About six months ago, I discovered the Tao te Ching, an ancient book of Chinese wisdom and spirituality that has dramatically influenced my spiritual formation. This may come as shocking to some people, but rather than driving me away from a Christ-centered faith, this book has actually helped me hold onto it. If you’re feeling skeptical, please just keep reading a little bit. I promise I’m not a heretic.

Hands down, the best way to get this information is to listen to the podcast, which parallels these posts but goes into a lot more detail. It also includes personal stories, readings from the Tao te Ching itself, and quotes from other TTC readers about how the book has influenced them. Also, each episode releases a few weeks before the corresponding blog post.

So please check out the podcast — and don't forget to subscribe and share. Our world is so over-saturated with content that it's incredibly difficult to get the message out when you are starting from scratch. Leaving a review

It’s a common misunderstanding that the TTC is a “religious book” or a form of “scripture,” but it was never meant to be taken that way. It is simply a set of musings and meditations on the way the world works and what it means to be a wise person. True, “Taoism” did later arise as a religion, but this was not in the mind of the original author, Lao Tzu.

This first post lays the groundwork for the whole series, and it’s a very abbreviated version of the first episode of the podcast. I think there are three major questions to address before we get started working through the actual text of the TTC.

1. What is the Tao te Ching and what is it about?

2. How could a Christian possibly read the Tao te Ching for spiritual formation?

3. Can we actually “translate” some of the Taoist terms and import them into a Christian framework? (Spoiler alert: I think the answer is unquestionably yes)

The gentlest thing in the world

overcomes the hardest thing in the world.

Teaching without words,
—Tao te Ching, chapter 43

1. What is the Tao te Ching, and what does it talk about?

The TTC is a tiny little book of poetic verses about spirituality and the nature of the universe. It was written by Lao Tzu in China sometime in the fourth century BC. It has 81 chapters, but they are all less than a page long (with short poetic lines). In fact, you can read the whole thing in about 40 minutes.

Even though it is so short, it is incredibly difficult to translate. This style of ancient Chinese poetry is loaded with meanings and allusions and symbolism that it can be interpreted in so many different ways. I use 10 different translations along with 3 paraphrases when I make notes for these posts/podcasts, and each one brings out different nuances. (You can see a list of all the resources and translations I use here.)

Although this is a massive oversimplification, we could say that the TTC basically talks about two things:

1. The mysterious nature of the universe and the fact that we co

【 在 ibm221 的大作中提到: 】
: THE VITALITY OF LAO-TZE'S PHILOSOPHY
: C. F. Liu
: The Monist
: ...................
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修改:ibm221 FROM 192.102.205.*
FROM 192.102.205.*