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The Lunar Tao: Meditations in Harmony with the Seasons
From Taosim expert Ming-Dao Deng comes The Lunar Tao: Meditations in Harmony with the Seasons, bringing to life the Chinese Lunar Calendar via the prism of Taoism. In The Lunar Tao, each day of the Lunar year is represented with a reading meditation, beautiful Chinese illustrations, and interesting facts about the festivals and traditions, providing readers with the context that gives Taoism such depth and resonance. Ming-Dao Deng, the bestselling author of 365 Tao: Daily Meditations , shows how to bring the tenets of Taoism into everyday life.
464 pages, Paperback
First published February 5, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 9, 2017
The description of this book tells you that there is a meditation for every day of the year, information about festivals, gods, spirits, and Taoist practices organized around the changing seasons. What you don't get is how beautiful this book is and how much information is here. It is huge and dense and worth the time to get through it.
When reading the I Ching or a book like this, the difference between the Neo-Paganism of Europe and the European disapora with it's huge gap of time between the present and the last practicing Pagans, with the dearth of primary sources, and a traditions without the same gaps and losses, is stunning. There's so much here.
It's not a 'this is Taoism' book trying to lay it out in some logical way to be grasped by the left side of the brain, but a sprawling calendar to be experienced by the right side. His I Ching is also of the same quality.
When reading the I Ching or a book like this, the difference between the Neo-Paganism of Europe and the European disapora with it's huge gap of time between the present and the last practicing Pagans, with the dearth of primary sources, and a traditions without the same gaps and losses, is stunning. There's so much here.
It's not a 'this is Taoism' book trying to lay it out in some logical way to be grasped by the left side of the brain, but a sprawling calendar to be experienced by the right side. His I Ching is also of the same quality.
March 5, 2020
I got this book cheaply and followed it for the better part of a calendar year. I mainly wanted to become better acquainted with the culture and religious worldview of China, and this book is essentially a bricolage of ideas, images, and themes drawn from the Chinese spiritual milieu. Some of the flaws in this book I anticipated, such as hackneyed sentiments, filler material (#74), and the occasional pseudo-scientific speculation (#243); in the end, I found the informative side-bars more useful than the often milquetoast meditations. It’s natural for a book of 365 original pieces to contain duds. But I also took issue with some aspects of the book as a whole.
I was perhaps most surprised at Deng Ming-Dao’s dismissive attitude toward what some call religious Daoism. He is clearly writing to an audience whom he presumes holds loosely secular assumptions and will not take the reality of the gods or the efficacy of ritual very seriously. For example, much of the solar term “Great Snow” is taken up with pondering the value of religion. Taking seriously complaints about religious superstition and “outmoded ideas,” what Deng has left to recommend to guide one through the shoals of religion is little more than self-confidence and positive thinking. He describes gods as “archetypes and role models,” serving the merely functional role of perpetuating values across generations. His prescription to avoid magical thinking is to believe in oneself, which sounds blandly New-Age when detached from his cultural references.
Troublingly, though I didn’t make the time to do a thorough investigation, it’s clear that Deng’s editorial practices leave much to be desired. The side-bar for #260, for example, appears to be a barely-paraphrased entry from the 2008 Encyclopedia of Taoism, which as far as I can find is never acknowledged anywhere. At other times, I traced back pieces to find that Deng played a bit loose with context and implication, for example, chopping off the end of a quotation to fit his point or taking a figure of literary satire as a serious exemplar. Many of the pictures come straight off Wikipedia, though as long as they are public domain, that is of course legal. Internet searching uncovers that Deng has been accused of plagiarism before, specifically that his Chronicles of Tao, supposedly an original personal account, borrows liberally from previously published narratives (Daoism scholar Poul Andersen bluntly refers to Deng’s book as a “forgery”). Deng’s master, purportedly an ancient Chinese-born adept named Kwan Saihung, is alleged by some Daoists to be in fact a native New Yorker with a falsified name and past.
This is consumer Daoism, clearly. Still, it would probably be a mistake to dismiss this book entirely, and I can’t say I regret my purchase. The Lunar Tao is an impressive and visually appealing assemblage of cultural notes, quotes, and observations, arranged in easily digestible form. It has something to teach about China and Daoism, and if the cloud of sketchiness around the author doesn’t bother you, it may be of value to you as well.
I was perhaps most surprised at Deng Ming-Dao’s dismissive attitude toward what some call religious Daoism. He is clearly writing to an audience whom he presumes holds loosely secular assumptions and will not take the reality of the gods or the efficacy of ritual very seriously. For example, much of the solar term “Great Snow” is taken up with pondering the value of religion. Taking seriously complaints about religious superstition and “outmoded ideas,” what Deng has left to recommend to guide one through the shoals of religion is little more than self-confidence and positive thinking. He describes gods as “archetypes and role models,” serving the merely functional role of perpetuating values across generations. His prescription to avoid magical thinking is to believe in oneself, which sounds blandly New-Age when detached from his cultural references.
Troublingly, though I didn’t make the time to do a thorough investigation, it’s clear that Deng’s editorial practices leave much to be desired. The side-bar for #260, for example, appears to be a barely-paraphrased entry from the 2008 Encyclopedia of Taoism, which as far as I can find is never acknowledged anywhere. At other times, I traced back pieces to find that Deng played a bit loose with context and implication, for example, chopping off the end of a quotation to fit his point or taking a figure of literary satire as a serious exemplar. Many of the pictures come straight off Wikipedia, though as long as they are public domain, that is of course legal. Internet searching uncovers that Deng has been accused of plagiarism before, specifically that his Chronicles of Tao, supposedly an original personal account, borrows liberally from previously published narratives (Daoism scholar Poul Andersen bluntly refers to Deng’s book as a “forgery”). Deng’s master, purportedly an ancient Chinese-born adept named Kwan Saihung, is alleged by some Daoists to be in fact a native New Yorker with a falsified name and past.
This is consumer Daoism, clearly. Still, it would probably be a mistake to dismiss this book entirely, and I can’t say I regret my purchase. The Lunar Tao is an impressive and visually appealing assemblage of cultural notes, quotes, and observations, arranged in easily digestible form. It has something to teach about China and Daoism, and if the cloud of sketchiness around the author doesn’t bother you, it may be of value to you as well.
November 18, 2016
A wonderful daily book of Taoist philosophy and meditations linked with the changing of the seasons and the traditional lunar calendar. There is so much to take in here. An example: Each day's entry is book-ended by a two-line poem that takes as its first line the last line of the page before, creating a grand round over the course of the year. Like the moon's own phases, this shows how each moment is linked to both past and future, how time and life are cyclical. The sidebars and full pages highlighting Chinese history, culture, and tradition also add welcome context to a study of Taoist thought (whether one's approach is philosophical or religious). I look forward to re-reading "The Lunar Tao" in the coming years.
February 27, 2013
What an unusual insight to Taoism. As we all grow with the seasons, to explore Taoism from this perspective, with the meditiations, and stories tied together, we are transported to the inner philosophy. This book touches the innate being, bringing thought, recognition, and the thirst for spirituality, together in harmony and light. This is a book that I will reread many times...at least once in conjuction with the seasons!
January 3, 2015
I committed to reading this and the Tao the Ching in 2014 because I wanted to understand the Taoist concept of the universe. Of the 365 entries, I've earmarked about 25 that were especially profound and are worth routinely revisiting. Of those 25, there are about 3-4 ideas that have permanently influenced me towards a much broader sense of balance in life. Over all, it's a good introduction to the Tao and how we might conceptualize it today.
October 11, 2014
Great book!! Use it daily.
February 20, 2019
A wonderful, insightful, educational and beautiful book.
One of my favorites. I highly recommend it!
One of my favorites. I highly recommend it!
January 1, 2020
So I REALLY (generally) like books by Ming-Dao Deng, and have read other daily reading type books he has written. I am not as big of a fan of this one, for a number of simple reasons that may not apply to others:
1) The book is dense and has a lot of material per day, and sometimes I found it slow to get through
2) Unlike most daily reading books, this one does NOT start on January 1. It starts on the Chinese New Year and then follows (as the title suggests) a lunar cycle. I looked up the Chinese New Year, counted the number of days in the calendar year until it started, subtracted that from 366, started at the end of the book (something like day 330) on January 1, then hit the Chinese New Year on February 6, started back on page 1 of the book, but never really felt like I was in the right place in the book. The new moon days are also numbered differently which adds to the confusion.
3) The writing style seems less mature than his other books. I found myself wondering if some of the material came from a journal written in high school or college. His other books are so pithy - this one is not.
1) The book is dense and has a lot of material per day, and sometimes I found it slow to get through
2) Unlike most daily reading books, this one does NOT start on January 1. It starts on the Chinese New Year and then follows (as the title suggests) a lunar cycle. I looked up the Chinese New Year, counted the number of days in the calendar year until it started, subtracted that from 366, started at the end of the book (something like day 330) on January 1, then hit the Chinese New Year on February 6, started back on page 1 of the book, but never really felt like I was in the right place in the book. The new moon days are also numbered differently which adds to the confusion.
3) The writing style seems less mature than his other books. I found myself wondering if some of the material came from a journal written in high school or college. His other books are so pithy - this one is not.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews