Tao Te Ching - A Perspective

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There are only a few books ever written that speaks the truth so simply yet so elegantly as Tao Te Ching! The wisdom of Lao Tzu is eternal, but may sound "lofty yet impractical", as Lao Tzu himself says, to the lay people.

The author makes an effort to demystify the great wisdom and makes it an easy to understand, practical guide for anyone willing to start their own spiritual journey.

However, the author believes that spirituality shouldn't be something practiced by a select few seekers. His pragmatic approach to life, will be understandable to anyone of any profession. As he says "there's nothing called 'supernatural'. Everything within nature is natural! Whatever we do not understand, we just call it supernatural"

Tao means "The way". The book is an invitation to anyone willing to walk on it, and discover the treasures of one's own heart!

Swami Bodhidharma is a practicing mystic for over 9 years. From a staunch atheist, he became a seeker after an experience in 2013. He is an osho sannyasin and learned from many other masters.

However, he mostly walked alone, free from influence of any organizations.

Through the book Tao te ching, he shares his own experience and how anyone. with strong discipline, can attain the same.

In my years of study and practice, I've tried to read about as many cultures as I possibly could. From Upanishads to ancient Egypt or old Norse spirituality, I studied as much as I possibly could. Each of these cultures had great knowledge to offer. It is unfortunate that many of these have now been mostly destroyed. What I found is that, almost all of them have something very significant to offer. I tried to take whatever I found useful to me and practiced them. And they've fulfilled my life experience like nothing else.

However, since most of these cultures are now mostly destroyed, it is very difficult to write on them. What we have now are fragments. For example, the Egyptian Ankh represents Life. Not Life as we know it, but a Life that has no end. What we normally mean by 'life', is in reality just components of Life. Like our family, friends, jobs and things like that. This is our idea of life, which is very superficial. Ankh represents the underlying truth. The continuous flow of energy, that has no end or beginning. We are Life! This is the Truth we must realize.

Similarly in Norse myths, before creation began, there was only emptiness. The same emptiness Buddha talked about, and the same thing Lao Tzu calls "The Tao'. So you see, all these spiritual system speaks of the same truth, but often in symbolic way. Or in case of the Upanishads, they do speak the Truth plainly, but they don't discuss other social matters. As spiritual seekers, we must not discard any aspect of life. It is because for a long time spirituality has been associated with just sitting under a tree, doing nothing, so many people have turned away from it. In this age of knowledge, we don't need any more myths and stories. We don't need any ideals and morals. We need something that goes straight to the point and speaks the Truth exactly the way it is.

Tao Te Ching is one such book. I've yet to find any single book that is so profound yet so practical. It is a book that leaves no stone unturned. Buddhist sutras such as Diamond Sutra or Heart Sutra, also goes straight to the point, but again they speak only of the ultimate nature of things. Not matters such as politics and governance, warfare and so many other aspects of life. Lao Tzu has spoken on all of these issues that we must deal with every single day of our life. However, his words are poetic. And today, we have become so logical that we no longer understand poetry. Everything requires an explanation and logical understanding. This is why I've chosen to write on this book. This small book already has everything. All I did was to make them understandable to the contemporary reader, that's all. The hardest job was not really to write on them, but to find a good enough translation! As I compared various translations, many times I found that two translations by two different authors say totally different things! I've tried to take the translation that makes the most spiritual sense and not literal. The translations I primarily used are translations by Stephen Mitchell and Tolbert McCarroll, and a few other translations. You may read these books separately if you like. And there are many translations freely available on the internet. Just download them and do your own comparison. Also, I have joined a few chapters and made them one. It is because they more or less speak of the same thing. So to maintain the flow, I joined them and wrote on them as a single chapter.

One thing I've tried to do is to remain pragmatic as much as possible. It is pointless to have lofty philosophy which is impractical.

**Contents and Sample Pages**