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Cultivating the Tao: Taoism and Internal Alchemy - Xiuzhen houbian
This book contains the first complete translation of one of the main works by the eminent Taoist master Liu Yiming (1734-1821). Divided into 26 short chapters, Cultivating the Tao is at the same time a comprehensive overview of the basic principles of Taoism and an introduction to Taoist Internal Alchemy, or Neidan, written by one of the greatest representatives of this tradition.
Liu Yiming was an 11th-generation master of the Longmen (Dragon Gate) lineage. Having recovered from severe illness in his youth, he undertook extended traveling that led him to meet his two main masters. In 1780, he visited the Qiyun mountains, in the present-day Gansu province, and settled there. He devoted the second half of his life to teaching and writing, and to charitable activities including restoring shrines and buying burial ground for the poor. His works mainly consist of writings on Neidan and of commentaries on major Neidan scriptures.
Few other masters have illustrated the relation between Taoism and Internal Alchemy as clearly as Liu Yiming does in this book. Grafting Internal Alchemy into the teachings of the Book of the Way and Its Virtue (Daode jing) and of the later Taoist tradition, he shows how the way of the Golden Elixir can lead to the highest state of realization according to the Taoist principles.
Cultivating the Tao is vol. 2 in the "Masters" series of Golden Elixir Press. Original title: Liu Yiming 劉一明, Xiuzhen houbian 修真後辨.
Visit the web page on this book for more excerpts.
Liu Yiming was an 11th-generation master of the Longmen (Dragon Gate) lineage. Having recovered from severe illness in his youth, he undertook extended traveling that led him to meet his two main masters. In 1780, he visited the Qiyun mountains, in the present-day Gansu province, and settled there. He devoted the second half of his life to teaching and writing, and to charitable activities including restoring shrines and buying burial ground for the poor. His works mainly consist of writings on Neidan and of commentaries on major Neidan scriptures.
Few other masters have illustrated the relation between Taoism and Internal Alchemy as clearly as Liu Yiming does in this book. Grafting Internal Alchemy into the teachings of the Book of the Way and Its Virtue (Daode jing) and of the later Taoist tradition, he shows how the way of the Golden Elixir can lead to the highest state of realization according to the Taoist principles.
Cultivating the Tao is vol. 2 in the "Masters" series of Golden Elixir Press. Original title: Liu Yiming 劉一明, Xiuzhen houbian 修真後辨.
Visit the web page on this book for more excerpts.
- GenresTaoism
180 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
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March 13, 2022
This is a very dense specialist text on what I suppose can be called "Taoist internal alchemy". Liu Ximing deals with the difficult task of writing about something that by definition can't be written about. It takes some patience and commitment to attempt to understand what he is trying to communicate.
I'm going to give a typical passage that suggests the difficulty: "...this spirit is the postcelestial spirit and is not the precelestial Spirit, therefore it is spirit, but in fact is not Spirit. The precelestial Spirit is not form and is not emptiness, is perfect Non-Being but holds perfect Being, is perfect Emptiness but holds perfect Fullness. It is a Spirit that is not spirit but is in fact perfect Spirit." (p. 38)
Liu Ximing basically breaks the Ouroboros of common reasoning through recourse to metaphysics: through long study, application, and encounters with enlightened masters, a kind of meta-rational internal intuition can be developed to penetrate the levels of contradiction to permit constructing a practical approach for refining the "Golden Elixir".
As a non-academic and non-Chinese speaker, I have no basis to judge Pregadio's translation, but I will say that his explanatory and editorial comments are lucid and helpful, and I have to respect the many years he has studied and translated writings on this topic.
The book is an on-demand softcover, but manufactured with good quality, although the type is a bit light for my vision. I recommend reading it in a good light.
(Modified 2022-02-13 to use a better illustrative quote.)
I'm going to give a typical passage that suggests the difficulty: "...this spirit is the postcelestial spirit and is not the precelestial Spirit, therefore it is spirit, but in fact is not Spirit. The precelestial Spirit is not form and is not emptiness, is perfect Non-Being but holds perfect Being, is perfect Emptiness but holds perfect Fullness. It is a Spirit that is not spirit but is in fact perfect Spirit." (p. 38)
Liu Ximing basically breaks the Ouroboros of common reasoning through recourse to metaphysics: through long study, application, and encounters with enlightened masters, a kind of meta-rational internal intuition can be developed to penetrate the levels of contradiction to permit constructing a practical approach for refining the "Golden Elixir".
As a non-academic and non-Chinese speaker, I have no basis to judge Pregadio's translation, but I will say that his explanatory and editorial comments are lucid and helpful, and I have to respect the many years he has studied and translated writings on this topic.
The book is an on-demand softcover, but manufactured with good quality, although the type is a bit light for my vision. I recommend reading it in a good light.
(Modified 2022-02-13 to use a better illustrative quote.)
Displaying 1 of 1 review