Available for the first time in a handy, easy-to-use size, here is the most accessible and authoritative modern English translation of the ancient Chinese classic. This new Vintage edition includes an introduction and notes by the well-known writer and scholar of philosophy and comparative religion, Jacob Needleman.
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Available for the first time in a handy, easy-to-use size, here is the most accessible and authoritative modern English translation of the ancient Chinese classic. This new Vintage edition includes an introduction and notes by the well-known writer and scholar of philosophy and comparative religion, Jacob Needleman.
Read Less
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Seller's Description:
Cleare, Alan (photographs) New in fine dust jacket. 284 p. Includes: illustrations, index. Hardcover, 284 pp., new covers, pages clean and unmarked, binding tight and secure. Very large pages, text (poems) in English and Chinese. With numerous illustrations FL left new white
The Tao Te Ching really has no equal in Eastern or Western literature. This fact has brought me back to it many times throughout my life and I hope to be reading this as I move on to the next step in existence or non-existence as the case may be. This is not a religious text, nor is it a dogma of any stripe. This is a study of existence and what that may or may not mean. You are not taught anything here but taught precisely nothing qua nothing, where nothing is the most important aspect of the movement through experience until one realizes that each successive realization or epiphany is the universe having a laugh at you. This is not in any way a picture of a cruel universe but one which will show you, ultimately, that there is nothing to be learned. It is successive cases of the emperor's new clothes and the universe laughing at you is loving laughter in the most loving way possible. Prepare to have everything you thought was important left devoid of value and, in turn, everything you thought to be empty to be full to overflowing. The text is magic in this way. If you read only one book for the rest of your life, make it this one. You will be better for it and that fact cannot possibly be overstated.
Ronald S
Mar 27, 2014
Classic Hardback
Any civilized person living in these times must have this volume on their bookshelf. Next to the Bible and the Bhagavad-Gita, this ancient work brings the reader a sense of insight/calm/ reverence that lifts you way beyond the daily news and turmoils. Nothing has been lost in this new translation, which now rests alongside the earlier volume which I have read now for over 30 years. Excellent photographs reflect the nature of the peace and depth coming through the centuries. "First, there was one..."
TommyBoy
Dec 17, 2009
Excellent lessons
I've loved this book from the first time I read it in college. Boy, that was a long time ago. Excellent illustrations and thought provoking. The lessons are timeless, thus, the reason this book has circulated in print for thousands of years.
If you like philisophical thought, you'll definately enjoy the read.
