cover cover next page > title: Taoist Meditation : The Mao-shan Tradition of Great Purity SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture author: Robinet, Isabelle. publisher: State University of New York Press isbn10 | asin: 0791413608 print isbn13: 9780791413609 ebook isbn13: 9780585068299 language: English subject Meditation--Taoism. publication date: 1993 lcc: BL1923.R6313 1993eb ddc: 299/.51443 subject: Meditation--Taoism. cover next page > If you like this book, buy it! file:///C|/Users/Dasa/Desktop/ora2/8646__9780791413609__9780585068299__0791413608/start_here.html[13/07/2010 19:59:44] cover-0 < previous page cover-0 next page > Taoist Meditation < previous page cover-0 next page > If you like this book, buy it! file:///C|/Users/Dasa/Desktop/ora2/8646__9780791413609__9780585068299__0791413608/files/cover-0.html[13/07/2010 19:59:45] cover cover next page > title: Taoist Meditation : The Mao-shan Tradition of Great Purity SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture author: Robinet, Isabelle. publisher: State University of New York Press isbn10 | asin: 0791413608 print isbn13: 9780791413609 ebook isbn13: 9780585068299 language: English subject Meditation--Taoism. publication date: 1993 lcc: BL1923.R6313 1993eb ddc: 299/.51443 subject: Meditation--Taoism. cover next page > If you like this book, buy it! file:///C|/Users/Dasa/Desktop/ora2/8646__9780791413609__9780585068299__0791413608/files/cover.html[13/07/2010 19:59:46] page_ii < previous page page_ii next page > Page ii SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture David L. Hall and Roger T. Ames, editors < previous page page_ii next page > If you like this book, buy it! file:///C|/Users/Dasa/Desktop/ora2/8646__9780791413609__9780585068299__0791413608/files/page_ii.html[13/07/2010 19:59:46] page_iii < previous page page_iii next page > Page iii Taoist Meditation The Mao-shan Tradition of Great Purity Isabelle Robinet Translated by Julian F. Pas and Norman J. Girardot with a Foreword by Norman J. Gitardor and a new Afterword by Isabelle Robinet State University of New York Press < previous page page_iii next page > If you like this book, buy it! file:///C|/Users/Dasa/Desktop/ora2/8646__9780791413609__9780585068299__0791413608/files/page_iii.html[13/07/2010 19:59:47] page_iv < previous page page_iv next page > Page iv Originally published in French in 1979 under the title Méditation taoïste (Paris: Dervy Livres). Published by State University of New York Press, Albany © 1993 State University of New York All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address the State University of New York Press, State University Plaza, Albany, NY 12246 Production by Christine Lynch Marketing by Dana E. Yanulavich Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Robinet, Isabelle. [Méditation taoïste. English] Taoist meditation: the Mao-shan tradition of great purity / Isabelle Robinet; translated by Julian F. Pas and Norman J. Girardot; with a foreword by Norman J. Girardot, and a new afterword by Isabelle Robinet. p.cm. (SUNY series in Chinese philosophy and culture) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7914-1359-4 (acid-free paper). ISBN 0-7914-1360-8 (pbk. : acid-free paper) 1. MeditationTaoism. I. Title. II. Series. BL1923.R6313 1993 299'.51443dc20 92-23086 CIP 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 On the Cover: Talisman of the Bird Mountain of the Supreme Taoist, where Vital Energy gives life to the spirits. It is reputed to have the power to grant immortality. (Probably from the period of the Six Dynasties, Tao-tsang 431:5a) < previous page page_iv next page > If you like this book, buy it! file:///C|/Users/Dasa/Desktop/ora2/8646__9780791413609__9780585068299__0791413608/files/page_iv.html[13/07/2010 19:59:47] page_v < previous page page_v next page > Page v Immensity is within ourselves. It is attached to a sort of expansion of being that life curbs and caution arrests, but which starts again when we are alone. As soon as we become motionless, we are elsewhere; we are dreaming in a world that is immense. Indeed, immensity is the movement of motionless men. By the swiftness of its actions, the imagination separates us from the past as from reality; it faces the future. To the function of reality, wise in experience of the past, as it is defined by traditional psychology, should be added a function of unreality, which is equally positive. . . . Any weakness in the function of unreality will hamper the productive psyche. If we cannot imagine, we cannot foresee. Gaston Bachelard La poétique de l'espace (trans. Maria Jolas) < previous page page_v next page > If you like this book, buy it! file:///C|/Users/Dasa/Desktop/ora2/8646__9780791413609__9780585068299__0791413608/files/page_v.html[13/07/2010 19:59:48] page_vi < previous page page_vi next page > Page vi This translation is dedicated to Laurence G. Thompson < previous page page_vi next page > If you like this book, buy it! file:///C|/Users/Dasa/Desktop/ora2/8646__9780791413609__9780585068299__0791413608/files/page_vi.html[13/07/2010 19:59:49] page_vii < previous page page_vii next page > Page vii Contents List of Illustrations and Figures xi Translators' Preface xiii Foreword to the English Edition xvii Introduction 1 Chronological Table 9 Chapter 1. General Perspectives 19 I. The Book, Cosmic Creator and the Alliance with the Gods 19 1. The Ching Reveals the Laws of the World 21 2. The Ching as the Foundation of the World 24 3. The Ching: a Token of Power that Certifies and Enlists Divine Protection 29 II. Talismans and Invocations: Summoning the Gods 31 Talismans and Invocations: Fu and Chu 37 III. Auxiliary and Preparatory Exercises 42 IV. The Figure of the Saint and the Spiritual Hierarchy 48 V. The Creative Imagination and the Intermediary World Chapter 2. The Book of the Yellow Court 55 I. General Introduction 60 II. Visualization of the Viscera 60 1. Interior Vision file:///C|/Users/Dasa/Desktop/ora2/8646__9780791413609__9780585068299__0791413608/files/page_vii.html[13/07/2010 19:59:49] page_vii 61 2. The Viscera as Living Symbols < previous page page_vii next page > If you like this book, buy it! file:///C|/Users/Dasa/Desktop/ora2/8646__9780791413609__9780585068299__0791413608/files/page_vii.html[13/07/2010 19:59:49]