CheslinK Posted April 21, 2010 Hey all, Hope all is well out there. It's nice that we have a nice Indra's net here! I'm happy to have found this forum (I passed it along to my girlfriend and she has very much enjoyed some threads as well). I am new to Taoism as a practice, philosophy, it's entirety. I finished college with degrees in Anthropology and Religion. The only teacher in my Religion department who taught Taoism was someone whom I had an abrasive relationship with, and to shorten the story up I sat in on one lecture with him and that was the last. SO, I would like to find a more refreshing teacher. With that being said I assume I will learn a lot from many of you, and will take the forums as substitute for an actual teacher for the time being. I would love to study more about Taoism. Can anyone recommend any good informative books? History, lineages, varieties of Taoism, practices, techniques, philosophies... all that good jazz. I appreciate the time you've spent reading this! And if you have any ideas for me on where I should begin after beginning here that would be most excellent. Namaste, CheslinK Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cloudhand Posted April 21, 2010 (edited) Hey all, Hope all is well out there. It's nice that we have a nice Indra's net here! I'm happy to have found this forum (I passed it along to my girlfriend and she has very much enjoyed some threads as well). I am new to Taoism as a practice, philosophy, it's entirety. I finished college with degrees in Anthropology and Religion. The only teacher in my Religion department who taught Taoism was someone whom I had an abrasive relationship with, and to shorten the story up I sat in on one lecture with him and that was the last. SO, I would like to find a more refreshing teacher. With that being said I assume I will learn a lot from many of you, and will take the forums as substitute for an actual teacher for the time being. I would love to study more about Taoism. Can anyone recommend any good informative books? History, lineages, varieties of Taoism, practices, techniques, philosophies... all that good jazz. I appreciate the time you've spent reading this! And if you have any ideas for me on where I should begin after beginning here that would be most excellent. Namaste, CheslinK The two authors I like are John Blofeld and Allan Watts right there you have the masters of Tao. If you go to U Tube check out, Out of Your Mind by Allan Watts he puts Zen and Tao together like no one else. Then go to One Six The Anti Virus s homepage and click on Allan Watts he has a great collection of Watts on U Tube. Blofeld you can get from internet or a book store or library. Cloudhand ps; I went to U Tube you have to go to Promethean Reach's channel thats his new one on U Tube you will like the Allan Watts, and if you like other people like that right there. Edited April 21, 2010 by Cloudhand Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Marblehead Posted April 21, 2010 Hi CheslinK, I always recommend reading Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu for the basics of the philosophy. After that one can go in whatever direction one wishes. Here's a good site to visit for those readings: http://terebess.hu/english/lexikon/a.html Peace & Love! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sloppy Zhang Posted April 21, 2010 Relaxing Into Your Being and The Great Stillness are two books written by B.K. Frantzis which give an excellent overview of Taoist philosophy, Taoist ideas on various aspects of life, while at the same time teaching great practices that can be with you for a lifetime. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
goldisheavy Posted April 22, 2010 (edited) I would love to study more about Taoism. Can anyone recommend any good informative books? History, lineages, varieties of Taoism, practices, techniques, philosophies... all that good jazz. Always go to the horse's mouth. Today we have plenty of people who will try to tell you what Taoism is really about. Instead why not read the works of the founders? Tao Te Ching (Daodejing) Chuang Tzu (Zhuangzi) Lieh Tzu (Liezi) These are the biggies and are the real deal. No one can question their lineage or authenticity. Everything else, you can always find a lot of doubt in. It's especially true because much of the information pertaining to lineages is secret, so in this manner lineages have all shot themselves in the foot. Because they kept most information secret, now if they try to come out and share that information, it is absolutely impossible to verify anything and it's impossible to gain confidence in anything they say as a matter of convention. Of course you can still gain confidence in information through personal experience outside convention, but this can take a lot of time, and is not always cheap (and I don't mean money). There are a lot of blind alleys and crooked passageways. So I suggest you get as many different translations of the above three, and read them all. Somewhere between all the differing translations there will be some truth about the Daoist way of looking at things. Then you'll be in a good position to judge everything else. If it fits with the above three, it can possibly be Daoist, even if you can't prove it. If it doesn't fit, it's definitely not Daoist. Edited April 22, 2010 by goldisheavy Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
