Do you believe that Professor Tu Weiming understands ancient Chinese philosophy? -- SreeI don't know who that is and I have never evaluated his work. It's the not the question I opened this thread with. It doesn't support your argument to list names of professors. Knowing names of professors doesn't tell me that you understand the philosophy being discussed. The philosophy being discussed doesn't depend on Lao Tzu being a real person, or on how the Tao Te Ching was translated. Billions of people have lived and died since then and have contributed to the validation of the ideas. I'm discussing the ideas, not trying to invalidate the particular words based on how they came to appear on this page.
Ironically, by attempting to invalidate the Americanization of the ancient scripture, you’re supporting my original point, that picking out a phrase like “practice not-doing” is a gross oversimplification of a tradition of recognizing balance, seeing strength in all people not just the ones with the most possessions, the idea of questioning everything you know.