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What do you think about Lao Tzu and the Dao De Djing?

From the lens List of Lao Tse quotes from the Tao Te Ching.

  • dani Jan 5, 2012 @ 3:11 pm | delete
    we might know and agree with what we read and learn , but do we apply it in our daily life.?
    if not this is your task.do we USE it? or its just enter in one ear to exit in the other one.
  • rosco Sep 20, 2011 @ 11:19 pm | delete
    better to be right? or better to be happy?
  • Tyler J Aug 12, 2011 @ 3:31 am | delete
    That is the level the Scholar Warrior must address. Our thinking, aging, urges, our wonder, our need to find a reason for our existence, our internal questions in finding ourselves, our mortality, will always need examining. Because these questions exist, there will always be a need for Tao in our future.....So Ciara Ellis, I know you post out of wanting to preserve a notion of what Tao is/ what Tao was, that by understanding what the Old Tao is you can help others in understanding it today. in a sense you are right to study and know the ancients. They will also be the first to tell you that you as well as I also have the answers and can/ will find them without their specific help. whether we follow Tao is up to us, It will be there regardless, just as it was before us and will be there after us. After all it is the Tao/Dao
  • T Jackson Aug 12, 2011 @ 3:30 am | delete
    To Ciara Ellis' point, to which she makes a good one. is that she chooses to see the Tao from the older perspective. if we are to understand something we must understand its foundation. Thats why the Tao is so successful. It shows us the connection of all things. the basic foundations in nature and how they connect to what we are doing, saying, observing.
    Even Lao Tzu talked of the Tao as eternal. Look now at the chineese culture and that of eastern cultures, much like the western worlds the world that gave rise to Tao no longer exists. Most of the masters are dead. Temples made into hotels. Power lines and factories stand were sacred ground once stood. the youth want blue jeans and radios,popular songs and facebook. Despite the few who are interested in Tao they cannot practice it in the old way. in spite of their sincerest tries, they have a different outlook. Times have changed. We also must recognize Ciara Ellis that despite this fact there is a part of our lives, our bodies, that still function as a part of nature. Just as no human can alter the seasons or the orbits of planets, a primeval sense is still not changed within us by society. Yes the original Spelling you have show is correct.....and now,so too is the Authors.....Perspective is also Thought Through Tao. Things may be correct at different times and it is what The author is stating in her response.
  • karmicchristian Apr 30, 2011 @ 8:30 am | delete
    Very inspirational teachings. Thanks and good day.
  • WhoAm"I" Apr 2, 2011 @ 2:35 pm | delete
    If you think the key to the Tao/Dao is in the spelling, then I think that you are at the wrong door.
  • Ciara Ellis Mar 9, 2011 @ 5:32 pm | delete
    first off it is not the dao de djing
    the words that Lao Tzu had writtin was called the Tao Te Ching
    and any taoist would know that, i am not critisizeing what you have writtin but i do believe that Lao Tzu is a wonderful taoist and that his work should in fact be named and called what he had writtin it as
  • spirituality Mar 10, 2011 @ 2:01 am | delete
    I suggest you read up on this issue on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao_Te_Ching

    Spelling of Chinese words in western letters has varied a lot over the past two centuries and while Tao Te Ching is definitely the spelling that's most common, Sinologists (experts on China) prefer Dao De Jing.
  • Mu Mar 20, 2011 @ 6:54 pm | delete
    “To know that you do not know is the best. To pretend to know when you do not know is a disease.”
  • keepitsimple07 Apr 2, 2011 @ 12:46 am | delete
    hi Mu,
    to not know = ignorance.
    so Lao Tzu's quote reads: To know that you are ignorant is the best. To pretend to know when you are ignorant is a disease.!!

    makes sense?

    best regards,
    Venkat
  • Eden Williams Mar 28, 2011 @ 4:46 pm | delete
    A taoist is also not concerned with labels or words as a definition. It is merely a road sign, a means of which it point to the end but not the end itself.
  • I am Me May 4, 2011 @ 2:20 am | delete
    Anyone who believes Taoism as a religion is a fool. Anyone who begins a sentence with the words, "first off," is repetitive and wastes time. And since you cast the first stone, you neglect proper english with no periods or capitalizations, you use run-on sentences and you also misspelled the word, "written" twice.
    "Respond intelligently even to unintelligent treatment."
  • vastawake Jun 14, 2011 @ 11:38 am | delete
    Actually in pinyin or (pigeon) English either spelling / translation is correct. The Chinese characters do not literally translate often over to English so literally and the earlier translations into English Dao de Jing more commonly reflect the correct Chinese phonetic pronouncian of the words. But like is stated in most Taoist literature, the Tao and it's concepts are something that is beyond words and to try to explain it, we always lose meaning. We find Tao in everyday experience and in meditaton and inside each of ourselves, not in symbols, letters and translations.
  • CrypticAzn Aug 3, 2011 @ 10:44 pm | delete
    Ditto what spirituality said. As an Asian, I know it as "Dao De Jing", and Taoism as "Daoism". The spoken word/translation at times, is lost along the way... The same thing often occurs with country names, i.e., Italy vs. Italia. Maps & globes in the US call it "Italy", but in Italy, they know it by another name -- it's close, but not quite the same. Make sense?
  • bird Feb 23, 2011 @ 3:06 am | delete
    I would give anything 2 have been able 2 listen 2 this wisdom back then but I am grateful 2 be able read and learn it now
  • Margo_Arrowsmith Feb 4, 2011 @ 6:10 pm | delete
    Respond intelligently to unintelligent treatment is a great one for today
  • Treasures-By-Brenda Feb 2, 2011 @ 7:47 am | delete
    I love these quotes. "Respond intelligently even to unintelligent treatment" would be a favorite for sure!
  • SereneSea Dec 10, 2010 @ 10:43 pm | delete
    So much wisdom and inspiration in the quotes. Just reading it, motivates you.
  • monarch13 Dec 4, 2010 @ 2:09 pm | delete
    Great spiritual resource; Blessed!
  • scar4 Nov 4, 2010 @ 9:50 pm | delete
    As a Chinese, I appreciate your love of traditional Chinese culture and I have cited your lens as resources in my "Tai Chi Chuan: Gracefulness, Balance and Health " lens. You don't know how grateful I am for your efforts to present us this cool stuff.

    Best Regards,

    scar4
  • Pukeko Oct 28, 2010 @ 7:16 am | delete
    Fantastic. I think my favorite was: He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough. Blessed by a Squidoo angel.
  • Jamie L Gowda Oct 26, 2010 @ 10:57 pm | delete
    Amazing, it really has started to cahnge my way of thinking, thanks to Dr. Wayne Dyer and "Excuses no More'" Life seems to be getting easier, great words of wisdom!!:)
  • GabrielaFargasch Oct 17, 2010 @ 7:58 am | delete
    Great lens! I first learned about the Tao when I read "Change Your Thoughts Change Your Life" by Wayne Dyer....... It was the best book I've ever read!
  • steveffeo Oct 6, 2010 @ 6:25 am | delete
    Beautiful lens every quote really makes you think. Read the Way of Life a few years back time to dig it out again.
    Blessed by an angel
  • Sep 11, 2010 @ 6:47 pm | delete
    Great spirituality and philosophy is in "The Way". I know an author that has written an interpretation of the Tao Te Ching and I read and reread it all the time. Great stuff! In fact, I created a lens about it.
  • ngrimshawe Jul 9, 2010 @ 3:18 pm | delete
    Ever since I read Wayne Dyer's book I have been learning more and more about Loa Tse. Thanks for sharing some much here.
  • garyr_h Mar 9, 2010 @ 12:15 am | delete
    Lao Tse has been a favorite of mine ever since I ran across him while researching for philosophy class back in college. He definitely has some great things to say when it comes to life and all around wisdom.
  • Andromache Nov 23, 2009 @ 12:14 pm | delete
    This is a wonderful lens with great inspirational thoughts! Thanks for sharing these and for blessing my lens, the Zen Room http://www.squidoo.com/zenroom, Have a great thanksgiving!
  • kaivalya Oct 30, 2009 @ 8:22 am | delete
    gr8 to all
  • MandMx Oct 29, 2009 @ 2:24 pm | delete
    Read this in college. Really interesting stuff. Do you have a resource with the Chinese and the English side by side??
  • Sep 7, 2009 @ 5:42 pm | delete
    Glad to see a quality lens on the Tao. I have a book translation by a world renown author, Stephen F Kaufman, that I read constantly like my own bible. It's called "The Living Tao - Meditations on the Tao Te Ching To Empower Your Life". In fact, I was so impressed by the author's words, I have decided to use some of the verse in designing some of my greeting cards on my Zazzle Gallery. http://www.zazzle.com/northwestphotos
  • MiaBellezza Aug 30, 2009 @ 9:20 pm | delete
    Oh the Lao Tse Quotes are just wonderful and all so true and sublime! 5* and favorited.

    I shall continue to refer to this lens for inspiration.
  • Janelle Jul 29, 2009 @ 6:31 am | delete
    Loved your lens - thanks Katinka. :-)

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I'm a webmaster and student of religion and spirituality. See my website on religion and spirituality: www.katinkahesselink.net or my spiritual blog: All... more »

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