The Taoist Experience


Book Description

Containing sixty translations from a large variety of texts, this is an accessible yet thorough introduction to the major concepts, doctrines, and practices of Taoism. It presents the philosophy, rituals, and health techniques of the ancients as well as the practices and ideas of Taoists today. Divided into four sections, it follows the Taoist Path: The Tao, Long Life, Eternal Vision, and Immortality. It shows how the world of the Tao is perceived from within the tradition, what fervent Taoists did, and how practitioners saw their path and goals. The Taoist Experience is unique in that it presents the whole of Taoist tradition in the very words of its active practitioners. It conveys not only a sense of the depth of the Taoist religious experience but also of the underlying unity of the various schools and strands.




The Daoist Tradition


Book Description

Using a historical, textual and ethnographic approach, this is the most comprehensive presentation of Daoism to date. In addition to revealing the historical contours and primary concerns of Chinese Daoists and Daoist communities, The Daoist Tradition provides an account of key themes and defining characteristics of Daoist religiosity, revealing Daoism to be a living and lived religion. Exploring Daoism from a comparative religious studies perspective, this book gives the reader a deeper understanding of religious traditions more broadly. Beginning with an overview of Daoist history, The Daoist Tradition then covers key elements of Daoist worldviews and major Daoist practices. This is followed by a discussion of the importance of place and sacred sites as well as representative examples of material culture in Daoism. The work concludes with an overview of Daoism in the modern world. The book includes a historical timeline, a map of China, 25 images, a glossary, text boxes, suggested reading and chapter overviews. A companion website provides both student and lecturer resources: http://www.bloomsbury.com/the-daoist-tradition-9781441168733/







The Zen Experience


Book Description

The Zen Experience: Know the Real Meaning by Thomas Hoover is a profound exploration of Zen philosophy and practice, providing readers with an insightful journey into the essence of Zen. Drawing from both ancient wisdom and contemporary insights, Hoover delves into the profound teachings of Zen Buddhism, unraveling its mysteries and revealing its transformative power. Key aspects of The Zen Experience: Know the Real Meaning: Deep Understanding of Zen: Thomas Hoover delves into the heart of Zen, offering readers a deep understanding of its principles, practices, and underlying philosophy. Through clear explanations and personal anecdotes, he demystifies Zen, making it accessible to both beginners and seasoned practitioners. Spiritual Enlightenment: The book explores the transformative nature of Zen, guiding readers towards spiritual enlightenment and inner peace. Hoover emphasizes the importance of mindfulness, meditation, and self-inquiry, providing practical guidance for incorporating Zen principles into daily life. Harmonizing Mind and Body: Hoover highlights the significance of harmonizing mind and body in the pursuit of Zen. He explores the role of physical practices, such as meditation, breathwork, and movement, in cultivating a deeper awareness and connection to the present moment. The Zen Experience: Know the Real Meaning is a thought-provoking and enlightening book that offers readers a profound understanding of Zen and its application in daily life. It serves as a valuable resource for anyone seeking spiritual growth, inner harmony, and a deeper connection with the present moment. Thomas Hoover: Thomas Hoover, an American author, is known for his historical fiction and suspense novels. His works, such as Caribbee and Tokyo Station, blend meticulous research with compelling storytelling, transporting readers to different times and places. Hoover's ability to weave intricate plots and develop multidimensional characters has earned him a dedicated readership. His writings, characterized by meticulous attention to detail and a deep understanding of historical events, provide readers with immersive and thought-provoking reading experiences.




Teaching the Daode Jing


Book Description

The Daode Jing, a highly enigmatic work rooted in ancient Chinese cosmology, ontology, metaphysics, and moral thinking, is regularly offered to college and high-school students in religion, philosophy, history, literature, Asian studies, and humanities courses. As a result, an ever-expanding group of faculty with very different backgrounds and training routinely confront the question: "How should I teach the Daode Jing?" Written for non-specialists who may not have a background in ancient Chinese culture, the essays collected in this volume provide up-to-date information on contemporary scholarship and classroom strategies that have been successful in a variety of teaching environments. A classic text like the Daode Jing generates debate among scholars and teachers who ask questions like: Should we capitalize on popular interest in the Daode Jing in our classrooms? Which of the many translations and scholarly approaches ought we to use? Is it appropriate to think of the Daode Jing as a religious text at all? These and other controversies are addressed in this volume. Contributors are well-known scholars of Daoism, including Livia Kohn, Norman Girardot, Robert Henricks, Russell Kirkland, Hans-Georg Moeller, Hall Roth, and Michael LaFargue. In addition, there are essays by Eva Wong (Daoist practitioner), David Hall (philosophy), Gary DeAngelis (mysticism), and a jointly written essay on pedagogical strategies by Judith Berling, Geoffrey Foy, and John Thompson (Chinese religion).




Taoist Secrets of Eating for Balance


Book Description

Explains how to use your Taoist astrology birth chart as a personal nutritional guide for health, longevity, and organ energy balance • Explores how to help balance your birth chi through your eating habits as well as explaining how foods address your five-element energetic profile • Provides detailed food lists based on ancient Taoist wisdom that reveal their effect on the Yin, Yang, and five-element energies • Shows how your five-element energies outline your life and influence success in relationships and at work We are each born with a unique combination of heavenly and earthly energies defined by the five elements and dictated by the universe at the moment you take your first breath. This “birth chi” can be calculated using the year, month, day, and time of your birth, and it reveals your personal profile of health and emotional strengths and weaknesses as well as the energy cycles you will encounter throughout your life. In this Inner Alchemy astrology nutrition guide, Master Mantak Chia and Christine Harkness-Giles explore how to strengthen your birth chi through your eating habits, revealing which foods will address imbalances in your five-element organ energy profile. The authors explain which organs are connected with each element--fire, earth, metal, water, and wood--and provide detailed food lists based on ancient Taoist wisdom that reveal the energetic temperature, flavor, and organ related to many common foods and superfoods. They emphasize the importance of local, seasonal, and fresh foods and of yin-yang balance for health. The authors illustrate the five elements’ characteristics through sample profiles for celebrities such as Paul McCartney and Meryl Streep, along with Taoist nutritional recommendations based on their charts. The authors also explore how your Inner Alchemy astrology profile determines your life and relationships and explain how Inner Alchemy practices and five-element nutrition can improve all aspects of your life. By eating in line with your personal five-element energetic profile, as part of ancient Inner Alchemy techniques, you can improve health and longevity and strengthen connections with your loved ones and the energies of the cosmos.




Chuang-tzu


Book Description

The timeless wisdom of this classic Taoist text can become a companion on your own spiritual journey. The Chuang-tzu is the second major text of the Taoist tradition. It was compiled in the third century BCE and follows the lead of the best-known and oldest of all Taoist texts, the Tao-te-ching (Book of the Tao and Its Potency). Representing the philosophy of its main author, Chuang Chou, along with several other early Taoist strands, the text has inspired spiritual seekers for over two thousand years. Using parable, anecdote, allegory and paradox, the Chuang-tzu presents the central message of what was to become the Taoist school: a reverence for the Tao the "Way" of the natural world and the belief that you are not truly virtuous until you are free from the burden of circumstance, personal attachments, tradition and the desire to reform the world. In this special SkyLight Illuminations edition, leading Taoist scholar Livia Kohn, PhD, provides a fresh, modern translation of key selections from this timeless text to open up classic Taoist beliefs and practices. She provides insightful, accessible commentary that highlights the Chuang-tzu's call to reject artificially imposed boundaries and distinctions, and illustrates how you can live a more balanced, authentic and joyful life at ease in perfect happiness by following Taoist principles."




Lives in Spirit


Book Description

Lives in Spirit explores the dynamic conflicts that both energized and distorted the spiritual development of key precursor figures of a contemporary secular or "this-worldly" mysticism. With its historical roots in the early Gnostics and Plotinus, this characteristically Western spirituality re-emerges with the secularization and loss of traditional religious belief of modernity. The lives, works, and direct experiences of Nietzsche, Emerson, Thoreau, Jung, Heidegger, Gurdjieff, Crowley, and contemporary feminist mysticism are considered in terms of transpersonal psychology (Almaas), the sociology of mysticism (Weber and Troeltsch), and contemporary psychoanalysis (Winnicott, Bion, Kohut). Spiritual or essential experience is seen as an inherent form of human intelligence, which while potentially and even increasingly impacted by personal dynamics and social crisis, is not reducible to them.




The Complete Idiot's Guide to Taoism


Book Description

You’re no idiot, of course. You know Taoism is one of the world’s oldest religions, based on simplicity and balance. However, you may not know it has important parallels with modern Western life: health, ecology, even in such pop culture icons as Luke Skywalker and the Beatles. But you don’t have to sit at the feet of a Taoist master to learn how the Taoist tradition has enlightened seekers throughout the centuries! The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Taoism will show you exactly why Taoist principles appeal to people from every walk of life! In this Complete Idiot’s Guide®, you get: • The history of the Daode Jing, the world’s shortest core religious text, and Laozi, its mysterious author. • The teachings of Zhuangzi, the often-overlooked master sage of Taoism. • An explanation of yin-yang and what it represents. • Taoism’s relationship to Zen Buddhism.




On the Nature of Consciousness


Book Description

Harry Hunt begins by reviewing the renewed interest in ordinary consciousness and in altered and transpersonal states of consciousness. He then presents competing views of consciousness in cognition, neurophysiology, and animal psychology, developing a view of perceptual awareness as the core of consciousness potentially shared across species.