All things bright and beautiful ... can we learn to see them that way?

With every passing day, I find that my pleasures are getting more and more "pedestrian."  It is difficult, as much as I try, to articulate the wonderful feelings within when friendly grocery store clerks chat with me, when a stranger's kid turns around to wave a bye to me as they pass me on the bike path, the colors on the trees, the quietly flowing river, ... All these seem to be very real life. A life that seems so effortless. A life that is so fulfilling.

Could I have taken a course as a high school senior or a college freshman and understood as a 17 or a 18 year old that there is more to life, a lot more to life, than the calculations that we typically make on how to create for ourselves a "successful" life?

Apparently, a Harvard philosophy professor believes he can get them across to the youth.

[Michael] Puett's course Classical Chinese Ethical and Political Theory has become the third most popular course at the university. The only classes with higher enrollment are Intro to Economics and Intro to Computer Science. The second time Puett offered it, in 2007, so many students crowded into the assigned room that they were sitting on the stairs and stage and spilling out into the hallway. Harvard moved the class to Sanders Theater, the biggest venue on campus.
Why are so many undergraduates spending a semester poring over abstruse Chinese philosophy by scholars who lived thousands of years ago? For one thing, the class fulfills one of Harvard's more challenging core requirements, Ethical Reasoning. It's clear, though, that students are also lured in by Puett's bold promise: “This course will change your life.”

That is awesome. A life-changing course. In philosophy. That teenage students take. And is a popular course!

So, how does Puett approach it?

Puett tells his students that being calculating and rationally deciding on plans is precisely the wrong way to make any sort of important life decision. The Chinese philosophers they are reading would say that this strategy makes it harder to remain open to other possibilities that don’t fit into that plan. Students who do this “are not paying enough attention to the daily things that actually invigorate and inspire them, out of which could come a really fulfilling, exciting life,” he explains. If what excites a student is not the same as what he has decided is best for him, he becomes trapped on a misguided path, slated to begin an unfulfilling career. Puett aims to open his students’ eyes to a different way to approach everything from relationships to career decisions. He teaches them that:
The smallest actions have the most profound ramifications. Confucius, Mencius, and other Chinese philosophers taught that the most mundane actions can have a ripple effect, and Puett urges his students to become more self-aware, to notice how even the most quotidian acts—holding open the door for someone, smiling at the grocery clerk—change the course of the day by affecting how we feel.
That rush of good feeling that comes after a daily run, the inspiring conversation with a good friend, or the momentary flash of anger that arises when someone cuts in front of us in line—what could they have to do with big life matters? Everything, actually. From a Chinese philosophical point of view, these small daily experiences provide us endless opportunities to understand ourselves. When we notice and understand what makes us tick, react, feel joyful or angry, we develop a better sense of who we are that helps us when approaching new situations.

Exactly!  The daily experiences are limitless opportunities to understand ourselves. When we understand ourselves, we understand life. We develop an appreciation of how we fit into the grand universe.  Life then becomes a lot more fascinating, enjoyable, colorful, musical.  And when things do not go well, we understand that even that is what life is all about.

Once students at that young age get that understanding,

Once they’ve understood themselves better and discovered what they love to do they can then work to become adept at those activities through ample practice and self-cultivation. Self-cultivation is related to another classical Chinese concept: that effort is what counts the most, more than talent or aptitude. We aren’t limited to our innate talents; we all have enormous potential to expand our abilities if we cultivate them. You don’t have to be stuck doing what you happen to be good at; merely pay attention to what you love and proceed from there. Chinese philosophers taught that paying attention to small clues “can literally change everything that we can become as human beings,” says Puett.   

Now, does this work because it is Harvard?  Could this course work for all of Harvard's students?  Will such a course work for students across higher education?  How about in India?

I suspect that most youth might not care for such deeper reflections on life at that age. But, perhaps that is all the more the reason why we ought to force them to take a few courses, which is what we would ideally do in higher education.  Ideally is the keyword!