Shi Heng Yi, headmaster of the Shaolin Temple Europe, discussed self-discovery in his 2020 TEDx talk, “5 hindrances to self-mastery.” He asked, “What does the view look like at the top of the mountain?” One can describe what they see. They can even use pictures to share what it was like. However, it is really in the climb to the mountain’s summit that understanding lives. To earn a look at the trees below, the sunset above, to hear the birdsong, brings something hard to capture in a word or graphic. That something is understanding.
The view gained from a reading of history offers something...