Take a walk with ancient Chinese philosophers in The Path

Eastern philosophy books were some of the first books that I checked out from the library back in the 6th grade. I knew that lot of what they were saying was flying over my head, but Lao Zi, Confucius, and the Buddha gave me my first models for seeing and behaving in the world.The Path by Michael Puett presents the reader with five thinkers that asked some big, timeless questions and found convincing answers. They all existed thousands of miles and years away, but can help us navigate the world today. This book is similar to Ryan Holiday\’s revival of ancient Stoic wisdom in Ego is the Enemy, The Obstacle is the Way, and Stillness is the Key (all must-reads), but takes a more specific focus on individual philosophers. This is a book for new-comers to Chinese philosophy and familiars alike.Without getting into too much of the content, check out some of my quotes and notes from the book to get a feel for the ideas:

\”The danger of our vision of history isn\’t just that it has led us to dismiss much of human existence as irrelevant, but also that we think today\’s predominant ideas are the only ones that encourage people to determine their own lives; therefore, today\’s ideas are the only correct ones\”\”Every encounter and experience offers a chance to actively create a new and better world\”\”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\”Everything begins with the question, \”How am I living on a daily basis?\”\”Everything we do either expresses goodness or detracts from it\”\”We achieve the best outcomes when we think of things in terms of long-term trajectories\”\”True power comes from understanding the connections between disparate things, situations and people\”\”The process of building a better world never ends because our attempts to build better relationships are never finished\”