8/27/2023 0 Comments Tao of pooh summary sparknotes(Okay, we lied about the gum, but not the advice stuff.) Like a peaceful old granddad, it will give you some helpful advice and maybe a stick of gum before it sends you on your way. The TTC isn't going to judge you for that. No worries if you have zero interest in becoming a Taoist. We figure the thing that's given the TTC so much staying power is that there's a little something in it for everybody. You might not totally dig what it does, but you have to admire the way it just won't quit. The Tao Te Ching is kind of like Madonna. We figure if something has this kind of staying power, there must be something to it. Why should you care about the Tao Te Ching? Well, if the fact that this book has touched the lives of billions of people for thousands of years doesn't pique your interest, we're not quite sure what will. What is Tao Te Ching About and Why Should I Care? After all, the book is all about being humble and selfless, so why give a flip about which individual person originally put these ideas to paper? In a way, wouldn't be more Taoist if the great book of everything and nothing came from everyone and no one at the same time? (To which we again say." Whoa.") The thing is, though, that to a lot of Taoists, whether or not Lao Tzu wrote the TTC really doesn't matter. (We're guessing modern scholars are also suspicious of the whole guy-on-a-buffalo part.) Maybe a guy named Lao Tzu was one of them, maybe not. They figure the Tao Te Ching was probably put together over many years by a bunch of different people. These days, Western scholars especially doubt if there ever really was a Lao Tzu (party poopers). Lao Tzu said, "You got it, buddy," scribbled the TTC in no time flat, and then rode out of China forever on a water buffalo. Anyway, one day Lao Tzu was passing through a gate, and a guard begged him to write down everything he knew about the Tao. To him, the TTC was kind of a Taoism for Dummies, a condensed rundown of centuries of Taoist thought. That's right, Lao Tzu never claimed to have come up with this stuff. The most popular story is that Lao Tzu was a scribe/librarian for a king, so he had access to the knowledge of all the Tao masters that came before him. There's a ton of debate about when he lived and if he actually did, but he's a major figure either way. we know you're dying to ask, "Who came up with this stuff?" Well, legend has it that the Tao Te Ching was written by a wise old guy named Lao Tzu (or Laozi). To the TTC, the ultimate goal is to find simple oneness with the Tao by doing so, we'll discover enlightenment and lead fully realized lives. The Tao crosses off its universal to-do list without effort, so we should do stuff with the same kind of "unattached action" (a way of being and doing called wu wei). For example, the Tao doesn't go around bragging about how awesome it is, so we ought to be just as humble. The Tao Te Ching takes all its life-lessons from the Tao itself. Not only is it everything that exists, it's everything that doesn't exist too-to which we can only say, " Whoa." Usually translated as the "Way," the Tao is the mysterious, unnamable process through which everything in the Universe happens. The Tao Te Ching is all about the Tao, which is basically the great big flow of everything. So what gives? What's this book got going on that's kept the world a-buzzin' for so long? The TTC is actually the second-most translated book after the Bible, which is no small potatoes. On top of that, it's influenced folks from every other religion and philosophy out there: Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, and even Christianity. For one, it's the "bible" of the two main branches of Taoism: the religious branch (which digs deities) and the philosophical branch (which leaves the gods out of it). The worldwide influence of these eighty-one short chapters can't be shortchanged. The Tao Te Ching (or Dao De Jing) has been blowing minds and changing lives for over 2,500 years. Are you ready for a heapin' helpin' of ancient Chinese wisdom? You couldn't have come to a better text, Shmooper.
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