The Teachings And Practices Of The Early Quanzhen Taoist Masters

Download or read book The Teachings and Practices of the Early Quanzhen Taoist Masters written by Stephen Eskildsen and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stephen Eskildsen's book offers an in-depth study of the beliefs and practices of the Quanzhen (Complete Realization) School of Taoism, the predominant school of monastic Taoism in China. The Quanzhen School was founded in the latter half of the twelfth century by the eccentric holy man Wan Zhe (1113–1170), whose work was continued by his famous disciples commonly known as the Seven Realized Ones. This study draws upon surviving texts to examine the Quanzhen masters' approaches to mental discipline, intense asceticism, cultivation of health and longevity, mystical experience, supernormal powers, death and dying, charity and evangelism, and ritual. From these primary sources, Eskildsen provides a clear understanding of the nature of Quanzhen Taoism and reveals its core emphasis to be the cultivation of clarity and purity of mind that occurs not only through seated meditation, but also throughout the daily activities of life.

Download or read book Asceticism in Early Taoist Religion written by Stephen Eskildsen and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1998-10-01 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using a wide variety of original sources, this book examines how and why early Taoists carried out such ascetic practices as fasting, celibacy, sleep deprivation, and wilderness seclusion.

Download or read book Cultivating Perfection written by Louis Komjathy and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2007-09-30 with total page 576 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This important work focuses on early Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) Daoism, a twelfth-century Daoist religious movement and subsequent monastic order. Emphasis in this first study to approach Quanzhen from a comparative religious studies perspective is placed on the complex interplay among views of self, specific training regimens, and the types of experiences that were expected to follow from dedicated praxis. On the basis of historical contextualization and textual analysis it is demonstrated that in its formative and incipient organized phases Quanzhen was a Daoist religious community consisting of a few renunciants dedicated to religious praxis. The study proper is followed by a complete annotated translation of a text attributed to the founder, which represents one of only two early Quanzhen texts translated to date. Subsequent appendices address issues of dating and contents of the early textual corpus as well as technical Quanzhen religious terminology.

Download or read book Oxford Textbook of Spirituality in Healthcare written by Mark Cobb and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2012-08-09 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The relationship between spirituality and healthcare is historical, intellectual and practical, and it has now emerged as a significant field in health research, healthcare policy and clinical practice and training. Understanding health and wellbeing requires addressing spiritual and existential issues, and healthcare is therefore challenged to respond to the ways spirituality is experienced and expressed in illness, suffering, healing and loss. If healthcare has compassionate regard for the humanity of those it serves, it is faced with questions about how it understands and interprets spirituality, what resources it should make available and how these are organised, and the ways in which spirituality shapes and informs the purpose and practice of healthcare? These questions are the basis for this resource, which presents a coherent field of enquiry, discussion and debate that is interdisciplinary, international and vibrant. There is a growing corpus of articles in medical and healthcare journals on spirituality in addition to a wide range of literature, but there has been no attempt so far to publish a standard text on this subject. Spirituality in Healthcare is an authoritative reference on the subject providing unequalled coverage, critical depth and an integrated source of key topics. Divided into six sections including practice, research, policy and training, the project brings together international contributions from scholars in the field to provide a unique and stimulating resource.

Download or read book A Stairway to Heaven: Daoist Self-Cultivation in Early Modern China written by Paul van Enckevort and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2024-11-07 with total page 518 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By the eleventh century, communities of religious practitioners in China had developed a theory and practice of meditative self-cultivation that combined the so-called Three Teachings. By the seventeenth century, Wu Shouyang created a synthesis of the various lineages of this “inner alchemy,” combining it with elements from Buddhism and Confucianism. By the late nineteenth century, his writings had become bestsellers in the genre and his became the standard account of this tradition. This first book-length English-language study of Wu Shouyang’s life and works introduces his remarkable life and formulates answers to fundamental questions about this important tradition.

Download or read book Liu Chuxuan (1147-1203) and His Commentary on the Daoist Scripture Huangdi Yinfu Jing written by Peter Acker and published by Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. This book was released on 2006 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study presents the first complete translation of Liu Chuxuan's (1147-1203) commentary on the Yellow Emperor's Scripture of Hidden Contracts (Huangdi Yinfujing Zhu). Liu Chuxuan numbers among the famous seven disciples of Wang Chongyang, who is Quanzhen Daoism's founder and one of the most revered figures in religious Daoism. Today one of the two surviving Daoist sects, Quanzhen Daoism was a revolutionary religious movement when it began in the days of the Jin-dynasty. Liu Chuxuan's commentary constitutes an important document for the history of Quanzhen Daoism. First of all, it is one of the few surviving commentaries on a classical Daoist scripture written by a proponent of early Quanzhen. Secondly, Liu Chuxuan's commentary provides insight into the central ideas of internal alchemy, a theory of self-cultivation promoted by early Quanzhen Daoism. On top of that, the commentary's eclectic nature elucidates an important trait of Quanzhen Daoism. It integrates sources from the three different religious traditions of China: Daoism, Confucianism and Buddhism. This eclecticism reflects on a general tendency of Chinese culture in the days of the Jin-dynasty. The "unification of the three teachings" was prevalent in the entire society and, until this day, comprises an important aspect of Chinese thought.

Download or read book The Way of Complete Perfection written by and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 2013-06-01 with total page 470 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An anthology of English translations of primary texts of the Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) school of Daoism.