Tao (The Way)
“Ron Hogan’s paraphrase of the Tao Te Ching captures the spirit of the Chinese classic as pragmatic advice in a modern American vernacular.”—Widdershins
“If you can talk about it, it ain’t Tao.
If it has a name, it’s just another thing.Tao doesn’t have a name.
Names are for ordinary things.Stop wanting stuff. It keeps you from seeing what’s real.
When you want stuff, all you see are things.These two statements have the same meaning.
Figure them out, and you’ve got it made.”
Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching has been one of the world’s central philosophical texts for more than two millennia. Many writers have been inspired to translate this work into English, but few versions are as accessible to the modern reader as Ron Hogan’s freewheeling adaptation. More than 100,000 people have gotten a new outlook on life by downloading this book for free—find out what’s in it for you!
Over the years, the most popular format of this Tao Te Ching has been a PDF designed by Jeff Wischkaemper, but it is also available in several other formats:
- plain ASCII (.txt)
- an awesome gadget, or widget if you prefer, developed by Simon Hudson for iGoogle or your website’s home page
- a .PRC formatted file for Palm OS handhelds
- another PDF, also prepared by Jeff, suitable for two-sided printing, followed by folding and stapling, or slicing and binding, into your own booklet
- iPod-ready text, created by “frantik” of the Swiftly Tilting blog. This one’s a zipped file; after you unzip it, copy the The Tao Te Ching folder to the Notes folder on your iPod.
- a series of artworks by Irene Elder; you could almost view it as a set of inspirational posters.
Find out how you can distribute this e-book freely once you’ve downloaded your copy. (Short version: Keep my name on it, don’t change a word, and don’t try to make any money off it, even from—especially from—a printed edition.) If you link to this page from your site, please Likewise, if you want to mirror the file for others to read or download for free, just let me know (and please do link back to this source page).
This version of the Tao Te Ching is free, but your donations are welcome. Just click on the PayPal button—and thanks for your support, whether it’s in cash or kind words!
