Getting Right with Tao: A Contemporary Spin on the Tao Te Ching

by Ron Hogan

A decade in the making, Ron Hogan's Getting Right with Tao conveys the essence of the Tao Te Ching but with a modern, self-aware sensibility. The original pragmatic treatise on personal development gets a contemporary, Tarantinoesque gloss in eighty-one spare, stripped-down chapters. What does it mean to be alive? What do you want from life? With a unique voice and incisive style, Hogan gets right to what matters.

Genres: Philosophy, Spirituality, Taoism

110 pages, Paperback

First published February 12, 2010

About the author

Ron Hogan is the author of Getting Right with Tao A Contemporary Spin on the Tao Te Ching and The Stewardess Is Flying the Plane. He also contributed to the New York Times bestseller Not Quite What I Was Planning and Secrets of the Lost Symbol.


Ron helped create the literary Internet by launching Beatrice.com in 1995. Fifteen years later, after writing about the business side of publishing as a senior editor for GalleyCat for several years, he served briefly as the director of e-marketing strategy for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Reviews

[Eric Dubay · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Tao Te Ching is essentially the Bible of Taoism, and unlike the actual Bible, Quran, or other religious texts, it is short enough to read in one evening. The practical wisdom contained is useful and poetic but not coded in allegory and mythology like most Western religious texts. The 81 verses contain balanced sage advice that one can spend a lifetime contemplating and will warrant many re-reads. There are many translations of this book from Chinese, but I have found the blunt, straight-forward translation by Ron Hogan to be the best I have read. I have personally made a free audiobook of this Tao Te Ching translation if anyone is interested you can listen/watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pcRX...

[rumbledethumps · Rating 1 out of 5]

I try to read a different translation of the Tao Te Ching each year. This version can't be called a translation so much as an interpretation, an interpretation the author believes will resonate more with 21st century Americans. An example:

Stephen Mitchell's translation of section 1:

The tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.
The unnameable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin of
all particular things.
Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.
Yet mystery and manifestations
arise from the same source.
The source is called darkness.
Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding.

Hogan interprets section 1 in this way:

If you can talk about it,
it ain't Tao.
If it has a name, it's just another thing.
Tao doesn't have a name.
Names are for ordinary things.
Stop wanting stuff, it keeps you from seeing what's real.
When you want stuff, all you see are things.
Those two sentences mean the same thing.
Figure them out, and you've got it made.

While I admire the ambition of Hogan's project, I don't quite care for the execution. With the occasional curse word and folksy phony-feeling ain'ts, too much of the author shows through, which sort of misses the point of the Tao Te Ching.

[Soulvy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my absolute, hands-down, favorite, always in my backpack version of the Tao. Clear, clean and gloriously pragmatic, utterly useful and usable, Ron's version is poetic and powerful. It exposes the balanced structureless nature of Tao, in a gloriously practical Taoist manner. Loving this book for the long haul. One of my lifetime favorite reads!

[Ron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, of course I love it.

This has been around for a long time on the Internet, and I'm really glad that it's finally out in print. And I hope people will be interested in the newsletter that's being spun out of this new edition -- it's going to be a fun opportunity for me to talk to a lot of people about how to successfully change your life, and I'm looking forward to sharing those conversations.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great find! Hogan's practical, and sometimes comical, approach to the Tao is like cool breeze off the ocean. It's fresh with no hint of the kind of stuffiness often found in spiritual literature. Some may find it a bit irreverent, but then perhaps the Tao isn't something for which they are well prepared.

[ash ☁️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

i read this alongside my notes from the stephen mitchell translation! i really like the approach ron hogan has taken here and i think lao tzu would've loved it as well.

[Ashwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Timeless wisdom of Tao compiled for the modern readers who prefer the pragmatic aspects of the text and want to be spared of the mumbo-jumbo.

[Jolyon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been reading the TTC in various translations since about 1979. My favourite remains the Gia Fu Feng and Jane English one, but I think that the spirit of this one is as good and probably the version I'd like to have written myself.

[Mary Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book! Everyone should read it.

[Chelsea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting quick read. Good mantras.

[Li · Rating 5 out of 5]

For anyone who knows anything about Lao Tzu's Chinese classic, you know there are a zillion translations, renditions, impressions, and spins out there of it and on it. The Tao Te Ching (The Book of the Way of Things) resonates with each person in its own way. Ron Hogan's spin is comfortable in that it speaks in a language that the person who has never encountered it before will easily understand. There is a fluidity to it that is the perfect introduction to this fundamental tome for philosophical taoism. If you've heard of the Tao Te Ching and want an approachable format to do it, Ron Hogan's, _Getting Right with Tao: A Contemporary Spin on the Tao Te Ching_ is what you are looking for.

[Kurt Cantrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve been wanting to read the Tao Te Ching for a while, but was intimidated by the number of translations and didn’t want to make a bad choice. This version makes no pretense of being the most accurate translation, and instead offers the basic ideas Laozi ~may~ have been offering, all in a contemporary, gritty style. Most of the sagey/cosmic essence of the writing is summarized or blatantly and purposefully skipped (specifically chapter 42), and personally that worked well for me. Enjoyable read 👍.

[Nikhil · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Tao Te Ching simplified down to its spiritual essence, in language we can all understand. Unfortunately, some of the more nuanced meaning is lost due to this, but overall, this is much more digestible than some of the more flowery translations.

[Camilasc · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good concept and necessary edition. Though the author takes too many liberties with the original meanings to suit his perspective.

[Ghassen Jabri · Rating 5 out of 5]

A life Changer

[Jeanelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books. Clear and a bit comical. This is not a book for translation purists, but for those wanting to get an introduction to Tao Te Ching without having to think too deeply.

[Jesse Brace · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read it every day. The wisdom is timeless.

[Constantine Dhonau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great update! Nothin like ancient wisdom with some cussin

[Ramon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great modern translation of the Tao Te Ching with humour

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great storytelling

These stories are worked out to have both a sense of humor and a serious plot. Hurray for the author who didn't resort to gratuitous sex. Never been to Russia and I enjoyed the names and geography lesson

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hogan's take on the Tao Te Ching is a breath of fresh air, irreverent and blunt where it needs to be. Enjoyed it greatly and I know that I will be coming back to it soon!