Taoist Meditation: Methods for Cultivating a Healthy Mind and Body by Thomas Cleary

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The ancient meditation techniques of Taoism encompass a wide range of practices -- with an aim toward cultivating a healthy body as well as an enlightened mind. These selections from classic texts of Taoist meditation represent the entire range of techniques -- from sitting meditation practices to inner alchemy. Most of the texts appear here in English for the first time.

Selections are taken from the following classics:
-- Anthology on Cultivation of Realization: A document from 1739 (Ming dynasty) that emphasizes development of the natural, social, and spiritual elements in human life.
-- Treatise on Sitting Forgetting: A Tang dynasty text that sets meditation practice in terms familiar to Confucians and Buddhists.
-- Sayings of Taoist Master Danyang: Wisdom of the Taoist wizard and representative of the Complete Reality School.
-- Secret Writings on the Mechanisms of Nature: An anthology taken from 168 Taoist sources, including ancient classics and works on meditation and spiritual alchemy, along with admonitions and teachings of the great Taoist luminaries.
-- Zhang Sanfeng's Taiji Alchemy Secrets: A treatise on the inner meditation practices that are the proper foundation of the martial art Taiji.
-- Secret Records of Understanding the Way: A rare and remarkable collection of talks by an anonymous Taoist master of the later Qing dynasty (1644-1911). Traditional teachings with a sometimes strikingly modern bent.