Taoism Archive

The Tao Te Ching

By
Ali Lochhead
 – July 22, 2009Posted in: Tao Te Ching, Taoism
Available on amazon.com Click on image to buy.

Available on amazon.com Click on image to buy.

This translation of Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching is by Ralph Alan Dale. I think it’s fantastic. In an earlier post I mention Timothy Freke’s translation and said it’s interesting to contrast and compare. So I’ll share the same verse again, verse 13, so you can see this author’s style.

13.

“Accolades can usher in

great trouble for your body.

Censure can herald misery.

Why can favour and disfavour

both be harmful?

Because both accolades and censure,

when filtered through self as ego,

always place us in jeopardy.

But when the universe becomes your self,

when you Love the world as yourself,

all reality becomes your haven,

reinventing you as your own Heaven.

Only then, will you transcend tense

to fully be here now.

Only then, no harm

will the universe proffer

nor you to her,

for you will be

not you but she

and both – the universal Great Integrity.”

Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching

Verse 13

Translation by Ralph Alan Dale.

The Principles of Taoism

By
Ali Lochhead
 – July 22, 2009Posted in: Taoism
By Paul Wildish. Available on amazon.com Click on image to view/buy.

By Paul Wildish. Available on amazon.com Click on image to view/buy.

Some readers on amazon criticise this book in terms of accuracy. I found it a very useful and straightforward introduction to some of the Taoist concepts.

♥Ali

Tao Te Ching

By
Ali Lochhead
 – July 21, 2009Posted in: Tao Te Ching, Taoism
Available on amazon.com Click on image to look inside/buy.

Available on amazon.com Click on image to look inside/buy.

Modern and lovely translation by Timothy Freke.

I find it interesting to compare with other versions. It  gives a different perspective and understanding.

The following verse is a good example of Timothy Freke’s style. It’s really my mantra for The Ego Delusion and sums up what The Ego Delusion is all about.

13

“Success causes fear as much as failure does.

Believing you are your personality,

is the source of all your troubles.

What does it mean,

‘Success causes fear as much as failure does’?

Well, when you achieve success,

you become frightened of losing it.

That’s what it means.

What does it mean,

‘Believing you are your personality,

is the source of all your troubles’?

The reason you experience troubles

is because you think you are just a persona.

If you saw though this – you’d have no problems.

Stop clinging to your personality,

and see all beings as yourself.

Such a person could be trusted with the whole world.”

Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching

translation by Timothy Freke.

You might like to compare this with Ralph Alan Dale’s translation of the same verse.

Ali.♥

The Wisdom of The Tao

By
Ali Lochhead
 – July 21, 2009Posted in: Taoism, The Wisdom of The Tao
Available on amazon.com Click on image to buy/look inside.

Available on amazon.com Click on image to buy/look inside.

The Wisdom of The Tao. Oneworld of Wisdom by Julian Pas.

I Love this little book. It’s beautifully compiled and edited. I’m not sure what to share,  because there’s so much here. But the following passage is one I really like, I relate it to narcissism.

“The sage is still not because he takes stillness to be good and therefore is still. The ten thousand things are insufficient to distract his mind – that is the reason he is still.

Water that is still gives back a clear image of beard and eyebrows; reposing in the water level, it offers a measure to the great carpenter. And if water in stillness produces such clarity, how much more must pure spirit. The sage’s mind in stillness in the mirror of Heaven and earth, the glass of the ten thousand things.

Emptiness, stillness, limpidity, silence, inaction – these are the level of Heaven and earth, the substance of the Way and its Virtue. Therefore the emperor, the king the sage rest in them. Resting they may be empty, empty, they may be full; and fullness is completion!

In stillness you will be a sage, in action a king.”

Zhuangzi 13: ‘The Way of Heaven’; Watson 142-3

In The Wisdom of The Tao by Julian Pas.

♥Ali