Tao te ching_ annotated & explained - Derek Lin [0]
Annotated & Explained
2009 Quality Paperback Edition, Fourth Printing
2008 Quality Paperback Edition, Third Printing
2007 Quality Paperback Edition, Second Printing
2006 Quality Paperback Edition, First Printing
Translation, annotation, and introductory material © 2006 by Derek Lin
Foreword © 2006 by Lama Surya Das
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lin, Derek, 1964–
Tao te ching : annotated & explained / by Derek Lin.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN-13: 978-1-59473-204-1 (quality pbk.)
ISBN-10: 1-59473-204-3 (quality pbk.)
1. Laozi. Dao de jing. 2. Laozi. 3. Taoism. I. Title.
BL1900.L35L519 2006
299.5'1482—dc22
2006016008
10 9 8 7 6 5 4
Manufactured in the United States of America
Cover design: Walter C. Bumford III
Cover art: Lin Hsin Chieh
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Contents
Foreword by Lama Surya Das
Introduction
A Note on the Translation
Tao Te Ching
Notes
Acknowledgments
Suggestions for Further Reading
About SkyLight Paths
Copyright
Foreword
Lama Surya Das
The classic Tao Te Ching is, in my opinion, simply the wisest book ever written. I have read and reread it more than any other, and I have discovered that, unlike some of us, it only gets better and better with age. It reveals how both action and contemplation are paths to experiencing harmony, peace, and unity admidst diversity. It exemplifies both the Bodhisattva’s skillful means of being there while getting there, every single step of the way, and the sublime secret that is the inseparability of oneness and noneness. It is also the ultimate primer on menschkeit, the art of living as a mature person of integrity, expounding how to be a good citizen and impeccable leader, attain genuine excellence, and realize self-mastery.
I first met the Tao Te Ching while in college in Buffalo, New York, during the tumultuous late 1960s. I was both enamored of the serene wisdom of this sublime text and mesmerized by its poetic brevity and tantalizing existential mystery. The morning after discovering the Tao Te Ching, I went straight to the bookstore and bought a copy, mulling over its cryptic verses day and night for weeks, finding it hard to go to class and endure academic lectures made pale by comparison. Over the years, some of my intrepid friends have even ventured to translate, or make versions of, the Tao Te Ching—a daunting task at best. As a Buddhist teacher, I often recommend the Tao Te Ching to my Dharma students to augment their spiritual studies and refine their sense of practice, of presencing.
My oldest Chinese friend in Hong Kong, the master puppet maker and old school Shanghai Zen man we called Michael Lee, used to