TOTJO Book Club Discussion on The Force - A Jedi Reading of the Tao Te Ching (

Thought I’d set up this thread for discussion on the book “The Force - A Jedi reading of the Tao Te Ching.”

All those interested can feel free to post their thoughts/reactions on the book (which is available for free in the TOTJO Library) here and participate in discussion about the book.

We’d set up a tentative “deadline” of January 7th by which to read the first 20 sections/chapters of the book, with a deadline for future chapters to be decided at a later date.

Hope you’re enjoying the book and I look forward to hearing your thoughts and to having a lively discussion based on those thoughts! Happy reading Jedi readers!

Good luck with that ...

The difficulty you are going to encounter is that by doing a critical reading of the Tao Te Ching, one is inclined to read it rationally, to 'understand' what is written. That isn't going to be of much benefit ; the Tao Te Ching is metaphoric, but one has to wait - to be in an experience - to find out what it is the metaphor of... Just reading it from cover to cover, it can't be understood.

That is why it is a fundamental lesson for Jedi, but not so much for an 'exercise in literary criticism'. The 'chapters' are in numerical order, but they do not follow one from the other. Why might that be ?

I'm looking forward to it. It's a very timely reflection right now for me, and interesting to work with in the new terminology, and it will be good to hear what is resonating with others as they read through it. Thanks, Lykeios, for suggesting it!

I hope you all enjoy it. Are you guys going to do a voice discussion or a text discussion?

Rosalyn J wrote: I hope you all enjoy it. Are you guys going to do a voice discussion or a text discussion?

Well, perhaps a combination of the two.

Someone (I think Zenchi) has suggested it might make a good topic for one of the Sunday Cantina hangouts.

It’ll depend on if anyone is interested in doing a voice chat discussion.

Alexandre Orion wrote: Good luck with that ...

The difficulty you are going to encounter is that by doing a critical reading of the Tao Te Ching, one is inclined to read it rationally, to 'understand' what is written. That isn't going to be of much benefit ; the Tao Te Ching is metaphoric, but one has to wait - to be in an experience - to find out what it is the metaphor of... Just reading it from cover to cover, it can't be understood.

That is why it is a fundamental lesson for Jedi, but not so much for an 'exercise in literary criticism'. The 'chapters' are in numerical order, but they do not follow one from the other. Why might that be ?

Very well said, Alex. This is precisely why I’m doing my best to not read it critically.

I use the translations as a guide to exploring the Mandarin etymology, by using original language versions, and in doing so it has dissolved a lot of the 'metaphorical appearance' such that it feels like the real Taoism is hidden much deeper then what is popularity understood perhaps as revelation (which I might instead call embodiement - of a particular view, and as such highly circumstantial.... but still a useful thing in developing awareness and insight). At least its a chance to try and put oneself in the shoes of those who wrote it, for better or worse! Takes me a fair chunk of time though as its not a reading but an researching. So I wouldn't avoid criticality, I'd rather go deeper And as such most translations are not particularly helpful :silly:

I have read parts of the Tao and I enjoy it very much. It's relaxing and often makes sense out of what we call life. IMO.

Thats the difficult thing about reading the Tao Te Ching. You have to experience it and not understand it. But I think it will be still possible to Discuss about it

Happy to see you all soon here for Discussion

I'll get involved with this if I can - very keen to hear what people think!