Strong reccomendation - Thomas Cleary's "Awakening To The Tao," translation of Liu I-Ming's work. It's a lot of pithy observations, inclined to people used to Taoist practice, but there's also some darned good advice period.
@Xenofact the work i'm familiar with is his translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra, Flower Ornament Sutra. his translation reads beautifully, unlike some translations of ancient texts. he gets the poetry of the visionary so that the text really does "open a world", as Paul Ricoeur says of writing. totally immersive.
@holon42 for me it's his Taoist works. He got some stuff right others hadn't (Golden Flower) and brought a lot of unseen work to the English-speaking world.
@Xenofact oh, i forgot about the Golden Flower, it's somewhere around here, yes. beautiful book, had a big influence on me back in the 60s. i'll have to hunt it down and have another look.
@holon42 The Cleary Translation is from a MUCH better source and is much more accurate.
@Xenofact yes, that's the one i have.
@holon42 I was only aware of the 90's translation!
@Xenofact i just looked at my library and can't find it, of course. maybe i'm misremembering the translator, could be, it's been awhile. anyway, great book. good practice too.
@Xenofact just checked Amazon. yes, i'm misremembering. my copy looked nothing like thst, and it was between 74 and 78 that i read it, so...
@Xenofact ah, it was the Wilhelm translation. just found it on Amazon too. different cover then.
thanks for the info. since i can't find my copy, i'll get the Cleary translation.
@holon42 Cleary's is far superior, he used a different copy, and made less assumptions. WELL worth a buy. I keep spares and may write a commentary.
@Xenofact it's on my list for the next book purchase.
@Xenofact oh GF reading was in the 70s actually, while an undergrad. i seem to recall that Cleary was teaching at a university out west, Calgary, Saskatchewan, cannot recall.
@holon42 Would love to hear any thoughts you have!