Essays
Each week, a long read: a cross-cutting essay that brings traditions together without diluting them—differences before convergences.
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What Nature Demands Epicurus distinguishes the desires nature calls for from those opinion invents; Seneca tests this distinction against the body; the Dhammapada refuses to classify—it sees only a root to uproot. Jul 12, 2026 -
Born Under the Yoke La Boétie holds custom as the first reason for servitude; Epictetus locates freedom solely in what depends on us; Zhuangzi sees in the yoke itself a violence done to nature. Three ways of untangling the instituted from the natural. Jul 5, 2026 -
A Single Body Marcus Aurelius sees the world as one body, the Bhagavad-Gītā the same Self in all beings, Lao Tzu the Principle that nourishes without possessing—three refusals to treat the living as a thing to be taken. Jun 28, 2026 -
Leisure and the Useless Aristotle and Zhuangzi before a life that is only worth what it produces—and two opposing doors out of it. Jun 21, 2026 -
The Duck and the Heron Zhuangzi, Spinoza, and Marcus Aurelius on the nature proper to beings—and the temptation to tailor them to an end that is not their own. Jun 14, 2026 -
Measure and Excess Diminishing, contenting oneself, bounding desire: Lao Tzu, Marcus Aurelius, and Montaigne before the boundless. Jun 7, 2026