Tao Lectures and Seminars

The Valley Spirit lectures and seminars

In these lectures and seminars I explore some of the fundamental themes in the writings of Laozi, Zhuangzi and Liezi. The wisdom of these texts is deep and playful, paradoxical and practical. It is an invitation to an inner journey, a journey often described as a return: a return to the source, a return to the simplicity of ‘uncarved wood’, a return to the ‘state of the newborn’. We shall endeavour to meet the humour and challenge of this fluid wisdom that cannot be frozen into a doctrine and goes beyond a purely intellectual understanding.

Lectures are typically one or two hours long. Seminars can be one, two or three days long.

If you would like to organize a lecture or a seminar The Valley Spirit at your center or institute please write to me.

My book Tao Te Ching: a guide to the interpretation of the foundational book of Taoism is now available as downloadable pdf and as print-on-demand (hardcover or paperback, 634 pages). It includes my translation, excerpts of other translations, commentary and analysis of Chinese text.

From the Introduction (565 kb)

Chapter 48 (168 kb)

tao te ching

lao tzu

main themes

textual issues

essential bibliography