A review by seneli
Tao Te Ching by Laozi

4.0

Deep. Maybe too deep for me.

I read the Jonathan Star translation which was definitely better than some other ones I browsed through.

Big takeaways:
- give selflessly
- be humble
- real gangsters move in silence
- change is the only constant and healthy state of the universe
- anyone who opposes change is doomed to fail
- embracing change and that as the way of the world is healthy
- live a simple life

I think the first 15 verses were the best. Also loved verse 80.

That said -

It was clearly designed for a culture outside our current western one so I didn’t feel it translated very easily to our society.

I also feel weird abt how it tells us we will gain material goods and glory from wanting the opposite. I felt it could have been easier to understand without the contradictory language.

It also has a lot of empire building related metaphors which I get can also reference leadership but are a bit out of place in such an introspective book.

It’s a strange prose but I get the message ? Kinda ?

I did walk away from it feeling like this would not float well with capitalism though. But maybe I’m too immature to get it.