Audio Book: Dao De Jing:
A Philosophical Translation
Translated by Roger T. Ames and David L. Hall (Audio Partners)

Reviewed by Erick Mertz

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Works like the Dao de Jing are rare and perhaps precious for their ability to act as crossovers between religious, philosophical and poetic texts. Mankind throughout history has created only a few dozen works possessing of such transcendentalism. Over two thousand years ago the tome of ancient Eastern wisdom and culture, sometimes referred to as The Way of Life, was written, and in its lifetime it has undergone countless translations and interpretations. Never lost, however, among these numerous reorganizations, is the text's preoccupation with cultivating spiritual excellence. The Dao de Jing is an everlasting monument to moral behavior and can be read as a guide to responsible, meditative living.

The recent edition by Audio Partners is derived from the Guodian Bamboo Texts, discovered in 1993 by archaeologists in China. This represents the oldest known version of the Dao de Jing. Translators Roger T. Ames, professor at University of Hawaii, and David L. Hall are recognized authorities on Eastern religions whose presence lends credibility to the sacred words. The reading by Ralph Lowenstein is mystical and will likely provoke more thought than any listening now available. For a text of such aged depth, the Dao de Jing still lends itself to the most modern of appetites; broken into bite size koans and fortune cookie style nuggets of wisdom, it is equally affecting in both small and large portions.

© 2003 - Erick Mertz