Religion and Spirituality
Pictured above is Dr. Lin Yutang, a most fascinating person and prolific author, born in China to Chinese Christians in 1895 (died in USA, 1976).
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Dr. Lin and his personal philosophy represent something as close to my own spiritual bottom line as I can get at the moment. I find him truly inspiring, a mentor of sorts, and his writing style is beyond compare.
I always felt that H.D. Thoreau was really onto something, but Dr. Lin ultimately comes closer in some ways, and has been able to explain it far better than Thoreau, who died way too young. Strangely, the cosmopolitan Dr. Lin only discovered the American writerThoreau late in his career. I recently acquired a beautiful two-volume, bilingual set of Lin Yutang's translations of Lao Tse (Laozi) and Chuang-Tse (aka Zhuang Zi), The Wisdom of Lao Tse - basically a complete course in Taoism with Lin's enlightening commentary throughout. It contains the full Chinese language originals so that I can practice my elementary skills in reading classical Chinese. I have only a few of Lin's other books: "The Importance of Living," 1998 ( a paperback by Quill/HarperCollins) from the original published by Lin in 1937; and "From Pagan to Christian," which I acquired as a used library copy. It is probably the most well-worn favorite of any book that I own. The phrase "from pagan to Christian" is very misleading! The book actually describes Lin's personal journey FROM Chinese Christian TO outright "pagan," a journey that interests me very much as it parallels my own spiritual journey in recent years. Only in the last few pages of his book does Dr. Lin actually return to Christianity, as a happy Presbyterian churchgoer in New York in the 1970s. |
THE FOLLOWING SECTION IS STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION. MINI-REVIEWS TO FOLLOW SOON. AND MORE BOOKS WILL BE ADDED.