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Title: Hua Hu Ching : Unknown Teachings of Lao Tzu, The by Brian Walker ISBN: 0-06-069245-6 Publisher: HarperSanFrancisco Pub. Date: 08 September, 1995 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.9 (10 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Wonderful reading, though not entirely orthodox.
Comment: HUA HU CHING : The Unknown Teachings of Lao Tzu. By Brian Walker. 108 pp. San Francisco : Harper, 1995. ISBN 0060692456 (pbk.)
Anyone who has read Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu will find much that is familiar in this book. They will also find much that is strikingly new and different, so much so that one doubts very much that this book could have been written by Lao Tzu (always supposing that such a person actually existed). The book seems fairly obviously to be the work of much later thinkers, which isn't to say we should dismiss it because of that.
Although certain of its ideas are, in terms of philosophic Taoism, perfectly orthodox, others are highly unorthodox, but ALL are beautifully expressed. Brian Walker has a wonderfully lucid style, and despite the unorthodoxy of certain passages, it seems to me that a book like this can only do good.
It brings to the West a wisdom that many more people would benefit from being exposed to, and for a certain kind of reader it might prove more approachable than even Stephen Mitchell's marvelous reworking and adaptation of the 'Tao Te Ching.'
Although I can understand the objections of the purists, I don't seen any harm being done, particularly if newcomers were to follow it up with a reading of either, or preferably both, the 'Tao Te Ching' and Chuang Tzu.
Chapter 10 immediately caught my attention. Here is the opening with my obliques to indicate line breaks:
"The ego is a monkey catapulting through the jungle : / Totally fascinated by the realm of the senses, / it swings from one desire to the next, / one conflict to the next. / If you threaten it, it actually fears for its life. // Let this monkey go..." (p.13).
It would be difficult to argue against the orthodoxy of this wonderful poem, a poem that describes the human dilemma so well, since Hakuin (1686-1769), one of Japan's greatest Zen Masters, actually painted a picture of such a scene and inscribed the following poem on it:
"The monkey is reaching for the moon in the water / Until death overtakes him he'll never give up. / If he'd let go the branch and disappear in the deep pool / The whole world would shine in dazzling pureness" (Sasaki, 'The Zen Koan,' page 132).
Clearly both of these writers were in total agreement about the nature of the human dilemma, and it would not be too difficult to find many other parallels.
I think Walker has given us a wonderful book, and I doubt very much that its residue of unorthodoxy will bother those readers for whom the book is intended. In fact it seems to me that its brilliant development of certain perfectly orthodox ideas more than makes up for whatever elements of religious Taoism it may contain.
Rating: 3
Summary: Short, misguided and definatly not lao Tzu
Comment: This book is not written by Lao Tzu...it is only thought to. Take it from a Taoist, this book is simply oral translations from generation to generation, labeled as Lao's since he is the God-father of the Tao, so we believe.
The book has many religious Taoism in it, and I was expecting a more profound philosophical view point such as in the Chuang Tzu, Tao Te Ching, or Lieh Tzu. Instead it is talk about the regular alchemy/immortality other "religious tao" stuff that was brought on by schools such as the Completey Real School, Chan-Buddhism and other schools. Let us just get one thing straight: Immortality is an invention of Reliligious Tao. Philosophical Tao condems this as death is a natural path of all creatures. What religious tao needs to do is refrase immortality into Nirvana, like our Buddhist borthers have.
Having Lao Tzu's name on the cover might sell the book, but if you want to believe in Santa, go a head read this book.
Rating: 5
Summary: Filled with insight and clarity in plain language
Comment: Despite the gleeful denunciations by the polemicists below, this is a fine book for almost anyone interested in the wisdom, if perhaps not the historic interdenominational hijinks of ancient Taoist sects.
Master Ni Hua Ching should be applauded for encouraging a contemporary and accessible rendering of the texts. This is a brilliant distillation that demystifies the often confusingly literal translations that leave the reader to stumble through linguistic indecision.
This book offers up the meaning we all want. It's an honest work presented in good spirit that any well-intentioned reader will appreciate. Clearly rendered meaning is humorously and joyfully presented.
Don't miss this treasure.
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Title: The Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzu by Lao Tzu, Brian Browne Walker ISBN: 0312147449 Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin Pub. Date: 15 November, 1996 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: The I Ching or Book of Changes: A Guide to Life's Turning Points by Brian Browne Walker ISBN: 0312098286 Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin Pub. Date: 15 September, 1993 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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Title: Wen-Tzu (Shambhala Dragon Editions) by LAO TZU ISBN: 0877738629 Publisher: Shambhala Pub. Date: 29 September, 1992 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Tao Te Ching by Stephen Mitchell ISBN: 0060812451 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 October, 1992 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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Title: The Complete Works of Lao Tzu: Tao Teh Ching & Hua Hu Ching by Laozi, Hua-Ching Ni, Hua Ching Ni, Laozi Hua Hu Jing ISBN: 0937064009 Publisher: Seven Star Communications Pub. Date: 01 January, 1979 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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