The Path

What Chinese Philosophers Can Teach Us About the Good Life

By: Michael Puett, Christine Gross-Loh

Narrated by: Michael Puett, Christine Gross-Loh

For the first time, an award-winning Harvard professor shares his wildly popular course on classical Chinese philosophy, showing you how these ancient ideas can guide you on the path to a good life today.

The lessons taught by ancient Chinese philosophers surprisingly still apply, and they challenge our fundamental assumptions about how to lead a fulfilled, happy, and successful life. Self-discovery, it turns out, comes through looking outward, not inward. Power comes from holding back. Good relationships come from small gestures. Spontaneity comes from practice. And excellence comes from what you choose to do, not your "natural" abilities.

Counterintuitive. Countercultural. Even revolutionary. These powerful ideas have made Professor Michael Puett's course the third most popular at Harvard University in recent years, with enrollment surging every year since it was first offered in 2006. It's clear students are drawn by a bold promise Professor Puett makes on the first day of class: "These ideas will change your life". Now he offers his course to the world.

©2016 Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh (P)2016 Simon & Schuster

Good, though refracted through a modern interpretation

This is a good intro to early Chinese philosophy. The author often complains about Chinese philosophy being misunderstood because it’s viewed through the lens if some particular time and place, in this case the modern and early modern west. The irony is that it is clear having read these texts that he too is viewing these materials through a particular lens. Right now and especially at ivy universities such as his everything is viewed though an social activist lens, I’m not saying that is necessarily a bad thing but it is a thing. Look for that in his interpretations and I think you’ll see it too. There is more to these texts than just that and there are deep connections to other traditions. Possibly this is because it’s early Chinese philosophy which was unaffected by Buddhism but in China Confucius, Lao Tzu and the Buddha are called the three sages due to there massive impact on Chinese culture. Thus it is odd that Buddhism wasn’t mentioned much and when it was it was done so somewhat inaccurately. There is for instance deep resonance between Buddhism and the inner training and Taoism that would have been interesting to explore. I am guess this did not happen for two reasons. One that is it is true that Buddhism has been badly distorted by the popular mindfulness movement. For good insight into this there are two meditation apps that show the difference, headspace is a shallow westernization of Buddhism whereas the Waking Up app actually includes a great deal of traditional practices and philosophy that are glossed in headspace if you are interested. The other problem that would lead the author to leave it out is that there are aspects to Buddhism that he probably doesn’t like and do no fit his narrative, same with Taoism really. This is the fact that it really does call for acceptance of the way things are. The argument is simple and powerful. Happiness is having what you want or in the other direction it is wanting what you have. You can always want what you have if you train you mind to do so therefore you can always be happy in any situation if you mind is properly conditioned. I think this is perfectly true but it is also not obviously in alignment with the social activist spirit of today. Since these encourage constant struggle against the way things are to make things better. I apologize for the rabbit hole here but I think that the acceptance of the way things are in a personal level is paradoxically a stronger position from which to effect change. Because it grants one patience, clarity of mind and allows for forgiveness. I will cite the success of the peace movements in India and South Africa against oppressive regimes using peacefulness as examples. These movements were able to succeed precisely because of there compassion and peacefulness, they brought about social change by changing hearts not vitriolic cries to dismantle the very structure of the societies they struggled against. If they had done that, they would have scarred those societies into hatred for them and never would have succeeded without great bloodshed. This peacefulness of mind would be an extremely powerful tool to be added back into the social justice arsenal as it was in the highly successful though incomplete civil rights movements of the 60s but it is not at all popular right now and was thus excluded probably so as for this professor to keep his job at his Ivy. I suggest you read these other non western sources, Indian philosophy in general as Buddhist philosophy as well are another important area if you are trying to expand your knowledge. And I suggest you do, if you only know Western sources you are a Western philosopher, better to be just a philosopher

An Inspired Book

It is really an inspired book. Everybody can find basic and pragmatical advices they can use them in their daily lives to generate better world.

A fresh perspective on how to live well

As a beginner in Chinese philosophy I thoroughly enjoyed how simple yet profound the explanations were. Also the real world examples were great in helping me understand how these ideas can be put o use

Good read

I appreciated the new perspectives. I plan to listen again to remind myself of these perspectives. Thank you for sharing!

Very relatable

I learned about Chinese masters approach to life and the differences between western and eastern perceptions of how reality is formed and by whom.

Great eastern philosophy introduction

Good read for one that wants to take a glimpse at eastern philosophy and not at hype interpretations of it.

Interesting and Informative read.

Good review of historical patterns. Narration is very and presentation of the material maintained my interest.

Sound Quality

The narrator was clear in his delivery, but I found the volume on my audible recording limited, resulting in strained listening.

Best read/listen EVER! on my 2nd listen!

Would you consider the audio edition of The Path to be better than the print version?

I almost want both versions. Because there are many quotes I wanted to rewrite and had to keep rewinding to hear it accurately. But, listening to it is perfect for me because it is a subject I want to hear again and again. Gaining more each time I listen to it. And, I can absorb the ideas while I am exercising, driving or just hanging out in my house.
I also would like the printed copy so that I might get the spelling correctly of some of the philosophers mentioned and I would hope that he might have added the original text titles he references and assigns to his students somewhere in the text...

Who was your favorite character and why?

n/a

What about Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh ’s performance did you like?

Their voices are fine and I always prefer to listen to books that are read by their own authors

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

MANY, -when he talks about the very early society that developed in China of meritocracy and based on educated success rather than based in nobility- and how the west was only able to access a very small part of what the philosophers actually meant in the concepts. How western rationality and self absorption and separate-ness in how we approach the world is antithetical to these concepts. He has enlightened my long term limited understanding of the ideas behind these ancient thinkers!

could barely hear the author

the author tried to use a soft soothing voice that made it hard for me to listen