Books, which help to connect with the Tao - i have one for you

[Kati]

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about how to really connect with the Tao through spiritual practice. I realized that reading can help a lot—books that make Taoist ideas more relatable, that help me feel it.

For example, Awakening to the Tao by Liu I-Ming really resonated with me. It helped me feel how trust and love for the Tao can grow, and how that makes my practice feel safer, deeper, and more natural.

 

Here is something out of that book:
"Dung Beetles
Dung beetles roll balls of dung, from which their offspring are born after a time. Balls of dung are originally dead things, with nothing in them, but by the communion of female and male energies joining into one energy that does not disperse, the spirit congeals and the energy coagulates, and is thus able to produce substance and form where there was no substance or form. What I realize as I observe this is the Tao of producing being from within nonbeing. People are born with the two energies of heaven and earth, yin and yang, so they have these two energies, yin and yang, within their bodies. If people can bring the yang to the yin, and cause the yin to follow the yang, yin and yang adhere to each other. In the midst of ecstatic trance there is a point of living potential, coming into being from nonbeing, whereby the spiritual embryo can be formed and the spiritual body can be produced. When this practice reaches its consummation, you break through space and have a body outside your body. Walking on the sun and moon without form, penetrating metal and stone without hindrance, you transcend Creation."

Here another poem, for those who don’t feel particularly drawn to a Daoist poem about dung, haha: 

"Thunder and Wind
Thunder is fierce, intense, and strong; wind is gradual, far-reaching, and soft. When wind and thunder combine, then there is soft gentleness in the midst of hard intensity, and there is hard intensity in the midst of soft gentleness. Hardness and softness complement each other. What I realize as I observe this is the Tao of balanced harmonization of hardness and softness. When people practice the Tao to develop character, dealing with events and society, if they are always hard they will be impetuous and aggressive, excessively impatient, so their actions will lack perseverance and their keenness will be blunted. Then again, if people are always soft, they will vacillate, fearful and ineffective, and be too weak to succeed in their tasks. That softness is useless. If people can be firm in decision and flexible in gradual practice, neither hurrying nor lagging, neither aggressive nor weak, with hardness and softness balancing each other, achieving balance and harmony, then they will benefit wherever they go. If they study the Tao in this way, eventually they will surely understand the Tao. If they practice the Tao in this way, eventually they will surely realize the Tao. Therefore a classic written by a sage says, “Balance is the mainstay of the world, harmony is the way the world arrives on the Tao. Achieving balance and harmony, heaven and earth are in their places therein, myriad beings grow up therein.” Such is the importance of the Tao of balance and harmony"

 

I’m curious—what books or writings have helped you feel a connection with the Tao? Ones that don’t just explain it, but somehow help you live it, feel it, bring it into practice.