This is episode 1,886.

Welcome to the Daily Meditation Podcast.

I'm Mary Meckley and I welcome you to a brand new series this week where the focus is all about

mental balance. This entire month we are exploring mental focus and this week you will

be exploring mental balance with the ancient Stoics of Greece.

I shared with you a few years ago a series where I focused on the Stoics of Italy such as Marcus Aurelius and we went through his book of meditations.

Well, I thought I'd start with where Stoicism began,

and that happens to be where I am spending my vacation. And that is in Greece.

We will be where I am spending my vacation this year.

And that is in Greece.

We will be exploring the early Greek Stoics, especially the works of Zeno, who is considered to be the

founder of Stoicism. Now there are many great philosophers who hailed from Athens, notably Plato and Socrates and Aristotle and these great philosophers

including Zeno would share their teachings on Stoas, which are similar to what you might consider to be a porch or a terrace where students would gather.

This is also called Agora, the Greek word for a gathering place.

And it's on these stoas where the different philosophers would share their teachings.

And I am getting philosophers which share their teachings.

And I am getting ready today to explore the Stoa where Zeno met with his followers. So I'll share with you tomorrow what that was like. I'm pretty excited to be going there. I have my comfortable walking shoes on my sunscreen, my sun hat, and I'm ready to hit the streets of Athens and go explore some of these famous stoas.

You may or may not be familiar with stoicism.

So I'll share a very brief description of stoicism and stoicism seems to be gaining a

resurgence in our modern times.

And I think Stoicism fits nicely with meditation

because meditation is so much about mindfulness and simplicity and that was very similar to what the ancient Stoics emphasized as well and a connection with nature.

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