… is not the Immortal Way
I read that passage out of Red Pine’s translation of the “Tao Te Ching.” His translation has been my personal favorite for a long time. This is because in the book (link to Amazon) he has the Chinese characters alongside the English and he also has commentary from a bunch of famous Chinese philosophers, generals, etc. for each verse, making it easier to understand (or sometimes more confusing 
).
If you’ve never read any version of the Tao Te Ching before, Red Pine’s might be a little… “Hippy dippy.” A lot of translations try to spell out (what they think) the meaning of each passage is. Compare Read Pine’s version with Steven Mitchell’s version of the Tao Te Ching
Steven Mitchell:
The tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.The unnamable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin
of all particular things.Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.Yet mystery and manifestations
arise from the same source.
This source is called darkness.Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding.
Red Pine:
The way that becomes a way
is not the Immortal Way
the name that becomes a name
is not the Immortal Name
the maiden of Heaven and Earth has no name
the mother of all things has a name
thus in innocence we see the beginning
in passion we see the end
two different names
for one and the same
the one we call dark
the dark beyond dark
the door to all beginnings
Steven’s seems like it makes more sense and is easier to understand. That’s the problem with it! After reading countless translations, sifting through the Chinese and reading the commentary of famous Chinese philosophers the only thing that has become clear to me is just how unclear the Tao Te Ching is. Some passages tend to be easier to follow than others, but even with the easy ones the meaning changes over time (as you change).
Anyhow, I think this is a good way to start this blog. If you have any thoughts or comments about this (or any) passage of the Tao Te Ching, I’d love to hear about it in the comments.
Very cool. I perfect first step for this blog. Can’t wait to see the push hands video. I’ll pass the time by dusting off and re-reading my tao te ching!
The push hands video is post #0.
It’s on here.
Oh! I’m running to it now! So much for my ability to pay attention…
i know its mostly about push hands but some bjj would be cool to learn
Cool. I’ll be posting about both styles.
Completely awesome. I read the book in one sitting.
Also, I commented on your youtube video.
It’s a book you can read over and over again (and over and over
). I still get little nuggets of insight out of it. It’s crazy.
Looking forward to the next post, brother. Hint hint hint….
Better late than never! Getting the website up was really the first step to me getting a regular class going. I finally have that going as of last week, so I’ll be blogging regularly now with clips from class or videos I find around the web.