What Is The Path To A Good Life?

How Can We Live In This World When It Seems So Chaotic and Disordered?

What Can Philosophies From Over 2000 Years Ago Teach Us Today?

Michael Puett, a professor of Chinese history at Harvard, wrote “The Path What Chinese Philosophers Can Teach Us About the Good Life.” He neatly encapsulated the philosophies of Confucius, Mencius, Laozi, the Inward Training, Zhuangzi, and Xunzi to invite the reader to reframe their understanding of relationships, decisions, influence, vitality, spontaneity, and humanity.

In the book’s preface, Pruett wrote, “Many of us now believe that each of us should be a unique individual who knows himself. We believe we should be authentic, loyal to a truth we now tend to locate not in a higher deity but within ourselves…. But what if these ideas that we believe enhance our lives are actually limiting us?” Chinese philosophy, however, turns that on its head.

We will have a community read of this book on Tuesdays at 10:00 AM. Our first meeting will be August 20. Subsequent dates will be August 27, Sept 3, Sept 10, Sept 17, and Sept 24. Participants will provide their own books.

Prior to this first session, please read the first two chapters (Pages 5 – 22). We will distribute a full reading schedule at the first session.

Please note that though this book’s topic is philosophy, it is very readable, and frankly, hard to put down.