THE PATH What Chinese Philosophers Can Teach Us About the Good Life

After hearing Christine Gross-Loh's heartfelt reading of the foreword, Michael Puett's narration of the rest of the book sounds somewhat stiff. But his tone and articulation are clear, and his phrasing reveals sensitivity to the book's broad messages. This arresting book by an award-winning Harvard professor (Puett) and a scholar/journalist with a Ph.D. in Chinese philosophy (Gross-Loh) is loaded with relevant ideas. Starting with Confucius in 500 BCE, they take the philosophies of key Chinese writers and apply them to questions we grapple with today: Do we take the world as it is, or apply our patterns and intentions to it? Do we live for the present moment, or think ahead to the future? Is our society moving back to a polarized class-bound social structure, or will everyone have infinite potentials in their communities? The wisdom here will be provocative and paradigm-shifting for many listeners. T.W. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine [Published: MAY 2016]