The Path to Living Well

Public talks 2 Comments

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Great Room Auditorium, RSA House

  • Mindfulness
  • Philosophy
  • Spirituality

 

Whether we realise it or not, the Western philosophical tradition forms the bedrock of many of our ideas and assumptions about the good life well lived. But what if there was another way to think about how we think and act?

Professor of Chinese history and philosophy Michael Puett has taken Harvard by storm in recent years, delivering its most popular undergraduate course, and attracting thousands of students to his lectures on the ancient teachings of Confucius, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi and Xunzi.

At the RSA, he invites us to re-examine the impact of Western philosophy on our lives and some of our deepest held assumptions, and to "unlearn" many ideas that inform modern society. The ancient Chinese philosophers show that the key to living well is 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 have powerful impact on our lives and relationships.

 

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