But there are also many places in his text that are inaccurate to the point of misconstruing the core concepts of the belief system. The Tao Te Ching clarifies the concepts of Taoism, an ancient school of philosophy that continues to be relevant today.

The Second Book of the Tao by Stephen Mitchell | Goodreads The Second Book of the Tao by Stephen Mitchell | Goodreads

And when I come to a difficult part, I slow down, I focus my attention, I barely move, the knife finds its way, until suddenly the flesh falls apart on its own. However, if I had to choose, I'd rather read a translation that is accurate and discover the emotional resonance on my own. Tao Te Ching (pronounced, more or less, Dow Deh Jing) can be translated as The Book of the Immanence of the Way or The Book of the Way and of How It Manifests Itself in the World or, simply, The Book of the Way. It would be easy to be skeptical to think that anyone could follow up on Lao Tzu's masterpiece with a gem of their own but The Second Book of the Tao manages to do just that! Mitchell’s meditations and risky reimagining of the original texts are brilliant and liberating, not least because they keep catching us off-guard, opening up the heavens where before we saw a roof.The Tao Te Ching is the route in itself, the path to emptying the human mind of ambitions, schemes and desires and allow it to be flooded with the smoothness of humility and the exhilarating liberation of a simple life.

The Second Book of the Tao – Stephen Mitchell

I am very happy with this Kindle version, especially as I have quick reference to Kindle's dictionary facility for those 'lesser-used' words that appear here and there in the book. Lao Tzu (Chinese: 老子; pinyin: Lǎozǐ; Wade-Giles: Laosi; also Laozi, Lao Tse, Lao Tu, Lao-Tsu, Laotze, Laosi, Lao Zi, Laocius, Lao Ce, and other variations) was a mystic philosopher of ancient China, best known as the author of the Tao Te Ching (often simply referred to as Laozi). I’ve been banging on about this one for years to my fiancé and she just tells me I’m a lazy fu… sod!Clearly, he never imagined someone like Prince Wen-hui’s cook: an artist of ox flesh, a saint of the bloody carcass.