Sean Stone’s 10 Things to Learn: Ancient Wisdom for the Modern Soul

0:04AI is suddenly taking over the world, technology progressing faster than people can metabolize or understand. And yet the population doesn't seem to be thriving. People don't seem happier. So it's possible that technological progress isn't really progress if the cost is the destruction of our social fabric and an epidemic of unhappiness and loneliness. Maybe that's why we need to return to the truths that bring meaning to our lives. Our friend Sean Stone has just written a book about that. Here it is. It's called 10 Things to Learn, Ancient Wisdom for the Modern Soul. It's available now on tuckercarlsonbooks.com.

0:40He joins us now to tell us all about it. So, Sean, in some ways, it's kind of a striking claim that you're making. You're saying that the ancient world, a world without, I don't know, space travel or even flush toilets, was wiser in some ways than our world, this technologically advanced civilization that we live in. How was it wiser, do you think? Because wisdom isn't necessarily a product of technology. As we know, wisdom is something that's earned, that's lived. And so the ancients, I think, understood things about the nature of humanity. and it's not only ancient. I mean, we draw upon in the book, we draw upon some films that are a little bit closer to us time-wise.

1:30But yeah, a lot of the stories that I draw upon are from the East, the Bhagavad Gita, a lot from the Bible, a lot of Bible stories, the Christ story, and then obviously ancient Greece. And so why? Because we've been telling stories for thousands of years and I think that's essential to the human experience, right? Why do we look to stories? when I grew up, it was like, what was the moral of the story when you watch a movie or when you read a book? That was always the question. And I don't know that people are necessarily thinking along those terms anymore. We got so much streaming at us that it's almost more about the spell of continuation, especially you see with TV shows and whatnot, where it's just meant to hook you and keep you almost like the old days with the episodics, where it's like, it's the next commercial, right?

2:17So you can say what happens next, you know, stay on the edge of your seat. But the duty of a story, of a book, or a myth, or a movie even, is always sort of that experience of engaging with something, right? And then sitting with it, hopefully having a cathartic experience through that process, right? Of watching a total story or hearing a story and allowing yourself to be moved by it or learn something from it. And so that's, I think, the heart of what I'm trying to do here is to just sort of boil down some lessons that we can take from these stories from the ancient world and even some from closer to the modern world.

2:56What an interesting observation. So you're saying that previous civilizations in previous times have focused on what people are like, the nature of humanity, you called it. So that suggests that human nature doesn't change. Technology may change. the outward manifestations of a society may change, but people do not. Yeah, we're still grappling with what it means to be human. I started grappling with it, I guess, you know, when I was young and I came back to it with a documentary called MetaHuman, where I was interviewing people like Deepak Chopra and others. And we're at the cusp of, as you know, a transhuman agenda, a transhuman age, where people are talking about this idea of modifying the human, transforming the human, modifying us genetically, modifying us by potentially merging us with computers and whatnot.

3:46And yet we don't really understand what it even is to be a human being, right? And we have this body, we have a body that has a certain level of, well, not a certain level, a huge amount of knowledge itself, right? The body is so wise, it's so intelligent, and it connects us, you know, I believe to the spiritual realm. You know, with our emotional states, for example. And, you know, really having higher mental intelligence or cognitive ability does not necessarily make you a more empathetic being, more emotionally attuned being, right? So as they say, like, there's emotional intelligence, and that, you know, having higher IQ, let's say, doesn't necessarily translate to having a greater bandwidth for emotional intelligence.

4:32That's for sure. This paradoxical thing is happening where as life becomes physically easier for people, more comfortable, more abundant food, less physical labor. People are not getting happier, but instead are getting more despondent to the point where the suicide rate rises. What is that? Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of darkness, as we know, in our world and that can't, you can't just get rid of darkness by expediting things or making things faster, let's say, right? Giving us more information. I think information overload is a very real thing. I certainly, I grapple with it. I'm sure you do in some ways.

5:20The access to information is readily there. and yet we have to still prioritize our own lives. And so going back to what the book is about is just recognizing that you can't get rid of the process, let's say, of being human. You can't expedite that. You can't get rid of the falling. You can't get rid of the need to surrender, I believe, to a higher power and let things play out because we don't have control. And there's an illusion of control. And I think this has been very much what has been sold to us. You could say, you know, going back to the century of the self-concept, right? The marketing campaigns of the first, you know, Bernays was probably one of the first famous ad man, right?

6:08The nephew of Sigmund Freud. And a lot of it's playing upon our urges and our instinctual urges, right? To satisfy things, food, sex, marketing, you know, material goods, things like this, right? And yet, just because you have a material reality that's satisfying, it doesn't mean that you're emotionally happy or at peace. In fact, oftentimes we see people that have more are the most fearful. That's oftentimes the one, you know, why? I've thought oftentimes, like, why are these people like Bill Gates and others who have so much, so intent on trying to control humanity, right? Or even control the population or, you know, control the individual.

6:48Well, again, transhuman modalities oftentimes go down to this question of trying to mind control the masses, trying to control other people, trying to control behavior, trying to control the environment. We have a, that's, I would say, a fear-based way of approaching life, as opposed to a way of surrendering and saying, you know, there's a higher power at work. And how do we hopefully show up and be better people, more empathetic people, without trying to control or manipulate others? control is a theme that runs throughout this book and our lack of it and the need to acknowledge that to to identify the things that we cannot change and and submit to them why do you think that fact is almost never noted in public by anybody that actually you can't control most important things why don't you say that yeah i think it's you know again we come in we're coming at it as Americans, right?

7:47And so a certain level of, there is this exceptionalism, I think, you know, in terms of America, and in some ways, rightfully so, because, you know, our Constitution is so unique and so, you know, beautifully, you know, the promise and the Declaration of Independence is real, you know, this idea that God is endowing us with these rights, not governments. And yet, you know, we live in a society in America where we do, you know, we are used to sort of trying to control things, especially when you look at global matter, global affairs, right? You know, it's like the U.S. wants to be in control of the world, it seems, right?

8:22Whether it's economic, militarily, things like this. And then you travel abroad, and I think people are, generally speaking, a little bit less demanding when it comes to a desire to control. I don't think that they have that belief, maybe, that we do. That's part of our economic success as a country, right? That we feel like, oh, we've achieved wealth. So then, as I said, the more you achieve materially, oftentimes it can put you in a state of fear. Like I've got, you know, I've achieved it. I've got a large bank account. I've got a house. I've got whatever. I've built a business and you're afraid of losing it.

8:57So I think that the more you have engenders, the more fear of loss. And that's why, you know, there's such a, again, this book keeps relating back to those stories about starting with the fall, like failure and falling is okay. That's a necessary aspect of reality. The story of Job in the Bible is so powerful for that reason, right? A man who loses everything and yet sustains his faith. And then thankfully he's rewarded in his faith and he's able to laugh again after the tragedy of everything taken away from him. So the desire for control, I think, is just an aspect of what you could call success.

9:35Yes. Yeah, Jesus touches on this at some length in the Gospels. Of course. Last, and it's so rarely said and so welcome to hear it. My last question derives from your title, which mentions the human soul, something else that's rarely even alluded to in modern life, but the need to tend to it. It's, of course, the essence of who you are, and if you ignore it, it doesn't thrive. So what is one practice that you observe to tend to your soul and that you would recommend? Yeah, thankfully, even though I could say I was born into privilege, right? And I acknowledge that it's not white privilege, just the privilege of having parents that were able to provide for me, having a certain amount of wealth available, access to things, being able to travel the world, see things.

10:31Um, and, you know, from a young age, my parents introduced me to spiritual teachings and practices. You know, my dad more with meditation, trying to, you know, just start the day by checking into yourself, just sitting with yourself. Right. And, and my mother more with a mixed Christian, like a Christian tradition, but, um, also open to like reading the religious texts of other, of other cultures to understand that there is a higher power at work. And so I would say that there's a chapter on breathing for this reason, right? Through our breath, we are connecting to the divine. And we come back, whether it's with meditation or prayer, right?

11:11We come back to the power of breath, speech, right? In all the religious traditions, it's always right speech. Because this is the beginning of everything. Breathing, speaking, right? Trying to put good intention into the world and how we show up, how we reflect ourselves. And so I would say that just by acknowledging the breath, we are connecting to spirit. And that's the magic of our reality that, you know, the scientists can't figure out no matter how much they try, like, what is the source of life, right? What is the source of life in the universe? What is the source of humans, right? And I would say that if we tune in with the breath and we start to connect to our spirit, to our intuition, our inner knowing, we can work with the power that's working through us.

12:06Sean Stone, thank you very much. It's a pleasure.

12:14thanks for watching you can get your copy of sean stone's book 10 things to learn ancient wisdom for the modern soul tuckercarlsonbooks.com and we hope you will