Greetings Marsha, > Greetings, > > Sometimes it's great to be wrong. After reading Brian Walker's 'Hua > Hu Ching', I read his translation of 'The Tao Te Ching', and then > Stephen Mitchell's 'Tao Te Ching'. I think these translations are > wonderful, and I can imagine rereading these wonderful books for many years. > > From Stephen Mitchell's 'Tao Te Ching', a section called 'A > Conversation with Stephen Mitchell': >
I will check these books out. Just out of curiosity, are these academic translations or are the authors serious practitioners of the Tao? > " As I read and compared, I came across elements, common to all the > translations, that I know had to be wrong. For example, the Master > was always described as a "he." This seemed ridiculous to me, even > before I learned that the third-person singular pronoun in Chinese is > gender-neutral. Of all the great spiritual texts, the Tao Te Ching > is by for the most female, not in spirit but also in language. The > Tao is described as the :mother" or the "mother of the universe," and > the text even says, "Keep to the female." My solution was to > alternate the use of "he" and "she" from chapter to chapter. When > the book was published, I received hundreds of comments and letters > from women who told me how important this was to them." > (P.S., p.11) > I would recommend delving into the Shakta school of Tantra from Eastern India. > As one who read in school textbooks things like, 'The pioneers went > West taking their wives.', I am sensitive to language. I really > appreciate these modern translations. > I guess there is a lot of socio-cultural conditioning that dictates how we quantify and qualify things. > happy to be wrong, Here's wishing you all the very best in your quest and that you may be blessed by the Tao and walk the path. Regards, Dwai Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
