Tao Te Ching

I can’t resist an invocation:) Most of these are old since I’ve been reading more articles these days but here are a few good books or series I’ve read more than twice: The Hobbit, LOTR, the Silmarillion, Neuromancer, the Chronicles of Narnia, Hong Lou Meng, The Heart Sutra, The Bhagavad Gita, The Tao De Ching, The Wheel of Time series, No country for old men, Persuasion, Sense & Sensibility, Pride & Prejudice, The Way of Kings, The Talisman, the Dark Tower Series, and The Prophet.

Frank Herbert Dune, book, there is a graphic novel of the latest edition which I glanced through. Machiavelli The Prince Sun Tzu The Art of War Epictetus The Enchiridion Tao Te Ching- different editions The Odyssey in variety of formats, illustrated, graphic novel, book The King James Bible-- Different pieces at various points. Proverbs many times. Lewis Carroll-- Alices Adventures In Wonderland, book, annotated edition

The Old Man and the sea - Hemmingway - so many things, with every reread I find something new. The Heart of the Buddhas Teaching - Thich Nhat Hanh, useful prayers, concepts for understanding and dealing with life and a moral compass for going through it. The Way of Zen - Alan Watts, opened my eyes to different forms of religious experience Also a lot of psychology and philosophy books in undergrad were foundational to my thinking. The Moral Animal, the Moral Landscape, The Blank Slate, The Republic and Plato’s writings on Socrates, Tao te Ching, Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, the Tanakh and parts of the Talmud, but many of these were more academic, still holistically they have shaped my thinking and moral compass.

Tao Teh Chingh Easy and accessible Will take me my whole life to read

Tao Te Ching - short enough to be read by anyone in one sitting and potentially very meaningful

Tao Te Ching, seriously There is a lot of emphasis on simplicity and that things are the best when they work seamlessly. Chapter 17, from the translation by Derek Lin, which I wholeheartedly recommend: The highest rulers, people do not know they have them The next level, people love them and praise them The next level, people fear them The next level, people despise them

Language in Thought and Action by S.I. Hayakawa Metaphors We Live By by Lakoff and Johnson The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker Tao Te Ching (various translators)

+1. Amazing book. Derek Lin has a good translation of this book too.

Tao Te Ching. Keeps me in balance, probably had reread it countless times.

Yes, very much this. I listened to the Stephen Mitchell audiobook during a week of patiently sanding something down. That was the seed for a slow but radical change of perspective on life.

The Tao Te Ching has given me more contemplative moments per page than anything else I've read.

Tao Te Ching

Witter Bynner's Translation is truly the one. Its complemented in me by Martin Fischer's Translation of Baltasar Gracian's "The Art of Worldly Wisdom". (Amazon seems to have a few) Quoth Nietzsche: "Europe has never produced anything finer or more complicated in matters of moral subtlety."

Tao Te Ching by Lao-Tzu. Short, concise and applicable to modern world. Not an essay per se or book though.

I read The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed at the beginning of the year, just before she passed away. This summer I the first four books of the Earthsea series and will probably read The Other Wind and Tales soon. I've really enjoyed both universes--with Earthsea I keep wishing someone would make a game with this kind of magic system. The Lathe of Heaven is such a wonderful title, I'm looking forward to reading that as well. I read her translation of Tao Te Ching while waiting in 2 hours of traffic for a ferry and it was wonderful and really informs the rest of her works. I'm currently reading Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner, on the history of U.S. water policy in the West. Frustratingly dry. Also re-reading On the Road but unlike 16 years ago I'm reading the 'Original Scroll Edition' this time: no chapters, paragraph breaks, invented character names, censors, etc. The book you read in high school is, in fact, the novelization of the original, which Kerouac wrote in twenty days. I've kept my beat-up paperback copy of the 'novel' nearby and I've preferred the scroll edition for the most part. On the nightstand:…

Fiction War and Peace Crime and Punishment Count of Monte Christo 1984 God of Small Things Paradise lost Divine comedy Non fiction Selfish gene Meditations Madness explained (the best book I've encountered for explaining how the mind works) The Red Queen Tao te Ching

I'm sure a lot of people have read it, but it's the best book for me. The Tao Te Ching (I have the Stephen Mitchell translation).

Tao Te Ching (Daodejing) by Lao-tse (Laozi). This is my favorite translation: http://www.wright-house.com/religions/taoism/tao-te-ching.ht... (http://www.wright-house.com/religions/taoism/tao-te-ching.html) The text gives advice on both how to behave on a personal level and how to lead (and therefore what to expect from a good leader). It promotes the idea that ambition leads to strife and conflict and that the path to happiness is to be content with what you have. It also promotes the abandonment of pride and ego: Do your work and walk away, do not concern yourself with getting credit for what's been achieved. Be like water and flow around problems instead of butting your head against them. Be malleable, do your thing, and don't worry about what others are doing around you. When it comes to how to lead, it says you should micro manage, and that the best leader is invisible. They make the group members think that they achieved it all themselves.…

- The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin - Blindsight and Echopraxia by Peter Watts - The Tao Te Ching - The Gateless Gate (Koun Yamada translation/editing) - The Baroque Cycle (Quicksilver, The Confusion, The System of the World) by Neal Stephenson - The Invisibles by Grant Morrison - Incerto (Fooled by Randomness, The Black Swan, Antifragile, The Bed of Procrustes) by Nassim Nicholas Taleb - Iron John by Robert Bly - Catch 22 by Joseph Heller - The Character of Physical Law by Richard P. Feynman - Collected Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges - 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Pharmakon by Dale Pendell - The Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss - Greek Mythology by Edith Hamilton - The Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Monster Manual by Gary Gygax et al - Introduction to Algorithms by Charles E. Leiserson, Clifford Stein, Ronald Rivest, and Thomas H. Cormen

I was about to say the same. Recommended it to a few friends. It is a life changing book, even more enjoyable than original Chinese version.

Older Stuff: The Bible/Quran, The Republic (Plato), The Social Contract (Rousseau), Tao Te Ching (Laozi), Brothers Karamazov (Dostoevsky), History of the Peloponnesian War (Thucydides) Newer Stuff: Nine Stories (Salinger), The Razor's Edge (Maugham), Nausea (Sartre), Siddartha (Hesse), Road to Serfdom (Hayek), The Book (Watts), Design of Everyday Things (Norman), Atlas Shrugged (Rand), Invisible Man (Ellison), Debunking Economics (Keen), Blood Meridian (McCarthy), The Center Cannot Hold (Saks), This Time Is Different (Reinhart/Rogoff), Infinite Jest (Wallace), Calvin and Hobbes (Watterson) All of these books are well written and have given me some perspective on interesting people/situations/ways of thinking.

The Tao Te Ching is available for free [0]. It's the basis for the Eastern philosophy of Taoism. Religious or spiritual or not, I find this collection of verses to encourage different forms of lateral and vertical thinking that I may otherwise miss. Anyways, might not be for everyone, but I enjoy it. [0] - http://www.taoism.net/ttc/complete.htm

Dhammapada or Tao The Ching.

Just listing books that have had a big impact on me: * The Now Habit - http://www.amazon.com/dp/1585425524 * Getting Things Done - http://www.amazon.com/dp/0142000280 * Simply Christian - http://www.amazon.com/dp/0061920622 * Surprised by Hope - http://www.amazon.com/dp/0061551821 * The Great Divorce - http://www.amazon.com/dp/0060652950 * Mere Christianity - http://www.amazon.com/dp/0060652926 * The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius - http://www.amazon.com/dp/048629823X * Tao Te Ching - http://www.amazon.com/dp/0060812451 Books from the Bible that I like: * Genesis * Judges * Ruth * Tobit * Job * Psalms * Ecclesiastes * Sirach/Ecclesiasticus * Everything written by John

http://www.amazon.com/Tao-Te-Ching-Lao-Tzu/dp/1613822421/?_e... (http://www.amazon.com/Tao-Te-Ching-Lao-Tzu/dp/1613822421/?_encoding=UTF8&keywords=Tao%20Te%20Ching&tag=produc05-20&linkCode=ur2&qid=1357172353&camp=1789&sr=8-1&creative=9325)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao_Te_Ching The translations vary greatly. (from making it sound like new age mumbo jumbo, to mystic mumbo jumbo, to a profound philosophy), need to find one that's right for you. "The C Programming Language" by K&R (I read this very young 12-13, it's life changing aspects probably had a lot to do with my age) "The Hobbit" by J.R.R. Tolkien "Welcome to the Monkey House" by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

I also think that the Tao Te Ching (and Chuang Tzu in the same vein, and Alan Watts for a modern take) is amazingly applicable to life today and is surprisingly not that New Age-y.

These books, although some now I might not endorse some of their teaching but they have help me to see the world in a different light: The Mystery Method - Erik Von Markovik[Social Engineering at its best] Rich Dad Poor Dad: Guide to Investing - Robert Kiyoski The Thoughtworks Anthology: Essays on Software Technology and Innovation (Pragmatic Programmers) Bible - First class book in teaching how to behave towards others, especially proverbs. Tao Te Ching - For this two verse you should read it: "When people see some things as beautiful, other things become ugly. When people see some things as good, other things become bad. Being and non-being create each other. Difficult and easy support each other. Long and short define each other. High and low depend on each other. Before and after follow each other" Cyropaedia - "Along with the The prince this book was required reading by all former statesmen."

1984 - turned me from a die hard socialist to a rabid anti authoritarian. Cosmos - helped me fall in love with Physics, and the sciences. Tao Teh Ching - If I could tell you how it influenced me, we'd both have the wrong impression.

Since it looks like skeptical philosophy is covered pretty well, here are some books from religious philosophy that you'd probably do well to read: The Tao te Ching The Summa Theologica by Thomas Aquinas An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent by John Henry Newman Either/Or by Kierkegaard

Tao te ching, Shakespeare, and the pharse "Your will only have 2 friends: your dad and a dollar in your pocket"