The Outward Path

The Aztecs were a philosophical people who held that the top goal in human life is not happiness but the pursuit of what they called ‘neltiliztli’: a life in truth. Our world, they held, is a “slippery” one—a place where it is easy to make mistakes and be unwell. A true life avoids slipping by pursuing a communitarian solution, beginning with the formation of relationships and growing deep roots and later moving inward to still the mind. This outside-in approach is the outward path. In The Outward Path, Sebastian Purcell carves out a place for Aztec philosophy in popular culture, alongside the ancient Greeks, the Stoics and the Buddhists. He also presents “spiritual exercises” in their rich historical context and makes rootedness an achievable, practical goal for modern readers.