Category Archives: Taoism

BOOK: “Facets of Taoism” ed. by H. Welch & A. Seidel

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Facets of Taoism - Essays in Chinese ReligionFacets of Taoism – Essays in Chinese Religion by Holmes and Anna Seidel (Eds.) Welch
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Google Books Site

This is a collection of nine scholarly essays written for a conference. As such, it won’t be of interest to most readers because it gets deep in the weeds. For readers unfamiliar with this type of book, the problems for a general reader are numerous. First, the book was assembled with a readership of experts in mind, and — therefore — assumes a fairly in-depth understanding of all aspects of Taoism. Second, the contributors are “inch wide & mile deep” specialists and often focus on topics that will only be of interest to a niche readership (topics like, “how the Taoist canon is organized”) and there is no attempt at systematic coverage to achieve a complete overview of the subject — i.e. it’s siloed. Finally, at times one feels as though one is reading as much footnote as text — i.e. it’s not organized for smooth intake.

That said, as scholarly books go, the readability is reasonably high. Also, it does have the advantages of a scholarly book (e.g. every source is clearly cited.)

If you have some depth of understanding of Taoism and are seeking niche insights, you may find this book is for you. If you don’t, it will probably give you headaches.

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PROMPT: Good Person

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What does it mean to be a good person?

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I don’t know that it has a meaning. I tend to consider dualities in Taoist terms. Every Yang has a seed of Yin; the Yang flows into Yin and back again.

PROMPT: Reason

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Daily writing prompt
Do you think everything happens for a reason?
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No. I do not think everything happens for a reason, but I do think it is beneficial to see the positive in challenging life events. Both approaches serve to keep one from feeling victimized by life, but the latter doesn’t require that one believe in some grand architect twiddling the dials on one’s life events — and isn’t a Panglossian rationalization.

Your Own Way

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PROMPT: Erase

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Daily writing prompt
If you could erase one trend from history, what would it be?
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I’ll preface my comment by saying this kind of thinking is fraught with peril. The law of unintended consequences makes knowing whether one’s counterfactual would produce the intended results impossible.

For example, in the US (and some other countries of the developed world,) there has been a proclivity to run up massive debt — both budget and trade. In the US, servicing debt has passed defense spending and (given current trends) will surpass entitlements to become the largest component of the Federal deficit. I am among those who think this will probably end catastrophically, given the complete lack of effort to correct the situation. (Jaw-jacking and firing civil servants whose salaries make up a pittance in comparison to interest payments — while building yet more debt-inducing budgets — has [unsurprisingly] not proved useful.)

So, this is definitely a trend I wish didn’t exist, but almost certainly the American and world economies would not be as well off to date as they are had this trend been kept in check, and it’s possible something might be figured out that allows a softer landing than I presently expect. The old man lost his horse. Good news? Bad news? Who’s to say?

Riverbend [Haiku]

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canoe seems doomed
 to hit a midstream boulder:
  current-swept offline.

PROMPT: Chapter

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Daily writing prompt
What’s a chapter of your life you’d title “The Hard Years” — and what got you through it?
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Chapter 7. Chapter 8.

NOTE: Incidentally, I would not title a chapter of my memoirs “The Hard Years,” so as to avoid the assumption that that was when I worked in porn. People would either skip said chapter… or skip to it.

PROMPT: Inspired

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Daily writing prompt
Who are you most inspired by?
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Those who reached the escape velocity necessary to truly write their own stories: e.g. Drukpa Kunley, Diogenes the Cynic, Hánshān, Ikkyū, Socrates, and the various Avadhuta.

PROMPT: Happiness

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Daily writing prompt
What’s a common misconception people have about happiness?
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That it’s a worthy object of pursuit, as if it is a stable state. I think both the Taoists and the Buddhists have instructive views on the matter. In Taoism, the Yang contains the seed of Yin and one flows inexorably into the other. In this view, the rock bottom worst life has to offer is a time to rejoice because the light will follow. Whereas, when one thinks life is the best it can get, a fall will come. As for Buddhism, our happiness may reflect an illusion that we’ve momentarily achieved our desires, when desires are inherently great white whales. Aim for contentment. Experience happiness when it comes.

BOOK: “Saiweng Lost His Horse” [塞翁失马] by Qixia Yu

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Saiweng Lost His Horse 塞翁失马: A Story about Life and Values (Bilingual Chinese Idiom Stories)Saiweng Lost His Horse 塞翁失马: A Story about Life and Values by Qixia Yu
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Author Amazon Page

This bilingual illustrated book tells the famous Taoist story often referred to as “good news? bad news? who’s to say?” (or words to that effect.) The story, originally contained in the Huainanzi (i.e. The Book of Master Huainan,) shows a wise old farmer subjected to the ups and downs of life. The old man’s neighbors are always surprised when the farmer neither celebrates positive events or bemoans negative ones — realizing the truth contained in the taiji symbol (yin / yang symbol) that the seed of the light is always in the dark and vice versa.

The book contains text in Simplified Chinese, pinyin, and English. It also has pretty illustrations. It’s very kid’s book-like (i.e. short, illustrated, and formatted as such;) though the story, itself, is not particularly juvenile.

I was surprised when this would not open on my laptop “Kindle for PC” reader as another book in this series had. (I like to read illustrated works (and Chinese writings) that way as it’s generally easier to take in than on my phone or Kindle because the big screen is easy to see and enlarge as necessary. That said, I was quite pleased with the ease with which I could magnify the text on my Kindle device. I had none of the frustration reading it on Kindle that I frequently have had with graphic novels and such in the past.

I enjoyed reading this story and found it quite helpful to me as a Chinese language learner. I’d highly recommend it for those learning to read Chinese.

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