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Loading... The Path: What Chinese Philosophers Can Teach Us About the Good Life| 296 | 16 | 90,108 | 
(3.34) | None | "Why is a course on ancient Chinese philosophers one of the most popular at Harvard? It's because the course challenges all our modern assumptions about what it takes to flourish. This is why Professor Michael Puett says to his students, The encounter with these ideas will change your life. As one of them told his collaborator, author Christine Gross-Loh, You can open yourself up to possibilities you never imagined were even possible. These astonishing teachings emerged two thousand years ago through the work of a succession of Chinese scholars exploring how humans can improve themselves and their society. And what are these counterintuitive ideas? Good relationships come not from being sincere and authentic, but from the rituals we perform within them. Influence comes not from wielding power but from holding back. Excellence comes from what we choose to do, not our natural abilities. A good life emerges not from planning it out, but through training ourselves to respond well to small moments. Transformation comes not from looking within for a true self, but from creating conditions that produce new possibilities. In other words, [this book] upends everything we are told about how to lead a good life. Above all, unlike most books on the subject, its most radical idea is that there is no path to follow in the first place-- just a journey we create anew at every moment by seeing and doing things differently. Sometimes voices from the past can offer possibilities for thinking afresh about the future"--Amazon.com.… (more) |
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| Epigraph |
It is not that the Way broadens humans; it is that humans broaden the Way. —Confucius, the Analects  | |
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| Dedication |
For JD, Susan, David, Mary, Brannon, Connor, and Meg —MP
For Benjamin, Daniel, Mia, and Annabel —CGL | |
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On a crisp, sunny morning in the fall of 2013, I sat in on a course at Harvard University on Chinese philosophy. | |
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the teachings of the ancient Chinese philosophers force us to question many of the beliefs we take for granted. The way we think we're living our lives isn't the way we live them. honing our instincts, training our emotions, and engaging in a constant process of self-cultivation so that eventually—at moments both crucial and mundane—we would react in the right, ethical way to each particular situation. Through those responses, we elicit positive responses in those around us. These thinkers taught that in this way, every encounter and experience offers a chance to actively create a new and better world. By thinking of human nature as monolithic, we instantly limit our potential. Our emotional dispositions develop by looking outward, not inward. In other words, we aren't just who we are: we can actively make ourselves into better people all the time. change comes incrementally, through perseverence. How are you living your life on a daily basis? The 'Nature That Emerges from the Decree' argues that we should strive to move from a state where we just randomly respond to things emotionally (qing) to a state where we are able to respond with propriety, or "better ways of responding" (yi) A Confucian approach would be to note your patterns and then work actively to shift them. Little by little you develop parts of yourself you never knew existed, and you start becoming a better person. There is no one true self to uncover—in ourselves or in others. Our patterned behaviors and rote habits—not rituals—are what really dictate our lives and get in the way of our caring for other people. But through a life spent doing as-if rituals that break these patterns, we gain the ability to sense how to be good to those around us. This is what matters. This is 'ren', or a sensibility of goodness. It's the ability to respond well to others; the development of a sensibility that enables you to behave in ways that are good for those around you and to draw out their own better sides. The only norm is goodness. For Confucius, cultivating and expressing goodness are the only ways to become an ethical person. Change doesn't happen until people alter their behavior, and they don't alter their behavior unless they start with the small. The ordinary as-if rituals are the means by which we imagine new realities and over time construct new worlds. Our lives begin in the everyday and stay in the everyday. Only in the everyday can we begin to create truly great worlds. By defining yourself as "who you are" limits your sensitivity to the entire situation, the breadth of the response you can give, and the goodness you can show. The goodness of human nature is like water tending to flow downward. Just as there is no water that does not flow downward, there are no humans who do not have goodness. goodness is something we can feel and nurture in our everyday lives with the very people we're with right now. Good decisions are made when mind and heart are integrated. our senses often mislead us into reacting unwisely in the moment. Use your mind to cultivate your emotions. Cultivating the heart-mind is an outwardly directed act intended not to remove us from the world but to engage us more deeply in it so we can better ourselves and those around us through every interaction. But if we cultivate our emotions, over time, and with experience, we can learn to sense other people's dispositions more accurately, assess what's really going on in a particular situation, and work to shift the outcome accordingly We can go into each situation resolved to be the best human being we can be, not because of what we'll get out of it, but simply to affect others around us for the better, regardless of the outcome. We can cultivate our better sides and face this unpredictable world, transforming it as we go. When we can let go of the idea that there are clear guidelines and a stable world, then what we are left with is the heart-mind to guide us. The heart-mind is all there is, and we develop it every day through our relationships with the people we're with. It helps us to sense things correctly, to lay the groundwork for growth, and to work with what we have. And as you do so, all that you thought you were will be to change. You will find parts of yourself you didn't know existed. The world you once thought of as stable starts instead to seem like a world of infinite possibilities. True power does not rely on strength and domination. When you are impervious to the ups and downs around you, when your senses are refined, and your body aligned and healthy, you achieve a settled heart. There is a different way of being alive and of impacting the world: through your sheer clarity of vision and your connection with everything; with your charisma rather than your domination. When we are with someone who is energized in a positive, exciting way—someone who fills a room with her presence and who has a zest for life—we are drawn to her. Her energy is contagious. That charisma comes from spirit. She is charismatic because she is so alive and resonant with those around her. Her refined qi elicits the best of others and draws out their own spirits. A charismatic person is not charismatic because she has a uniquely captivating personality all her own. It's by being so resonant with that qi that she becomes able to alter things. The opposite of mindlessness and complacency is not mindfulness. It is engagement. These thinkers all had different views about what makes for a good life. But they are connected by their opposition to the ideas that there is an unchangeable past that binds us, a unified order in the cosmos to which we should adhere, a set of rational laws we should follow, and ethical doctrines handed down that we should heed. ¶ The challenge our philosophers present is this: Think what your life would be like if you assumed none of those things to be true. When we accept how limited we are by the past, by the negative forces within us, and by the fragility of human relationships, our own relationships have limitless potential to be refined and transformed. Caring for one another is hard work. It requires endless awareness, adaptation, and responsiveness. But it is one of the most important and rewarding things we human beings do. If the world is fragmented, then it gives us every opportunity to construct things anew. It begins with the smallest things in our daily lives, from which we change everything. If we begin there, then everything is up to us. | |
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▾References References to this work on external resources.  Wikipedia in English
None ▾Book descriptions "Why is a course on ancient Chinese philosophers one of the most popular at Harvard? It's because the course challenges all our modern assumptions about what it takes to flourish. This is why Professor Michael Puett says to his students, The encounter with these ideas will change your life. As one of them told his collaborator, author Christine Gross-Loh, You can open yourself up to possibilities you never imagined were even possible. These astonishing teachings emerged two thousand years ago through the work of a succession of Chinese scholars exploring how humans can improve themselves and their society. And what are these counterintuitive ideas? Good relationships come not from being sincere and authentic, but from the rituals we perform within them. Influence comes not from wielding power but from holding back. Excellence comes from what we choose to do, not our natural abilities. A good life emerges not from planning it out, but through training ourselves to respond well to small moments. Transformation comes not from looking within for a true self, but from creating conditions that produce new possibilities. In other words, [this book] upends everything we are told about how to lead a good life. Above all, unlike most books on the subject, its most radical idea is that there is no path to follow in the first place-- just a journey we create anew at every moment by seeing and doing things differently. Sometimes voices from the past can offer possibilities for thinking afresh about the future"--Amazon.com. ▾Library descriptions No library descriptions found. ▾LibraryThing members' description |
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