The Way of Chuang Tzu - Softcover

Merton, Thomas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0811201031 ISBN 13: 9780811201032

Publisher: New Directions, 1969

Synopsis

Working from existing translations, Thomas Merton composed a series of personal versions from his favorites among the classic sayings of Chuang Tzu, the most spiritual of the Chinese philosophers.

Chuang Tzu, who wrote in the fourth and third centuries B.C., is the chief authentic historical spokesman for Taoism and its founder Lao Tzu (a legendary character known largely through Chuang Tzu's writings). Indeed it was because of Chuang Tzu and the other Taoist sages that Indian Buddhism was transformed, in China, into the unique vehicle we now call by its Japanese name ― Zen. The Chinese sage abounds in wit, paradox, satire, and shattering insight into the true ground of being. Father Merton, no stranger to Asian thought, brings a vivid, modern idiom to the timeless wisdom of Tao. Illustrated with early Chinese drawings.

About this title

About the Author:

Thomas Merton (1915-1968) entered the Cistercian Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky, following his conversion to Catholicism and was ordained in 1949. During the 1960s, he was increasingly drawn into a dialogue between Eastern and Western religions and was actively engaged with domestic issues of war and racism.

Review:

“A most admirable introduction to his less known but important source book of Taoism.”
- Alan Watts, New York Times Book Review

About this edition

• Publisher: New Directions
• Publication date: 1969
• ISBN 10: 0811201031
• ISBN 13: 9780811201032
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 160