From Lonny Jarrett-New Book

[Guest guest]

Friends, I'm writing to let you know of my contribution to Livia Kohn's new

text: Daoist Body Cultivation. I have written the first chapter summarizing my

current views on CM and conscious evolution. This is an excellent text with

contributions by many of the leading thinkers in the field looking at Daosm as a

living and evolving tradition.

The TOC is below and the text is available at spiritpathpress.com.

 

Warm regards, Lonny Jarrett

 

DAOIST BODY CULTIVATION

 

 

Daoist Body Cultivation is a comprehensive volume by a group of dedicated

scholar-practitioners that covers the key practices of medical healing,

breathing

techniques, diets and fasting, healing exercises,  sexual practices, Qigong,

and Taiji quan. Each presentation places the practice in its historical and

cultural context and relates its current application and efficaciousness.

Ultimately aiming to energetically transform the person into a spiritual and

trancendent being, Daoist cultivation techniques have proven beneficial for

health

time and again and can make an important contribution in the world today. Daoist

Body Cultivation provides a deeper understanding of the practices in their

cultural and historical contexts, bridging the gap between healing and religion

and allowing both scholars and practitioner to reach a deeper understanding

and appreciation.

 

 

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

 

 

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.

 

Table of Contents

 Introduction P. 1

 

1 Lonny Jarrett: Acupuncture and Spiritual Realization      P. 19

2 Catherine Despeux: The Six Healing Breaths   38

3 Stephen Jackowicz: Ingestion, Digestion, and Regestation: The Complexities

of Qi-Absorption       4 Shawn Arthur: Life without Grains: Bigu and the

Daoist Body     93

5 Livia Kohn: Yoga and Daoyin 125

6 Michael Winn: Transforming Sexual Energy with Water-and- Fire Alchemy

153

7 Bede Bidlack: Taiji Quan: Forms, Visions, and Effects 182

8 Louis Komjathy: Qigong in America 206

  Index 239