Believe it or not one of the goals of my blog is to review books off the beaten path proving that we can use yesterday’s ideas to solve today’s problem.

I am just getting back to that goal. I have read so many books that are timeless that many may not know about. I am currently reading The Enchiridion by Epitectus that Carlon suggested in the comments for this post. We can learn so much from others.

A few years ago when I was publishing Ambeck Edge my company’s newsletter, 5 Ideas extracted from the book was my signature . My readers liked it so I am using it on my blog when I review books.

Thank you for taking the time to comment.

Avil

Thanks for the information. I will check out Enchiridion. I tried to read about I-Ching and the book was so incredibly difficult to read that I put it down. I will attempt to read it another time.

I agree with you and there is a lot that we can learn from eastern philosophy.

Thank you for all the great information!

Avil Beckford @avilbeckford

I studied Eastern and comparative philosophy in college, so I think there is a lot we can learn from Eastern philosophy.

But I admit a lot of those books are not so accessible and some translations are pretty bad. I can’t tell you how many bad translations of the Tao De Ching are out there.

I find The Dhammapada – sayings of the Buddha – to be a pretty accessible book.

In Western philosophy, I totally recommend The Enchiridion (Handbook) by Epictetus. It’s very short and had a great influence on me. One of my projects is to one day put out an annotated version of it. I think the advice is timeless.

Thanks for sharing! What about Japanese philosophy, do you know anything about it? There is lots we can learn from Eastern Philosophy. The Book of Five Rings deals with Japanese Philosophy. Thank you for taking the time to comment.

Avil

I studied Chinese philosophy in college and really enjoyed the Analects of Confucius. I particularly liked the idea of 3 people walking (三人行). When three people are walking one can be your teacher and you take form him that which is good and reject that which is bad.

A timeless idea.

Is also liked the part where he warns you not to trust someone with a “too-smiley face”.

Practical and timeless, too.

Goethe said that everything has been thought of before but the trick is to remember them and that is so true. We need constant reminders. I am enjoying the way people are commenting. Avil