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 Enjoy the EnigmaDec 17, 2009
This oversized paperback is filled with beautiful words, Chinese script, and even black-and-white monographs. The translation is enigmatic, in that the same text on separate days may yield a polysemy of hermeneutics. But that, IMNSHO, is the beauty of the Tao -- to elude, to suggest, to open, to divide, and re-divide. No single book is perfect, but this one is a great visual metaphor for the enigma of a text that refuses to be "fixed."
my first tao translationNov 20, 2009
and i still like it.
but let's face it: it's time to stop reading books like this.
 Simple and Classic, Like the TaoNov 03, 2009
Year after year, I like the simplicity of this version, because I personally don't care to be delivered editorially-connected images or evaluations. Over time, my imagination has interpreted the verses differently, and this edition encourages that to happen. I've had it since college, and though I've looked through others, I always come back and appreciate these timeless words and the light hand of the translators. One previous reviewer thought that the word-for-word translation meant that the verse's meaning had to shine forth on its own, and this was his complaint! It's what I appreciate the most! Study intensely with whoever you choose, but for simply reading and thinking on your own, this one holds up as a classic.
Wise philosophyOct 26, 2009
The Tao Te Ching should be on every politicians bookshelf and they should be made to read it. Sadly I doubt that they will and I doubt too if they would really understand it. But it has an undoubted value in its statements about life and the universe. Not many people acknowledge that all over the universe it is always NOW.It's quite a thought.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
"Will change your life."Sep 06, 2009
The wife of a Taoist priest recommended this book to me in the strongest terms. "It will change your life, you will not be the same," she said. Naturally, I did not believe this. Nor should you, just because somebody said it.
I guess the common expression of criticism of religion and/or religious philosophy is "I don't like organized religion." Today, people say "I am spiritual, but not religious" on their let's-make-a-date internet profiles.
A quick way to accomplish this in natural fact is to read this edition of the Tao. I think one of the strongest recommendations of the Tao is that it is 5,000 words of true wisdom. It cannot be more compact. If there is any other source of actual wisdom so compact, please let me know! You, and only you, can recognize the Tao for what it is for you. You can read this book, and this translation, possibly even just once and find in yourself a sense of your position in the Universe, physical and otherwise, and among you and the humanity around you here on Earth.
I recommend this expression of the Tao because you can and probably Will be changed for the better, and the less you talk about it for others the better. From reading the Tao, you can never become a horrible proselyte (which originally meant "newcomer").
The book is cheaper than a Sunday breakfast.
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based on 24 reviews
