That wish has come true for us. Now what? In this radically illuminating book, Alan Cohen delves into one of the world’s most venerated wisdom texts for answers and brings the lofty and enigmatic concepts of the Tao Te Ching down to earth in fresh, easy-to-grasp language with practical, personal examples we can use to uplift our daily lives.Most other interpretations of the Tao march through the stanzas one by one. Here Alan Cohen calls forth the ancient verses around themes that are central to our modern lives —from love to work to the lessons we learn from pain. Then he brings each message to life in short vignettes where he imagines himself a student of Lao Tse and interacts with the master directly and intimately. He invites you to join the ancient sage and the contemporary seeker as they wend their way through the challenges and triumphs of the same journey you’re taking yourself.

    A foundational knowledge of Chinese medicine will help the reader appreciate the explanation more deeply, but is not required for understanding. Essential reading for anyone seriously interested Qi Gong, Chinese martial arts, and the Daoist tradition, the book will also be an invaluable resource for practitioners of Chinese medicine, or advanced meditation.

    In his words, Lao Tzu (or Laozi), author of the Dao De Jing, embodies qigong principles, advocating the cultivation of mind and body. Only when we know qigong can we know Lao Tzu —and only when we know Lao Tzu can we know the Dao De Jing. Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming, a renowned author, scholar, and martial artist, devoted decades to researching and writing this book. He interprets and analyzes the 81 chapters of the Dao De Jing. His commentary will bring new insight, inspiration, and depth to your understanding of Lao Tzu’s words—and to your qigong practice. “Many chapters in the Dao De Jing purely talk about qigong,” Dr. Yang writes, “especially the practices of regulating the body, breathing, mind, qi, and spirit.” Lao Tzu’s writing has been read, translated, and discussed around the globe. It deals with principles that transcend time and culture. That is why this ancient text has been reimagined countless times in books on business, relationships, and parenting—but never with a focus on the art of qigong. This makes Dao De Jing: A Qigong Interpretation unique and indispensible. This book includes • The complete Dao De Jing in English and its original Chinese text • Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming’s commentary and analysis of each chapter • Numerous illustrations and diagrams Dao De Jing: A Qigong Interpretation is not a book of instruction. It is about the Way—the path before us, in qigong and in life, where what you achieve comes through your own understanding.

     Coming in at only 5,000 Chinese characters, its timeless wisdom has inspired millions of people around the world and serves as one of the cornerstones of the Taoist religion.  It has been translated into English many, many times, but this new work by the best-selling writing team of Jeff Pepper and Xiao Hui Wang is much than a translation. The authors have taken the unusual step of not just giving you the English translation, but also showing, word by word, how one gets from the original Chinese characters to the English version.  Each of the 81 short chapters contains a beautiful English translation, followed by a word-by-word and line-by-line breakdown of the chapter, showing the original Chinese, the pinyin (phonetic spelling in English characters), a word-for-word literal translation into English, and occasional helpful notes to help the reader better understand the translation. The result is a book that can be read casually, or studied carefully, or anything in between.This new translation expresses the DDJ in simple language that anyone can access.  In their Authors' Notes they say: "This is a book for ordinary people, not scholars.  Many DDJ translations have been created by scholars for other scholars, and while we have studied many of them and owe a debt of gratitude to those scholars, we feel that the DDJ’s message is simple, practical and universal, and we want everyone to have the chance to benefit from it.  We try to follow the guidance of Laozi in Chapter 70, who tells us, in his usual elliptical way: My words are very easy to understand, very easy to practice. In this world, they can’t be understood, and can’t be practiced."It’s impossible to do a 100% literal translation of the DDJ.  Ordinary modern Chinese is quite different from Western languages, and the language used in this book is even more different.  To start with, the original DDJ is extremely compact.  Its verses have very few connecting words, forcing the reader to think deeply about the verse in order to tease out its underlying meaning or meanings.  Some words can, depending on context, serve as nouns, verbs, adjectives or adverbs.  Verbs in Chinese generally have no past, present or future tense, nouns have no gender (male/female), and no number (singular/plural).  And to make things even more difficult, helpful little words like prepositions and pronouns are often missing entirely.  As a result, translating literally from Chinese to English usually results in gibberish.  Pepper and Wang have added just enough connecting words so that the sentence makes sense, while still expressing Laozi’s thoughts as concisely as possible. They've also tried really hard to avoid the temptation to add things that weren’t already there in order to make the sentence more readable.A Pocket Edition of this book is also available. The Pocket Edition contains only the English translation, not the original Chinese or the detailed translation notes.  It's only 114 pages vs. 380 pages, and it's a smaller size (5"x8" instead of 6"x9"), making it a better fit for the pants pocket.

    

    Wei offer a condensed approach to the Inner Alchemy practices taught to Master Chia by his first Taoist Master, Yi Eng, more than 60 years ago. Beginning with the basic principles called the Five Enlightenments, the authors explain each of the nine levels of Inner Alchemy and their more than 240 formulas, including simplified versions of the Microcosmic Orbit, the Inner Smile, Sexual Alchemy exercises for men and women, Fusion of the Five Elements practices, Kan and Li Alchemy, the Sealing of the Five Senses, and Star and Galaxy Alchemy. They explore the Four Healing Arts that encompass the nine levels of Inner Alchemy--Living Tao practices for transformation of your emotional body, Chi Nei Tsang practices for transformation of the physical body, Cosmic Healing practices for transformation of the energy body, and Immortal Tao practices for transformation of the spiritual body--all aimed toward the survival of consciousness in a self-aware vessel. They also offer simplified versions of the other core practices, such as Iron Shirt Chi Kung, Bone Marrow Nei Kung, and Wisdom Chi Kung, to help you easily integrate Inner Alchemy and Universal Healing Tao practices into your daily life. Providing a primer not only on the foundational practices of the Universal Healing Tao System but also a condensed guide to the esoteric practices of Inner Alchemy, Master Chia and William U. Wei show how these exercises were designed to increase longevity, providing you with enough time to master the more advanced spiritual techniques and ensure the survival of consciousness beyond death.