Taoist Meditation: Methods for Cultivating a Healthy Mind and Body

A curated collection of ancient texts that shed light on the full breadth of Taoist meditation practices

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.