DATE FROM SUBJECT CODES
<deb> Wrote:
>(Deb, blushing and suitably chastised, puts on her jacket and heads to
>the library.)
>Looks like I've got some new stuff for my holiday reading list. :)
Try getting hold of a translation of _Tao Teh Ch'Ing by Lao Tzu_ a small volume
but wonderful in its explanation of Tao (pronounced Dao ) or its literal
translation _The Way_ , I find reading it before practising Tai Chi , and Chi
Kung helps me get into the right mind frame . I don't always have time to read
it fully , but it is a collection of beautiful poetic phrases , which like Zen
,a close neighbour , makes you start to see beyond the immediate meaning .
But the only true way to understand the shifting differences between "Western"
and "Eastern" philosophy is to read 19 th and Early 20th century Russian novels
.They are from a time when Russia was the meeting point of east and west , the
crossover in some of Tolstoy's works , Anna Karenina as an example , the final
suicide - more Eastern than Western - bleak despair - life becoming meaning less
- but gaining meaning from the act - a modern example of this is possibly the
final moments of _Sonatine_ - where after the Gunbattle "Beat" Takeshi's
character commits suicide ._ Crime and Punishment_ a wonderful comparison
between guilt and need , ethics and morals , which could never have been written
in Europe at the time .
>
>*sigh* Does anyone else sympathize with this feeling -- this feeling that
>I want to know *everything*, but just don't have enough hours in a day?
So many books so little time ! :>
>I remember as a kid I promised myself I'd read every book ever written or
>translated into English (I figgered one language would be enough). Now I
>want to read every book ever written. It's frustrating to so clearly
>understand that, should I live twice my allotted (sp?) life-span, I will
>never even scratch the surface. Not even if I narrow the list down to the
>"important" books and classics. Not even if I narrowed myself to the holdings
>of *one* library.
>Ah well, at least I'll never be wanting of something to read :)
>deb
Graz TheWaythatcanbeseenisnotTheWay