You would think that a monk would avoid the limelight and controversy, but not this one! He weighs right in on the great issues of today and how we humans are undermining our existence, not just environmentally, but by creating a toxic focus on self-interest that poisons our politics, lifestyle, health, parenting, technology, human interaction, and much more.

Using those basic principles–take your cues from and exist in harmony with nature, live simply, be authentic and humble, serve others, do no harm, stay calm and creative in the face of resistance, honor your own body, live peacefully-he lays out how things could be different if the Daoist filter was applied to just about everything.

The first section of the book looks at “Relaxing and Rectifying,” the way we can restore peace, calm, introspection and sanity to ourselves. The second looks at “Rebalancing Daily Life” – lifestyle choices. The third examines applying Daoist wisdom to “Fostering Community and Deepening Culture” — how we treat each other. Next, Monk Yun Rou tackles “Culture, Commerce, Government and Power” — a section not to be missed! After that, his clarion call for stopping the destruction of the planet, “Sensitivity and the Environment,” closing with his plea for “Awakening to Spirit and Service.”

Growing up in America, as a young Arthur Rosenfeld, grandson of Holocaust survivors and nephew to a highly regarded Democratic governor of New York stunned by the death of JFK, Rosenfeld came to question much about the harsh realities of the life he saw around him. As a youngster, he found that Daoist classics appealed to his sense of rebelliousness with their “fearless insistence on its existence of higher laws and principles, revolutionary defiance of authoritarian intrusiveness, and emphasis on nature, intuition, mysticism and transcendence.”

But the most powerful experience of his life stemmed from gritty, glorious months in the Paraguayan jungle as a field biologist, which deepened his commitment to Daoism and nature. Only to return post graduate after the intense disquieting of modern university life at Yale, to fly over and discover the utter destruction and desecration of the same jungle for the purpose of cattle grazing designed to feed America’s voracious appetite for cheap hamburgers.

He turned off the path of man’s headlong quest for materialism and toward a life of contemplation, personal practice, and teaching.

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