Chee Soo, The Tao of My Thoughts

I am the publisher, editor, and copyright owner of this book so yes my review is more than a little biased. I trained alongside Chee Soo for twelve years and regularly attended his classes and courses in Coventry, England. I can understand why 'Guest' appears confused. Yes it is a truly unique book, it is not written with any references to Taoist philosophers of the past as such but is in fact the thoughts of a man who spent almost his entire life living as a Taoist. In fact the book was probably never intended to be published in it's current form and I was given the manuscript and told to "do what I liked with it." So I decided to publish it because I think that is what Chee Soo would have wanted and it would have been a little selfish to keep it to myself. Also I think it will help people who are studying Taoism and in particular the Lee style Taoist Arts today. However I did not edit the text in any way other than to correct a few obvious typos and spelling errors, although some which appeared to give a double entendre I left in. There are many people teaching out there today and it's undeniable that some of them are indeed gifted teachers or exponents of the Art, some even both, but in my experience many of them are teaching nothing more than a hotch potch of moves and exercises they have learned. There is a glue which holds all this stuff together and that is Taoist philosophy. In my experience Taoism was never meant to be studied in an academic sense or even to be read out of books, but is a way of interacting with the Natural world in a purely pragmatic and practical way. It is really only through mixing with other Taoists and if you are lucky with a gifted teacher like Chee Soo that you are likely to make any kind of progress in the field unless you are gifted yourself, and few of us are. However this book like his other books is written in such a down to earth and practical no nonsense way that I believe it will be accessible to those who will find it of most benefit. If you are looking for academic studies of Ancient Chinese philosophers or New Age waffle you will be disappointed.

This tome is unique, truly unique. Having delved in Taoist translation and literature for many years, it is difficult to actually fathom whether it is spoofed up material or the genuine article. Without any references to taoist translations, the whole thing is patchy and rambling.

I found this book disappointing.

The Tao of My Thoughts by Chee Soo really opened by eyes to a lot of aspects of our lifestyle that I had before never considered strange. It gives an insight into the ancient Chinese Taoist philosophy of oneness with nature and Yin and Yang. I would recommend this book to anybody who wants to broaden their knowledge on Chinese philosophies, and it goes hand in hand with today's popular exercises such as Tai Chi and Yoga.