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The Power of Dao: A Timeless Guide to Happiness and Harmony Paperback – November 21, 2017
byLou Marinoff(Author)
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For over 2,500 years, Lao Tzu's philosophy of Dao has helped hundreds of millions of people to attain equanimity and sustain serenity. In The Power of Dao, Lou Marinoff shows how Dao, or "the Way," can serve as a potent remedy to the stress, anxiety, and daily challenges of living in our wildly unpredictable and constantly changing world. The Power of Dao illuminates the central teachings of Lao Tzu, applying them to everyday matters facing us all in the areas of health and well-being, love and marriage, creativity and career, personal achievement and purpose. Every chapter is replete with illustrative case studies, revealing how emperors, artists, athletes, and ordinary citizens alike have accessed the power of Dao. Daoist wisdom can restore balance in precarious human relationships, promote calm when coping with illness and mortality, and empower us to be better citizens and wiser leaders. Harmonizing nature and nurture, Dao teaches us to attain our true potential, and avoid envy, greed, and anger. Beyond transforming individual lives, Dao holds out the promise of a new golden age of prosperity, peace, and cultural advancement.Americans among other Westerners have sustained growing mainstream fascination with Dao (and its sister philosophy, Buddhism) for several decades, embracing the Way not only for its inherent beauty and power, but also as a spiritual remedy for culturally-induced epidemics that are sweeping Western and Westernized cultures. Increasingly today, Westerners are turning to holistic practices that originated in China as outgrowths of Daoism: qigong, tai chi, meditation, feng shui, acupuncture, and herbal medicine, among others. The Power of Dao is a quintessential guide to personal happiness, social harmony, economic prosperity, and political balance.As enthusiastic endorsers and Amazon reviewers attest, The Power of Dao is a refreshing and timely book, written for a mainstream American audience by an ideal author and respected teacher. True to the book’s subtitle—A Timeless Guide to Happiness and Harmony—it’s an inexhaustible treasure of Daoist wisdom for every conceivable challenge and tribulation of daily life.
- Print length282 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateNovember 21, 2017
- Dimensions6 x 0.64 x 9 inches
- ISBN-101976175291
- ISBN-13978-1976175299
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"A leisurely, thoughtful stroll down the path of Lao Tzu with anenlightened, engaging, and ever-lucid guide. Delightful and informativefrom beginning to end."
--Irvin Yalom, Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry, Stanford University, and author ofWhen Nietzsche Wept,The Schopenhauer Cure, andThe Spinoza Problem.
"This is life philosophy at its best! Lou Marinoff brings the deep, ancientwisdom of the Tao to our modern challenges like no one else. Everychapter of this book yields riches that can heal your soul and enlivenyour life. Every reader will benefit immensely."
-- Tom Morris,author ofThe Art of Achievement,Philosophy for Dummies,The Stoic Art of Living, andIf Harry Potter Ran General Electric, among other books.
"With insight, empathy, grace and humor -- all Taoist virtues -- Lou Marinoff has done us a great service. InThe Power of Tao, we hear the quiet voice of wisdom given new life and brought withineveryone's reach, in every walk of our frequently troubled lives. Andlike all real spirituality, it is intensely practical. What better giftcould there be?"
--Patrick Curry, Ph.D., author ofEcological Ethics andDefending Middle-Earth, and editor ofDivination: Perspectives for a New Millennium.
"This book is a bridge between antiquity and modernity, ideas and applications, Asia and the West, past and future. Pick upThe Power of Tao, and you hold the keys to a balanced life filled with happiness."
--Huang Xin, PhD, President,Dance to EducateInstitute, Beijing
"InThe Power of Tao, Lou Marinoff achieves a rare feat for a philosopher: Making philosophyrelevant to modern life. His text serves as a bridge between the loftypeaks of Taoist theory and its practical implementation in the valley of daily life, empowering readers with the wisdom to live skillfully inharmony with the Tao."
--Lama Ngawang Rinchen Gyaltsen,Resident Teacher, International Center for Buddhist Studies, Pedreguer, Spain.
--Irvin Yalom, Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry, Stanford University, and author ofWhen Nietzsche Wept,The Schopenhauer Cure, andThe Spinoza Problem.
"This is life philosophy at its best! Lou Marinoff brings the deep, ancientwisdom of the Tao to our modern challenges like no one else. Everychapter of this book yields riches that can heal your soul and enlivenyour life. Every reader will benefit immensely."
-- Tom Morris,author ofThe Art of Achievement,Philosophy for Dummies,The Stoic Art of Living, andIf Harry Potter Ran General Electric, among other books.
"With insight, empathy, grace and humor -- all Taoist virtues -- Lou Marinoff has done us a great service. InThe Power of Tao, we hear the quiet voice of wisdom given new life and brought withineveryone's reach, in every walk of our frequently troubled lives. Andlike all real spirituality, it is intensely practical. What better giftcould there be?"
--Patrick Curry, Ph.D., author ofEcological Ethics andDefending Middle-Earth, and editor ofDivination: Perspectives for a New Millennium.
"This book is a bridge between antiquity and modernity, ideas and applications, Asia and the West, past and future. Pick upThe Power of Tao, and you hold the keys to a balanced life filled with happiness."
--Huang Xin, PhD, President,Dance to EducateInstitute, Beijing
"InThe Power of Tao, Lou Marinoff achieves a rare feat for a philosopher: Making philosophyrelevant to modern life. His text serves as a bridge between the loftypeaks of Taoist theory and its practical implementation in the valley of daily life, empowering readers with the wisdom to live skillfully inharmony with the Tao."
--Lama Ngawang Rinchen Gyaltsen,Resident Teacher, International Center for Buddhist Studies, Pedreguer, Spain.
About the Author
Lou Marinoff is Professor of Philosophy at The City College ofNew York (CCNY), and founding President of the American PhilosophicalPractitioners Association (APPA). He has authored several internationalbest-sellers that apply Asian and Western Philosophy to everyday life,includingPlato Not Prozac, translated into twenty-seven languages.
Product details
- Publisher : CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
- Publication date : November 21, 2017
- Language : English
- Print length : 282 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1976175291
- ISBN-13 : 978-1976175299
- Item Weight : 13.4 ounces
- Dimensions : 6 x 0.64 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #2,885,745 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,095 inTaoist Philosophy
- Customer Reviews:
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Lou Marinoff, a Professor of Philosophy at The City College of New York, has authored thirteen books, including several international bestsellers. Lou's authorial career began at age five. After being compelled to endure the standard textbook of the day -- "See Dick. See Dick run ..." -- Lou thought he could improve on it, and wrote his own text. He became a published poet in his teens, and recorded an album of original songs at twenty-two. Lou has been writing ever since: popular philosophy books, contributed book chapters, scholarly articles, occasional pieces, and -- under the pen-name Lou Tafler -- literary fiction. Lou is best-known for his international bestseller Plato Not Prozac, translated into twenty seven languages.
Customer reviews
4.3 out of 5 stars
33 global ratings
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Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on June 20, 2016Lou Marinoff does a splendid job introducing the Tao to readers. The Taoist path to serenity begins with a single step. This book could be that first step, middle step, or last step. I recommend it to anyone seeking the Way.
- Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2014Late in his new book, "The Power of Tao: A Timeless Guide to Happiness and Harmony", Lou Marinoff summarizes what the book aims to provide the reader. He denies that his book fits into the popular genre of a "self-help" book. He claims instead to provide what Spanish-speaking countries call by the title of this review which translates as "a philosophy for everyday life." At times, Marinoff comes uncomfortably close to writing a "self-help" book, but on the whole his characterization of his project is accurate for this work which brings the insights of the Tao to bear on many issues in modern life.
This is the first book by Marinoff, a Professor of Philosophy at The City College of New York, that I have read, but I learned of his work through Carlin Romano's recent study of American intellectual life, "America the Philosophical" (2012) which explores the breadth of the life of the mind in the United States and aims to dispute the notion that the United States is an intellectual wasteland. Romano begins the first part of his book with a discussion of Marinoff and the "philosophical counseling" movement he has pioneered in the United States. Early in the 1990s, after discussion with other scholars, Marinoff began to apply the insights of the great philosophers to problems faced by individuals in everyday life. He developed a discipline called "philosophical counseling" where philosophers see people and offer philosophical insights into matters which bother them. He founded an organization called "The American Philosophical Practitioners Association" which met with a mixed response at best from psychotherapists, psychiatrists, and from other philosophers as well. Nevertheless, the organization has grown. While not denigrating either psychotherapy or religion for that matter as ways of approaching issues, Marinoff believes that many people can benefit from looking into themselves and their thoughts rather than seeing their problem as having the source either in the past or in the future.
"The Power of Tao" is Marinoff's latest book putting his philosophical counseling into practice. The book is based primarily on the work of the enigmatic ancient Chinese sage known as Lao-Tzu and his short book of 81 verses, the Tao Te Ching. Marinoff sees the Tao as one of the masterworks of the "Axial Age" of human thought in the sixth century B.C. which also produced Pythagoreanism and Buddhism, among much else. "Everything we need to know about happiness and fulfillment, peace and prosperity, love and family, creativity and art, good governance and sustainable civilization, can be learned from the Axial Age", Marinoff writes.
The book begins with a short dialogue between a "seeker" and a "guide". The seeker is looking for fulfillment and happiness in life. The guide states at the outset that there are several paths, including the path the seeker is following, but that he wants to focus on the "Tao" or "way" which cannot be readily defined or summarized. The remainder of the book, leading to a short concluding dialogue between the seeker and the guide is a discussion of the Tao and its power.
The book becomes more specific in focus as it proceeds. The early chapters place the Tao in the context of Chinese philosophy, with comparisons to Confucianism and Buddhism. Marinoff also describes and develops what he calls the three foundations of the Tao: complementarity (ying and yang), harmony, and change. He discusses the need of forgetting one's ego and getting to one's center instead and to see oneself as what the Tao describes as an "Uncarved Block". Marinoff's discussions are short and difficult. As he points out, the teachings require sustained development and reflection.
In the various chapters of his book, Marinoff applies the principles of the Tao to specific situations. Each chapter begins with a quotation from verses of the Tao Te Ching. Marinoff generally offers a brief introductory commentary on the verses and then proceeds to discuss a broad range of issues including, for example, handling stress, career and work issues, love and sexuality, marriage and the family, morality, facing death, living in harmony with nature and more. He offers frequent examples taken from his philosophical counseling practice or from other sources. He offers historical approaches to the particular issue as well and he draws frequently from the work of other thinkers and people he admires such as the Buddha, the Stoics, Emerson and Thoreau, Martin Luther King, Jr. Freud, and Glenn Gould. The discussion tends to be wide-ranging, and at times the author's voice turns overly polemical or evangelical. Some of the discussions have a specificity several levels removed from the elusively broad insights of the Tao. Many readers will tend to find them mixed. For example, I found Marinoff highly insightful and provocative in his criticisms of American feminism and of current political correctness in the universities and elsewhere. I found him less persuasive in his nostalgia for the hippie movement of the late 1960s and for his overly-broad strictures against modern urban life. The wiser portions of the book suggest that each individual finds his or her own path on the way largely through reflection and looking within. The book moves too easily towards dogmatism in some cases. When it does so, it becomes more a work of simplistic "self-help" rather than a philosophy for daily life.
I learned from Marinoff's discussion of the Tao and from his approach to philosophical counseling. "The Power of the Tao" offers a good introduction to the Tao and to Eastern philosophy. The book aims to be transformative and to encourage the reader to think and develop its insights further in the context of his or her own life. The publisher kindly provided me with a review copy of Marinoff's book.
Robin Friedman - Reviewed in the United States on November 25, 2023Format: KindleIn this outstanding, user-friendly guide for Westerners, Daoism teaches us, utilizing gentleness, compassion and humour, that we can live a life of serenity, providing the ego remains in check. 'The Power of Dao" A Timeless Gude to Happiness and Harmony by Lou Marinoff, differs greatly from any self-help guides you may have picked up previously.
Readers are apprised of how Daoism/Taoism can be applied to numerous aspects of one's life, taking us by the hand and explaining how suffering can be circumvented. The book contains many quotes that resonated with me but one in particular that stood out was: "Although we humans have the power to procreate life, we do not have the power to create it. Lao Tzu says: that we should not arrogate to ourselves, the authority to destroy life either."
This wonderful book provides a powerhouse of knowledge in an easy-to-read, condensed format that will both inspire and motivate you to realign your life towards a more harmonious and gentler, anxiety-free existence.
Lou Marinoff explores the philosophy behind Daoism/Taoism and does an exemplary job, using age-old wisdom to guide us as we manouvre our way through lifes pitfalls.
A highly recommended read for those of us seeking a more harmonious and joyful existence and for all lovers of philosophy.and ancient wisdom. - Reviewed in the United States on November 25, 2023Format: KindleI go through phases where I read many self-help books (or self-realization philosophy books, as this one is). Often, it’s just a way for me to refocus or look at other perspectives or various aspects of my life. This book is a different, however. It doesn’t require consistent journaling or data logging. It’s one of the few books focusing on finding harmony instead of trends or outside faith (like a god). It may sound cheesy, but it is a philosophy that focuses on inner peace and how Dao can be applied to various aspects of your life rather than how you can tweak your life to improve it. It focuses on the foundation, which is nice.
I didn’t know much, or anything, about Taoism/Daoism before reading this, and it’s incredibly intriguing. Chapter 11, on discovering value, is my favorite chapter, highlighting what is valuable to you. “Anxiety is too often the price of security” is a huge quote I’ll likely carry with me for the rest of my life.
The teachings of Dao aren’t new, and Marinoff isn’t inventing the wheel here, but he is showing us how to put the wheel on a vehicle so we can get going on Life’s Highway. It’s a good and thorough review of how Dao can upgrade your life. I recommend this book, it’s a great find!
Top reviews from other countries
- Simone TrimarcoReviewed in Italy on April 20, 2021
5.0 out of 5 starsI liked it a lot
Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseIt’s a nice book on an ancient and kind of an hermetic philosophy for us western people. The author is able to convey its meaning in an entertaining, understandable and yet profound way. Thank u for writing it!
