Though unlikely to displace Stephen Mitchell's popular rendering of the Tao, this volume will delight spiritual seekers and devotees of Taoism, while also making a lovely gift. Hamill's poetry is complemented by Kazuaki Tanahashi's dramatic calligraphy, with 18 original representations of words or characters. The Tao-literally, "the way"-resists being nailed down or put in a box and mastered. 'There was nothing to live up to,' he says. Mitchell describes their philosophy as a kind of non-philosophy. To wit, this lovely meditation: "It's best to be like water, nurturing the ten thousand things without competing, flowing into places people scorn." And yet Hamill does not seek to drain the text of its mystery. Stephen Mitchell In The Second Book of the Tao, just published by the Penguin Press, he anthologizes some of the great teachings of Chuang-tzu Lao-tzus brilliant and playful disciple and Tzu-Ssu, the grandson of Confucius. Mitchell writes a moving introduction followed by a fantastic translation of The Book of Job. Hamill has rendered the Tao Te Ching afresh his translation from the Chinese is achingly poetic. Written byZLIBS Editors Stephen Mitchell is an eminent translator known for his revisions of Rilke, Israeli poetry, and the Tao Te Ching. People should "cling to no treasures," but rather devote themselves to a pure disinterestedness, becoming most truly themselves when they achieve selflessness. Lao Tzu meditates on breath, enjoining the reader to practice breathing like a baby reflects on hsu, or emptiness juxtaposes heaven and earth and soberly reminds readers of their mortality. Lao Tzu's classic Chinese text from the sixth century BCE has much to teach us today.
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