Top Highlights

• What we in the West define as the true self is actually patterns of continuous responses to people and the world; patterns that have built up over time.
• Will we act according to where we are stuck in the moment, or will we act in a way that opens up a constellation of possibilities?
• Trying to formulate abstract, universal laws to guide us is not only irrelevant but also dangerous. It prevents us from learning how to wrestle with the complexities of situations. It obstructs our understanding how to express goodness.
• Although Confucius’s focus is not on one’s own happiness, he was intimately familiar with the deep happiness that comes from striving to become a better human being. When asked to describe himself, he replied: “He is a person who is so impassioned that he forgets to eat, who is so joyous that he forgets to be worried, and who grows into old age wit...
• Typically, we rely on two folk models to make decisions,