Has anyone here read this translation/commentary of the Dao de Jing?

[Wayist]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0994978162/ref=olp_product_details?_encoding=UTF8&me=.  Have any of you read this translation/commentary of the Dao de Jing?  I've got it ordered, I read some online, and it sounded great!  Peace,  Wayist

[thelerner]

1 hour ago, Wayist said:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0994978162/ref=olp_product_details?_encoding=UTF8&me=.  Have any of you read this translation/commentary of the Dao de Jing?  I've got it ordered, I read some online, and it sounded great!  Peace,  Wayist

No, but reading a sample of it on Amazon, it's translation and depth of explanation are impressive.

[Wayist]

Yes thelerner, I read the first chapter of the DDJ, and I thought: "This is perhaps the most beautiful 1st Chapter to the DDJ, that I've ever read!" So, we definitely agree on this!  :-). Peace, Wayist

[thelerner]

11 hours ago, Wayist said:

Yes thelerner, I read the first chapter of the DDJ, and I thought: "This is perhaps the most beautiful 1st Chapter to the DDJ, that I've ever read!" So, we definitely agree on this!  :-). Peace, Wayist

I've always found reading the DDJ so peace giving that I may as well spring for an excellent version on my phone (in Kindle app$9).  It's a therapy book, you pick it up with a problem, read a stanza or two, and the problem is put before greater perspective, diminished.

[Wayist]

Yes I too, have this reaction of the DDJ being "a therapy book".  You need to get Centered, or you've had a tough day, read the DDJ or TTC, and get to where you need to be. Yes for sure, I've experienced this!  Peace, Wayist

[Zhongyongdaoist]

The Heshang gong Commentary is one of the most important and earliest surviving commentary which looks at the Dao De Jing from a perspective of internal alchemy.  I haven't read it myself, but It should be very interesting reading.  The translator, Daniel Reid is well respected in the field.

 

ZYD

[Mig]

On 7/29/2020 at 11:37 AM, Wayist said:

Yes I too, have this reaction of the DDJ being "a therapy book".  You need to get Centered, or you've had a tough day, read the DDJ or TTC, and get to where you need to be. Yes for sure, I've experienced this!  Peace, Wayist

 

And how that happens to get to where you need to be? Could you elaborate more or give examples? Is it the translation in English that gives you the answer or is it the commentary that is in accord to your own situation or is it your own imagination? I have always wondered about the fascination many people talk reading the DDJ, the esoteric meaning and the extrapolation or paraphrase they can tell on one or another chapter. Is this what the therapy book you are referring to?

 

[Wayist]

I tried to get a conversation started up here about Lao Zi, the human man. Yes, I know that religious Daoist's, revere him as "a god". I think that Lao Zi would be revolted by this kind of thinking. If he (Lao Zi) really lived in "The Warring Period", and was a Court Librarian, and perhaps some sort of "shaman" (which I don't necessarily believe in,but Im not closed minded to the *possibility* of this either). But you did not ask about this, but about how the Lao Zi (Or the DDJ/TTC) affects my own life.  I'll just point to WATER, it always flows to the point that it needs to be. I used live in a Valley, another very Daoist (Dao de Jing) kind of place. Water collects there (in my case with the aid of human beings).  What does it teach us "to be like water"?  How are we like "the uncarved block"? I try to find these substances/or "places",  in my own human life. It takes searching, looking at 'The Way' that might be for me. So, it's both in the written DDJ/TTC and in the commentary of olden, or modern,  Daoist's that might affect me. If they do, I take those teachings and apply them to my own life. Or I try to.  If you have more questions, I'll try to answer them.  If I can.  Peace,  Wayist

[Cleansox]

On 2020-07-29 at 4:13 AM, Wayist said:

Have any of you read this translation/commentary of the Dao de Jing? 

I'm at Chapter 15 right now. 

 

I am finding some of the comments intriguing, but I really feel that you need the imagery of the Chinese characters to get a really good grip on it. 

 

Sometimes I feel that reading it and try to embody it is actually anti-Laozi! 

 

In this, I refer to the discussions about virtues. All virtues are supposed to manifest because one has reached a certain level of development, which differs from the Confusian tradition (which I know nothing about). 

 

So really, why bother. 

The message is to practice until one manifest the meaning of the book naturally.