Finally it is done! For a project that really began nearly 60 years ago, it is odd how anticlimactic it all feels. I suppose that is because life plays out day by day, step by step. As chapter 64 puts it, “A thousand mile journey begins below the feet”.
If you are interested, here is the link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1722202033.
I’ve priced it as low as Amazon will allow. For some reason they insist upon me making a minimum of $0.42 royalty. Frankly, I see monetary value and spiritual value as apples and oranges, so I’d give it away if I could. I reckon anything truly priceless has no monetary value.
Ha! I mean, who knows… this book may turn out to be priceless for somebody. The following back cover text offers an overview of the book.
Who are you? Before answering, consider the influences you’ve been inundated with all your life: politics and religion, facts and traditions – all the ins and outs of civilization. Deeper down come the personal needs and fears, desires and worries, friends and enemies, loves and hates… everything that is possible to name and remember! All these elements make up who you think you are.
Now, what would it feel like to return to who you were before taking on all this cultural ‘baggage’? This is a mystery many yearn to experience. Yet the only apparent pathways are either holding on more tightly to familiar baggage or trading it in for ‘new and improved’ baggage. Still, baggage is baggage. How can you return to your origin and the simplicity and innocence of that original self? The Tao Te Ching (#52) points the way, “Already knowing its offspring, return to observe the origin. Nearly rising beyond oneself.”
The 288 short essays in Taoist Thought gradually grind away at cultural baggage by addressing various aspects of daily life from a Taoist point of view. Read one short essay every few days and sleep on it. Drawing this process out over a few years gives your sub-conscious mind a chance to see outside its biased cultural box.
Taoist Thought provides much outside-the-box grist for your mind’s mill. You provide the grains of experience – your stories, ideals, beliefs and biases. As Buddha’s last words advised, “All things are impermanent. Work out your own salvation with diligence”. With diligence, you too can begin a journey that the Tao Te Ching (#16) describes well…
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