I am furthering my Taoism practice right now, with qigong and also some Taoist reading. From 1994, when I moved to Los Angeles, until it closed a few months ago, I frequented a used book store on Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica.
/Angelino mode on: The place is across from Jerry's liquor (with the big old fashioned sign. Around 26th street. /Angelino mode off
This bookstore had a section on Eastern philosophy and I got in the habit in the mid 1990s of buying every translation or thoughtful analysis of the I Ching, Tao Te Ching, and other texts. So now I have a collection of unread Taoist works to read and refer to. Right now one of the books I am reading is a translation of the Tao Te Ching, by Stephen Mitchell, ISBN 0-06-016001-7
Oooh, I thought the book was out of print, but found it. Here is the link I shall be buying another copy.
I found particular relevance in the third and fourth stanzas of the chapter I read just now:
When the great Tao is forgotten,
goodness and piety appear.
When the body's intelligence declines,
cleverness and knowledge step forth.
When there is no peace in the family,
filial piety begins.
When the country falls into chaos,
patriotism is born.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Monday, December 15, 2008
Purposing Blogs
Mirroring a post on my new Tumblr blog, http://shawntom.tumblr.com/ I am posting this to set out the purpose of my various blogs. While I am figuring which will work for me, and frankly, just becoming a "blogger," which I never thought I would do. But maybe I'm just a person who has blogs? That sounds better. Anyhow, this blog will be for me to talk about me and family etc. See you soon!
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