The guide to engaging and directing the three primordial forces of Earth, Heaven, and Higher Self to achieve enlightenment and immortality
- Explains how to circulate the life force, or chi, by balancing yang (male) and yin (female) currents of bioenergy
- Includes an overview of the complete Taoist body/mind/spirit system along with newly refined methods of activating the life force
- The sequel to the classic "Awaken Healing Energy Through the Tao"
In 1983, Mantak Chia introduced the "Microcosmic Orbit" to the West. Prior to that time, most of the Eastern energy practices transmitted to the West were incomplete, dealing only with the ascending yang/masculine channel, which shoots life-force energy up the spine. The Microcosmic Orbit showed practitioners how to establish the descending yin/feminine channel of the life-force energy loop. Within Taoist systems, cultivating feminine energy has always been seen as the key to gaining balance and wholeness.
"Healing Light of the Tao" presents the more advanced methods of chi cultivation in the Microcosmic Orbit, offering a full understanding of Taoist spiritual theory through its comprehensive overview of the complete Taoist body/mind/spirit system. The book also includes more advanced meditation methods for absorbing the higher frequencies of Earth Force, Cosmic Force, and Universal Force (Heavenly chi) into the basic orbit. It establishes a spiritual science that not only emphasizes practical benefits to health, sexual vitality, and emotional balance, but also shows how changes made in the energy body can lead to physical rejuvenation that the Taoists called immortality.

Written in the early eighth century, the "Kojiki" is considered Japan's first literary and historical work. A compilation of myths, legends, songs, and genealogies, it recounts the birth of Japan's islands, reflecting the origins of Japanese civilization and future Shinto practice. The "Kojiki" provides insight into the lifestyle, religious beliefs, politics, and history of early Japan, and for centuries has shaped the nation's view of its past. This innovative rendition conveys the rich appeal of the "Kojiki" to a general readership by translating the names of characters to clarify their contribution to the narrative while also translating place names to give a vivid sense of the landscape the characters inhabit, as well as an understanding of where such places are today. Gustav Heldt's expert organization reflects the text's original sentence structure and repetitive rhythms, enhancing the reader's appreciation for its sophisticated style of storytelling.

A syncretistic and millenarian religious movement, the Yiguandao (Way of Pervading Unity) was one of the major redemptive societies of Republican China. It developed extremely rapidly in the 1930s and the 1940s, attracting millions of members. Severely repressed after the establishment of the People's Republic of China, it managed to endure and redeploy elsewhere, especially in Taiwan. Today, it has become one of the largest and most influential religious movements in Asia and at the same time one of the least known and understood. From its powerful base in Taiwan, it has expanded worldwide, including in mainland China where it remains officially forbidden. Based on ethnographic work carried out over nearly a decade, Reclaiming the Wilderness offers an in-depth study of a Yiguandao community in Hong Kong that serves as a node of circulation between Taiwan, Macao, China and elsewhere. Sebastien Billioud explores the factors contributing to the expansionary dynamics of the group: the way adepts live and confirm their faith; the importance of charismatic leadership; the role of Confucianism, which makes it possible to defuse tensions with Chinese authorities and sometimes even to cooperate with them; and, finally, the well-structured expansionary strategies of the Yiguandao and its quasi-diplomatic efforts to navigate the troubled waters of cross-straits politics.

In recent years China has witnessed unprecedented economic growth, emerging as a powerful, influential player on the global stage. Now, more than ever, there is a great interest and need within the West to better understand the psychological and social processes that characterize Chinese people.
The Oxford Handbook of Chinese Psychology is the first book of its kind-- a comprehensive and commanding review of Chinese psychology, covering areas of human functioning with unparalleled sophistication and complexity. In 42 chapters, leading authorities cite and integrate both English and Chinese-language research in topic areas ranging from the socialization of children, mathematics achievement, emotion, bilingualism, and Chinese styles of thinking to Chinese identity, personal relationships, leadership processes, and psychopathology. With all chapters accessibly written by the leading researchers in their respective fields, the reader of this volume will learn how and why China has developed in the way it has, and how it is likely to develop. In addition, the book shows how a better understanding of a culture so different to our own can tell us so much about our own culture and sense of identity.
A book of extraordinary breadth, the Oxford Handbook of Chinese Psychology will become the essential sourcebook for any scholar or practitioner attempting to understand the psychological functioning of the world's largest ethnic group.

The Qianlong emperor, who dominated the religious and political life of 18th-century China, was in turn ruled by elaborate ritual prescriptions. These texts determined what he wore and ate, how he moved, and above all how he performed the yearly Grand Sacrifices. In this study, Angela Zito offers an analysis of the way ritualizing power was produced jointly by the throne and the official literati who dictated these prescriptions. Forging a critical cultural historical method that challenges traditional categories of Chinese studies, Zito shows that in their "performance", the ritual texts literally embodied the metaphysics upon which imperial power rested. By combining rule through the brush (the production of ritual texts), with rule through the body (mandated performance), the throne both exhibited its power and attempted to control resistance to it. Encompassing Chinese history, anthropology, religion, and performance and cultural studies, this book seeks to bring a new perspective to the human sciences.

A brilliant history of ancient China's masters of philosophy -- and how they help us understand China todayIn Ways of Heaven, leading China scholar Roel Sterckx offers an engrossing introduction to classical China's world of ideas. Drawing on evocative examples from philosophical texts, literature, and everyday life over centuries of Chinese history, Sterckx introduces major thinkers and traditions, illuminates key concepts like the dao, qi, yin, and yang, and examines questions of leadership, social order, death, nature, and more. He also reveals how these ideas shape contemporary China, from table manners at a traditional banquet, to the Chinese obsession with education and family, to the rhetoric of political leaders and the nation's grand strategy.Essential reading for students, travelers, businesspeople, and anyone curious about this rising global power, Ways of Heaven shows that to comprehend China today we must learn to think Chinese.

When the undefeated samurai Miyamoto Musashi retreated to a cave in 1643 and wrote "The Book of Five Rings," a manifesto on swordsmanship, strategy, and winning for his students and generations of samurai to come, he created one of the most perceptive and incisive texts on strategic thinking ever to come from Asia.
Musashi gives timeless advice on defeating an adversary, throwing an opponent off-guard, creating confusion, and other techniques for overpowering an assailant that will resonate with both martial artists and everyone else interested in skillfully dealing with conflict. For Musashi, the way of the martial arts was a mastery of the mind rather than simply technical prowess--and it is this path to mastery that is the core teaching in "The Book of Five Rings."
William Scott Wilson's translation is faithful to the original seventeenth-century Japanese text while being wonderfully clear and readable. His scholarship and insight into the deep meaning of this classic are evident in his introduction and notes to the text. This edition also includes a translation of one of Musashi's earlier writings, "The Way of Walking Alone," and calligraphy by Japanese artist Shiro Tsujimura.

A companion volume to the bestselling "Perspectives of Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Hinduism," this work discusses how Taoism is one facet of Chinese religion, and exemplifies particularly well the variety of beliefs and practices that humankind has adopted and experienced in the search for answers to both ultimate and proximate questions about life and death. This book explores the different pathways Taoism took in that search, touching at many points on the other interrelated facets of Chinese religion in Confucianism, Buddhism, and popular religion. The mystical, philosophical traditions of Taoism are analyzed, as well as the more colorful and overtly religious strands of Taoism.

.,."this fascinating book provides the reader with a new and vivid description of a number of prototypes of temple oracles in China and beyond."--Journal of Chinese Religions
"This work will undoubtedly achieve for the Chinese temple oracle the recognition it deserves in histories of divination. More importantly, as Strickmann demonstrates, the study of such divination sequences has a great deal to tell us of the history of the book, the study of morality books, and the history of cultural contact." --Stephen R. Bokenkamp, Indiana University

The classic work of Chinese philosophy, the Tao Te Ching has been translated more often than any other book except the Bible.

Traditionally attributed to Lao Tzu, an older contemporary of Confucius (551 - 479 BC), it is now thought that the work was compiled in about the fourth century BC. An anthology of wise sayings, it offers a model by which the individual can live rather than explaining the human place in the universe. The moral code it encourages is based on modesty and self-restraint, and the rewards reaped for such a life are harmony and flow of life.

A discourse on government as well as personal deportment, the Tao Te Ching is more practical than mystical and, in this acclaimed translation by Richard Wilhelm, its exquisite clarity and economy of expression ensure that it may be enjoyed as poetry as well as philosophy.

Join renowned author David Hinton on two walks into the wild beauty and archaeological ruins of the desert Southwest, where he maps the edges of consciousness and our place in the Cosmos.

Walks in the desert and journeys through Ch’an (Zen) enlightenment. Meditations on the nature of perception and on the nature of ruins. Topographies of mind and of space-time. Poetry and prose. This talismanic book is all of these and more.

In this poetic odyssey of nature writing that blurs the line between observer and landscape, Hinton’s project is nothing less than to map our place in the cosmos and awaken to our interconnectedness with the wild spontaneity of the natural world. It is the culmination of Hinton’s philosophical adventure, deeply informed by his nearly forty years of translating and contemplating China’s ancient poets, Taoist sages, and Ch’an masters. Like Henry David Thoreau and other great literary walkers, Hinton joins philosophical meditations with a keen eye for the slightest of nature’s details. In following these walks, we journey into wondrous and even ecstatic clarities about the nature of mind and existence itself.

The Tao Te Ching is a book of Chinese philosophical poetry, written sometime between the seventh and the fourth centuries BCE. According to tradition it was written by a quiet librarian named Lao Tzu, and describes a way of life that is free of strife and stress. The principle scripture of Taoism, the Tao Te Ching, consisting of just 5,000 Chinese characters, is one of the most sublime, meaningful, and downright practical works of mysticism in the human canon. This new translation by John R. Mabry is simple, poetic, and profound. Cleaving closely to the Chinese text, this translation succeeds in being not only readable and accurate, but beautiful as well.

Tranquil Sitting is the Taoist Master Yin Shi Zi's practical guide and inspirational testament to the healing power and spiritual benefits of meditation and Chinese medical Qigong. The book explores the theory and physiological aspects of meditation and offers practical instruction in traditional meditation techniques. It also documents Yin Shi Zi's personal experiences with meditation, his own self-healing which he attributes to his Taoist practice, and his initiation into the Tibetan tantric practice of opening the crown of the head. Thus giving the reader an idea of the long-term process of meditation practice and the deep healing that can result from it. Faithfully translated from the Chinese, this is an influential text that belongs on the bookshelves of everyone with an interest in Taoist practice and meditation.

This clear and reliable introduction to Taoism (also known as Daoism) brings a fresh dimension to a tradition that has found a natural place in Western society. Examining Taoist sacred texts together with current scholarship, it surveys Taoism's ancient roots, contemporary heritage and role in daily life.
From Taoism's spiritual philosophy to its practical perspectives on life and death, self-cultivation, morality, society, leadership and gender, Russell Kirkland's essential guide reveals the real contexts behind concepts such as Feng Shui and Tai Chi.

The teaching and practices of the ancient Daoist tradition of Da Xuan have been kept secret for generations. In this ground-breaking book, Serge Augier, the current inheritor of the Da Xuan system, presents this unique approach to Daoism and reveals the basic principles and theory behind the practice of Da Xuan. Weaving a masterful presentation of both astonishing depth and refreshing simplicity, Serge Augier covers the Daoist practices for developing mind, emotions and internal energy and provides specific exercises for cultivating and transforming the Jing (body energy), Qi (life force) and Shen (mind or spirit) on the path to enlightenment. He explains theory and practice in clear, easy-to-understand terms and explores the deeper reaches of Daoist internal alchemy in a way that gives access to practitioners of all levels to the necessary knowledge.

Is Confucianism compatible with democracy? Ongoing debates among political theorists revolve around the question of whether the overarching goal of Confucianism - serving the people's moral and material well-being - is attainable in modern day politics without broad democratic participation and without relying on a "one person, one vote" system. One side of the debate - voiced by "traditional" Confucian meritocrats - argues that only certain people are equipped with the moral character needed to lead and ensure broad public well-being. They emphasize moral virtue over civic virtue and the family over the state as the quintessential public institution. Moreover, they believe that a system of rule headed by meritorious elites can better handle complex modern public affairs than representative democracy. The other side - voiced by Confucian democrats - argues that unless all citizens participate equally in the public sphere, the kind of moral growth Confucianism emphasizes cannot be fully attained. Despite notable differences in political orientation, scholars of both positions acknowledge that democracy is largely of instrumental value for realizing Confucian moral ends in modern society. It would seem that Confucians of both types have largely dismissed democracy as a political system that can mediate clashing values and political views - or even that Confucian democracy is a system marked by pluralism. In this book, Sungmoon Kim lays out a normative theory of Confucian democracy - pragmatic Confucian democracy - to address questions of the right to political participation, instrumental and intrinsic values of democracy, democratic procedure and substance, punishment and criminal justice, social and economic justice, and humanitarian intervention. As such, this project is not only relevant to the much debated topic of Confucian democracy as a cultural alternative to Western-style liberal democracy in East Asia, but it further investigates the philosophical implications of the idea and institution of Confucian democracy in normative democratic theory, criminal justice, distributive justice, and just war. Ultimately, Kim shows us that the question is not so much about the compatibility of Confucianism and democracy, but of how the two systems can benefit from each other.

This is the first complete, one-volume English translation of the ancient Chinese text Xunzi, one of the most extensive, sophisticated, and elegant works in the tradition of Confucian thought. Through essays, poetry, dialogues, and anecdotes, the Xunzi presents a more systematic vision of the Confucian ideal than the fragmented sayings of Confucius and Mencius, articulating a Confucian perspective on ethics, politics, warfare, language, psychology, human nature, ritual, and music, among other topics. Aimed at general readers and students of Chinese thought, Eric Hutton's translation makes the full text of this important work more accessible in English than ever before. Named for its purported author, the Xunzi (literally, "Master Xun") has long been neglected compared to works such as the Analects of Confucius and the Mencius. Yet interest in the Xunzi has grown in recent decades, and the text presents a much more systematic vision of the Confucian ideal than the fragmented sayings of Confucius and Mencius. In one famous, explicit contrast to them, the Xunzi argues that human nature is bad. However, it also allows that people can become good through rituals and institutions established by earlier sages. Indeed, the main purpose of the Xunzi is to urge people to become as good as possible, both for their own sakes and for the sake of peace and order in the world. In this edition, key terms are consistently translated to aid understanding and line numbers are provided for easy reference. Other features include a concise introduction, a timeline of early Chinese history, a list of important names and terms, cross-references, brief explanatory notes, a bibliography, and an index.

What Is Taoism? traces, in nontechnical language, the history of the development of this often baffling doctrine. Creel shows that there has not been one "Taoism," but at least three, in some respects incompatible and often antagonistic. In eight closely related papers, Creel explicates the widely used concepts he originally introduced of "contemplative Taoism," "purposive Taoism," and "Hsien Taoism." He also discusses Shen Pu-hai, a political philosopher of the fourth century B.C.; the curious interplay between Confucianism, Taoism, and "Legalism" in the second century B.C.; and the role of the horse in Chinese history.

Many philosophers and scientists over the course of history have held that the world is alive. It has a soul, which governs it and binds it together. This suggestion, once so wide-spread, may strike many of us today as strange and antiquated-in fact, there are few other concepts that, on their face, so capture the sheer distance between us and our philosophical inheritance. But the idea of a world soul has held so strong a grip upon philosophers' imaginations for over 2,000 years, that it continues to underpin and even structure how we conceive of time and space. The concept of the world soul is difficult to understand in large part because over the course of history it has been invoked to very different ends and within the frameworks of very different ontologies and philosophical systems, with varying concepts of the world soul emerging as a result. This volume brings together eleven chapters by leading philosophers in their respective fields that collectively explore the various ways in which this concept has been understood and employed, covering the following philosophical areas: Platonism, Stoicism, Medieval, Indian or Vedantic, Kabbalah, Renaissance, Early Modern, German Romanticism, German Idealism, American Transcendentalism, and contemporary quantum mechanics and panpsychism theories. In addition, short reflections illuminate the impact the concept of the world soul has had on a small selection of areas outside of philosophy, such as harmony, the biological concept of spontaneous generation, Henry Purcell, psychoanalysis, and Gaia theories.

This book debates the values and ideals of Confucian politics-harmony, virtue, freedom, justice, order-and what these ideals mean for Confucian political philosophy today. The authors deliberate these eminent topics in five debates centering on recent innovative and influential publications in the field. Challenging and building on those works, the dialogues consider the roles of benevolence, family determination, public reason, distributive justice, and social stability in Confucian political philosophy. In response, the authors defend their views and evaluate their critics in turn. Taking up a broad range of crucial issues-autonomy, liberty, democracy, political legitimacy, human welfare-these author-meets-critic debates will appeal to scholars interested in political, comparative, and East Asian philosophy. Their interlaced themes weave a portrait of what is at stake in discussing Confucian values and theory. Most importantly, they engage and develop the state of the field of Confucian political philosophy today.

China has a large number of indigenous ethnic minorities, some of which have large populations. Many of these minorities have animist, local religions, which are closely bound up with their ethnic culture. The revival of religion generally in China in recent years has been paralleled by a revival of religion amongst the ethnic minorities. This has caused a renewal of long-standing tensions between majority Han and non-Han minorities, the latter often having endured for a long time policies designed to suppress their separate ethnic identities and make them conform to majority Han norms. This book, based on extensive original research among the Bai people, a people with a population of around five million, explores these important issues. It considers how majority-minority ethnic relations have evolved over time, discusses amongst many other issues how local religions emphasise ancestor cults which reinforce minorities sense of their separate ethnicity, and concludes by assessing how these important issues are likely to develop."

This book is the first major reassessment of ancient Chinese religion to appear in recent years. It provides a historical investigation of broadly shared religious beliefs and goals in ancient China from the earliest period to the end of the Han Dynasty. The author makes use of recently acquired archeological data, traditional texts, and modern scholarly work from China, Japan, and the West. The overall concern of this book is to try to reach the religious mentality of the ancient Chinese in the context of personal and daily experiences. Poo deals with such problems as the definition of religion, the popular/elite controversy in methodology, and the use of "elite" documents in the study of ordinary life.

"Finding Wisdom in East Asian Classics" is an essential, all-access guide to the core texts of East Asian civilization and culture. Essays address frequently read, foundational texts in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese, as well as early modern fictional classics and nonfiction works of the seventeenth century. Building strong links between these writings and the critical traditions of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism, this volume shows the vital role of the classics in the shaping of Asian history and in the development of the humanities at large.

Wm. Theodore de Bary focuses on texts that have survived for centuries, if not millennia, through avid questioning and contestation. Recognized as perennial reflections on life and society, these works represent diverse historical periods and cultures and include the "Analects of Confucius," "Mencius," "Laozi," "Xunxi," the "Lotus Sutra," Tang poetry, the "Pillow Book," "The Tale of Genji," and the writings of Chikamatsu and Kaibara Ekken. Contributors explain the core and most commonly understood aspects of these works and how they operate within their traditions. They trace their reach and reinvention throughout history and their ongoing relevance in modern life.

With fresh interpretations of familiar readings, these essays inspire renewed appreciation and examination. In the case of some classics open to multiple interpretations, de Bary chooses two complementary essays from different contributors. Expanding on debates concerning the challenges of teaching classics in the twenty-first century, several pieces speak to the value of Asia in the core curriculum. Indispensable for early scholarship on Asia and the evolution of global civilization, "Finding Wisdom in East Asian Classics" helps one master the major texts of human thought.