Mr Alan Cohen - The Tao Made Easy: Timeless Wisdom to Navigate a Changing World

Praise for

The Tao Made Easy

There could be no better pairing of timeless truths and modern sage than that of Lao Tse and Alan Cohen. With the warmth and wisdom befitting these masters, Alan Cohens The Tao Made Easy liberates both the ancient teachings of Lao Tse and the mind and spirit of his readers.

Mike Dooley, New York Times best-selling author of Infinite Possibilities and Playing the Matrix

In native cultures wisdom is transmitted through stories. The stories told around the evening fire can heal, inspire, and motivate. They are the power that holds a tribe together. Alan Cohen, in his splendid book The Tao Made Easy, allows us to access the wisdom of the Tao through his stories. Each story gleams like a jewel on the far horizon. Highly recommended!

Denise Linn, best-selling author of Energy Strands

In Alan Cohens accessible new take on the ineffable Tao Te Ching, the Tao that cannot be told is now told with fresh insights and practical ways of being, according to the universal principles shared by all. This ancient wisdom has been brought to life for a new era deeply in need of enlightenment. Fresh insights, practical, easy entry, and immense delight!

Chungliang Al Huang, president-director, Living Tao Foundation and International Lan Ting Institute, and co-author with Alan Watts of Tao: The Watercourse Way

As a lifelong Taoist practitioner, I was thrilled to read Alans book The Tao Made Easy. It is filled with profound and perennial wisdom from Tao Te Ching, brought up to date for 21st-century spiritual seekers. Reading Alan Cohens warm, funny, accessible, and infinitely wise take on an ancient spiritual masterpiece made my heart sing and my soul rejoice!

Jason Chan, Taoist Master, lifelong A Course in Miracles teacher, creator of Infinite Arts, and award-winning author

In a magnificent fusion of ancient wisdom and real-world practical application, Alan Cohen has masterfully rebirthed the essence of the Tao Te Ching... inviting the Chinese sage, Lao Tse, into the heart of the readers andin the processawakening timeless healing energy to help us solve lifes most pressing challenges. The Tao Made Easy truly touches the Soul!

davidji, author of Sacred Powers

ALSO BY ALAN COHEN

Are You as Happy as Your Dog?

A Course in Miracles Made Easy*

Dare to Be Yourself

A Deep Breath of Life*

A Daily Dose of Sanity*

Dont Get Lucky, Get Smart

The Dragon Doesnt Live Here Anymore

Enough Already*

The Grace Factor

Handle with Prayer*

Happily Even After*

Have You Hugged a Monster Today?

How Good Can It Get?

I Had It All the Time

Joy Is My Compass

Lifestyles of the Rich in Spirit

Lindens Last Life*

Looking In for Number One

My Fathers Voice

The Peace That You Seek

Relax into Wealth

Rising in Love

Setting the Seen

Why Your Life Sucks and What You Can Do about It

Wisdom of the Heart*

CDS/DVDS/ONLINE COURSES

A Course in Miracles Made Easy

Finding Joe

Journey to the Center of the Heart

Living in the Light

Available from Hay House
Please visit:

Hay House USA: www.hayhouse.com
Hay House Australia: www.hayhouse.com.au
Hay House UK: www.hayhouse.co.uk
Hay House India: www.hayhouse.co.in

***

Copyright 2018 by Alan Cohen

Published in the United States by: Hay House, Inc.: www.hayhouse.com Published in Australia by: Hay House Australia Pty. Ltd.: www.hayhouse.com.au Published in the United Kingdom by: Hay House UK, Ltd.: www.hayhouse.co.uk Published in India by: Hay House Publishers India: www.hayhouse.co.in

Cover design: Neil Swaab Interior design: Nick C. Welch

Excerpts from TAO TE CHING: UPDATED WITH OVER 100 PHOTOGRAPHS BY JANE ENGLISH by Lao Tsu, translated by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English with Toinette Lippe. Certain material copyright 1997, 2011 by Jane English. Copyright 1972 by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English, copyright renewed 2000 by Jane English and Carol Wilson. Used by permission of Vintage Books, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic, or electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording; nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or otherwise be copied for public or private useother than for fair use as brief quotations embodied in articles and reviewswithout prior written permission of the publisher.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Cohen, Alan, 1950- author.

Title: The Tao made easy : timeless wisdom to navigate a changing world / Alan Cohen.

Description: 1st edition. | Carlsbad : Hay House, Inc., 2018. | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017046125 | ISBN 9781401953621 (tradepaper : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Taoism.

Classification: LCC BL1920 .C556 2018 | DDC 299.5/1444--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017046125

Tradepaper ISBN: 978-1-4019-5362-1

E-book ISBN: 978-1-4019-5363-8

Audiobook ISBN: 978-1-4019-5388-1

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

1st edition, July 2018

Printed in the United States of America

To Lao Tse,

for the blessed simplicity

he has breathed into the soul of the world.

An ancient Chinese blessingor some say cursewishes, May you live during interesting times. That wish, for good or ill, has come true for us. Changes fire at us from every angle, and the future we planned for is no more. A survey revealed that more people believe that extraterrestrials are visiting Earth than believe their Social Security benefits will be there when they retire. The digital revolution has upended the book, music, and movie industries as we knew them, and required millions of workers to learn new skill sets or reinvent themselves. Online shopping is shutting down long-established department store chains, turning malls into ghost towns. That sweet couple next door is getting divorced, and we wonder if our own relationship may be next. Crazy people with guns open up fire in schools and churches. The news gets weirder daily, the world seems to be spinning out of control, and we reel at choice overwhelm. The faster we run, the harder it is to catch up.

Now what? How do we reconcile living in the best of times and the worst of times? Where do we find a compass to navigate a world for which we have no map? Is there some voice of wisdom that can override raging absurdity, assuage our gnawing insecurity, and give us a shred of hope?

There is. Even while upheaval and insanity appear to prevail, there exists rock-solid sensibility not subject to the winds of change, no matter how harshly they assault us. If truth were shakable by human frailty, truth it would not be. The answer to overwhelming complexity is not greater complexity. It is refreshing simplicity. The way we get out of this mess has to be different than the way we got in.