Start the Year Right - Book Recommendation #4

     We now call to session our fan club meeting for the artist, poet and writer, Deng Ming-Dao.

     Kidding.  Sort of.

     The last book I'd like to recommend is Deng Ming-Dao's beautiful translation of the I Ching.  Entitled The Living I Ching: Using Ancient Chinese Wisdom to Shape Your Life, he again brings this ancient text to modern times.  As a bonus, he provides the glorious artwork that illustrates the different sections.

     This is a huge book. But it is definitely worth an honored spot on your bed stand or book shelf.  The author presents the history of the I Ching, what the yin and yang symbols are, how they combine into trigrams, and then how the trigrams combine into the hexagrams used for divination.  If you are interested, he also presents who the different authors are purported to be, how various people and traditions changed it, and how it can be relevant in today's world.  A beautiful book.  Highly recommended.

Start the Year Right - Book Recommendation #3

     A third book I'd like to recommend is by my new one-of-my-favorites author, Deng Ming-Dao.  I'll tell you -- the man is prodigiously talented.  He is a gifted writer and poet as well as a renowned artist and Taoist master.  Seriously, why doesn't the man have a fan club?

     Similar to 365 Tao, that I recommended last week, Everyday Tao: Living with Balance and Harmony is another book which takes a word or topic, shows the Chinese character, and then expounds on the subject.  What I really like about this book is that it explains the parts of the Chinese character and the essential meanings of the word.  It gives greater depth to the topic and how it is relevant to today's life.  The author, while well-versed in Taoist philosophy, is no ideologue.  He gets how it is to live in this world.  His essays are relevant and useful, not abstract or nebulous.  I use it as I do 365 Tao, reading one page per day to give me something to mentally chew on.  Highly recommended.

Start the Year Right - Book Recommendation #2

     If you like a reading-a-day type of book, you will probably enjoy Deng Ming-Dao's 365 Tao: Daily Meditations.  He presents a word or topic -- everything from Absorption to Youth -- shows the Chinese character for it, has a short poem to contemplate, and then expounds on the word.  Sometimes he includes stories from the Taoist tradition, and sometimes he follows the Taoist method of finding something to learn from that topic.  A brilliant book.  Highly recommended.

Start the Year Right - Book Recommendation #1

     We all like to think of the new year as a way to start over, to try something new, to build new habits.  I have some book recommendations that may be a good way to start your new year right.

     A few years ago, a friend of my Significant Other's gave me a wonderful book, a collection of poems by my favorite poet, Rumi.  Entitled A Year with Rumi: Daily Readings and translated by Coleman Barks, it presents a poem for each day of the year.  I've used it year after year and find new treasures each day.  His ecstatic, soulful, thought-provoking poems have helped set the tone for my day.  In fact, it was reading his poems that I noted the Twin Soul relationship between Rumi and Shams Tabriz.  Perhaps you will find the same.  I highly recommend it.