Stephen Eskildsen
Publisher:
SUNY Press
Publication Year:
2015
Abstract:
Stephen Eskildsen offers an overview of Daoist religious texts from the Latter Han (25–220) through Tang (618–907) 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, overcome thirst and hunger, be cured of ailments, ascend the heavens, and gain eternal life.
While the texts discussed follow the legacy of Warring States period Daoism such as the Laozi to a significant degree, they also draw upon medieval immortality methods and Buddhism. An understanding of the passive meditation literature provides important insights into the subsequent development of Neidan, or Internal Alchemy, meditation that emerged from the Song period onward.
Table of Content:

1 Introduction 1
2 The Earliest-Known Daoist Religious Movements 29
3 Dramatic Physical and Sensory Effects 75
4 Integrating Buddhism: Earlier Phase 143
5 Integrating Buddhism: Emptiness and the Twofold Mystery 181
6 Serenity and the Reaffirmation of Physical Transformation 211
7 Serenity Primal Qi and Embryonic Breathing 241
8 Conclusion 277
Notes 305
Bibliography 353
Index 373
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