![]() As a teacher, I found myself frequently reflecting on the connection between a section and classroom practice.Īs I reached the end of Wen-Tzu, which I read while on retreat at a hermitage in the Rocky Mountains (Nada, near Crestone, Colorado-if you're in need of withdrawal and rejuvenation and don't mind silence, you can't do better), I found myself thinking of how difficult it would be to realize any of the Taoist vision in the culture we've created for ourselves. ![]() Nothing that differs from the Tao Te Ching, but the connections between levels are elaborated at greater length. ![]() The central message is clear and familiar to anyone who's spent any time with Taoism: circumstances change in ways the render rigid rules destructive correct behavior is likely to become part of the problem unless it flows from deep roots in an acceptance of the Way. ![]() More even than the Tao Te Ching or Chuang-tzu, Wen-Tzu reflects the breadth of Taoist thinking, from the intensely introspective (though never solipsistic) to the worlds of politics, the economy and war. Most of the 180-odd sections in Wen-Tzu are attributed to Lao-Tzu, but the name was used to represent the wisdom flowing from a particular source, so it's really an anthology (which accounts for a certain amount of repetition). For anyone interested in Taoism, this is the place to go after the Tao Te Ching (preferably in Stephen Mitchell's translation, although the one by Thomas Cleary, who translated this book, is also solid). ![]()
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