The first time Herbert Fox read the "Tao Te Ching," the ancient Chinese text that conveys the spiritual and philosophical precepts of Taoism, "it made no sense," Fox remembers.

He was about 20 at time, a native of Brooklyn on his way to a career as an engineer. That career first brought Fox, now 68, to Jacksonville in 1972, when he went to work for Offshore Power Systems, a company that planned to build floating nuclear power plants on Blount Island in the St. Johns River (the company went out of business in 1984 without ever building a plant).

Later, Fox taught engineering at Old Dominion University and worked in Miami for Controlled Data Corp., a company that had pioneered the creation of supercomputers in the 1960s. But in 1992, the company withdrew from the computing business and Hurricane Andrew struck South Florida with devastating effect. Fox decided to move back to Jacksonville.

Meanwhile, he had never stopped thinking about that ancient text which made no sense to him at 20. He began collecting translations of the "Tao Te Ching." As he read various translations, he became less and less satisfied with them. And so in 2000, he decided he would do his own translation.

"I think it was destiny," Fox said. "We are not in complete control of our lives. I feel this is essentially a calling."

That involved a significant challenge since Fox didn't speak or read Chinese. He taught himself to read classical Chinese by comparing Chinese texts to the English translations. He has about 70 different translations and estimates that over the last 13 years, he has read one version or another, including his own, between 1,500 and 2,000 times. It's a relatively brief text, 81 chapters, none longer than a page, a couple only six lines long. But it's a consistently inscrutable text, filled with passages like:

"Those who are knowing from others are with knowledge; those who from themselves are knowing are enlightened."

"Understanding of it comes in little increments," Fox said. "You learn a little bit more and a little bit more with each reading. Then one day, it's, wow, I finally understand it."

With more than 100 English translations of the "Tao Te Ching" already published and at least as many online, Fox said he knew finding a publisher for his translation would be a difficult. So he's chosen to self-publish "Tao Te Ching: Teachings from Silence" and to market the book himself on his website taoofsilence.com. The book's also available at www.amazon.com.

So is Fox now a practicing Taoist?

"I'm nothing," he said. "I don't believe in any religion."

But his quest to understand the "Tao Te Ching" seems so spiritual.

"There's a big difference between religion and spirituality," he said.

charlie.patton@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4413