The Path: A New Way to Think About Everything

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As Xunzi wrote: Human nature is bad. Its goodness comes from artifice. It is in the nature of humans to be born with a fondness for profit . . . They are born with hates and dislikes . . . That is why people will inevitably fall into conflict and struggle if they simply follow along with their nature and their dispositions. For Xunzi, the notion that “natural is better” was dangerous. And he wasn’t referring just to human nature. He was also referring to our assumption about the world at large. (Location 1811)

The Path of Peace by Anthony Seldon review – a trail of The Path of Peace by Anthony Seldon review – a trail of

The final part of this analogy is the path, and this represents our environment. The environment that we find ourselves in impacts us both consciously and unconsciously. We typically follow the path of least resistance and are nudged in the direction of convenience. Over confidence effect: The most pervasive and potentially catastrophic bias that most fall victim to. (Thinking you're better, safer, etc than you really are.) The first couple chapters of the book look at the problems of the modern world and how ideas from traditional societies—such as the China of past centuries—differed. With that context set, each but the last chapter examines an aspect of the human condition from the perspective of a particular Chinese philosopher. Of course, at times this reading of traditional societies in general and China in particular has been given a romanticized spin: We now are alienated from each other, but people in the traditional world saw themselves as living in harmony with the cosmos. We have broken from the natural world and seek to control and dominate it, but people in the traditional world tried to live in accordance with the patterns of nature.I would give it five stars if it didn’t occasionally (often) feel like a commercial for Peter Mallouk’s company. Still, it’s a very worthwhile read especially if you haven’t yet had any financial planning done, and if you have had some it’s a good refresher; helps open your eyes to any possible bad (or hopefully good) advice you may have been given. I knew almost nothing about Chinese philosophy, so an introduction like this was very welcome. Puett and Gross-Loh lead you through the thinking of the old Confucian masters. They do this in a very didactic way and contrast this thinking nicely with the way we look at things in the West. It was especially refreshing to have a completely different view than that of classical Buddhism; for as far as I have understood, Confucianism is much more focused on the real world, and also much more pragmatic, working through seemingly minor adjustments of gaze and behavior, whilst Buddhism is much more revolutionary, I even dare say 'more counternatural' ( in a way that Christianity also is, in the Nietzschean sense). The title of this book comes from a concept the Chinese philosophers referred to often as the Dao, or the Way. The Way is not a harmonious “ideal” we must struggle to follow. Rather, the Way is the path that we forge continually through our choices, actions, and relationships. We create the Way anew every moment of our lives. Step 1: create a net worth statement: it simply outlines your assets and your liabilities. Your assets are everything you own, valued at what you would received if each was sold today. Your liabilities are everything you owe if you were to pay them off today. The difference between you assets and your liabilities is your net worth

The Path: What Chinese Philosophers Can Teach Us About

If you are attracted to a particular investment, I recommend that you challenge it rigorously. How could this investment go wrong? If this investment were to lose money, how would it happen? And what risk does the investment present?' There is a focus on creating that path to financial freedom, discussing the main option of shares, but also all other aspects such as asset allocation, diversification, and much more. time reading this book! I first read this book 4 years ago and was not immediately aware of the insight that could be potentially mined from it. Though in retrospect I can see some of the ideas that may have developed ever so slightly because of it (my belief that nothing is constant so grasping to something is pointless). What can Zhuangzi’s dream teach us about perspective and how to experience life more fully and spontaneously? How did his understanding of the Way differ from Laozi’s? What did Zhuangzi argue is the “one thing in the entire cosmos that does not spontaneously follow the Way” (144)? What is “trained spontaneity,” and how can it help us to become “true people” (158)? The Path is divided into nine chapters. Each chapter takes a key facet of Eastern philosophy and examines it briefly before looking at ways we can apply its teachings to our everyday lives. Puett is convinced that, if we adopt these philosophies, then we will be happier, more fulfilled, and more successful. He encourages us to read the book carefully, study it, and reflect on each chapter and lesson as we go along.Michael, where did you first get the idea to teach a course on this subject at Harvard University, and why do you think that the course became so popular? Puett's final chapter casts a glance ahead to an 'age of possibility' that could emerge from our contemporary 'age of complacency'. He ends with striking a Nietzschean chord: So rather than trying to silence emotions so that the rational brain can do all the work, instead we want the rider and elephant to collaborate. We want them to converge in their desire for the same thing, rather than struggling against one another. The Path

The Path: A New Way to Think About Everything Kindle Edition The Path: A New Way to Think About Everything Kindle Edition

I want to share an analogy that’s useful for conceptualising how we make decisions and make lasting change. I become aware of it from the work of Dan and Chip Heath (it was in their book Switch ), but the originator of the analogy is Jonathan Haidt. It is the rider, the elephant, and the path. The Rider The advice is solid, and other than the few paragraphs of product placement (I suppose if I was a customer of his I actually would feel pretty good) reads very well. Topics such as insurance, something we don’t really enjoy reading, and investing, that we generally do, are covered. This beautifully written book is a must-read. . . . The Path has tremendous riches to offer young people (and not so young people) precisely because it begins with a challenge to Western notions of the Self. . . . This slender little book carried a very big punch." What I love the most about it is that Peter Mallouk found the perfect sweet spot where we get just enough information to learn a great deal on many topics, yet not too much so that it makes the book too long or too detailed. Nonetheless, this areatic turn has had nothing like the impact that Puett’s course, or his book, has had on the spiritual imagination, especially among the young. Puett is not peddling some new version of peace and love hippiedom among his Harvard students. This is serious stuff; and it is being taken seriously. And I suspect the reason for its relative acceptance compared with modern virtue ethics is precisely because it is free from the dogmatic requirements for faith that are implicit in the Western versions.This is a book that turns the notion of help—and the self, for that matter—on its head. Puett and Gross-Loh bring seemingly esoteric concepts down to Earth, where we can see them more clearly. The result is a philosophy book grounded in the here and now, and brimming with nuggets of insight. No fortune-cookie this, The Path serves up a buffet of meaty life lessons. I found myself reading and re-reading sections, letting the wisdom steep like a good cup of tea.” In ancient Greece, figures as diverse as Empedocles (a pre-Socratic poet and philosopher) and Plato cultivated these divine aspects within themselves. Plato spoke of “divine ecstasy,” and even Aristotle referred to how cultivation could lead to “divine understanding” that transcended the human. Similar movements arose in India: The Upanishads, a collection of religious texts, called for people to access the divine directly through cultivation exercises such as breathing and meditation. (Location 1362) If I haven't indicated this strongly enough, I will reiterate, this is an absolute worthwhile, beneficial and educational read, and will strongly support and enable some very wise investment decisions. Most of us think of ourselves as essentially free, in ways that our ancestors were not. After we in the West broke from the traditional world in the nineteenth century, we finally had the ability to decide for ourselves how to organize the world. We spent two centuries grappling with various competing ideologies: socialism, fascism, communism, and democratic capitalism. And once all but one of those ideas was largely discredited, we finally arrived at the “end of history.” With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, neoliberalism seemed to have won out as the one correct way of organizing the world—the one that best enables humans to flourish and prosper. This book is a revelation, a practical way through a fractured, distracting world. I thought I knew these philosophers—and I was wrong. Rigorous, concise, deeply informed, The Path retires our facile shorthand about ideas ‘from the East’ and presents a powerful intellectual case to engage, to care, and to remember.”