In this episode we unpack the ancient Chinese classic, "The Tao Te Ching" by Lao Tzu from circa 400 BCE

This book explores...

*The art of not over-doing

*The cyclical nature of all things

*Acting in accordance with the nature of reality

Host: Zach Stehura  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠UnpackingIdeas.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Guest: Amon Greene amonra16.ag@gmail.com

Intro Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Polyenso⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Free PDF of the book: Red Pine Translation

Resources Mentioned

Tao: The Watercourse Way by Alan Watts (book)

Trying Not to Try by Edward Slingerland (book)

Taoism: An Essential Guide by Eva Wong (book)

Timestamps

0:00 Introduction

4:51 Amon’s background 

10:10 Historical Context of the Tao Te Ching

11:50 Confucianism vs. Taoism

15:38 Wu Wei

22:25 Going with the flow

27:26 De

37:22 Wu Wei Government

39:56 Wu Wei vs. Flow

42:33 Restraint of taking action

46:29 “The Tao that can be spoken is not the Eternal Tao”

51:10 Mistaking the word for the thing 

55:37 Yin and Yang

1:03:15 The cyclical nature of everything

1:10:55 Wrapping up

1:15:09 Outro