"The most translated book in the world after the Bible, the Tao Te Ching, or "Book of the Way," is a guide to cultivating a life of peace, serenity, and compassion. Through aphorisms and parable, it leads readers toward the Tao, or the "Way": harmony with the life force of the universe. Traditionally attributed to Lao Tzu, a Chinese philosopher who was a contemporary of Confucius, it is the essential text of Taoism, one of the three great religions...

Master Sun's The Art of War, the best-known ancient text on adversarial strategy, is by no means China's only treatise on military affairs. A single chapter in the Huainanzi, an important compendium of philosophy and political theory written in the second century B. C. E., synthesizes the entire corpus of military literature inherited from the Chinese classical era. Drawing on all major, existing military writings, as well as other lost sources, it...

Donald S. Lopez, Jr., is Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan. This third volume of Princeton Readings in Religions demonstrates that the "three religions" of China--Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism (with a fourth, folk religion, sometimes added)--are not mutually exclusive: they overlap and interact with each other in a rich variety of ways. The volume also illustrates...

Alan Watts - noted author and respected authority on Far Eastern thought - studied Taoism extensively, and in his final years moved to a quiet cabin in the mountains and dedicated himself almost exclusively to meditating and writing on the Tao. This new book gives us an opportunity to not only understand the concept of the Tao but to experience the Tao as a personal practice of liberation from the limitations imposed by the common beliefs within our...

In this beautifully illustrated offering of ancient wisdom, Deng Ming-Dao shares the secrets of the spiritual path handed down to him by Kwan Saihung, his Taoist master, as well as by herbalists, martial artists, and other practitioners of the ancient arts. Deng shows how Taoist philosophy and practice may be integrated into contemporary Western lifestyles for complete physical, mental, and spiritual health. He provides an abundance of philosophical...

The timeless wisdom of this classic Taoist text can become a companion on your own spiritual journey. The Chuang-tzu is the second major text of the Taoist tradition. It was compiled in the third century BCE and follows the lead of the best-known and oldest of all Taoist texts, the Tao-te-ching (Book of the Tao and Its Potency). Representing the philosophy of its main author, Chuang Chou, along with several other early Taoist strands, the text has...

The enduring wisdom of the Tao Te Ching can become a companion for your own spiritual journey. Reportedly written by a sage named Lao Tzu over 2,500 years ago, the Tao Te Ching is one of the most succinct-and yet among the most profound-spiritual texts ever written. Short enough to read in an afternoon, subtle enough to study for a lifetime, the Tao Te Ching distills into razor-sharp poetry centuries of spiritual inquiry into the Tao-the "Way" of...

Challenges standard views of the origins of the Daodejing, revealing the work's roots in a tradition of physical cultivation. Thomas Michael's study of the early history of the Daodejing reveals that the work is grounded in a unique tradition of early Daoism, one unrelated to other early Chinese schools of thought and practice. The text is associated with a tradition of hermits committed to yangsheng, a particular practice of physical cultivation...

Tao (the Way) is one of the most profound and influential of the world's spiritual traditions, and the Tao Te Ching (The Book of the Way and Its Virtue) has left its imprint on Far Eastern philosophy, art, and literature for over two thousand years. This classic of meditative insight was an important influence on Buddhist thought. Its key tenet is wu-wei, naturalness and simplicity, a mystical path of spontaneity and noninterference that fosters individuality...