My own journey into the land of the Tao and the Tao Te Ching started with a little synchronicity here and there, and then developed into curiosity and beyond. On my spiritual journey, I kept running into various circumstances that revealed references to the Tao Te Ching, by Lao Tzu. Presented not as a religious text, but as The WAY of Things, (Stephen Mitchell calls it “the classic manual on the art of living,”) I became intrigued and began moving past curiosity into conscious exploring. Eventually, I decided to read a verse a day for a while to get a better feel.
That was well over a decade ago. Since then, I have become a regular reader. Each quarter, I start rereading a verse a day for 81 days. I began using at least two to three translations each time, alternating various translations each return trip, sometimes adding new translations, mixing and matching, and the like. I have used at least twelve to fifteen translations at one time or another.
As might be imagined, then, I have naturally encountered several different—indeed, widely varying—translations of this literary, metaphysical, and spiritual-but-not-religious masterpiece. I have been repeatedly reminded that translations of the Tao Te Ching are as almost as varied as the proverbial pens that write them and the audiences for which they are intended.
What would be most helpful is a resource that parallels a few translations at a time, providing the opportunity for instant comparison between renderings while simultaneously enhancing one’s insights into the individual messages of each chapter and finding translations that speak to the reader. Wr legality) and further require having a digital device nearby to use them, of course.
So, the idea of compiling a resource myself began to slowly and reluctantly creep into my consciousness. (I’m not a Taoist scholar, but I figured I could compile translations.) And, long story short, that resulted in this book.
