[MD] Taoism

[dlahiri at realsysadmin.com]

Greetings Marsha,

> Greetings,
> 
> Sometimes it's great to be wrong.  After reading Brian Walker's 'Hua
> Hu Ching', I read his translation of 'The Tao Te Ching', and then
> Stephen Mitchell's 'Tao Te Ching'.  I think these translations are
> wonderful, and I can imagine rereading these wonderful books for many years.
> 
>   From Stephen Mitchell's 'Tao Te Ching', a section called 'A
> Conversation with Stephen Mitchell':
> 

I will check these books out. Just out of curiosity, are these academic translations or are the authors serious practitioners of the Tao?


> "   As I read and compared, I came across elements, common to all the
> translations, that I know had to be wrong.  For example, the Master
> was always described as a "he."  This seemed ridiculous to me, even
> before I learned that the third-person singular pronoun in Chinese is
> gender-neutral.  Of all the great spiritual texts, the Tao Te Ching
> is by for the most female, not in spirit but also in language.  The
> Tao is described as the :mother" or the "mother of the universe," and
> the text even says, "Keep to the female."  My solution was to
> alternate the use of "he" and "she" from chapter to chapter.  When
> the book was published, I received hundreds of comments and letters
> from women who told me how important this was to them."
>        (P.S., p.11)
> 

I would recommend delving into the Shakta school of Tantra from Eastern India. 

>    As one who read in school textbooks things like, 'The pioneers went
> West taking their wives.', I am sensitive to language.  I really
> appreciate these modern translations.
> 

I guess there is a lot of socio-cultural conditioning that dictates how we quantify and qualify things.

> happy to be wrong,

Here's wishing you all the very best in your quest and that you may be blessed by the Tao and walk the path.

Regards,

Dwai