9 March 2023|Thoughts about by Professor Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh
I struggled with this one. I found some of it enjoyable and I'm glad I've read it but I wouldn't rush out to recommend it wholeheartedly. I've always been interested in philosophy and different ways of seeing the world, so when I was given this book by my eldest daughter I was keen to get started on it. I've been fascinated by Stoicism over the recent past so it was good to look at something different. What could Chinese philosophy add to the debate on living a better life?
Well, I didn't think this book added an awful lot. There's a lot of common sense in here but I think most of it boils down to treating people with respect, taking time to consider things from an alternative perspective and adapting to situations as you find them. All humans have the potential to be great or good but we also have the potential to be the opposite so both sides of our nature need to be recognised and not ignored. A lot of this book is about breaking the patterns that dominate our daily lives and taking a moment to reflect before we act. We should also stop believing the labels we all give ourselves as that ultimately becomes self-limiting. We should actively work to shift those perspectives, for we don't know yet what we can become.
We have to remember that the world is capricious, yet most assume that it is coherent and will follow a set path. But in the words of Forrest Gump, "Shit happens". We need to exercise flexible judgement and be responsive to situations as they happen. For me, the book was about trying to get us to break down our habitual patterns and see the world more expansively. That life is not pre-determined and must be cultivated.
Late in the book, there were two passages that struck particular chords with me and I have reproduced them below.
"We focus on things based on habitual patterns of attention. On our morning commute, we might pay attention to little more than the radio, the exit signs, and the entrance to our parking lot, missing out on other things, such as the majestic sight of a flock of geese heading south. On a walk to the gym a few blocks away, we might be preoccupied by what we want to accomplish during our hour there and not even notice the delicious scents wafting from a restaurant nearby. Our habits limit what we can see, access, sense and know." - this actually sums up quite well some of the things I was thinking about when I was weighing up retirement and starting this blog.
"If we think of death purely from a human perspective, it is profoundly terrifying; it is the annihilation of that part of us, or a loved one, that is human. But when we view death from the broadest possible perspective, we feel grief but also see, as Zhuangzi did, that our human form is a wonderful but temporary moment among all the transformations that make up the Way. We understand that this person has always been part of the Way and is still part of the Way. That person will become part of the grass, part of the trees, a bird soaring in the sky. If we understand the part that is us has always been a part of the flux and transformation of the cosmos and always will be, then we no longer need to fear death; we become free to fully embrace life. We do away with the last of our distinctions that limit our experience of the world." Who knows what happens after death but I like this sentiment.
The book is not without merit and there are some interesting nuggets in there but there is a lot to get through to find them. The Path was long and winding!
Now, back to reading 1984, the more I read it and look at the world around us, the more I think it's non-fiction rather than fiction!!
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