Cynic Posted July 17, 2006 Hello everyone. I'm hoping to meet some like-minded people and to grow in my search to find my place in this existence. A little about myself -- I'll try and keep it brief. I'm a 25 year old college student from southeastern Michigan. I was born and raised in a conservative Christian family and it became clear early on that that wasn't for me. Following this was a casual interest in various philosophies such as Zen, tarot and astrology. To make a long story short, for a research on a paper I wrote for a college course a few months ago, I checked out a copy of the Taoteching (the Red Pine translation) from my local library and I found it to be one of the most beautiful books I'd ever written. From the first verse it seemed to totally make sense immediately. I especially like that particular translation since it seems to be the one I've found that's closest to the original Chinese... it just sounds so organic. Too bad I can't seem to get a copy of my own... I tried ordering it on Amazon and it's been backordered since April! I found this site through the Tao Jia website which has a lot of really cool stuff on it. I'm not sure if you'd call me a full-fledged Taoist but I've found Eastern philosophies helpful to supress all the negativity, bitterness and depression that has been keeping me down throughout my life. It's been quite a struggle, especially in this point in my life where school and financial troubles are extremely stressful, but I'm doing all I can to maintain a positive outlook. I'm also a long-haired heavy metal fanatic who's majoring in journalism (I want to write for a heavy metal magazine someday). Oh yeah, and I have a dragon tattoo... which is actually a Japanese dragon since it has 3 toes on each hand: Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Todd Posted July 17, 2006 Hi Cynic, I just got the Red Pine translation a few weeks ago. Still haven't worked through a whole lot of it, but what I have... WOW! Its almost like reading a different work entirely... So fresh. I know what you mean about the amazon backordering.. I was waiting for mine since November... Eventually they said it wasn't gonna happen, so I just got a used (like new) copy... It doesn't have the cool tree on the cover, but whatever. Welcome. Todd Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cynic Posted July 18, 2006 Hi Cynic, I just got the Red Pine translation a few weeks ago. Still haven't worked through a whole lot of it, but what I have... WOW! Its almost like reading a different work entirely... So fresh. I know what you mean about the amazon backordering.. I was waiting for mine since November... Eventually they said it wasn't gonna happen, so I just got a used (like new) copy... It doesn't have the cool tree on the cover, but whatever. Welcome. Todd Thanks for the warm reception! Man, people are so nice here... it's gonna take some getting used to! Yeah, not even the publisher of the book, Mercury House, has it available to order. I just sent an order in to Barnes and Noble for a used copy, and although I wanted a new copy hopefully this one is in as good of shape as they claim. Besides, I've hoarded my local library's copy for too long... time for someone else to enjoy it! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
