- Thomas Cleary
Thomas Cleary (born 1949) is a prolific author and translator of Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian and Muslim religious literature, and of the Chinese Art of War tradition of strategy and statecraft. He received a
PhD inEast Asian Languages andCivilizations fromHarvard University , but has had minimal involvement with the academic world. His first publication, with his brotherJ.C. Cleary was the translation of the massiveZen koan collection, "The Blue Cliff Record " (ISBN 1-59030-232-X).Cleary also translated the monumental "
Avatamsaka Sutra " ("Huayan Jing / Flower Ornament Scripture").Cleary's most widely disseminated translation has been of the Chinese classic "
The Art of War " ("Sunzi Bingfa") bySun Tzu .Another major translation is of the commentaries of the 18th century
Taoist sageLiu Yiming , who clearly explains the often impenetrable metaphoric coding of the main Taoist texts dealing with the transformation ofconsciousness and the fusion of the human mind with the Mind of the Tao.In 2000, Cleary's various translations of Taoist scriptures were collected into 4 volumes by
Shambhala Publications as "The Taoist Classics".Cleary's recent translation of the
Qur'an has been praised by Muslims who know English and Arabic. Another outstanding translation from the Muslim wisdom tradition is "Living and Dying with Grace ".External links
* [http://www.sonshi.com/cleary.html Sonshi interview with Thomas Cleary]
* [http://www.sfbg.com/40/04/lit_int.html San Francisco Bay Chronicle interview with Thomas Cleary]
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