down.

It might not change the world forever on its own. but for sure what you're portraying is a huge millestone. Thank you very very much.

[betauser]

Hands down the best teacher and thinker on youtube. You can definitely see that he practices what he preaches and is speaking through wisdom instead of knowledge.

[michaelmorrisinfarsi]

“Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference” - serenity prayer

[philmessina]

(c. 10:18) "The core of wisdom is knowing what's in your control and what is not."

[haydenwayne]

EXCELLENT lecture!!! Thank you. I really appreciate your sensitivity!

[MattFRox]

I’ve listened to this full lecture all the way thru a few times and yet I still routinely get sucked back in when one just randomly starts playing. AMC is the Shawshank Redemption of YouTube lectures

[keyframe]

ok. Noooow I am hooked. I mean the part with the budha was awesome but now you bring clarity in subjects like death and love. Wow. Best class ever.

[philmessina]

I'm watching this episode again. And it's blowing my mind even more than before, now that I have a stronger grasp of all the concepts. I'm glad this resource is publicly available.