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Book Review by Michael Winn
Dear Cultivators of the Dao/Tao,
Most of you already know that a hallmark of Daoism (Taoism) is its strong emphasis on the human ability to absorb the chi (qi) of the cosmos within our physical body. Using qigong and inner alchemy, we can literally "eat" the chi of Nature, as part of the process of refining our spiritual energy. Yet it is such a profound subject that it is sometimes difficult to get a handle on the vast array of topics that Dao embraces - many different schools over thousands of years, with countless different practices and variations.
Hot off the press is "Daoist Body Cultivation: Traditional Models and Contemporary Practices", a volume of essays that solves this problem. The book uses pinyin, now the standard for all Chinese scholars, so I'm using pinyin "Dao" instead of "Tao". According to internet search engines, some 90% of western readers are still using "Tao" (which is ironically pronounced "dao"), but I hope our culture will sort out that linguistic confusion soon....
This is a wonderful book that I encourage everyone to buy as an essential addition to their library. There are eight solid essays by specialists, with 25 illustrations, including the cover illustration of the Six Healing Sounds by Juan Li, the Healing Tao instructor who infused a sense of sacred art into all the early books I edited or wrote with Mantak Chia. I have a chapter that gives an overview of Daoist sexology, ranging from medical to bedroom arts to the "internal copulation" that happens in inner alchemy. I feel it is my best essay on the topic yet, and give long excerpts below that range from the historical to my own personal experiences.
Here are the eight chapter headings, plus an indepth introduction by Livia Kohn:
Chapter 1. Acupuncture and Spiritual Realization
Chapter 2. Ingestion, Digestion, and Regestation: The Complexities of the Absorption of Qi
Chapter 3. Life without Grains: Bigu [Fasting] and the Daoist Body
Chapter 4. The Six Healing Breaths
Chapter 5. Yoga and Daoyin
Chapter 6. Transforming Sexual Energy with Water-and-Fire Alchemy
Chapter 7. Taiji Quan [Tai Chi Chuan]: Forms, Visions, and Effects
Chapter 8. Qigong in America Today
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Here are short excerpts from each chapter, and my occasional comments, to give a feel for the depth of the book.
From the Introduction by Livia Kohn:
Livia Kohn starts off the book with a brilliant overview of how essential the body is to the very notion of Daoist spiritual cultivation. Among other things, she traces it to ancient Chinese myths about the link between the human body and the cosmos. A lovely excerpt illustrating her point, and neatly tying in the concept of yin-yang to a sexual mythology centered around a pair of cosmic testicles:
"The World-creator figure Pangu is sometimes described as a defied Lao tzu: Laozi changed his body: His left eye became the sun and his right eye the moon. His head was Mount Kun-lun, his hair the stars. His bones turned into dragons, his flesh into wild beasts, his intestines into snakes. His breast was the ocean, his fingers, the five sacred mountains. The hair on his body was transformed into grass and trees, his heart into the constellation Cassiopeia. Finally, his testicles joined in embrace as the true parents of the universe.
Livia Kohn is Professor of Religion and East Asian Studies at Boston University. Her specialty is medieval Daoism and the study of Chinese longevity practices. She has written and edited numerous books and is a long-term practitioner of taiji quan, yoga, and meditation. She is one of the first academics to realize the necessity of bringing Daoist scholars and Daoist practitioners together to exchange views and share knowledge. My paper on "Daoist Alchemy as a Deep Language for Communicating with Nature" was written for her historic first conference bringing classical scholars and modern Western practitioners together at Vashon Island in 2001.
Note: There is a link at the end of this book review that allows you to read Livia Kohn's full introduction.
Chapter 1. Lonny Jarrett: Acupuncture and Spiritual Realization
The upper class of medicines . . . govern the nourishment of destiny and correspond to Heaven. . . . If one wishes to prolong the years of life without aging, one should use these.
—The Divine Farmer’s Materia Medica, 200 b.c.
"It is very clear in this passage that the highest aspect of healing involves helping the patient fulfill his or her destiny (ming) in order to live out the years allotted by Heaven. Below that level of healing is the nourishment of people’s inborn nature or constitution (xing). The lowest class of medicine treats only physical illness.
....The human body is the primary vehicle for the evolution of consciousness and spirit. From the perspective of deep time, it has taken nearly 14 billion years for the Dao to cultivate matter to the degree of complexity that is evident in human... The process of physical healing or strengthening the body through the practice of medicine must always be considered to be of secondary importance to these highest goals which do not, necessarily, take time except for our own resistance and disinterest in attaining them."
Lonny Jarrett is the author of Nourishing Destiny, one of the few textbooks on Chinese medicine that traces its roots to the practice of internal alchemy and that treats the classical vital organ "officials" of each meridian as a living "shen" (spirit/intelligence) rather than just a metaphor. His work in general and this essay illuminates the clear connection between Healing Tao practices as both internal and external medicine, with the ultimate focus of medicine not on "fixing the body mechanics" but rather on "becoming who we truly are".
Chapter 2. Stephen Jackowicz: Ingestion, Digestion, and Regestation: The Complexities of the Absorption of Qi
An in-depth essay on the difference between "eating qi (chi)" for physical health and "absorbing qi" for spiritual transformation. He explains the complex pathways of ordinary digestion according to Chinese medicine, and then details what happens when you switch to cosmic qi absorption:
"The absorption of qi, in method and concept, is radically different from the technique of eating qi. Absorption leads to being permeated by cosmic qi and transformed into an integral aspect of the universe. The individual xie (sick qi) nature is reoriented to be zheng{true qi} in alignment with the whole.
There is in this model no transcendent salvation, but rather an immanent return to the primordial state, which was forever there but never accessed. Here lies a fundamental difference of Chinese medicine and Western concepts of religion. Rather than attempting to find salvation by transcendence and separation form the world, the practitioner of this methodology transforms the world by reorienting himself within it.
Aligned perfectly with the whole, the mechanics of the body are retooled to match the greater workings of all things, and practitioners are no longer scavengers in the phenomenal world who eat and defecate. Rather, they are as intact a part of the system as the rivers and mountains. They are one with the Dao, and thus infinitely fulfilled. ....Eating qi" is simple replacement {of solid foods}, while "absorbing qi" aims to transform the mechanism of the practitioner’s body into something more than merely human, retooling the inner mechanics of the body’s subtle components and thus leading the practitioner to immortality."
Chapter 3. Shawn Arthur: Life without Grains: Bigu [Fasting] and the Daoist Body
"A bigu practitioner I encountered was Professor Hu Fuchen (b. 1945) of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, China. Although Hu had studied with a variety of wandering Daoist priests over the course of twenty years, his training as a scientist made him skeptical of certain Daoist practices, including bigu. In the 1990s, he was diagnosed with several serious diseases and decided to practice bigu—as a complete fasting regimen—as a last resort to save his life.
"As a result of a daily Qigong routine and practicing bigu for four to eight weeks in the spring of every year, ten years later, Hu's illnesses are either completely gone or are in remission. He kept a detailed log of his practices that indicates people can indeed live and increase their health through long periods of fasting, supplemented with small amounts of fruit for the first couple of weeks and with ingesting cosmic qi for the duration of the fast. Hu confirms the ancient Daoist contention that the initial weight loss during the first month of bigu practice is followed by weight gain although no food is eaten.
"....Bigu regimens originally limited an adept’s food intake while supplementing with a variety of herbal substances and cosmic qi; yet as Daoist ideals evolved, bigu techniques also evolved into the more austere practice of ingesting qi while completely abstaining from all physical foodstuffs. Today, bigu .... practitioners are able to wean themselves off of herbal supplements and claim to be able to rely only on qi-ingestion for their bodies’ needs – the point at which the Daoist goal of creating an immortal spiritual body can be pursued.
"Although Western medical science theories indicate that a dietary regimen that involves not eating for a prolonged period of time is not only extremely dangerous, but should be medically impossible, Chinese sources have chronicled 2,400 years of practitioners who have utilized ascetic dietary regimens and self-cultivation practices in the pursuit of health and longevity. According to ancient texts and contemporary Daoist testimonies alike, humans may not be able to thrive by eating only grains and breads, but man can exist on qi alone".
Chapter 4. Catherine Despeux: The Six Healing Breaths
Healing Tao students will be interested to discover the "Six Healing Sounds" were originally called the "Six Healing Breaths" . There is a goldmine of other interesting historical facts about early qigong breathing practice. This penetrating survey compares five different versions of vital organ breathing starting in 216 b.c. up to the modern Healing Tao version. It also covers the "Five Sprouts" method of inhaling colors and spirits from the Five Directions for spiritual cultivation rather than medical healing. Some excerpts:
"Whether walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, always inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth. Inhaling you draw in the pure [qi], exhaling you expel the stale [qi]. It is stale because it comes from the five inner organs. Why is it that the five organs have stale qi? It is because of eating the five flavors. Each of the five flavors corresponds to one of the organs, and each organ’s stale qi is eliminated jointly through the mouth. . . . "
– Great Clarity Scripture on Harmonizing Qi, 8th cen.
"In ordinary people, the respiration never expands or contracts the lungs to their full capacity. They only use the upper section of the lungs while their lower section hardly ever is employed at all. Because of this they cannot gain the full advantage of deep breathing, their blood and body fluids are not refreshed, and the various diseases gain easy entry." – Quiet Sitting with Master Yinshi,1914 (forerunner of modern Qigong movement)
"....In Chinese medical theory, the main organ involved is the lungs, where the heavenly qi—air, sunlight, cosmic energies—first enters the body and is transformed into ancestral qi (zongqi).From here, however, the ancestral qi moves down into the kidneys, where it is mixed with inherent primordial qi (yuanqi) to bring forth perfect qi (zhenqi). The latter is what keeps the person alive by circulating through all the organs and is therefore a key factor in cultivation practice. It is important that the perfect qi remains pure, which means that all forms of stale or used qi need to be eliminated from the body".
Chapter 5. Livia Kohn: Yoga and Daoyin
Livia's research is always impeccable, and she has personal experience of practice in both qigong and yoga. She notes the increased emphasis on energetics in Dao-yin over physical stretches in yoga. Dao Yin is one of the original names for qigong, and has many positions done in lying or sitting position.
"With its strong otherworldly and theistic orientation, Yoga in its philosophical foundations is clearly different from the underlying vision of Daoyin. The Daoist universe is complex in its own way, similarly presupposes several layers of existence, and acknowledges the existence of an underlying ground, but it does not propose the substantial, eternal presence of something totally other.
"Daoist practice, as a result, remains within the realm of energetic refinement and transformation of flow. Practitioners transmutate to turn into pure spirit, a subtle form of energy that flows at high velocity and allows easy transformations, celestial consciousness, and supernatural powers, but that is not utterly different from the world or a permanent, firm, unchanging entity.
"The emphasis on the stability and permanence of the true self and the ultimate state in Yoga thus stands in radical contrast to the refinement into subtler and faster energetic flows in Daoyin. This difference is also expressed in the execution of postures—a strong focus on stability and holding in Yoga, as opposed to a sense of flow and easy movement in Daoyin. .....The role of the mind, which is the key subject of transformation in Yoga, is but an adjunct to transformation in Daoyin.
Chapter 6. Michael Winn: Transforming Sexual Energy with Water-and-Fire Alchemy
My contribution to this volume is a 30 page chapter on transforming sexual energy that I consider the most comprehensive essay on the topic I've yet written. I've excepted it below, including my personal experience of "soul sex" or the "valley orgasm", or what Lao Tzu would describe as the opening and closing of the gates of the Mysterious Female.
Most spiritual paths dislike getting into the topic of sex, as it is invariably messy. But 99 times out of 100, religious efforts to "transcend" sex means avoiding or suppressing the true essence of the sexual experience. Cutting to the essence of sex is tricky due to its literally "sticky" nature. We tend to embroil our emotional reactivity and body-as-self identity in the labyrinth of attachments that sex can create.
My chapter summarizes the principles within three major Daoist approaches to sex:
1) medical sexology, to improve body health
2) "bedroom arts" skill, to improve love relationships
3) inner alchemy for self-realization, by resolving inner-male vs. inner-female soul level sexual tension.
Excepts from my chapter:
"The life-force of the valley never dies –
This is called the dark female.
The gateway of the dark female –
This is called the root of the world.
Wispy and delicate, it only seems to be there,
Yet its productivity is bottomless.
- Verse 6, Daodejing
"The sexual fertility expressed in this image of a cosmic female vagina highlights the connection between cosmology and sexuality found in this famous Daoist classic (460 bce). Nature is experienced by the sage who is in touch with the Dao as a continuous cosmic orgasm. Dao sexually births physical creation through the pulsating yin-yang process arising from original breath (yuanqi).
"...Daoists have sought to tap the power of sexuality to heal the body, deepen love relationships, and achieve elevated states of enlightenment. The Chinese texts on sexology are the oldest in the world, dating back about twenty-three hundred years (see Ruan 1991). Amongst the five major sexology texts are question and answer dialogues between the Yellow Emperor and his celestial advisors or sexual consorts on how to best cultivate sexual qi for long life and immortality.
"The body-centered cosmology of these early sexology texts, and the oral traditions of different Daoist groups have led over time to a wide spectrum of sexual practices. These range from ritualized physical sexual intercourse, through celibate contemplation of sexual essences copulating within the body, to conscious subtle-body love making with a partner at a distance. Inner sexual alchemy goes one step further - it immerses the adept in cosmic love-making, the sexually coupled polarities of nature—sun and moon, of humans sexually merging their essence with planetary and star beings.
"The notion that sexual energy is linked to eternal life at first glance seems counter-intuitive. The cycle of sexual birth and death defines human mortality. The idea that ephemeral sexual desires hold a hidden key to immortal life was codified by later Daoist schools of water-and-fire internal alchemy. Sexual essence or jingqi, is seen by them as the extremely fine spiritual substance of the soul that can be refined into the “elixir” (dan) of eternal life. Cultivating sexual essence is the human secret to realizing the workings of the impersonal Dao, the opening and closing of its “mysterious gate.”
"The most spiritual Daoist sexual practice is internal cultivation (neidan gong), literally “inner elixir skill,” popularly translated as inner alchemy. This is usually done as a solo meditative practice. The adept sexually couples his or her yin and yang essences internally as part of a lengthy process of defining energetic channels and opening up an inner body space or “cauldron.” The adept’s inner male and inner female are united within this cauldron, causing a process of spiritual rebirth. This practice is often not seen by outsiders as a sexual practice, since there is no physical sexual partner visible.
"The more rare “dual internal cultivation” practice, on the other hand, involves a pair of high-level cultivators having energetic sex (without touching) as part of their meditative practice...Here is my own experience of "soul sex":
"Joyce and I removed our clothes. We sat cross-legged on the bed facing each other, naked. It was our intent to meditate before making love. We both did testicle or ovarian breathing and circulated the sexual energy in the orbit to harmonize our sexual feelings in our three dantian. We each smiled to our inner heart, deep in the body’s core. There was no visualization or attempt to create any experience – we were simply in a state of naked surrender to each other. In deep silence, we noticed that a new and unusual pulsation began to envelop us.
"It felt to me like a simultaneous yin and yang orgasm. The yang orgasm was my energy body pulsing with Joyce’s, expanding out in waves, that became inconceivably vast. We zoomed faster than the speed of light past planets and galaxies and then ecstatically merged into formless swirls of light and sound. The yang orgasm kept exploding out beyond our bodies.
"The yin orgasm was an equal and opposite implosion deep within our bodies. Some powerful gravitational vortex keep sucking us into a tiny point that was incredibly heavy. I could feel that Joyce was inside that point as well. I felt deeply embodied and centered within my personal self.
"The yin and yang orgasm was a marriage of sexual counter-forces. They held the space for a neutral observer in us to perfectly experience both orgasmic feelings at once. We sat in this state for half an hour, amazed and dumbfounded. It finally subsided. We fell into each others arms, knowing that a great and sacred mystery had been revealed to us. Our love-making was lovely and tender, but somehow anti-climatic. The shared yin-yang orgasm is what we remember, it is forever seared into our souls, and is what impelled us to marry.
"This valley orgasm permanently shifted the nature of our sexual relationship. Our subtle bodies would quickly attune and later we found we could exchange deep sexual energy for hours, lying beside each other, naked or clothed, without any physical stimulation or intercourse. It was a direct exchange of our sexed subtle bodies. As our energy bodies mingled and coupled, we were infused with loving spiritual qualities. This led to long periods of spontaneous abstention from physical intercourse that could last for many months, but with exquisitely sublime daily subtle body coitus. As our subtle bodies crystallized and became more “real”, we eventually graduated to astral sex – the ability to intentionally exchange orgasmic subtle energy at great distances.
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Chapter 7. Bede Bidlack: Taiji Quan [Tai Chi Chuan]: Forms, Visions, and Effects
How wonderful is Taiji quan,
Whose movements follow nature!
Continuous like a jade bracelet,
Every movement expresses the Great Ultimate.
The whole body is filled with one unbroken qi;
Above and below are without imbalance.
Place the feet with cat steps,
Move the qi like coiling silk.
In movement, everything moves.
In stillness, all is still.
- Li I-yu
To be honest, I am usually bored by writing about Tai Chi. It is much more interesting to practice it. This essay is the exception, as it roams through a vast territory, exploring Taijiquan history, cosmology, differences between styles, principles and how to apply them, difference between physical, mental and spicirtual. Here's an excerpt: "The cosmology of Taiji quan notes that “all (qi movement) is a function of the mind.” Mind moves qi, and qi moves the body. Mind in its general aspect (xin) initiates the overall decision to move the qi and through it the body in a particular way. Mind in its particular or focused dimension as intention (yi) then effects the particulars of execution. For example, my general mind decides that I want to cross the street, but my intention motivates the feet to start walking.
"In Taiji quan this means that the general mind decides on a particular movement, such as “push,” while the intention moves the qi, which in turn moves the hands, feet, and the rest of the body into the required position. All this happens subconsciously and instantly, the two aspects of the mind working together so closely they may almost seem inseparable. "As a result, advanced Taiji quan practitioners may reach a state where they minimally use their physical bodies by moving their minds, which then move their qi and consequently their bodies. Their muscles become loose and relaxed, allowing qi to flow freely through the body, creating a state of health—defined in Chinese medicine as the presence of abundant, free-flowing qi.
"This state of health and mind-control are the foundation not only of an extended longevity but also of spiritual attainments, a sense of oneness with the cosmos, and the realization of Daoist immortality. The cosmological roots of Taiji quan, therefore, lay the foundation for all levels of practice, from the health conscious through the martial to the divine and spiritual.
His translations from the Tai Chi Classics:
"If one can understand the principle of the reversal of yin and yang, then we can begin to discuss the Dao. When one understands the Dao and can maintain this without lapse, then we can begin to discuss humanity. When one can magnify the Dao by means of humanity, and know that the Dao is not apart from it, then we can begin to discuss the unity of Heaven and Earth.
...If one’s thoughts never depart from the truth, they will have a powerful effect. If one’s great qi is properly nourished and not damaged, it will endure forever. This is what we mean by the human body comprising a Heaven and Earth in miniature. ...Heaven is one’s nature and Earth one’s life. The light and sensitive in human beings is the spirit. If the spirit is not pure, how can a human fulfill the role of third partner with Heaven and Earth? What is the meaning of existence if one does not fulfill one’s nature, cultivate life, expand the spirit, and evolve positively?"
Chapter 8. Louis Komjathy: Qigong in America Today
This chapter gives a good overview of the major currents of qigong and Daoism/Taoism in the West, pointing out the often superficial "new age" interpretations of Taoism that are far removed from its historical reality in China. At the same time, scholars of Chinese religions are beginning to recognize that the Healing Tao is an established phenomenon and is central to the "rebirth" of Daoism in the West.
Scholars used to be a bit snooty and would only categorize as "legitimate" only those Daoist practices that came directly from established Daoist temple sects in China. Many would not even consider studying the western offshoots of Tao. But the new generation of young scholars are more open-minded, and more significant, are often practitioners of qigong and Daoist meditation themselves.
I am seeing references to the Healing Tao in different contemporary books and articles on Daoism. At a recent conference for Daoist scholars at Harvard University there was a paper presented by Prof. Elijah Siegler describing the impact of Healing Tao USA on Chinese Daoists during my China Dream Trip 2004. The Chinese Daoists feel affirmed by western Daoists' attention to the importance of inner alchemy spiritual practice, which is totally ignored by mainstream Chinese society.
The final essay by Louis Komjathy is excellent, but its broad scope occasionally leads to generalizations that are inaccurate. He correctly identifies me within the tradition of "spiritual qigong" teachers, as opposed to exclusively "medical" qigong, "traditional-lineage oriented' qigong, or "positivists" who reinterpret qigong and its energetic effects in light of modern science. Of course, my students will recognize that I bridge all four of these categories in my quest to create a modern "heart-centered spiritual science" that embraces both tradition and innovation.
Some Critical comments on Daoist Alchemy vs. Perennial Philosophy
Where I disagree with Komjathy is his casual lumping of my qigong and inner alchemy teachings as part of a "new age" and mystical"perennial philosophy" movement. He describes perennial philosophy as one in which "the phenomenal world is partially real, being a secondary manifestation of an underlying Ground; that human beings...are divided into a conscious ego and an eternal true self; and that it is the chief end of human existence to discover and become one with the true self as Ground."
This generalization ignores the traditional teachings of Daoist inner alchemy and the real meaning of achieving immortality as the permanent individualization of the underlying Ground. Daoist cosmology, unlike other world religions that embrace dualism by seeking to escape physicality into heaven, is NOT split into a true and false self. Rather there is a single and necessary human process of a potential or seed-self (ordinary human mind state called "xin", heart-mind) that is in the process of maturing into a "true" (zheng qi) or authentic self (ziran) that will survive death because it has fully merged into Nature's Process.
Alchemical Daoism posits that the physical world, energetic planes, and the primordial ground are all equally "real" yet very different manifestations of a single evolutionary continuum. The process of physical creation is the cutting edge and expression of the Ground, not its secondary expression, a category that implies humanity is some kind of mistake or accidental byproduct. To call the physical plane a "secondary manifestation" is to judge it and separate it from the primary process of the cosmos.
Alchemists don't have this judgment of the world being unreal, even if our limited heart-mind is often caught up in personal illusions. The natural process itself is real, as real as the qi field is real. The alchemical focus is on evolving, refining, and eventually immortalizing the "the 10,000 Things" that spring up from the underlying Ground. It seeks to consciously integrate the Ground into our individual reality, that can then persist after death because it is wholly aligned with the life force's Eternal Process.
Perennial philosophy is exactly the opposite: it posits an Absolute State or Ground rather than an Eternal Process. Its goal is to dissolve the ego into the Ground until the individual no longer exists. I believe this devalues human creativity and undermines our possibility for evolution. Why strive to improve humanity or our personal self if all efforts, good or evil, end up in some cosmic void? I don't believe the universe is structured this way, and that cultivating Dao serves an eternal purpose. I understand Dao or "Way-making" as a continual and evolving process, not a zero-sum endgame in which only the Ground is real and everything else illusion.
Dao teaches that each of us has a totally real and natural path we can call our own "Dao" or "way". The point of alchemy is NOT to get rid of the Self, but to GROW the Self to deeper and more profound levels that never cease evolving, and hence are immortal. There is no static or permanent end-state of Emptiness awaiting humans at end of their life. This I find to be a life-negating philosophy. Rather the process of alchemy and qigong cultivation is to consciously stand on the primal Ground and use its original chi (Qi) as our center of gravitiy, from which we can fully and consciously merge into the eternal process of Becoming.
I hope its apparent that Daoist Body Cultivation will offer you a stimulating and wide-ranging journey into different aspects of Daoist practice. There is nothing else remotely similar to it in the market today. I urge you to order the book now, and read a chapter at a time at your leisure. Each essay offers its own treasure of valuable information to ponder. Ultimately we can come to grasp all eight essays and the introduction as nine facets of a single jewel, a single study of the Life Force or Qi Field.
Reviewed by Michael Winn
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Testimonials from Daoist scholars:
Livia Kohn embraces our collective minds and bodies yet again with an up-to-date, authoritative, and accessible collection of articles on the Daoist tradition’s ways of body transformation. Kohn’s introduction is an admirably discerning and concise overview of the best current scholarship on the subject, and the individual contributions, all by leading scholars and practitioners, concretely focus on as yet little understood practices of Daoist body cultivation. This book moves our understanding of Daoist bodily practices to a new level of interpretive insight and appreciation, a level that challenges many lingering assumptions and fantasies found in the popular assessment of Daoism. Recommended for anyone who wants to encounter the “real” and evolving Daoist tradition.?—Norman Girardot, Lehigh University
Daoist Body Cultivation contains eight excellent and detailed studies and a superb introduction in its exploration of Daoist techniques and theories of how to live long, healthy, and harmoniously. Contributors focus on qi refinement for the improvement of health, energy, and spirituality. They offer a new and deeper understanding of the centuries-old and still evolving body practices of the Daoist religion. While presenting rich information from classical texts, they also demonstrate how the methods are used today. The result is a fruitful marriage between academic research and practical experience. This book is worthwhile for academics who are interested in Daoist practices as well as for practitioners who would like to learn the theories and history of their methods.?—Shin-yi Chao, Rutgers University.