Applying the ancient yet timeless 81 principles of Taoism to parenting, The Tao Of Parenting features instructive anecdotes from four families to demonstrate how Taoist teachings help parents raise good, healthy children. The stories are just as diverse as the families who tell them (a blended family featuring children from separate marriages, a couple with different cultural and ethical backgrounds, a single parent of twin boys, and a couple with different parenting techniques learning to compromise). Some of the Taoist principles used by these families include: * "Do Not Think of Self". Shows the rewards parents receive by making their children their number one priority * "The material is fleeting, the spiritual is everlasting". Demonstrates the rewards of caring for those in need * "Do Not Be Authoritarian". Shows how to foster self-reliance and responsibility in children while supporting their efforts, rather than controlling their every move * "Follow the middle road; it is the heart of knowing". Offers the benefits of parents being neither too permissive or too strict, but rather adjusting the rules for each child and each circumstance There are many more valuable lessons in this special book which can be used by parents of all faiths to help guide their lives and those of their children.

The friends and family of a drug or alcohol addict are often left out of the recovery process. The timeless wisdom of the Tao has been adapted to gently change those who are suffering into peaceful, healthy, self-confident humans, ready to fully rejoin life in a serene and harmonious way.

This extraordinary collection of teachings and commentaries illuminates the many profound mysteries of inner alchemy, one of the most important dimensions of the Taoist tradition. The science of inner alchemy consists of mediation practices that enable the individual to have a more intimate, energizing, and inspiring relationship with life. Although these techniques are described in the sourcebooks of ancient Taoism, they are often couched in cryptic symbolic language, making it difficult for today's seekers to put these teachings into practice. Some classical Taoist writers, however, did adopt a more explicit manner of expression. Practical Taoism is a collection of writings from these more accessible commentators on the traditional alchemical texts, compiled by a seventh-generation master of the Northern Branch of the Complete Reality School of Taoism known as the Preserver of Truth.

The readings in this book are a beginner's entree into the vast treasury of writings from the sacred Chinese tradition, consisting of original translations of excerpts from the Taoist canon. Brief introductions and notes on the translation accompany the selections from the classics; books of devotional and mystical Taoism; texts of internal alchemy; stories of Taoist immortals, magicians, sorcerers; ethical tracts; chants and rituals; and teachings on meditation and methods of longevity.

Lao Tzu, the legendary author of the Tao Te Ching, is also credited with the authorship of the Hua Hu Ching, which embodies some of his later teachings. During a time of political turmoil in the fourteenth century, all copies of this work were banned and ordered to be burned. Thus, few if any complete and accurate manuscripts exist today. Fortunately, the complete teachings of the Hua Hu Ching have been preserved through the oral transmission of generation after generation of Taoist masters to their disciples. In this book, Master Ni, heir to that orally transmitted wisdom, offers a superlative rendering of this reassured teaching.

Of particular interest for its application to business strategizing, this edition of the well-known ancient Chinese classic I Ching (The Book of Changes) guides readers through the intricacies of group dynamics and relationships within organizations of all kinds. The root text is supported by a commentary from the eleventh-century scholar Cheng-Yi, founder of the movement known as Lixue, the study of inner design. Cheng contended that by understanding the pattern of events--the inner design of nature--one can bring about mutual understanding and cooperation among people in groups, thus facilitating the accomplishment of any tasks they might undertake. The translator's extensive introduction gives specific, systematic guidelines for consulting the I Ching for greatest understanding and best results. Included in the afterward is a profile of the modern and Japanese organizational genius Matsushita Konosuke, founder of Panasonic and other multinational corporations, whose success has been built on the principles of the I Ching.

Called "a first rate piece of work" by T.S. Eliot, this book offers a comprehensive discussion of Taoism, one of the world's major religions, as well as a study of the Tao te ching, the best known Taoist text and Lao-tzu as a Taoist prototype. "Clarifies a large area of literature and history that has been a mystery to the West and makes fascinating reading even for those whose interest is casual." -The New Yorker

This is a view of Chinese religion from the Taoist perspective, derived from fieldwork in Taiwan, Hong Kong and the People's Republic of China. The book is based on the Taoist hypothesis that all Chinese rites of passage and festivals are structured by the Yin-Yang five element cosmology. Buddhist and Taoist meditations of emptying, marriage, birthing, initiation, burial, ancestor rituals and the annual festivals are described through the eyes of the experts called on to serve family and village needs. The work ends with a view of religion in the People's Republic of China during a period of renewal and restoration.

Understanding Reality (Chinese Wu Chen P'ien) is one of the basic classics of Taoist spiritual alchemy as practiced in the Complete Reality (Ch'uan-chen) school of Taoism. Writing in the year 1841, the Taoist Chu Chung-t'ang described its status within the tradition in these terms: 11 Wei Po-yang of the Eastern Han dynasty (23-220 C.E.) first revealed the celestial mechanism and expounded its esoteric truths, composing the Ts'an T'ung Ch'i ... In the Sung dynasty (960-1279) Chang Tzu-yang composed the Wu Chen P'ien. Both texts are perennial guides to the study of the Tao."

'The Tao of Joy Every Day' contains Taoist sayings, wisdom, and stories all designed to bring awareness and understanding of what makes our lives meaningful, especially in a world that seems hurried and crazed.

Written during the Golden Age of Chinese philosophy, and composed partly in prose and partly in verse, the Tao Te Ching is the most terse and economical of the world's great religious texts. In a series of short, profound chapters it elucidates the idea of the Tao, or the Way, and of Te - Virtue, or Power - ideas that in their ethical, practical and spiritual dimensions have become essential to the life of China's powerful civilization. The Tao Te Ching has been translated into Western languages more times than any other Chinese work. It speaks of the ineffable in a secular manner and its imagery, drawn from the natural world, transcends time and place. The application of its wisdom to modern times is both instructive and provocative - for the individual, lessons in self-awareness and spontaneity, placing stillness and consciousness of the word around above ceaseless activity; for leaders of society, how to govern with integrity, to perform unobtrusively the task in hand and never to utter words lightly; for both, the futility of striving for personal success. D. C. Lau's classic English version remains a touchstone of accuracy. Informed by the most impressive scholarship this is a translation both for academic study and for general readers who prefer to reflect on the meaning of this ancient text unencumbered by the subjective interpretations and poetic licence of more recent 'inspirational' translations. Sarah Allan's masterly introduction discusses the origins of the work, sheds light on the ambiguities of its language, and places it firmly in its historical and philosophical context. The Everyman edition uses Lau's translation of the Ma Wang Tui manuscripts (discovered in 1973) in the revised 1989 version published by The Chinese University Press. The iconic text is presented uncluttered by explanatory notes. A chronology and glossary are included, together with the translator's informative appendices.

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.

"so both thrive both discovering bliss-real power is female it rises from beneath" These 81 brief poems from the 5th century BCE make up a foundational text in world culture. In elegant, simple yet elusive language, the Daodejing develops its vision of humankind's place in the world in personal, moral, social, political and cosmic terms. Martyn Crucefix's superb new versions in English reflect - for the very first time - the radical fluidity of the original Chinese texts as well as placing the mysterious 'dark' feminine power at their heart. Laozi, the putative author, is said to have despaired of the world's venality and corruption, but he was persuaded to leave the Daodejing poems as a parting gift, as inspiration and as a moral and political handbook. Crucefix's versions reveal an astonishing empathy with what the poems have to say about good and evil, war and peace, government, language, poetry and the pedagogic process. When the true teacher emerges, no matter how detached, unimpressive, even muddled she may appear, Laozi assures us "there are treasures beneath".

Building on the Lesser Kan and Li formulas for the development of the soul body, this book provides illustrated descriptions of the Greater Kan and Li formulas to create the immortal spirit body. Used by Taoist masters for thousands of years, these exercises are for advanced students of Taoist Inner Alchemy and mark the beginning of the path to immortality. Master Mantak Chia and Andrew Jan reveal how to use Taoist inner alchemy to harness the energies of Sun, Moon, Earth, North Star, and Big Dipper and transform them to feed the soul body and begin development of the immortal spirit body. They explain how to reverse yin and yang power through energetic work at the solar plexus, thereby activating the liberation of transformed sexual energy. They explore how to open the heart center and how to connect astral energy with the energies of animals, children, and plants to grow the immortal fetus, or spirit body. The authors provide warm-up exercises, including the Inner Smile and Fusion practices, and outline a complete daily Kan and Li routine for mental and physical health, longevity, astral flight, and realization of the Wu Wei state.

The Tao of Leadership is an invaluable tool for anyone in a position of leadership. This book provides the most simple and clear advice on how to be the very best kind of leader: be faithful, trust the process, pay attention, and inspire others to become their own leaders. Heider's book is a blend of practical insight and profound wisdom, offering inspiration and advice. This book is used as a Management/Leadership training text by many Fortune 500 corporations, including IBM, Mitsubishi, and Prudential. "This is a particularly readable and accessible version of a great but difficult work" - Publisher's Weekly.

The cache of bamboo texts unearthed in the village of Guodian, Hubei Province, in 1993 is a rare and unique find in the history of Chinese philosophy and literature. This study renders the complex corpus of the Guodian texts into a more easily manageable form, incorporating the past several years of scholarly activity on these texts and providing them with a comprehensive introduction along with a complete and well-annotated translation into English. As the only archaeologically excavated corpus of philosophical manuscripts to emerge from a Warring States-period tomb, the Guodian texts provide us with a wealth of reliable information for gaining new insights into the textual and intellectual history of pre-imperial China. Given the prominence of Confucian works in the corpus, they serve to fill out much of the intellectual historical picture for the doctrines of roughly three generations of Confucian disciples who fell between the times of Confucius (551-479 BC) and Mencius (c. 390-305 BC). The manuscripts also hold great significance for the study of early Chinese paleography and phonology. Volume II offers introductions to and annotated translations of the manuscripts "Cheng zhi," "Zun deyi," "Xing zi ming chu," "Liu de," and "Yucong" 1-4, along with various appendixes. These include collation tables of witnesses to the Guodian "Laozi" passages and a running translation of all the Guodian texts.