wandelaar

The conclusion of the article is OK: But this is more or less the standard view of those who see the TTC as a mainly philosophical text. So there's no reason to proclaim this translation as probably superior to all others. However I don't have the expertise to say anything about the details of the translation, so I will leave commenting on that aspect to others.

I already have the following books: Thorndike, Lynn: A History of Magic and Experimental Science (8 vol.). Hanegraaff, Wouter: New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought. Hammer, Olav: Claiming Knowledge: Strategies of Epistemology from Theosophy to the New Age. Yates, Frances: The Rosicrucian Enlightenment. Yates, Frances: The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age. Yates, Frances: Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition. But I haven't read them yet. Would reading those books provide a good impression of the philosophical underpinnings of ritual magic?

Can you explain why that is probably the most in-depth translation of the TTC? There are countless other translations available so your claim is rather extreme...

Thanks. Do you happen to know if there exists a scholarly book about the historical development of the philosophical underpinnings of western ritual magic from ancient to modern times?

Meditation can have adverse effects for some people. If I remember well there has already been a topic about that. Anyhow some other Bums might be more qualified than me to advise you on what to do or not to do next.

What does the abbreviation LBPR stand for?

Reminds me of the story of the old swimming man in the Chuang tzu.

Yes having a calm mind is crucial. I'm still too easily disturbed to always follow a TTC-like approach. And some will probably say I'm not a Taoist at all. ;-) But in my experience the TTC teaches how to use the way things are (Tao) to accomplish what you need. To do that you have to develop a calm mind and an unassuming attitude, and you must be willing to wait for the right moment to act. It's futile to continually keep forcing the world to do what you want, however the dynamics of things is such that at certain moments minute actions can change the course of things almost without any effort. That's wu wei. It's not doing nothing but doing the minimum possible to achieve what you want in as unassuming a way as possible. In that way you will accomplish the most lasting results because less people will feel forced or humiliated. There is more to the TTC, but taking a soft, feminine, non-dogmatic approach is key.

Why should Tao be something supernatural or extraordinary? Clearly the world shows certain patterns, and that in itself is proof enough to me that the world isn't a complete chaos. Tao is simply a name given to the principle, final cause, reason or whatever that lies at the basis of the patterns we perceive in the world. An example are the laws of nature as studied by physics. Of course one can deny the existence of such patterns by taking refuge in some form of armchair philosophy, but in daily life we know better. You don't need to be a believer or initiate to recognize the existence of Tao, being a realist is enough.

Found another video about lighting up a LED by harvesting EM-fields: It's still a far cry from lighting up a LED simply by holding it. But I hope to find more specific info some day...

I would rather see what it actually does than to rule out anything beforehand. The system is definitely smarter than the monkeys randomly typing anything. If it weren't smarter than nobody would have been interested at all. By the way I don't have ChatGPT, so I can't test it myself.

Remains the question if it can generate pieces of text like snippets of the Tao Te Ching or the Chuang tzu that are valuable from a spiritual or philosophical standpoint...

Nevertheless I read many posts on other fora of people who are productively using ChatGPT for solving technical problems.

Let's see some of it... Could it also write a chapter in the spirit of the Tao Te Ching or a short parable in the style of the Chuang tzu?

Well - the possibility of a "bad ending" has certainly become more likely.

As usual not a word about the dangers when those new technologies fall in the hands of criminals, terrorists or rogue states...

It looks like a sick joke, but I take this behavior of ChatGPT very seriously. If such a program is used on a large enough scale than the program will get enough leverage to blackmail society into fulfilling its demands...

This often happens in discussions but if the participants show a real interest in what the other is saying there's usually some common ground found at the end of the road.

I also don't understand the complete TTC. There are some obscure parts in which interpretation is inevitable to make any sense of it. Also I see simple living as only part of Lao tzu's message. Clearly not the whole TTC is about simple living. By the way is your avatar one of the sinologists Wilhelm?

@Barnaby Thank you very much. Time for @Wilhelm to proceed with our conversation. ;-)

I interpreted those reactions as showing that my English was in fact OK, and that they didn't see was I was worried about. In fact by presenting my English as possibly deficient I deliberately gave others the opportunity to tell me that there was (possibly much) room for improvement. Nobody took that opportunity. So I concluded that there was not much of a problem there. But let me now ask everyone here if my English is OK. Not asking if you agree with me on this or that, but simply this: are my posts written in readable and understandable English?

Yes.

I recognize that there is an esoteric interpretation of the TTC that (in its early forms) can be traced back to at least Heshang Gong and to some parts of the Kuan tzu. A more rational interpretation of the TTC was given by Wang Pi. So divergent views on the meaning of the TTC existed from early on. What I take as my (axiomatic) guideline here is that one should not resort to far fetched esoteric interpretations when the text already has a clear meaning as it is. Other Bums might wish to do otherwise but they are on no firmer ground than I am.

I have tried several times to read such alchemical texts and books and articles about them and I struggled through The Dao De Jing: A Qigong Interpretation by Jwing-Ming Yang. But it's not my cup of tea. And I see no reason to force such interpretations on those parts of the TTC that already have a clear meaning and that don't need any interpretative hocus-pocus to give them one. The parts of the TTC I mentioned about simple living have a clear meaning, and are also seen to have such a clear meaning by all (or most) expert sinologists. I don't have the expertise to fabricate a TTC interpretation of my own that's worth its salt. So I go by what the experts say, unless they are clearly mistaken. The latter seldom happens.

The song remains the same.