Daoism, Meditation, and the Wonders of Serenity : From the Latter Han Dynasty (25-220) to the Tang Dynasty (618-907)

State University of New York Press

Daoism, Meditation, and the Wonders of SerenityFrom the Latter Han Dynasty (25-220) to the Tang Dynasty (618-907)\nAuthor(s): Stephen Eskildsen\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: State University of New York Press, United States\nImprint: State University of New York Press\nISBN-13: 9781438458236, 978-1438458236\nSynopsis\nAn overview of Daoist texts on passive meditation from the Latter Han through Tang periods.\n\nStephen Eskildsen offers an overview of Daoist religious texts from the Latter Han [tel] through Tang [tel] periods, exploring passive meditation methods and their anticipated effects. These methods entailed observing the processes that unfold spontaneously within mind and body, rather than actively manipulating them by means common in medieval Daoist religion such as visualization, invocations, and the swallowing of breath or saliva. Through the resulting deep serenity, it was claimed, one could attain profound insights, experience visions, feel surges of vital force, overcom.