Deeply Spiritual Ideas Expressed in Poetic Beauty

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	• The Way of Chuang Tzu (Shambhala Library) Thomas Merton Shambhala, 2004 - 192 pages average customer review:based on 18 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Superb Work

This work is incredibly fascinating. What Merton did here was craft a translation of already existing translations, picking out those sayings he held close to heart. Now after Lao Tzu, as far as early Chinese Taoism is concerned, follows Chuang Tzu concerning his impact and influence on the "religion." Like Socrates exists largely because of the writings of Plato, so too did Lao Tzu exist as a result of many of Chuang Tzu's writings. This work, or any work involving Chuang Tzu, is a terrific friend for anyone endeavoring to study the Tao Te Ching. Thomas Merton keeps Chuang Tzu's poetic approach intact throughout this piece, while at the same time even he would confess (I'd suspect) that he was giving his own personal version to us readers. In fact he alludes to this in the introduction of this fine book. The connotations being not necessarily word for word literal accounts.

Chuang Tzu was a fascinating, prolific, and witty ancient Taoist master. One could even go so far as to say he was essentially a Zen master. And that Zen masters are Taoist masters. Of course the whole point of this review being----

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The Way of Thomas Merton

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I used this as a text in a highschool class on meditation. I chose it after looking at all the translations I could get my hands on (my Chinese, alas! is not yet up to reading the original.) Other translations were sometimes more literal and accurate, and some did a better job of conveying Chuang's brilliant word-play, but the overall impression they left of Chuang was either of a pedant (the older translations) or a sneering, bitter stand-up comic (the newer ones). This is much more deeply untrue to Chuang-Tzu than any passing inaccuracy or missed word-play could ever be.

There is only one way in which Merton is more qualified than Chuang's other interpreters: he, like Chuang, was a serious, long-time contemplative, a person who spent hours a day at meditation and prayer. But this qualification seems to me to have trumped all others. Merton and Chuang were brothers: no matter that they were two millenia and half a world apart. Somewhere right now they are walking together at a river's edge, watching the fish leap.

"I know the joy of fishes
In the river
Through my own joy, as I go walking
Along the same river"

My students, by the way -- rather to my surprise -- loved this book as much as I did.

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Seeds of great wisdom

If you like the Tao Te Ching, you will love this book.

The work of Chuang Tzu continues in the tradition of the Tao, and also dates back over 2,300 years. So this work has survived the test of time.

This book is a wisdom classic. Some aspects I love even more than the Tao Te Ching.

There are great stories about and by Chuang Tzu, and even Lao Tzu. You sense the feisty nature of Chuang Tzu. I particularly love the story The Joy of Fishes, which I gave to a few people in the office. They in turn copied it and distributed it to friends. Judge for yourself.

Chuang Tzu and Huih Tzu were crossing Hao river by the dam.

Chuang said "See how the free the fishes leap and dart, that is their happiness."

Hui replied "Since you are not a fish, how do you know what makes fishes happy?"

Chuang said "Since you are not I, how can you possibly know that I do not know what makes fishes happy?"

Hui argued " If I, not being you, cannot know what you know, It follows that you not being a fish cannot know what they know."

Chuang said "Wait a minute! Let us get back to the original question. What you asked me was 'How do you know what makes fishes happy? From the term of your question you evidently know that I know what makes fishes happy."

"I know the joy of fishes in the river
Through my own joy as I walk along the bank."

The Owl and The Phoenix is a short but extremely effective story. There is a story about a special monkey. Some of these stories have twists you would not predict.

The best story, I think is the Inner Laws, which seems to concentrate a few concepts from the Tao into a single powerful statement.

As you read this book, if you are like me, you feel as if you are in a darkened room, and you flick the light switch on. Instead of being in a darkened room, you are in a stadium, and as you watch you see all these lights coming on providing a much greater degree of light than you imagined possible.

That said, there are portions of this book I find difficult to understand, and I need to give these a little more thought.
The other vignettes of wisdom are beyond excellent and worthy of the Tao.

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The perfect companion to the _Tao Te Ching_.

This little book is the perfect companion to Lao-Tzu's _Tao Te Ching_. Thomas Merton assembled it with admirable spiritual insight and sensitivity. Here is the path of the ancient sages.

It is not a "how to" manual, for, "He who knows does not speak, and he who speaks does not know." And yet, this book somehow indirectly gives you a sense of what it is to be centered in the Tao. You get a fleeting sense of what it is like to live a life of such centerness and simplicity that it is difficult to tell where your own consciousness ends and the currents of the cosmos begin. This is the state of Wu Wei, effortless action in complete resonance with the Tao.

I suppose that what I found so refreshing during this rereading was the confirmation that men of wealth, station, and learning are not to be admired. They are the least enlightened of men. Indeed, the true man of Tao will live humble in simplicity and obscurity- and yet such beings are the true wellsprings of cosmic harmony between heaven and earth....

This gem-like Shambhalla edition is especially nice, for it can easily fit into any pocket.

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Deeply Spiritual Ideas Expressed in Poetic Beauty

Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk, read and compared several different translations of the writings of Chuang Tzu over a five year period. He made notes and from them created a free verse style interpretation of various passages that he liked and were meaningful for him. From those notes this book was born. As a monk, he experienced various states of spiritual being, feeling, and thinking, that are unique to individuals who withdraw into a contemplative life. Every passage and chapter is packed with unique stories, parables, anecdotes which allow the reader to view life ... existence ... from different perspectives. Some passages reinforce already existing ideas. thoughts, and beliefs, others create new ways of "seeing". The writing is poetic and very insightful. This book is an absolute pleasurable reading experience. Some examples below will provide a taste of the contents of this extraordinairy book.

Here is an example of this writing, "When Knowledge Went North":

"Knowledge wandered north
Looking for Tao, over the Dark Sea
And up the Invisible Mountain.
There on the mountain he met
Nondoing, the Speechless One" ...

Another example, "In My End is My Beginning":
"But he who obeys Nature returns through Form and
Formless to the Living,
And in the Living
Joins the unbegun Beginnning" ...

If the reader enjoys deep thinking and feeling, contemplating life in all its myriad aspects then this book is highly recommended. Erika Borsos (erikab93)

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reviews: 1, page 2, 3, 4

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