福祿壽

On a previous post, I talked about the ability to meta-analyze; how to slot the jigsaw puzzles into place to form a coherent picture.

The next obvious question comes to mind: what is the biggest picture?

It’s life, of course. Hence an obsession with philosophy – the study of life. What does it mean to live a ‘good’ life? A question with superficially very simple answers. In the West, our living standards are so much better objectively that we’ve begun our attempts to conquer the higher strata of Maslow’s hierarchy: personal development, finding your passion, and more recently: meaningful work; being-in-flow; self-care; well-being, etc. are all words – some bordering on buzzing – that you might be familiar with. Interestingly, what remains of ancient Greek doctrine in the West does not appear to be explicit – explaining the meteoric rise in obsession with Stoicism.

One tenet of looking at a person’s life in Chinese philosophy is depicted by the three characters: ‘福祿壽’ – fortune (wealth), rank (status) and longevity (health).

They are completely different approaches: one emphasizes the journey and the how whilst the other is more materialistic but complete in its analysis.