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 i like Cleary's work too.
@holon42 Would love to hear any thoughts you have!
@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 it's on my list for the next book purchase.
@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.