Handbooks for Daoist Practice: Volume II

by Louis Komjathy

A revised edition of the classic series of bilingual Chinese-English translations of nine important, representative, and practice-oriented Daoist texts.

Originally published in 2003 under the imprint of Wandering Cloud Press 遊雲書社 and subsequently in 2008 by the Yuen Yuen Institute 圓玄學院, Handbooks for Daoist Practice 修道手冊 (HDP) is a series of bilingual Chinese-English translations of nine important, representative, and practice-oriented Daoist texts. The collection consists of nine individual “Handbooks,” which is the translation series proper, and an introduction that discusses the translations as a whole and serves as a comprehensive introduction to Daoist study-practice ( xuéxíng 學行), with a particular focus on tradition-based Daoist scripture study ( jīngxué 經學). The Nine Handbooks ( jiǔcè 九冊) are as

1. Nèiyè 內業 (Inward Training; complete)
2. Lǎozǐ 老子 (Book of Venerable Masters; selections)
3. Huángdì sùwèn 黃帝素問 (Yellow Thearch’s Basic Questions; chs. 1-2)
4. Qīngjìng jīng 清靜經 (Scripture on Clarity and Stillness; complete)
5. Lǎojūn jīng lǜ 老君經律 (Scriptural Statutes of Lord Lao; 1a-2a)
6. Nèi rìyòng jīng 內日用經 (Scripture for Internal Daily Application; complete)
7. Yīnfú jīng 陰符經 (Scripture on the Hidden Talisman; complete)
8. Chóngyáng shíwǔ lùn 重陽十五論 (Redoubled Yang’s Fifteen Discourses; complete)
9. Tiānyǐnzǐ 天隱子 (Book of Master Celestial Seclusion; complete)

This series is specifically intended to provide resources for Daoist adherents and Daoist communities to deepen their practice-realization. Each work has been selected for its relevance to self-cultivation. Each translation follows a standardized format, consisting of a historical and technical introduction and the bilingual translation with “facing-page” layout. This new three-volume Twentieth Anniversary Edition (TAE) is revised, updated, and expanded, including not only a new introduction and new layout, but also text-specific Daoist glossaries as well as various appendices to facilitate deeper engagement and fuller study-practice. Volume I includes the general introduction and Handbooks 1-3; volume II contains Handbooks 4-6; and volume III includes Handbooks 7-9 and the combined bibliography.

236 pages, Hardcover

Published January 31, 2023

About the author

Louis Komjathy 康思奇 (Ph.D., Religious Studies; Boston University) is an independent scholar-educator and translator (www.louiskomjathy.org). He researches and has published extensively in Contemplative Studies, Daoist Studies, and Religious Studies, with specific interests in contemplative practice, embodiment, and mystical experience. He is founding Co-chair of the Daoist Studies Unit (2004-2010) and Contemplative Studies Unit (2010-2016) in the American Academy of Religion, and founding Co-director of the Daoist Foundation (www.daoistfoundation.org). In addition to nine books to date, he has contributed chapters to _Meditation and the Classroom: Contemplative Pedagogy for Religious Studies_ (2011), _Perceiving the Divine through the Human Body: Mystical Sensuality_ (2011), _The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Chinese Religions_ (2012), _The Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion_ (2014), _Religion: A Next-Generation Handbook for Its Robust Study_ (2016), _Teaching Interreligious Encounters_ (2017), _Ineffability: An Exercise in Comparative Philosophy of Religion_ (2017), and _Transformational Embodiment in Asian Religions: Subtle Bodies, Spatial Bodies_ (2020), among others. His current work explores cross-cultural and perennial questions related to aliveness, extraordinariness, flourishing, transmutation, and trans-temporality. He lives in semi-seclusion on the Northshore of Chicago, Illinois.