As I wrote last week, I found a treasure in Deng Ming-Dao's phenomenal book on Taoism, Scholar Warrior: An Introduction to the Tao in Everyday Life. If you want to know about Taoism in a complete and thorough way, this book is for you.
Honestly, I didn't know how terrific the book was when I ordered it. I was actually looking for a book on Taoist meditation practices and saw that there was a chapter on that. And once I got to that chapter, after 284 pages, I was a tiny bit disappointed that there was only one meditation practice described. It's a good one, and one I practice several times a week, but there was . . . only . . . one.
[Please, Mr. Deng, would you consider writing a whole book on Taoist meditation practices? I promise to buy a copy.]
But alleviating my disappointment was how well he described two difficult philosophical points. I've never seen the concepts of wu wei, or effortlessness, and emptiness and union explained so well.
I came away feeling like I found a treasure, but also wondering how this beautiful flower of Taoism, so firmly rooted in the Chinese culture, would transplant to Western cultures. [Another book idea, Mr. Deng!] It's something to ponder.
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