The Book of the Road # 62291
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The Book of the Way by Lao-Tse. Jakob Jóh. Smári and Yngvi Jóhannesson translated into Icelandic, with Yngvi Jóhannesson writing the afterword. .
"A book I have quoted more often than any other book in my writing career." - Halldór Laxness.
Lao-tzu lived in China in the 6th century BC. He was the custodian of a library early in his life. On his way out of China, in his later years, he wrote the book Tao-te-king, which has been translated into Icelandic as The Book of the Way. That book is the main text of Taoism, a Chinese philosophical tradition.
The focus of Lao-tzu's writings is Tao, the inscrutable origin and maintenance of everything, the mystery of existence. He feels that it is a gentle and benevolent power with which one must try to come into harmony. The word Tao actually means way and seems originally to denote the activity of the inscrutable on which all existence rests. At the same time, the word has come to be used for the mysterious power itself, which is always at work. Some translators have used the word "god", but it cannot be seen that Lao-tzu thinks of Tao as personal. To adopt the word Tao in translation is the least fruitful for understanding, and it seems better to give it the Icelandic name "Almighty". That word says nothing about the nature of this power, whether it is in any way personal or not, god or nature -- only that it is the root of everything, the deepest primary cause of all existence.
"A book I have quoted more often than any other book in my writing career." - Halldór Laxness.
Lao-tzu lived in China in the 6th century BC. He was the custodian of a library early in his life. On his way out of China, in his later years, he wrote the book Tao-te-king, which has been translated into Icelandic as The Book of the Way. That book is the main text of Taoism, a Chinese philosophical tradition.
The focus of Lao-tzu's writings is Tao, the inscrutable origin and maintenance of everything, the mystery of existence. He feels that it is a gentle and benevolent power with which one must try to come into harmony. The word Tao actually means way and seems originally to denote the activity of the inscrutable on which all existence rests. At the same time, the word has come to be used for the mysterious power itself, which is always at work. Some translators have used the word "god", but it cannot be seen that Lao-tzu thinks of Tao as personal. To adopt the word Tao in translation is the least fruitful for understanding, and it seems better to give it the Icelandic name "Almighty". That word says nothing about the nature of this power, whether it is in any way personal or not, god or nature -- only that it is the root of everything, the deepest primary cause of all existence.