Taming the Wild Horse: An Annotated Translation and Study of the Daoist Horse Taming Pictures

by Louis Komjathy

In thirteenth-century China, a Daoist monk named Gao Daokuan (1195-1277) composed a series of illustrated poems and accompanying verse commentary known as the Daoist Horse Taming Pictures. In this annotated translation and study, Louis Komjathy argues that this virtually unknown text offers unique insights into the transformative effects of Daoist contemplative practice. Taming the Wild Horse examines Gao's illustrated poems in terms of monasticism and contemplative practice, as well as the multivalent meaning of the "horse" in traditional Chinese culture and the consequences for both human and nonhuman animals.

The Horse Taming Pictures consist of twelve poems, ten of which are equine-centered. They develop the metaphor of a "wild" or "untamed" horse to represent ordinary consciousness, which must be reined in and harnessed through sustained self-cultivation, especially meditation. The compositions describe stages on the Daoist contemplative path. Komjathy provides opportunities for reflection on contemplative practice in general and Daoist meditation in particular, which may lead to a transpersonal way of perceiving and being.

264 pages, Paperback

Published January 15, 2019

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.

Reviews

[Dcbruhbruh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Daoism is very based 👍