“I forewarn you,” Puett tells the congregation: “At first it’s gonna sound really bleak.”The back cover of The Path describes Puett as “Harvard’s most popular professor”. The idea that we should look within, discover our true nature and act accordingly is, according to Confucius, nonsense. This has often been misunderstood as a call for conformity and a slavish adherence to tradition, but, according to Puett, Confucius meant no such thing. Did it change his life the way he promises his students it will? • The Path: A New Way to Think About Everything by Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh is out now in paperback.

Source: The Guardian March 26, 2017 13:52 UTC