Tao Te Ching by Stephen Mitchell Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Tao Te Ching
Book Review: Best Translation of the Tao te Ching
Summary: 5 Stars
I have read numerous translations of the Tao te Ching. My opinion is that this is by far the best, no second place compared to this.
Much of this book is not literal translations but very effective poetry to get each of the messages to Western readers. Literal translations are never 100% possible. The nuances of different languages and different times would require that the reader be both a historian and a linguist.
The other books by Stephan Mitchell also show that he has incredible spiritual insight for translating foreign language works.
Book Review: Beyond rating
Summary: 5 Stars
How could one possibly rate a book such as this...Wisdom cant be rated, nor can anyone say this scales so and so on the wisdom counter (much less count it in any way)...In this respect giving 5 stars here feels more like a mechanical response or a non choice..This collection of poems which comprise the "Book of the way" by Lao Tzu is wisdom you feel with tevry nerve and pore of your body as you go through them. It's not a book that you read once and immediately achive something. It couldn't be possibly meant that way. It's a book to keep coming back to for life, one you'll refer to and embrace for as long as you're alive, one you'll understand slowly, piece by piece, sometimes verse by verse as you gather experience bad or good.
The incredible thing about it is that its "wisdom" is based on overwhelmingly simple premises, so simple and yet for most people (sadly so) so incredibly hard to grasp. That's a thought that will occur to you many times while reading through these poems: "hey, this sounds so simple and feels so right, but it seems everyone i know including myself is doing the exact opposite"..
Human nature will also occur to you as a basic theme while discovering the foundations of Taoistic philosophy through Lao Tzu..Is our nature much like that of a computer where someone can programm us in whichever flase way and then we have to invest a whole lifetime's worth to deprogramm ourselves back to simplicity?
The premise of "take things as they come" or more importnatly "dont interfere" is a repeated one in Tao Te Ching. Now, this thought is the hardest to grasp and it hides beneath it a huge, massive underlying philosophy on life in general which in turn contains the secret to the survival of this species. Heavy statement? Possibly so, but then again once you start thinking simple you go through a somewhat psychedelic cycle of "simple-very complicated-back to simple.
The simple HAS to occur in anyone's mind before anything else that comes close to complicated can be taken up as a thought. The opposite process, the one we put our children through at schools is one that mathematically leads to mass confusion and mass failure: individualistic failure and societal failure.
We have come to the point where simplicity has to be retaught to us. What's worse than that is that we have to venture 1000s of years back and take up philosophy and poecy as old as the winds to achive this. That, at least to em, sounds pretty scary. But it might be our only way out of the predicament our modern "civilised" world has come to.
Book Review: Caveat Emptor!
Summary: 3 Stars
This version of TTC is NOT a "translation" -- nor does it claim to be -- some other reviewers' comments notwithstanding. Stephen Mitchell couldn't translate a Chinese menu, let alone one of the most profound philosophical works in human history. Beyond the nowadays-obligatory politically correct degenderification of the text, this is just a rehash of several older genuine translations. It tends to be (appropriately) poetic, and some beginning students of this inexhaustile work may find it valuable on that basis alone. For most such readers, I'd suggest either the Kwok/Palmer/Ramsay or the Feng/English volumes. The lush watercolors in the former or the stark, almost surreal, black and white photographs in the latter -- and the beautiful calligraphy in both -- are invaluable aids to contemplation while reading the text. For those who then develop a scholarly as well as spiritual interest, the R.G. Henricks "Ma-Wang-Tui" translation and commentary is the definitive (pace, Houston Smith) version of the entire TTC that we know today. And, for the really serious, Henricks' just-published Guodian "bamboo slip" version of the 31 oldest known "chapters" of the 81 which constitute the "complete" TTC is well worth the intense study it requires.Book Review: Clarity and lucidity
Summary: 5 Stars
This English translation of this venerable text is by far my favorite to read, think about and act on. Other translations have never quite satisfied my curiosity. Although I am well educated, some translations are merely baffling. Stephen Mitchell does a fine job of bringing the Tao Te Ching to a single language westerner such as myself. As a Christian, I find this text to be a compatible and valuable supplement to my spiritual reading.Book Review: Clean, clear, beautiful
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the first time I've felt compelled to write a review... and in large part, it is due to some of the other reviews I'veseen of Stephen Mitchell's translation of the Tao te Ching. As onewho has taught Taoism on the university level for several years, Iconsider Mr. Mitchell's translation to be magnificent.That said, Iwould not disagree with his critics, who maintain that his literalfidelity to the original script (or our best current guess as to whatis the original script) leaves something to be desired. But to focuson words in assessing anything Taoist, is tragicomedy at its height.Mr. Mitchell captures the heart of Taoism. Who cares about the words?I cannot decide if I am amused or aghast at those who proclaimthemselves Taoists, then proceed to parse words and letters. .... Iam even more amazed to hear these people proclaim their opinions assome sort of unassailable fact. The utter lack of self-awareness--notto mention humility--is astounding. Certainty is to Taoism what a pigis to the deep blue sea--it simply has no place. I'm certain of it,or maybe I'm not.
For anyone considering buying Stephen Mitchell'stranslation of the Tao te Ching, I for one recommend itwholeheartedly. I think it is clear, inspirational and, mostimportant, completely loyal to the spirit of the oldman. ....