Böcker av Livia Kohn

The Huangting jing (Yellow Court Scripture) is a central classic of Daoist meditation. It comes in two major versions, an "outer" and an "inner" text, that are both revealed by senior deities and written in lines of seven characters. Going back to the early middle period, with major commentaries from the Tang dynasty, they are rather mysterious and poetic in diction, presenting the human body in terms of energies and spirits, towers and chambers. Without giving specific instructions, they suggest visualization, energy circulation, and alignment with the celestial bodies to maintain and control these internal powers in order to enhance life, increase longevity, and reach for immortality. Both texts, moreover, carry celestial potency in themselves and have been chanted since they first appeared. This book, after a historical introduction, translates both versions with their main commentaries, prefaces, and recitation instructions. Allowing the sources to speak for themselves, it opens a new vista on Daoist meditation, traditional cosmology, and the Chinese understanding of body and mind.

Examines the traditional and modern Western interpretations of the Tao-te-ching, and its author, Lao-tzu.

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.

Did Chinese mysticism vanish after its first appearance in ancient Taoist philosophy, to surface only after a thousand years had passed, when the Chinese had adapted Buddhism to their own culture? This survey of the mystical dimension of Taoism disputes the commonly accepted idea of such a hiatus.