Friday, March 24, 2006

Books worth a mention

Just thought I'd add another few books that I consider worth a mention. These books have all been useful (and still are useful) in my study of the Tao. They have all at one time or another given me much food for thought.

Lieh-Tzu: A Taoist Guide to Practical Living by Eva Wong
Wen-Tzu: Understanding the Mysteries translated by Thomas Cleary
Sun Tzu: The Art of War by the Denma Translation Group
The Book of Chuang Tzu translated by Martin Palmer with Elizabeth Breuilly
365 Tao: Daily Meditations by Deng Ming-Dao.

I was thinking about one of these texts in particular yesterday, (365 Tao) in meditation when it was discussing how, in order to follow Tao, we need to bring ourselves into harmony with Tao - only then can we be open to what Tao truly has to show us.

Although I've mentioned quite a number of books today and some previously and, I'm sure, will mention some in the future, I don't mean to emphasise the book side of things. One of the problems in the West is that the study of the Tao has often been left too heavily in the hands of scholars or, as Benjamin Hoff describes them in The Tao of Pooh the Confusionist, Dessicated Scholars and this has meant that the practical side of Taoist living has been forgotten.

People could do far worse than to read Benjamin Hoff's book - it was the first book I read about Taoism. And I read it because I love Winnie the Pooh - not because I was interested in the Tao. Once I read the book, however, I found that it rang many bells for me, harmonising with a number of ideas and thoughts that had been circulating in the back of my mind. It was from here that I started my investigation into the classic taoist texts - but I still read Hoff's book on a regular basis just to remind myself that life is supposed to be fun and to avoid turning into a Confusionist, Dessicated Scholar.:-)))

Tag

2 comments:

Casey Kochmer said...

very much on the mark

taosim is about living to ones life. not to the way we think.

thinking is part of our path, but only part of our meandering :)

Little Dragon said...

Thanks Casey - although sometimes I think that I meander more than most!! Maybe it's all the wine :-)))