The Path
A New Way to Think About Everything
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The Path
Buy Now for £12.99
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Narrated by:
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Michael Puett
About this listen
Penguin presents, the unabridged, downloadable, audiobook edition of The Path by Professor Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh, read by Professor Michael Puett.
Harvard's most popular professor explains how thinkers from Confucius to Zhuangzi can transform our lives
The first book of its kind, The Path draws on the work of the great but largely unknown Chinese philosophers to offer a profound guide to living well. By explaining what these teachings reveal about subjects from decision-making to relationships, it challenges some of our deepest held assumptions, forcing us to "unlearn" many ideas that inform modern society. The way we think we're living our lives isn't the way we live them.
The authors show that we live well not by "finding" ourselves and slavishly following a grand plan, as so much of Western thought would have us believe, but rather through a path of self-cultivation and engagement with the world. Believing in a "true self" only restricts what we can become - and tiny changes, from how we think about careers to how we talk with our family, can start to have powerful effects that will open up constellations of new possibilities.
Professor Michael Puett's course in Chinese philosophy has taken Harvard by storm. In The Path, he collaborates with journalist and author Christine Gross-Loh to make this timeless wisdom accessible to everyone for the very first time.
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Critic reviews
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Any additional comments?
I'm about halfway through the audiobook. The content is enjoyable, but it is read by the author and I find his voice extremely irritating, which makes it harder for me to relax when listening. I may also buy the print copy in order to absorb these interesting ideas but without the distraction of this voice.Good, but listen to a clip before purchase
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Some mind blowing passages are packed in this book
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the author explains many elements of Chinese philosophy, culture and religions which I suspect are overlooked or misunderstood by many people in western cultures.
also some interesting explanations of history, how culture and society developed
opened my eyes to aspects of Chinese philosophy
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Where does The Path rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
The Path is quite unique in that it is part philosophy/history book when Puett explains the various ideas of the different philosophers and it is also part self-help book when Puett then applies those idea to potential everyday life situations (some adapted more successfully than others I might add).What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)
I felt a bit confused at the ending as the final chapter is quite historical in nature.It discusses western philosophical ideas surrounding China, and the way Western society is run compared to Chinese society. I felt this would have probably been better to have the historical background bit at the start of the book, not at the end! That said I suppose it was nice to have all the ideas of the various Chinese philosophers to consider when comparing both societies at the end.What does Michael Puett bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?
I liked that the author Michael Puett read the book. I always like it when an author reads his or her work as you can often tell they are passionate about the subject they are discussing.Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
I really liked how Puett challenged modern concepts with ancient Chinese ideas. This made me look again at the things I consider to be 'normal' ideas. Although at times this assumption of what we consider to be modern day ideas felt a bit overly stereotypical. I particularly liked how Yang Zhu's idea of spontaneity was not do whatever the heck you like, but by training yourself to act in a spontaneous way, like how someone plays a beautiful melody on a piano, it is true spontaneity as they are doing it freely through their spirit (without having to think about it). There were plenty of other examples throughout the book of Chinese philosophy being applied to modern day ideas and situations that made me think about things in a different way. I felt that some of them seemed a bit obscure but quite a lot of them resonated really well.Any additional comments?
I think this book also actually works well as an introduction to Chinese philosophy and perhaps religion. It isn't a subject I knew very much about, and I feel I can appreciate different Chinese philosophical ideas now. I don't feel it gives you a great in depth analysis of these ideas but then I don't think that was the intention of the book. Personally, I'd like to read some of the texts from the philosophers and consider them in terms of the ideas Puett mentions. Overall I found this a very interesting and insightful book. In general I don't enjoy self help books at all, I find them rather assuming and patronising which I didn't feel this was at all. Certainly worth a listen if anything just for the interesting new ideas of looking at things you may have never even considered before. Whether or not those ideas are actually better or worse than our modern conceptions is hard to tell, or perhaps they are in fact one and the same. Plenty of food for thought anyway!Life Through a Chinese Sage's Eyes
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