The Way of the Ways: Tao

NOTE: Parts II and III of the Commentary, entitled The Failure of Success and Nothing-Doing are now on-line. The remainder will be following this installment in short order.

This translation of the Tao Teh Ching, along with a remarkable commentary, was done by a friend, Herrymon Maurer, some decades ago. Were Herrymon still alive, I have no doubt that he would want to see Lao Tzu's words preserved forever in the ethereal yet indestructible lattices of the World Wide Web, and made available to readers all over the world. I have equally little doubt that he would utterly deny any significance to his commentary on Lao Tzu's words. No one is right about everything. That commentary, which he offered with profound humility, is fiery, filled with spirit, and timely. The prophetic voice Herrymon listened to and lived by also spoke through him.

The Tao Teh Ching, which is one of humanity's oldest books, is fairly well-known in the West at this time. I had read several translations of it myself before meeting Herrymon. Yet, when I first encountered Herrymon's translation, my reaction to it was incredulity: I felt as though I had never really read the Tao before. Beside other translations, Herrymon's is stark: Lao-Tzu is speaking, not the translator. Attempting to make the Tao Teh Ching 'relevant' to modern Westerners, some translators have produced renditions of such verbosity that, for one for whom those translations had hitherto been the Tao Teh Ching, encountering Herrymon's translation is startling. The verses are austere and direct; they have what Herrymon called a 'nowness' that makes the efforts of translators to render them accessible redundant – more than redundant, really; such attempts are positively misguided, for they bury Lao-Tzu beneath layers of prose which ultimately obscure him.

Rendering Herrymon's Tao into digital form is not an easy task. In addition to his extensive commentary – itself a treasure for those who sense, even if vaguely, that something is seriously wrong with modern life – Herrymon provided copious notes, which serve several purposes without cluttering the text. They help the reader place the verses and their lines in the context of other scripture and other religions. This often proves invaluable in apprehending Lao Tzu's meaning. They also provide for elaboration on the verses by the translator. Herrymon's intimacy with the Tao Teh Ching in the original Chinese, coupled with certain remarkable things about the translator himself, make this priceless, too. The provision of abundant notes, and their separation from the verses, is a large part of what allows this work to succeed so well at two conflicting goals: maintaining the austerity of the original text in its time, while allowing it to speak intelligibly to us across the centuries.

Finally, although I feel him cringing at what I am about to write, something must be said of Herrymon himself: for he had a remarkable impact on those who knew him, and many of his friends felt and feel fortunate, and even privileged, to have had their lives' paths intersect his. His life embodied his writing. He lived entirely for others, pointing them towards a way of life which has Truth, rather than self, as its center. He deplored conventional success, and rejected credit for all of the help he afforded others. Herrymon graciously hosted Friday evening get-togethers – which, over the years, grew from small, intimate occasions to gatherings rather too large for his modest home – for as late into his long life as he was physically able. And, with respect to the work at hand, he was extremely particular about, not simply his translating and writing, but even the page formatting, fonts, and symbols. Given his meticulous attention to every detail of his work and its presentation, it is daunting to take it upon oneself to reproduce that work in a digital medium – where the reader can change the page layout simply by resizing the window. But in talks I had with him many years ago, he made it clear that should something like the Web ever come into existence, he would indeed want his work on Lao-Tzu to be made available on it. I do not know how many other copies of this particular edition still exist. I also have a complete manuscript of a subsequent revision of this work, typewritten in a box, which Herrymon gave to me. I have no idea if it was ever published, but my personal feeling was that his writing in the edition at hand was as already as potent and refined as possible. A good friend corroborated this view, and said that the edition presented here was his favorite as well. Ultimately, I decided to go with the work's original form because the manuscript in the basement felt foreign to me, lacking as it did many of the wonderful passage's I'd grown used to.

Herrymon was a Quaker; the Religious Society of Friends was the context in which he lived. Although I have been an intermittent Attender, I have never been a Member of the Friends, and the Friends no doubt have their own views regarding Herrymon's ministry. However, this simple, self-effacing, yet brilliant and wise gentleman affected many people outside of his religious home. His impact on me, personally, was incalculable – he entirely altered the course of my spiritual life, and, 16 years later, this appears unlikely to be simply another bit of spiritual adventure. Rather, it is the soil in which I've planted my life.

It seems to me unthinkable that any individual or group should claim title to his work. As he might have said, the achievement, if there was one, belonged to Truth itself, not to the translator and commentator. Herrymon always cringed when someone would, in his words, "guru" him. This deep and sincere humility was at the heart of what Herrymon taught, both with his work and with the manner in which he conducted his life – as Lao Tzu has it, he practiced "concealment rather than attainment." It is not my intention here to "guru" Herrymon; only to bring something of what it was like to be in his presence to readers, and to preserve this work and make it widely available. If anyone should feel that my presentation of this material is inappropriate, conflicts with Herrymon's wishes, or violates a copyright or some other legalistic matter, please send correspondence to comments@etfrc.com.