A poetic insight to ultimate reality as the Tao--the unknown. Tao might as well be God without all the western fanfare and glory surrounding the word God or the Godhead. Tao is like the Spirit that blows but no one knows whence it comes or to where it goes. No doubt the book has gone through many editors' and imitators' hands; but the essence of the teaching remains preserved. That Heidegger once attempted to translate this book suggest the affinity between him and Lao-tzu. But a hasty comparison must be avoid in order to give due respect to each thinker's own set of vocabularies and way of thought. But the most significant difference between the two might be the little respect Lao-tzu has for language and humanity. What is man but a part of nature--Lao-tzu would say. We must all follow the way of nature/Tao. There is nothing extraordinary about man as Dasein.

I particularly like this translation by Stephen Addiss and Stanley Lombardo who do not explain the text by adding words. They leave the enigmatic and multiple senses of ever so thrifty Chinese words intact for the readers to appreciate the richness and depth of the (ambiguous) text.