My notes and summary of the Chinese spiritual and philosophical classic, Tao Te Ching.
How do we navigate the complexity of reality?
Life is unbelievably complex. When people talk about ‘living well’ or ‘living a good life,’ what they’re essentially talking about is the ability to effectively navigate this complexity. One approach many people take to navigating life’s complexity is to adopt one overarching principle or pattern of behavior and apply it to all situations. The problem is that these types of narrow approaches only work up to a certain point.
Happiness vs. Harmony
How to deal with suffering
One of the oldest problems that humans have had to deal with is the problem of suffering. Life is full of unpleasant experiences, both psychological and physical.
But it goes even deeper than this: the knowledge of our own mortality is an existential burden that weighs heavily on us. At times life seems purposeless and even absurd.
What are we to do about this?