Walking The Tao: A New Translation by William Martin

By William Martin

William Martin is one of today's leading teachers of a modern and practical approach to living the principles of "The Tao Te Ching." His best-selling books have ranged over such helpful topics as parenting, relationships, aging, care giving, forgiveness, and activism. Now he offers a new translation of "The Tao Te Ching" that has emerged from working with students around the world on a "walk through the Tao." As Martin says, "I have translated and interpreted the Tao Te Ching for thirty years and I never tire of exploring its fathomless depths. Recently I guided a group of students from several different countries through an intensive email exploration of this classic book. As part of that exploration titled Walking the Tao, I wrote a new translation especially for these fellow travelers. I wrote it from my current (2016) understanding and life situation and it emerged quickly and easily. I meant it simply as a touch point for this small group of students. However the feedback regarding this translation was so overwhelmingly positive that I have decided to incorporate it into a little e-book."

The book contains his new translation along with a brief commentary and some suggestions for personal reflection after each verse. He offers a study of the Tao that is neither an intellectual philosophical practice nor an esoteric spiritual discipline, but simply a practical way of walking through life with awareness, simplicity, and contentment. A healing message for a chaotic, frenzied, frightened world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: William Martin
• Release date: Aug 4, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370364992

William Martin

The book Swamp Angels: A Family of Limpkins started with the photographs. I live in North Florida on a lake next to a huge woods. The lake is filled with weeds and wildlife: turtles, fish, alligators, frogs, snakes, mud puppies. Some times there are eagles, ospreys, anhingas, beavers, otters, deers, raccoons, turkeys, foxes, armadillos, wild hogs. For about 5 years I took many rolls of film with my first good camera, a Canon A 2e with a Canon telephoto lens. It took gorgeous photos. I am an inexperienced amateur, and often the light was dim, or I wiggled the camera, or the canoe rocked, or the critters came right at me and the telephoto would not focus. I did see wonderful things following wildlife around the lake but many photos were not sharp. Most of the pictures were taken with Fuji 600 film and look great on a well printed page. Very warm colors.So my dear friend Carolyn Aidman was looking at the photos about the limpkin family, placed in chronological order. She said that it would make a good children's book. I said fine, but only if she would be my partner. Many years pass. Voila. We both have done some writing and editing but this was very hard in every way. We both have always loved nature, and I was a biology major for two years, but neither of us has a deep knowledge of science. We got great help from limpkin expert Dana Bryan PHD, who lives in my town of Tallahassee. He reviewed the manuscript for scientific accuracy and also added more interesting facts about limpkins.It is a wonderful world.William Martin

Book preview

Chapter 1

Talking about a path

is not the same as

walking that path.

The Tao contains both

the talk, and the walk.

Concepts are not the same as the reality itself.

The Tao contains both

the concept and the reality.

Our thinking mind separates,

Our Tao Mind unites,

Yet our thinking mind can be the gate

that opens into our Tao Mind.

This gate is often hidden

by the confusion of culture,

but it remains waiting always.

This first poem contains one of the most often quoted lines from the book, a line that is sometimes translated as: The tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao. The Chinese character Tao can be translated in many ways. It literally means a path, a road, or a way. But it also represents the mysterious and natural Way the cosmos unfolds. Lao-Tzu begins by stating the impossibility of pinning this mystery down. The minute we put it into words, it slips away from us.

The whole chapter deals with the slipperiness of concepts and with what seem to be two functions of the mind. On the one hand the mind has the ability to experience the deep mystery of life; on the other, it fills itself with constant yammering thoughts that actually hide this experience. It seems our thinking mind can be a gateway that is either closed or open. I call the deeper mind function, Tao Mind and the everyday functioning mind, conditioned mind. It’s an overly simplistic distinction but it helps me understand the point I think Lao-Tzu is making. Both minds are, of course, part of the Tao.

It is possible to sense the subtle ways we shift between the mind that churns out ideas, opinions, fears, hopes, stories, and concepts; and the mind which simply rests and allows life to flow through it. Noticing which mind is present at a given moment helps us more consciously make this shift.

Which mind is really you?

Where did all the chatter in your mind originate?

How might you notice when you are caught in your conditioned mind?

How might you shift to the Tao Mind?

Chapter 2

We can’t speak of beauty without knowing ugliness.

We can’t speak of virtue without knowing vice.

We can’t speak of life without knowing death.

We cannot achieve without knowing failure.

We cannot find silence without knowing noise.

Therefore why do we strive and strain

to keep things in place?

Much better to enjoy our work,

with no thought of reward;

to enjoy our achievements,

with no thought of honor; and our life,

with no thought of clinging.

This chapter introduces the essential duality of life. Everything gives rise to its opposite and nothing can exist separate from this paradox. Yin and Yang are inseparable. One part of Newton’s Law of physics echoes this theme, saying that, for every force applied, there is an equal and opposite reaction force.

The second part of the chapter is a somewhat separate theme, but grows out of the first. If force always implies a reaction force, the question becomes, Is our habit of using force really an effective way of living? This is where Lao-Tzu introduces the concept of wu-wei or effortless doing. It is one of the most difficult concepts in the Tao Te Ching for our culture to understand. It implies a way of doing that is effective primarily because it doesn’t constellate the resistance that always accompanies conditioned ways of doing things. It doesn't mean inert inaction. It means action that emerges naturally and flows without second thoughts or resistance.

Whenever you make an intention of doing something, notice how the resistance to that very something takes form. Don't give the resistance power by concentrating on overcoming it. Simply return to the original willingness to act along a certain path and let the action flow naturally.

Where do you tend to expend more effort than necessary?

Where and when do you notice a feeling of resistance to your intentions or plans?

What might be the down side of exerting, will power?

Chapter 3

To value wealth and status

is to honor robbery and fraud.

This creates a country of thieves.

The Tao is a path of quiet minds;

a way of simple living.

It empties us of desires

and fills us with contentment.

We are therefore not fooled

by the empty words of consumerism,

nor led astray by clever propaganda.

Our life becomes pure, simple, and effortless.

Lao-Tzu continues to twist our cultural norms around. He advocates a radical simplicity and lack of ambition that seems to be anti-progress, even anti-education. The sage’s job, he indicates, is to help people stop their conditioned way of thinking about happiness and wealth. He would have us examine the belief that achievement, status, power, and possessions are the stuff of the good life; that in seeking and finding these things we will be happy and safe.

This is a difficult concept for our conditioned mind to accept.