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Summary: Poetic, fluid and deeply spiritual - Mitchell does it again
Review: I discovered this little book by accident years ago and it has become my single favorite book - period. OK, not being a scholar of Chinese textual criticism I cannot compare fragments of actual copies to check translation - but then I am not a religious purist - nor do I want to be. Mitchell's work resonates with me and his style is fluid - above all I can actually make sense out of the text. It speaks to me. I checked some of the "serious" translations and found them to be difficult and cold. Mitchell's translation is fun and some of his added commentary insightful. I love it and recommend it to any lover of poetry and literature.
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Summary: A stress reliever
Review: I have owned this tape for 10 years, and I still listen to portions of it on a weekly basis. If you are looking for entertainment, do not purchase it. If, however, you are looking for peace of mind and spirituality, Stephen Mitchell can lead the way.When people ask me why I seem happy all of the time, I recommend this tape to them.
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Summary: Tao te Ching - The Book of the Way
Review: When I started to read Tao te Ching, my mind was not of my own. I know this because it was not at it's absolute potential. There was a vast void of darkness which I could not fill. For the time, I deemed the darkness atheism, and I accepted it. But, can one believe in atheism ? An oxymoron is not worth the true fidelity of trust. Fate brought the Tao to me; I was destined to read it. Can one describe birth, love, or an epiphany ? Without the Tao, nothing matters and with it nothing matters. It is the perception of the paradox that drives us. To put it best; When I started Tao te Ching, I marked every poem that affected my life. When I was done, I had marked every page.
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Summary: A Spiritual Classic
Review: Among a certain breed of spiritual seekers, the last desires to be transcended are bibilophilic in nature. This is a book eminently designed for those people. Stephen Mitchell's translation of the *Tao Te Ching* is wonderful: straightforward, touching, and undeniably relevant to life in the modern world. His gender-inclusive language makes the text both more approachable to modern American readers AND more resonant with Taoist ideals. While Mitchell's free style may offend linguistic purists - this is a translation of the spirit more than the letter - he has made the unifying ideas of the text clear. This is a *Tao Te Ching* focused consistently on the spiritual, on the higher possibilities of the human being. Yes, it's a fantastic translation, but why pay for the hard cover edition when the paperback is cheaper? Simply because this is a beautiful book. Its pages are made of rough-cut, high quality paper of exquisite texture. From a biblophilic standpoint, this is one of the most satisfying books I have ever held in my hands. It's as durable as it is attractive, and so will remain a treasured volume for years. How often in life does something stimulate your desires and then tell you how to transcend all desire?
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Summary: my "desert island" book
Review: I'm indecisive about books 2 through 10 I'd like to have on a desert island, but this book has been numero uno for some time. This is a great translation of a great work. Each page can be read in a minute, or an hour, or a day. It's very compact, so it's very likely to be with me if I actually *am* stranded on a desert island, or in an airport, or waiting for a meeting happen. Less is more. Buy two; give one away. Soon you'll be buying more to give away. "Success is as dangerous as failure. Hope is as hollow as fear."
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Summary: Words of wisdom... it won't mean the same thing twice.
Review: Everytime modern life starts eating at me... I take moment to glance in one of a select few books. One is Miyamoto Musashi's "book of Five Rings", one is "Bushido, the warrior's code" by Inazo Nitobe, and the last is the Tao Te Ching. The Tao that can be explained... is not the true Tao, so I won't try to explain it, just that is can add a deeper, although more simplistic meaning to your life. I study, but do not pretend to understand... the book's meaning changes for every new level of knowledge you gain. The sayings possess increadable depth, and I've found a few that have changed my life, as I increase my knowledge of the martial arts... one in particular comes to mind. "If a violent man... does not come to a violent end. I choose him to teach me." -Lao Tzu. I'd suggest obtaining a copy of this book, it can only help you...
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Summary: A Great Translation of Lao-tzu and Taoism
Review: Taoism is a very interesting Chinese religion/philosophy. Eastern religion is very different from Western Religion. Rather than focusing on God and mans relationship with God, many of the Eastern Religions are more philosophical and advocate a way of life. This is why many people in East Asia practice elements of all of these religions and in many cases do not even know they are. It is also with this in mind that Buddhism became to popular in China and other parts of Asia. Buddhism unlike Taoism or Confucianism dealt with an afterlife. Well sorry for the lecture, in terms of Taoism I like this translation very much. I found it well presented and very easy to follow. Taoism and the whole idea of the way, Ying and Yang, balance and harmony with nature too me is one of the most interesting of the world's religions. Anyone who would like to read about this philosophy/religion would enjoy this book. It is food for thought.
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Summary: An unsettling comfort
Review: In December of 1996 I drove over 500 miles to have Christmas with my recently widowed mother. The paradoxes of my father's death were shapeless in my mind. A friend gave me a cassette tape of Stephen Mitchell reading his translation of the Tao Te Ching and it helped me understand the light that comes from dark, the wisdom that comes from not knowing. I then bought the print version. When teaching a course in the literary genre of comedy, a literary genre focused upon wholeness and healing, I read from Mitchell's translation of the Tao each day to open class, until my students had heard the entire book by the end of the course. When dealing with contrariety in comedy, with paradox, with mirth and its healing, its unifying strength, I thing the Tao worked in a sublime way to help my students more deeply understand the comic dimensions of their lives and the world around them. I am deeply indebted to Mitchell's work.
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Summary: A Machiavellian Text?
Review: I have read this book at least half a dozen times and the book becomes more elusive with each reading. In any case I want to pose a contrarian hypothesis. The Tao Te Ching has been interpreted as advocating a quietist retreat from worldly affairs. (See for instance, Benjamin Schwartz, The World of Thought in China.) Indeed it is viewed by many in the occident as the example par excellence of "Oriental fatalism." While I agree that this seems certainly true of Chuang-tzu's brand of Taoism (and being a former monk at a Zen monastery, I appreciate the power of Chuang-tzu's mystical vision and rhetoric, which had heavy influence in the Zen or "Chan" tradition), I wonder if the precisely the opposite is not the case with lao-Lao-tzu. I wonder, that is, if Lao-tzu is not writing a "mirror of princes," a book stocked with Machivellian advices to an would-be ruler, garbed in mystical and at times incomprehensible language to control the dissemination of its real message. (Perhaps so that the Taoist sage can have monopoly of political craft, as was the intention with machivelli's Prince?) I am not sure what the correct answer is myself but I think the problematique is worth exploring. Let me bring up some passages that jumped out for me when I was reading this book last time. (These passages are actually not from the Mitchell translation, which is actually quite bad.) For starters, the sentence "[T]he sage.. does not display himself." Could Lao-tzu be trying to convince rulers to hire him or other Taoist sages in "eminence grise" roles where they can exercise influence free from the normal machinery of government or public opinion? I am reminded of Nixon reducing his secretary of state Rogers as a mere front and having the real foreign policy decisions made through Kissinger and his more shadowy NSC because of expediency springing from extra-legal methods. "Therefore in governing the people, the sage empties their minds but fills their bellies, weakens their wills but strengthens their bones. He always keeps them innocent of knowledge and free from desire, and ensures that the clever never dare to act" (p. 113). I don't think I really need to explicate this passage. It seems to me a flat out advice to a tyrant. Machiavelli has a similar passage in the Prince about making sure that the people are well fed but kept ignorant. "Not to honor men of worth will keep the people from contention..." I suppose someone could read this as supporting democracy or egalitarianism but one can interpret it in a more sinister manner as well. Let me give you an anecdote from Aristotle's Politics. Aristotle speaks of an interview that a tyrant had with a philosopher (or it may have been with another tyrant). When the tyrant asked how to maintain his rule, his interlocutor went to the field and cut grasses that were taller than others. Obviously a tyrant must destroy outstanding men, men like Brutus, in order to secure his rule. So couldn't Lao-tzu be making a similar implication? "The best of all governments is one whose existence is vaguely known to the people./ Next comes the government they love and praise" (p.19). Could this be a recipe for Machiavellian secrecy and deception? Finally there are numerous passages about soft overcoming the hard, and the feminine subjugating the masculine, etc. Aren't these all about the true and tried tactics of feigning weakness until one builds one's strength or simply enabling the opposition to let the guard down? Incidentally Sun-tzu's Art of War is replete with Lao-tzu-like maxims. Moreover, if you read San Guo Zi, one of the more famous Chinese work of fiction (based on historical facts), you see this principle in diplomacy and war throughout, especially with its legendary protagonist, Zhuge Liang. Last, I offer the observation of Kissinger who was certain that the success or the potency of Zhou En Lai's diplomacy had to do with his mastery of "wu-wei" style combat and subterfuge. In the end, I am not sure what the true intention of the author is. But is that not the fundamental trait of a great work of philosophy? Plato, after all, taught us that the task of teacher of philosophy is not to impart solutions but to instill a feeling of aporia on the student...
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Summary: Good translation..
Review: I picked Stephen Mitchell's version of the Tao Te Ching after reading the Feng-English translation. After reading some of the more negative reviews I wasn't sure what to expect, but I ended up being pleasantly surprised. This version is easy to read and understand, clearing up the more esoteric passages from the traditional translations, without diluting the underlying meaning and inspiration. I still prefer the Feng-English translation for it's poetic style and mysticism, but Mitchell's version is still ideal to enjoy and ponder the meaning of the Tao.
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