Taoist Meditation Methods for Cultivating a Healthy Mind and Body

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 internal 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 Mechanism of Nature:An anthology taken from one hundred sixty-three 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 mediation 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.

Thomas Cleary holds a Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University. He is the translator of over fifty volumes of Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian, and Islamic texts from Sanskrit, Chinese, Japanese, Pali, and Arabic.