Tao Te Ching

According to a Yibada interview with Chen Wei, who wrote Ma’s 2014 authorized biography, the Alibaba founder and executive chairman always carries the Tao Te Ching, the foundational text of Taoist philosophy, religion and ethics composed by Lao Tzu in the sixth century B.C.

Jason travels with this book.

Q: What are the books that had a major influence on you? Or simply the ones you like the most.

Jack Dorsey: Tao te Ching, score takes care of itself, between the world and me, the four agreements, the old man and the sea...I love reading!

Tao Te Ching is one of the most famous texts that exists for philosophical Taoism (along with Zhuangzi which I have also included below). This book follows a different format to other philosophical texts and is very easy to read. It is split up into 81 very brief chapters (some just a few words). It's one of the philosophy books which for me had a lot of impact in very few words. Tao Te Ching is one of the most famous texts that exists for philosophical Taoism (along with Zhuangzi which I have also included below). This book follows a different format to other philosophical texts and is very easy to read. It is split up into 81 very brief chapters (some just a few words). It's one of the philosophy books which for me had a lot of impact in very few words.

In Stephen Mitchell’s translation of the Tao Te Ching, he writes in verse 74: “If you realize that all things change, there is nothing you will try to hold onto.” I had never heard such wisdom whenever I first encountered those words, and as soon as I absorbed that verse and put it into practice, my life improved quite significantly. I realized that I was holding onto many things that no longer served me — including relationships, jobs, material possessions, ideas, etc. — and by letting go of these things, or least not feeling the need to be attached to them, I was able to lessen the load of struggle in my life. I learned that just because something worked for me in the past, that didn’t mean it would continue to serve my highest purpose moving forward in life. I had to be okay with change, and more importantly, I had to be okay with letting things go.

Every one of these poems reads like a subtweet of the president. Le Guin’s footnotes are great, too: In response to “having a lot of things, a lot of money: / shameless theives. / Surely their way / isn’t the way,” she writes, “So much for capitalism.”)

The Way of Life According to Lao Tzu (Tao Te Ching), translated by Witter Bynner. My personal religious philosophy, stressing the rightness of what is, if only we can accept it. Most people who know me have heard me quote from this book. "Seeing as how nothing is outside the vast, wide-meshed net of heaven, who is there to say just how it is cast?"

In the philosophy side, I’ve been rereading the Tao Te Ching.