Quote:
“That individualism says, celebrate independence, but the second-mountain hero says, I will celebrate interdependence.”
What is the second mountain in life? “When your life is defined by fervent commitments, you are on the second mountain.” The author highlights the lack of connection in the society – everyone is trying to achieve their own goal and care (only) for their own life. We are gradually losing the sense of relation, community and commitments, the book argues.
Personally, I appreciate the author’s effort of “correcting” the society from hyper-individualism to altruism, but he went a little too far sometimes in the arguments. I do think being “selfish” sometimes – taking care of yourself before taking care of others- is reasonable. Overall, I like the book on guiding people how to find their vocation in life.
During the book club meeting, we had a deep conversation about divinity. Divinity gives people a “belief”. The “belief” (the “desiring heart”) is what the author argued most important for all the being. “We begin to realize that the reasoning brain is actually the third most important part of our consciousness. The first and most important part is the desiring heart.” It was interesting to see how people have difference ideas on whether divinity exist – is it a statistical problem, or is it a belief? It sounded like a detour from the book itself, but I did really enjoy this part of the discussion.
--Lisa Liang
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