The Sage's Tao Te Ching: Ancient Advice for the Second Half of Life Paperback – January 1, 2010

Martin's The Sage's Tao Te Ching: Ancient Advice for the Second Half of Life is a series of 81 short meditations inspired by a classical Chinese wisdom text. Do not expect a translation of the original text of the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu! Rather this graceful book is a series of short meditations on age-ing and sage-ing.The meditations are short but should not be read in a hurry. Take your time with each one and savor it. I found that reading just one or two (or occasionally three) of these at a time was enough to stimulate my own thinking and feeling about growing older. The author's wisdom joined with Lao Tzu's wisdom is a potent combination.Each meditation has an illustration by Hank Tusinski. Most of these are excellent and go well with the text.

I haven't received the book yet as I just ordered it today! but after having browsed through some of its chapters today in a local book store around here, I was glad to have purchased it through Amazon for much much cheaper. The author's writing style is very easy to understand, inspiring, and to the point without much mumble jumble like most self help books I have read on this topic. I have been doing meditation for a year now, and can honestly say that it have helped me in many areas of my life. So yes I highly recommend the busy person to read this book, as it will help to reorganize your thoughts and simplify your life.

No one ever knows it all but the Sage is more comfortable with what they know, and life seems to be a bit clearer. Their shoes fit, and they dance, while the rest of us, trudge. Our shoes pinch every step of the way. New shoes just might be the answer. Can we find shoes that fit our feet? Few translators follow through with commentaries that really point to the underling and pertinent meaning of a passage. Not so here. Bill Martin's Taoist books thoughtfully and thoroughly focus on allowing the western reader to grasp the theme flowing through each passage, guiding readers to see how it might apply to their life............Not his life, or anyone's life,.......just theirs. He does not dictate an ultimate answer. A Sage is a wisdom seeking person who has gained some insight and is able to follow his own counsel in a world where many of us are lost. That's why the Sage can dance with the stars......Give this a shot. It's a good one.

The wisdom of the Tao is inexhaustable as William Martin demonstrates in this beautuiful and profound book.For me turrning 58 triggers questions on the whys of my life. Martin knows the Tao provides no answers, just more questions:"We have more questions than answers/and this is a great delight to us." Life is in the doing and the questing, "What new questions have you discovered today? " And we know that we never arrive, "The mind of the expert is narrowly trained/the mind of the sage is opening wide/we are not becoming experts/we are just finally becoming good students." We dance with the Tao and the Tao dances with us, again and again and again.

This is a poor/(public domain?) translation of the Tao te Ching in book form. I will never leave a bad review -- as it still contains the wisdom... but was disappointed in the number of times it uses curly brackets to describe a word, instead of finding a correct word.

William Martin is a masterful helper. I found this book a blessing. He also wrote a most helpful book called, "The Art of Pastoring", which I have re-read at least 6 times; incredibly helpful for my work as a United Methodist minister, especially when I went through some difficult times.As far as the "zen" comments, I, for one make a slight personal adjustment as I read this book. Whenever I come to the phrase, "the Tao", I simply make the mental translation, "the Lord." Then everything seems to fall into place gracefully for me.I'm preparing to send a copy to a dear friend right now. This book is a great blessing.

Ehhhhh!! Hard to understand!! But maybe it’s just me! I can kind of make out what he was trying to relate but not for the simple minded! 😂

The Sage's Tao Te Ching by William Martin is one of the most powerful books I have ever read. I have been on the spiritual path for over 30 years and have read many spiritual books, but this is one I read every day. I read one chapter each morning to think about and ponder as I enjoy my breakfast. It helps me center and calm myself, reminds me of who I really am and what's really important as I start my day. I can't recommend this book highly enough for anyone in the second half of life (however you interpret that). Another powerful book by Mr. Martin is A Path and Practice, also highly recommended.