Customer Reviews:
 I love audio books! May 22, 2007
4 out of 10 found this review helpful
I like to listen in my car and always hear something new. What a beautiful book. thanks!
a successful gift May 13, 2007
3 out of 7 found this review helpful
this was purchased for a relative-and they are so very pleased- and liked how it was presented and the voice used!
 wonderful, useable, spiritual philosophy April 24, 2007
7 out of 10 found this review helpful
Little is known of this man from China, at around 500 BC, except for this, his manual for the art of living: Tao Te Ching.
The book contains 81 very short chapters written as poems, with notes by the translator that delve deeper into each. Mitchell has written Lao-Tzu's words for modern times. The Tao is the acceptance; the perfect harmony; the surrendering, becoming it.
Although this is wonderful, useable, spiritual philosophy, it comes from Eastern spiritualism: where all is God. His words are passive, with no line between good and evil; a live and let live philosophy. We should be careful when discerning his words. Here are good, simple words:
I have just three things to teach:
simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and in thoughts,
you're turn to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.
Wish you well
Scott
astounding March 18, 2007
6 out of 20 found this review helpful
The people who don't like this are the people who don't like God. Mitchell's edition of the T.T.C. is the most spiritual I've ever come across. Magnificent!
Modern paraphrase of ancient classic January 26, 2007
36 out of 36 found this review helpful
Tao Te Ching is ancient, now a couple of millenia in print. Stephen Mitchell has not translated this classic, but rather has paraphrased it -- as he admits in the Foreward. But he is a Zen student of a couple of decades and has good insight into the Zen of the Tao (Zen Buddhism is Buddhism heavily dosed with Taoism).
Mitchell's version of the Tao Te Ching is very, even extremely, modern. Perhaps to the point of being "politically correct." However, he does have a way with words and this is a very readable version of the Tao. To show how modern it is, let's take an example and compare his version of the beginning of chapter 46 with two other versions:
- Mitchell
"When a country is in harmony with the Tao,
the factories make trucks and tractors.
When a country goes counter to the Tao,
warheads are stockpiled outside the cities."
- Victor Mair
"When the Way prevails under heaven,
swift horses are relegated to fertilizing fields.
When the Way does not prevail under heaven,
war-horses breed in the suburbs."
- Addiss & Lombardo
"With TAO under heaven
Stray horses fertilze the fields.
Without TAO under heaven,
Warhorses are bred at the frontier."
Obviously, there were no factories, trucks, tractors, or warheads in ancient China. So, Mitchell is providing a modern interpretation of the Tao Te Ching, while Mair as well as Addiss & Lombardo are closer to a literal translation (which is not possible however, because the Chinese language and the English language are so completely different from one another.)
None of this is to find fault with Stephen Mitchell. This is just to say that his book cannot be definitive, because it is less literal and not really a translation. However it is good, compelling reading, and honestly makes no pretense of being a literal translation. If you like Mitchell's approach, get one of the more literal translations too. I bet Stephen Mitchell himself would like you to have both.
|
