REVIEWS

The Empty Vessel: A Journal of Contemporary Taoism, Winter 1999:
When we at the Abode received the proof copy of this amazing tome, I jumped upon it instantly.... I have been moved by the mystical spirit permeating this labor of love.... This volume is a bridge between cultures and faiths, but even more, it is a bridge between the individual and the Uncreated Light

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Not until now has the ancient wisdom of Lao Tzu been presented alongside the otherworldly revelation of Jesus Christ in a way that encompasses the full significance of both. Christ the Eternal Tao presents the Tao Teh Ching as a foreshadowing of what would be revealed by Christ, and Lao Tzu himself as a Far-Eastern prophet of Christ the incarnate God.

Through heretofore unpublished translations and teachings of Gi-ming Shien -- perhaps the greatest Chinese philosopher to have ever come to the West -- this book uncovers the esoteric core of the Tao Teh Ching. Then, through the transmission of mystics of the ancient Christian East, Lao Tzu's teaching is brought into a new dimension, exploding with new meanings. Christ, in turn, is seen in a unique light, His pure image shining in the clarity of Lao Tzu's intuitive vision.

With its practical, time-tested advice on how to unite oneself with the incarnate Tao and acquire uncreated Teh, this is both a philosophical source-book and a spiritual manual, touching the heart and leading one to profound inward transformation. It is a long-awaited Answer to those who, having turned away from modern Western "churchianity," are drawn to the freshness, directness and simplicity of Lao Tzu, and at the same time are strangely, inexplicably drawn back to the all-compelling reality of Jesus Christ.

The book is adorned with Chinese calligraphy and seals (created especially for it by well-known Chinese artists), and with traditional Chinese paintings of the life of Christ.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

People of the modern West have to a great extent become jaded by Christian terminology and doctrinal constructions, yet many of them are drawn to the Person of Christ Himself. Christ the Eternal Tao seeks to develop not only a new way of seeing Christ, but also a new language by which to express His message, drawing from the enigmatic style and poetic language of Lao Tzu.

The uniqueness of this book lies in the fact that it is highly original and at the same time totally traditional. The content of ancient Christian experience, with all its latent power, remains the same, but it is presented in a far-seeing, all-encompassing way that soars above the bounds of Western culture. In keeping with the Chinese mind and the way of Lao Tzu, the book moves from laconic poetry to scientific precision in seeking to arrive at the "minimal": the very essence of Reality. It speaks of the mysteries of the nature of the Tao, then describes the drama of the Tao "taking flesh" in Christ, opening up the reality of the other world, and finally "emptying Himself." Practical teachings on the spiritual life are presented in detail, by which readers can enter into a direct experience of the incarnate Tao, and find their Personal Connection with the Source of the ten thousand things.

FROM THE AUTHOR

Since my youth I have been stirred by the beauty, simplicity and unfathomable profundity of the Tao Teh Ching. Iused to wonder: How would it be if Christ were viewed through the innocent eyes of Lao Tzu? Why can't there be a "Gospel according to Lao Tzu," or, to put it another way, a "New Testament of the Tao Teh Ching"?

I began this book while on a trip to Russia in 1994, and continued working on it in the United States for the next four years. As the work progressed, and as I looked around at today's spiritual climate, I felt the need to write a book that would do more than enable people to add more data to their mental archives of comparative religion. I felt the book had to be able to bring the reader all the way into an actual experience of Christ the eternal Tao -- a book that could initiate inward, personal transformation.

Since its publication (and even before that, when portions of it were circulated around the country), the book has indeed transformed people's lives in marvelous ways. After reading it, some have taken a totally different direction in life: a direction, I believe, that accords with the Way (Tao) of Lao Tzu. Of course, I attribute this to the Power (Teh) of Christ the eternal Tao Himself, which works in human souls through His own words and through those of His Far-Eastern prophet, Lao Tzu.

Excerpted from Christ the Eternal Tao by Hieromonk Damascene. Copyright 1999. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved

FROM THE FOREWORD:

The only way to get past religious words and concepts is to seek, without compromise and self-pity, the Reality behind them. If our rapidly diminishing Western Christendom has become too jaded by intellectualized or emotionalized religion to see the essence of Christianity, then we must, as it were, start over.

In this book we will look at Christ and his message as would Lao Tzu, who, although he lived five hundred years before Christ, intuitively sensed the presence of Christ in creation. We will seek to become like Lao Tzu's image of "the infant that has not yet smiled," who has not yet learned to react to words and ideas, who knows without knowing how it knows. And then, from the point of Lao Tzu's simplicity, innocence and direct intuition, we will receive the message of Christ from a new source: not from the modern West -- which has distorted it into thousands of conflicting sects and philosophies -- but from the ancient Christian East, which has transmitted to modern times the essence of Christ's teaching in a way that resonates with the teaching of Lao Tzu, not denying Lao Tzu's intuitive realizations but bringing them to a new dimension.

FROM PART I: THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LAO TZU:

"There are those," said the Ancient Sage,

"Who would conquer the world and make of it what they desire.

I see they will not succeed.

The world is like a hollow utensil

And cannot be manipulated.

That which is not the Way soon fades away.

Hence the sage assists the natural development of all things,

Even though he does not venture to interfere."

When something accords with the Way,

All creation aids it.

But when the Way rejects something,

Creation too opposes it.

The stream flows gently

But its course is inexorable.

There are many directions,

But there is only one Way by which the stream flows.

The Way has given to the soul freedom of movement

And power over herself.

Exercising this freedom and this power,

She may think she is fulfilling her true nature,

Not knowing that her nature was made, not merely to move,

But to move in the right direction.

As free of the Way, one can go in many directions,

But then one becomes a slave of those directions.

As a slave of the Way, one can follow naught but one Course,

But then one is free.

Universal freedom is a lie

Because there is only One Course in the universe, not many.

Yet universal freedom is true

Because, in following the One Universal Course,

One encompasses the cosmos.

Having the freedom of choice,

One chooses freedom from choice.

FROM PART III: UNITING ONESELF TO THE INCARNATE TAO THROUGH WATCHFULNESS AND PRAYER:

We take refuge in our thoughts, fantasies and emotions because they give us a deceptive sense of security. But Christ tells us to abandon that security and make ourselves vulnerable, relying wholly on our Creator. Both Christ and Lao Tzu likened this state of self-abandonment to the mind of a little child who has not yet developed a mature ego.... "Become as little children," they said. A child, although also touched by the primordial fall, is closer to the true Source of knowing than an adult. Simple and spontaneous, he knows without knowing how he knows. He can be happy without knowing he is happy. What adults often consider happiness is in reality the emotional excitement of the ego; while a little child's happiness consists in the simple, selfless joy of being alive.

When Christ told each person to "deny himself" and "lose his life," he was not saying to obliterate the conscious mind. Rather, he was saying to purify it by casting off the ego that has grown on it like a parasite. Thinking, imagining, dreaming and emotion are not destroyed in the follower of the Way; rather they are wholly submitted to a higher Source.