Great, thanks for the links. I'll have a read when I can.
Cheers, I hope it all points you in helpful directions
On a quick skim, the Greek guy seems a bit overcome by fanboyism, but I don't consider that a reason to discount his whole account.
Perhaps, but given the perspective being presented (something a child of the modern world might liken to “finding master yoda”, or more accurately something like “finding master lao tzu”), like you allow for, I can see where it’s coming from and don’t hold it against either the book or the author
I'm more than just open to it, I'm actually fixated on questions of consciousness these days. I have a collection of reflections and ramblings in a text file which I feel some sort of moral responsibility to try and turn into a book or something some day
I feel like I know where you’re coming from. I too feel an urge to produce something like a series of articles on substack, diving in depth into specific subjects then hopefully ascending back out to link it all together cogently and cohesively, something which it feels like is only ephemerally present in my head. And I struggle similarly with committing myself to the task. One need only read into the life of someone like Chang to begin to understand the levels of commitment required to achieve anything approaching “mastery”, but I see value in even the uninitiated attempting to “report” what they’ve found in their studies.
This could prompt me to look into the Tao/Dao some more since it seems like it could have a lot of overlap
I really hope it does, I’ve personally found such astounding variety and amounts of wisdom in these traditions that I’m convinced they’re “onto something” - as opposed to the generic western explanation of “a stopped clock is right twice a day” kind of mentality towards “eastern wisdom” broadly speaking.
Because we are dealing with translation, I find referring to a variety of sources as important as for example biblical scholars might be. To that end, I’ve posted two English translations of the Tao Te Ching (“the” book of Taoism) in the past:
This version I personally find provides the most impactful translation which speaks more to me than the attempts at more literal or less esoteric translation often attempted by the “academics”.
This version is a comparative collection of 8 different translations hosted by Boston University. Quite interesting to use to dive into specific word and phrase choices.
Here’s some interesting little tidbits I’ll leave you with that I’ve always found interesting:
Lao Tzu appears to translate most accurately to “wise old man” or when taken literally “Mr. Wise Man”
Confucius is a bit of a bastardization of his name. In this context, you might be surprised to learn his name is perhaps more accurately translated as Kung-Fu Tzu, or rendered literally “Mr. Kung-Fu”
Chang, if you take his words at face value (and I’ve found no reason not to), claims his lineage of “internal martial arts”, aka “qi gong / chi kung”, known as Mo Pai, traces its roots to a contemporary of Lao Tzu and Kung-Fu Tzu known as Mo Tzu:
Cheers, I hope it all points you in helpful directions
Perhaps, but given the perspective being presented (something a child of the modern world might liken to “finding master yoda”, or more accurately something like “finding master lao tzu”), like you allow for, I can see where it’s coming from and don’t hold it against either the book or the author
I feel like I know where you’re coming from. I too feel an urge to produce something like a series of articles on substack, diving in depth into specific subjects then hopefully ascending back out to link it all together cogently and cohesively, something which it feels like is only ephemerally present in my head. And I struggle similarly with committing myself to the task. One need only read into the life of someone like Chang to begin to understand the levels of commitment required to achieve anything approaching “mastery”, but I see value in even the uninitiated attempting to “report” what they’ve found in their studies.
I really hope it does, I’ve personally found such astounding variety and amounts of wisdom in these traditions that I’m convinced they’re “onto something” - as opposed to the generic western explanation of “a stopped clock is right twice a day” kind of mentality towards “eastern wisdom” broadly speaking.
Because we are dealing with translation, I find referring to a variety of sources as important as for example biblical scholars might be. To that end, I’ve posted two English translations of the Tao Te Ching (“the” book of Taoism) in the past:
https://communities.win/c/Manna/p/17teNpuIaW/the-tao-te-ching/c
This version I personally find provides the most impactful translation which speaks more to me than the attempts at more literal or less esoteric translation often attempted by the “academics”.
https://communities.win/c/HumanPotential/p/141ra5FBnM/tao-te-ching-full-text-8x-compar/c
This version is a comparative collection of 8 different translations hosted by Boston University. Quite interesting to use to dive into specific word and phrase choices.
Here’s some interesting little tidbits I’ll leave you with that I’ve always found interesting:
Lao Tzu appears to translate most accurately to “wise old man” or when taken literally “Mr. Wise Man”
Confucius is a bit of a bastardization of his name. In this context, you might be surprised to learn his name is perhaps more accurately translated as Kung-Fu Tzu, or rendered literally “Mr. Kung-Fu”
Chang, if you take his words at face value (and I’ve found no reason not to), claims his lineage of “internal martial arts”, aka “qi gong / chi kung”, known as Mo Pai, traces its roots to a contemporary of Lao Tzu and Kung-Fu Tzu known as Mo Tzu:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozi
Some really interesting things in there.