Esoteric Tao Teh Ching

Rating:
Summary: The Way revealed!
Review: Master Ni, Hua Ching is the diffinative authority on Taoist Integral science. With the Esoteric Tao Te Ching, he presents the core of Taoist philosophy for modern people to consider. This elucitation of the ancient way is clear and precise. It is a fundamental tool for achieveing what the Ancient Chinese called 'Wu Wei' or non-doing. This book takes phenomenal bounds by presenting Lao Tzu's idea of self-government and a eutopiean society. It reveals the way and how to reach it. Having read many translations of the Tao Te Ching, I find this one to be top shelf material.

Rating:
Summary: A translation/commentary....
Review: This doesn't read like most translations of the Tao Teh Ching (and I have translations of both the traditional text and the text discovered in the Xian tombs). However, I like what he has to say, and when I check his "translations" against a more traditional, literal translation, the two together make a lot of sense (he shed a lot of light on an otherwise incomprehensible literal translation in another book). I think what he is doing is therefore more of a paraphrase than a direct translation, a paraphrase that is an extremely concise commentary. So I think his approach is valid. You don't need to have another version of the Tao Te Ching to follow along, by the way. In reviews of other books by Ni, he is accused of being new age or self taught. I don't know about the new age part, but somewhere in this book he inasmuch acknowledges he is "self taught" and that is not a problem for me. Maybe Lao Tse was self taught, too. I find this book very helpful.