Teachings of Taoist Master Chuang by Michael Saso

by Michael Saso

Until his death in 1976 Master Chuang, a descendant of 35 generations of Taoist Priests, carried out his ancient rituals for the benefit of a small band of believers in Taiwan. His family, who claimed to have come from Hua Shan, the Taoist mountain in western China, followed the observances of the Dragon-Tiger Mountain sect in southeastern China. Although there are many conflicting Taoist schools, the antiquity and authenticity of Master Chuang's traditions cannot be doubted. Michael Saso, a Western disciple of Master Chuang, recounts the teachings of Taoist Master Chuang, including Taoist history as Master Chuang understood it, the role of Taoist Priests in modern Chinese society, and Master Chuang's own rituals of Taoist black magic, meditation, and rarely discussed exorcistic thunder magic.

Genres: Taoism

Hardcover

First published December 1, 1978

About the author

Professor Saso is a scholar of the religious practices of Japan and China, with a particular emphasis on Taoism. He has translated Japanese and Chinese religious texts and related works and has written several books on Asian religion. His knowledge of Taoism and Buddhism comes from within those communities: he is an initiated Taoist priest of the Zhengyi Sect as well as an ordained Tendai Buddhist monk.

His first ordination, however, was as a Jesuit. He left the order in the 1960s, and in 1968 married Nariko Akimoto, with whom he had two daughters. The marriage was later annulled. Saso requested reinstatement as a RC priest in 1997 and is now connected with the Sino-Asian Institute in Los Angeles, California, and serves in the Diocese of San Jose.

Reviews

[Rick Harrington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Looks like another book no-one else has read. But I did study with Michael Saso way back in the day. He went over to Taiwan a Jesuit, and came back a Taoist, which as I recall disqualified him from any wild dreams of a Professorship at Yale. I think there was some trouble trusting his "objectivity". Who knows, maybe he just wasn't smart enough, although he seemed pretty darned smart to me. Or maybe just not scholarly enough, which could be taken as a high compliment, especially considering the uses and abuses made of terms like Jesuitical. In any case, there was something very real in what he did relate about the inner workings of Taoism, of the sort more aligned with folk traditions, rather than the literary sort aligned with scholarship.

I never could quite believe in fantastical Jesus either, and so it should be no surprise that I couldn't enter in to the wonders of Taoist understanding. Or maybe I have in a quiet way having nothing to do with visible magic. I know that what Professor Saso (for so he was called that year) related to me was manifestly real and true. I traveled over to Taiwan myself, to inspect the temple he wrote about, but only learned to drink there. With newspaper writers who were allowed to know but never to speak the truth. Which was a different kind of occult teaching I have never quite forgotten.

So, you should read this book too, if you can find it. It leads the way to a kind of knowing beyond scholarship which is still as true as what those newspapermen knew which wasn't allowed to be any part of the official understandings. Not magic, exactly. Just what can be gotten at when you let go of too much understanding. The world could use a little more of that right now.