An overview of Daoist texts on passive meditation from the Latter Han through Tang periods.
Stephen Eskildsen offers an overview of Daoist religious texts from the Latter Han (25-220) through Tang (618-907) periods, exploring passive meditation methods and their anticipated effects. These methods entailed observing the processes that unfold spontaneously within mind and body, rather than actively manipulating them by means common in medieval Daoist religion such as visualization, invocations, and the swallowing of breath or saliva. Through the resulting deep serenity, it was claimed, one could attain profound insights, experience visions, feel surges of vital force, overcome thirst and hunger, be cured of ailments, ascend the heavens, and gain eternal life.
While the texts discussed follow the legacy of Warring States period Daoism such as the Laozi to a significant degree, they also draw upon medieval immortality methods and Buddhism. An understanding of the passive meditation literature provides important insights into the subsequent development of Neidan, or Internal Alchemy, meditation that emerged from the Song period onward.
| ISBN: | 9781438458229 |
| Publication date: | 2nd July 2016 |
| Author: | Stephen Eskildsen |
| Publisher: | SUNY Press an imprint of State University of New York Press |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 396 pages |
| Series: | SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture |
| Genres: |
Taoism East Asian and Indian philosophy East Asian religions |
An overview of Daoist texts on passive meditation from the Latter Han through Tang periods.
Stephen Eskildsen offers an overview of Daoist religious texts from the Latter Han (25-220) through Tang (618-907) periods, exploring passive meditation methods and their anticipated effects. These methods entailed observing the processes that unfold spontaneously within mind and body, rather than actively manipulating them by means common in medieval Daoist religion such as visualization, invocations, and the swallowing of breath or saliva. Through the resulting deep serenity, it was claimed, one could attain profound insights, experience visions, feel surges of vital force, overcome thirst and hunger, be cured of ailments, ascend the heavens, and gain eternal life.
While the texts discussed follow the legacy of Warring States period Daoism such as the Laozi to a significant degree, they also draw upon medieval immortality methods and Buddhism. An understanding of the passive meditation literature provides important insights into the subsequent development of Neidan, or Internal Alchemy, meditation that emerged from the Song period onward.
Daoism, Meditation, and the Wonders of Serenity features in the following genres: Taoism, East Asian and Indian philosophy, East Asian religions
Daoism, Meditation, and the Wonders of Serenity is available in Paperback, Hardback, Ebook
Daoism, Meditation, and the Wonders of Serenity was written by Stephen Eskildsen and published by SUNY Press an imprint of State University of New York Press
Daoism, Meditation, and the Wonders of Serenity has 396 pages
Yes it is part of SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture series
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