Taoist Meditation: The Mao-shan Tradition of Great Purity(SUNY series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture)

Isabelle Robinet's Taoist Meditation is the first and only scholarly study to discuss the ancient Mao-shan Taoist tradition of visionary meditation while, at the same time, helping to clarify the little understood relationship among the early Taoist classics, the Buddhist tradition, and the later Taoist religion. Most importantly, Taoist Meditation is a pioneering study that fully and accurately describes the unique visionary cosmology, bodily symbolism, astral journeys, internal alchemy, meditational techniques, and ritual practices of the Mao-shan or Shang-chi'ing (Great Purity) movement—one of the most important foundational traditions making up the overall Taoist religion. This English version of Robinet's work is more than a simple translation.Taoist Meditation presents a significantly expanded edition of the original French text which includes up-to-date bibliographies of Robinet's work and other Western scholarship on Taoism, additional illustrations, and a newly compiled list of textual citations.

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations and Figures Translators' Preface Foreword to the English Edition Introduction Chronological Table Chapter 1. General Perspectives I. The Book, Cosmic Creator and the Alliance with the Gods 1. The Ching Reveals the Laws of the World 2. The Ching as the Foundation of the World 3. The Ching: a Token of Power that Certifies and Enlists Divine Protection II. Talismans and Invocations: Summoning the Gods Talismans and Invocations: Fu and Chu III. Auxiliary and Preparatory Exercises IV. The Figure of the Saint and the Spiritual Hierarchy V. The Creative Imagination and the Intermediary World Chapter 2. The Book of the Yellow Court I. General Introduction II. Visualization of the Viscera 1. Interior Vision 2. The Viscera as Living Symbols 3. The T'ai-p'ing ching as Predecessor 4. The Huang-t'ing ching: Viscera in the Book of the Yellow Court 5. The Inheritors and the Therapeutic Tendency 6. The Cosmic Dimension of the Viscera 7. The Center of the Body: The Spleen 8. The Fertile Abysses of the Body The Kidneys and the Lower Cinnabar Field The Gate of Destiny, Ming-men The Origin of the Barrier, Kuan-yüan III. The Circulation of Breath and Essence 1. Breath or Ch'i: Aerial Yang Principle of the Body 2. Essence or Ching: Moist Yin Principle of the Body 3. The Sexual Seed 4. The Nourishing Saliva IV. Conclusion Chapter 3. The Book of Great Profundity I. Introduction II. The Gods of the Body III. Unitive Fusion through the Whirlwind 1. Unitive Fusion, Hun-ho 2. The Whirlwind, Hui-feng Chapter 4. The One, "Preserving the One," and the Three-Ones I. Unity: Void, Origin, and Chaos II. Preserving the One, Shou-i III. The Su-ling ching: The Three and the Nine 1. "Preserving the One," and the Three-Ones 2. The Nine Palaces IV. The Tz'u-i ching (Scripture of the Feminine One) and the T'ai-tan yin-shu (Secret Book of the Supreme Cinnabar) 1. Tz'u-i, The Feminine One 2. T'ai-i, The Supreme One Chapter 5. Overcoming Obstacles and the Certainty of the Final Outcome I. The Embryonic Knots II. The Promise of Immortality Chapter 6. The Metamorphoses I Creative Metamorphoses and the Perpetual Mutations of Life II. The Changing Faces of Truth III. Metamorphoses of the Gods IV. Moving and Wandering V. Magical Metamorphoses and Reproduction VI. Metamorphoses of the Taoists VII. Invisibility: Light and Darkness VIII. Liberating Mutation and Blessed Dissolution Chapter 7. Distant Excursions: Ranging Through the Universe I. Mystical Flights, Fabulous Excursions, and Spiritual Quests II. Cosmic Exhalations, Fresh Sprouts, and Essential Nourishments III. The Penetrating Gaze; Vision of the Poles, Mountains, and Seas; and the Universe's Homage Chapter 8. Flight to the Stars I. The Couple Sun-Moon 1. Meditation Practices: The Sidereal March, Nourishments of Light, and Flight to the Stars 2. The Hierogamic Transposition of Attributes: Alternation and the Coincidence of Opposites 3. The Pivot and the Infinite Center 4. The Bath of Fire and Water; Sovereignty 5. The Nourishment of Light and the Fusion with the Stars II The Planets and the Bushel 1. Description 2. Meditation Practices: The Mantle of Stars, Heavenly Couch, and the Mesh of the Network 3. The Center Above 4. The Bushel and the Supreme One, T'ai-i 5. The North: Matrix of Transformations 6. The Divided Center: North-South and Death-Life, the Hells, Order and Division 7. The Polar Darkness 8. Gateway and Step; the Dance Afterword to the English Edition Notes Selected Bibliography Texts Cited Glossary of Chinese Terms Glossary of Proper Names Index

About the Author :
Isabelle Robinet is Professor of Chinese History and Civilization at the University of Aix-Marseille. Julian F. Pas is Professor of Chinese Religions at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. Norman J. Girardot is Professor of Comparative Religions at Lehigh University.