Help: Which Version of Tao Te Ching
 

I didn't realize there were so many versions, but I guess I should have expected that given there's so many English versions of the Bible. Which version would you recommend and why? Thanks!!

it is like looking at yourself in a mirror. Most choose the most flattering mirror though...

Good question. Given that the first verse more or less warns you that the Tao that can be written, spoken, thought, is not the true Tao, about the only thing we know is no matter who translates it or doesn't translate it at all, it is going to be wrong......well at least as far as describing the Tao. Yet people will still try to argue about which version is the "right one". My advice would be to be a Tao Te Ching surfer. If one interpenetration doesn't suit you try a few others, see if you pick up a common thread. It is about the best one can hope for in terms of trying to understand the Tao through written words. I found most verses sounded (some still do) like jibberish, but they do grow on you and eventually, the meanings seem to come though, but of course as the Tao that can be spoken is not the true Tao, I could not tell you what they mean, even to me. I have had some people become quite indignant about their interpretation being the right one. All I could say is, "That is not how I understand it."

Thank you to both of you. I decided to rely on my guides to pick the right one. There was one that gave me a greater vibration when I looked at the titles than others, and that is the one I chose.

My favorite version is the one translated by Gia Fu Feng and with photos by Jane English.

I has the beautiful poetic and mystical feeling of the original, and it is translated in a way, which like the original, embodiess different levels that can be seen by different people, depending on their awareness of and advancement along the Way.

Many of what are called translations are instead interpretations, and a lot of these interpretations are done by people with not too much advancement. Therefore they lack poetic beauty and interpret the chapterss at a low level of awareness, which can restrict a reader's potential to see deeply into the meanings.

Another thing to know is that the translations or interpretations which are done by Westerners can easily miss the all important inflections which a native Chinese speaker will be aware of. This is another reason why I consider this version to be very good.

Tere is a free online version of the Gia Fu Feng translation which you can find by entering Tao Te Ching Gia Fu Feng in to a search engine, and the site is named Terebess Asia Online

sigh another person who thinks you can't get anywhere without being learned...

I suppose you are commenting on me. What it takes to see the different levels in the TTC is NOT learning, like in from books. It has to do with expanded awareness and having experience with different levels of life ... enlightenment helps too.

SJ... I would agree with that... learning the way people practice it is like a finger pointing at the moon :smile:

I would agree that the poetic and mystical feeling one gets from the translation is important. The book warns right from the beginning not to approach the subject with the mind and expect a true understanding. Yet there are many interpretations out there and they always leave me feeling a bit deflated upon reading them. For me it is something you feel you know but if you try to explain it to someone else you just ramble on incessantly and then feel like you failed miserably. The first time I read the book I liked it even though I had no idea what the heck it was talking about. Over time, you start to feel like you get some of it but other parts remain a mystery.

I think I would rather keep those other parts blurry and mysterious rather than have someone else come in and tell me what that cloud up there looks like. Once someone says it is a elephant up there, the mind will start to spend its time trying to make out the elephant in the clouds, when in fact, there is no elephant. The elephant was in their mind, not in the clouds.

that is kinda the point of the book after all lol!.

when I was reading the translations I noticed that everyone who translated it would look at it from the viewpoint of their own life. So what the translations were telling me was how others view the world. Yet some stuff peeked through anyway. Sigh.