Please point me to some interesting links or books about Taoism
September 27, 2010 9:48 PM   Subscribe

Please point me to some interesting links or books about Taoism (other than primary sources)
posted by MetaMonkey to Religion & Philosophy (8 answers total) 15 users marked this as a favorite
 


I would suggest anything written by Alan Watts.
posted by PugAchev at 10:09 PM on September 27, 2010


The Tao of Pooh and The Te of Piglet.
posted by smoke at 10:23 PM on September 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


Here is a collection of every major translation of the Tao Te Ching. I'm partial to Adiss and Lambardo.

I think the Tao of Pooh and Te of Piglet are grossly misleading.
posted by phrontist at 11:10 PM on September 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


I and Tao

Don't bother with The Tao of Pooh and the Te of Piglet unless you are also willing to read some of the critiques of the text for being fundamentally Orientalist and problematic as such.

Particularly, look for work by Michel Strickmann, Joseph Needham, Russell Kirkland, and J. J. Clarke. They should give you a wide range of commentary both on Taoism and on western interpretations of it.
posted by strixus at 11:11 PM on September 27, 2010


Taoism by Eva Wong. It's more about the historical development of Taoism into the systems of thought we have today than a guide for personal practice. Some people think it's a little dry, but I enjoyed learning all of the nitty gritty details of practice in different systems.

365 Tao by Ming-dao Deng is my constant companion. It may look new-agey from the cover but it's really not. If you're trying to get into a Taoist frame of mind, this book can help you do that with short, to the point passages. Sometimes I read a passage a day, but I also have several marked for later re-reading. (On amazon you can do the Look Inside thing to see what I'm talking about.)
posted by Mouse Army at 5:19 AM on September 28, 2010


A similar question was asked not long ago. My answer there was the work of Ursula K. Le Guin, if science fiction interests you as a genre ((for instance The Dispossessed and The Lathe of Heaven).
posted by gerryblog at 6:22 AM on September 28, 2010


Response by poster: Thanks for the answers.
posted by MetaMonkey at 9:43 PM on September 29, 2010


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