Tao Te Ching: Zen Teachings on the Taoist ClassicThis version of the Tao Te Ching presents the classic in a unique light, through the eyes of a renowned master of the Rinzai Zen tradition. Takuan Soho, who lived from 1573 to 1645, was an acerbic, witty, free spirit who; a painter, poet, author, calligrapher, gardener, and a tea master. He was also a confidante and teacher to shoguns and many other powerful and famous figures, among them the the famed swordsman Yagyu Munenori, and (according to legend) Miyamoto Musashi. True to the teachings of the Tao Te Ching itself, as well as to the tradition of Zen, Takuan draws from everyday experience and common sense, to reveal the basic sanity of nature and the inherent wholeness of life. Takuan reveals how the Tao Te Ching applies to a wide range of concerns, including health, personal relationships, and individual lifestyle. He interprets the text through a philosophical and psychological lens, and also elucidates its radical social and political concepts. |
Contents
42 The Way Produces One | 102 |
43 The Greatest Flexibility in the World | 104 |
44 Your Name or Your Body | 106 |
45 Great Fulfillment Seems Lacking | 108 |
46 When the World Has the Way | 110 |
47 Without Going Out the Door | 111 |
48 The Practice of Learning Adds Daily | 113 |
49 Sages Have No Constant Mind | 115 |
9 To Hold and Fill Something | 21 |
10 Bearing Body and Soul | 23 |
11 Thirty Spokes | 26 |
12 The Five Colors | 28 |
13 Favor and Disgrace | 29 |
14 When You Look at It You Dont See | 32 |
15 Those Skilled as Scholars in Ancient Times | 35 |
16 Reaching Extreme Emptiness | 38 |
17 In High Antiquity | 40 |
18 When the Great Way Is Abandoned | 42 |
19 Eliminate Sages Abandon Intellectuals | 44 |
20 Stop Academics and Theres No Distress | 47 |
21 The Appearance of Great Virtue | 50 |
22 The Flexible Remain Whole | 52 |
23 Speaking Little Is Natural | 55 |
24 One on Tiptoe Cant Keep Standing | 57 |
25 There Is Something an Undifferentiated Whole | 59 |
26 Weightiness Is the Root of Lightness | 62 |
27 Good Travel Has No Ruts or Tracks | 64 |
28 Knowing the Male | 67 |
29 Those Who Would Want To Take the World | 69 |
30 Those Who Assist Human Rulers by Means of the Way | 72 |
31 Those Who Want War | 75 |
32 The Constant of the Way Is Nameless | 78 |
33 Those Who Know Others Are Intelligent | 80 |
34 The Great Way Is Universal | 82 |
35 Holding on to Universal Law | 84 |
36 In Order to Gather | 86 |
37 The Way Is Always Free from Contrivance | 88 |
38 Higher Virtue Isnt Virtuous | 90 |
39 Those Who Got the One Before | 94 |
40 Return Is the Action of the Way | 97 |
41 When the Best Students Hear the Way | 98 |
50 Going Out Is Life Entering In Is Death | 118 |
51 The Way Gives Birth to Them | 121 |
52 The World Has a Beginning | 123 |
53 If We Make Ourselves Get Involved | 126 |
54 What Is Well Established Is Not Done Away With | 128 |
55 Richness of Inner Virtue | 131 |
56 Those Who Know Do Not Say | 134 |
57 Use Regularity to Govern Nations | 136 |
58 When the Government Is Bumbling | 139 |
59 Governing People and Serving Heaven | 141 |
60 Governing a Big Country | 144 |
61 Great Nations Flow Downward | 146 |
62 The Way Is the Secret of All Things | 148 |
63 Acting without Contrivance | 151 |
64 What Is at Rest Is Easy to Hold | 154 |
65 Experts in Effecting the Way in Ancient Times | 157 |
66 Rivers and Seas Are Kings of a Hundred Valleys | 159 |
67 Everyone Says | 161 |
68 Good Magistrates | 164 |
69 There Are Maxims for the Use of Arms | 166 |
70 My Sayings Are Very Easy to Know | 168 |
71 Knowing Ignorance Is Superior | 170 |
72 When the People Do Not Fear Authority | 171 |
73 Brave in Daring | 173 |
74 When the People Arent Afraid of Dying | 175 |
75 The Starvation of the People | 177 |
76 When People Are Born | 179 |
77 The Way of Nature | 181 |
78 Softest and Most Yielding in the World | 183 |
79 When You Pacify Great Hostility | 185 |
80 A Small Country with Few People | 189 |
81 True Words Are Not Beautiful | 191 |
Back Cover | 193 |
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Common terms and phrases
abandon Act without contrivance ancient artificial contrivance attain basic become free benevolence and duty body Buddhism calamity called calm chapter clarity cleverness conceit Confucian Confucius consider contend Dao de jing death desire desireless dislike dynasty easy edge Eliminate emperors everything example existence Fan Li favor and disgrace fear flexible frugality Guangwu Han Dynasty hard hard-to-get harm heaven Higher virtue honor human idea implies jade keep killed kings knowledge Lao-tzu's book Lao-tzu's meaning Li Sheng losing lowly matter metaphor mind mindless myriad mystic Nature nonbeing nonexistence nurture people's preceding reason refers rulers sages seeking seems sense sky and earth small nations someone sorts of things speaks in terms spirit stop straw dogs subtle take the world TAKUAN'S COMMENTARY Tao Te Ching Taoist there's THOMAS CLEARY ultimately uncontrived unworked wood virtuous war horses yin and yang Zhang Liang