More books to read

Over the next few weeks, I am intending to start examining Taoism and taoist practices from a more solid academic background.

There are lots of good books of this type to read by a number of different authors, some of which are listed below:

Livia Kohn
Cosmos and Community: The Ethical Dimension of Daoism, Cambridge, Mass.:Three Pines Press, 2004 [ISBN: 1932483027]

Daoism and Chinese Culture (2nd Ed.), Cambridge, Mass.:Three Pines Press, 2004

Daoist Handbook ed. L Kohn, 2000 [Whole text may be found via Google Scholar]

Laughing at the Tao, ed. Schipper, Kristofer & Verellen, Franciscus, 2004

A much longer reading list can be found on Russell Kirkland's website http://kirkland.myweb.uga.edu/

Part of the problem with much of the material to be found on the internet and on the shelves of bookstores is that it makes an erroneous distinction between philosophical and religious taoism. Many of the 'translations' available are no such thing. Examples of this dishonesty are Ursula LeGuin's verion of Tao Te Ching and Timothy Freke's version of the same text. Additionally in the West, we have tended to place a great deal of emphasis on the Chuang Tzu and the TTC to the detriment of other more important texts.

A very important text in this area, which I shall discuss extensively is the book Taoism: The Enduring Tradition by Russell Kirkland [which can also be found as a complete text on Google Scholar].

I hope that you will all join me in discovering a better understanding of taoism and what it truly means, rather than what we have wanted it to mean.

taoism

Freedom in Burma

I am sure that you have all seen the events in Burma over the past couple of weeks. Although it is impossible for us to do something about what's happening on the ground, it would be a great idea if we could all contact the companies in our countries that are helping to bolster the military regime and ask them to cease trading there.

By cutting off trade links, we can help to put pressure on both the regime and China, the main supporter of the current regime to change.

If you go to the Burma Campaign website, there is a list of 'dirty' companies with full contact details (address, telephone and fax number, email address and often a contact name) that you can write to or email asking the company politely to stop bolstering the military regime in Burma. The link to the list is here: http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/dirty_list/dirty_list_details.html

and I have added a permanent link to the home page of their website in my links list.

taoism
Burma