Reddit Reddit reviews Original Tao: Inward Training (Nei-yeh) and the Foundations of Taoist Mysticism (Translations from the Asian Classics)

We found 8 Reddit comments about Original Tao: Inward Training (Nei-yeh) and the Foundations of Taoist Mysticism (Translations from the Asian Classics). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

Religion & Spirituality
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Other Eastern Religions & Sacred Texts
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Original Tao: Inward Training (Nei-yeh) and the Foundations of Taoist Mysticism (Translations from the Asian Classics)
Columbia University Press
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8 Reddit comments about Original Tao: Inward Training (Nei-yeh) and the Foundations of Taoist Mysticism (Translations from the Asian Classics):

u/CeorgeGostanza · 26 pointsr/philosophy

Here's some further reading!


The best and most academically accepted translation of the Dao De Jing

Here, A.C. Graham is an intensely clever and erudite Sinologist - Disupters is definitely a "classic" in the literature of early Eastern philosophy.

Great book on a lesser known section of the Zhuangzi, which Roth shows to be the origin of meditative practice in Daoism. Roth is also my Prof!

A great translation by the same A.C. Graham of most of the chapters of the Zhuangzi. The Zhuangzi, different from the Laozi, uses narratives and short essays in deeply stratified, humorous, and incredibly profound ways well ahead of its time.

Source: I've been studying contemplative practices, cultural anthropology, and Chinese philosophy for most of my undergrad

u/CloudwalkingOwl · 4 pointsr/taoism

What pages are you referring to? It is a collection of very, very different schools of thought, most of which have nothing at all to do with Daoism. It's not a very popular book, and specialized scholarly works tend to be really expensive because they are aimed at a very small audience.


I suspect that Cleary (who is a terrible translator in that his popular books hide a lot of the complexity of what he is translating from naive readers), has tossed in some of the Nei Yeh and that is what you are referring to. The Nei Yeh is an important Daoist text that "hid" in the Huainanzi for a long time because most people interested in Daoism couldn't be bothered to read it, and most folks who did weren't interested in Daoism. You might be better off investing in Phillip Roth's translation Original Tao: Inward Training (Nei-yeh) and the Foundations of Taoist Mysticism .


The Nei Yeh is a really important text in that it was written by the same school as the Laozi (that is "the old ones"---which is where the name "Laozi" comes from.) It's the companion to the Dao De Jing (Tao Te Ching)---which is the pop Western name for the Laozi. It teaches the original form of Daoist meditation, which is called "holding onto the One".

u/chewingofthecud · 3 pointsr/taoism

I also believed for a very long time that the semen retention thing was bunk. Then it just so happened that I didn't ejaculate for an extended period (for reasons unrelated to Daoism) while still wanting to have sex, and noticed an unmistakable increase in attention span, concentration, and cognitive speed/power. It wasn't just a little bit, either; I'm talking about an increase such that others noticed too. I haven't done it again, but I no longer believe that this stuff about jing is totally baseless. One could think of very good evolutionary reasons why we (and other animals) might have developed a cognitive "bump" that only activates itself in males who desire sex but don't get to engage in it very often.

Anyway, that aside, no one's going to say that you're somehow deeply un-Daoist by not practicing semen retention. It's a practice that developed alongside other Daoist practices, some of which you would probably get something out of if it's the psychological and mental dimensions of Daoism that attract you. So don't throw out the baby with the esoteric bath water.

Also, these things (philosophical and "esoteric" or religious Daoism) cannot be easily separated. You mentioned the Yijing; it's a Bronze age divination manual dependent on cleromancy. Sounds pretty unscientific, right? Well, it is. But it's also the root of traditional Chinese philosophy, of which Daoism is just one branch. You can see the debt Laozi owes to the Yijing all throughout the Daodejing; here is a good example of how one can never fully appreciate the Daodejing without understanding the Yijing. The Daodejing is also clearly indebted to another "religious" Daoist text, the Neiye, which looks very much like a meditation manual with esoteric and mystical elements. The point is, trying to pull apart religious and philosophical Daoism is like explaining a joke or dissecting a frog; you can do it, but it just won't be the same thing afterward.

u/KwesiStyle · 2 pointsr/taoism

Yo I think I know a book that maybe will help!

Here: "http://www.amazon.com/Essence-Shinto-Japans-Spiritual-Heart/dp/1568364377/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1453875725&sr=8-2&keywords=shinto". It's called "The Essence of Shinto: Japan's Spiritual Heart." It goes way deep into the philosophy of Shinto. I too noticed many similarities between Taoism and Shinto, in particular a reverence for Nature and naturalness as well as a belief in a single spiritual force or power (like Ch'i) that variously manifests as all the phenomena in the universe. There's also a surprisingly similar emphasis on meditation. I would totally check it out if I were you! Also, there's another book you may be interested in! It's called "Original Tao" and it's a modern translation and commentary of an ancient Taoist text (possibly pre-Lao Tzu) which deals heavily with both the concepts of Tao and Ch'i (and their unity, as both can be seen as the basis of all phenomena). I say this because, for me, Ch'i bridges the concepts of God/Spirit and Tao. Ch'i is related to consciousness, the afterlife and vitality, like Spirit, but like the Tao it is the basis of all existence. As someone interested in comparison religions, you may find that useful.

Here's the amazon link: "http://www.amazon.com/Original-Tao-Foundations-Mysticism-Translations/dp/0231115652"

Good luck on your spiritual studies!!

u/PulvisEtUmbraSumus · 2 pointsr/taoism
u/TowerSeeker19 · 2 pointsr/taoism



> been mostly ignored in this forum

Mostly maybe, but not entirely. I purchased Original Tao last week on your recommendation. But I haven’t even cracked it open yet. I have done a little research on Daoist meditation online. I don’t have a ton of reading time but that’s high on my list.

u/Secret_Life_of_Trees · 2 pointsr/taoism

You've made some excellent points. I don't read the metaphysical aspects as literal either, but as metaphors. (Although in a sense, the mind-body-energy interplay of Shen-Jing-Qi is being validated by modern science. This isn't to say that all references to Shen-Jing-Qi are correct.)

When I first read this text, which I do believe is the Harold Roth translation, my main takeaway was a newfound appreciation for the term De (Te). I actively seek out the word in other Taoist texts and read it with a new understanding. I'm going to quote from this website, but I would also recommend reading more about Roth's interpretations in Original Tao: Inward Training (Nei-yeh) and the Foundations of Taoist Mysticism.

On De (Te): "One meaning could be: follow the path of an upright heart, perhaps our innate nature. The Chinese, Taoists in particular, believe that we are born pure and then corrupted in the process of growing up. Through self-cultivation practices, we attempt to return to te, our natural virtue.

In contrast to the traditional meaning that 'virtue' is innate, fixed and determined from birth, the Nei-yeh regularly implies that we strengthen te by exercising self-restraint. Further it is possible to interpret hsin, our heart-mind, to mean our innate inclinations, including our emotional tendencies.

Under this perspective, the ideogram suggests that te is the process of rectifying hsin in order to shape and regulate our innate tendencies. This shaping could include engaging in self-cultivation practices rather than becoming a victim of our emotions and desires. Te is the action, i.e. daily practices, of aligning hsin, i.e. making the heart-mind upright.

Both Tao and te include radicals that indicate an ongoing process rather than a state of being. Tao, as the Way of ideal self-cultivation practices, includes regularly exercising te, our self-restraint muscle, to shape our innate tendencies, hsin, in order to remain on the Path.

For fun, let’s take this journey yet one more step. According to the traditional view, te is an innate state that is developed through acts of cultivation etc. The inner power (te) developed in this fashion could be likened to charisma. The power of the person’s aura automatically harmonizes the surrounding world. The individual who possesses this charisma orders the world without doing anything (the essence of the Taoist concept of wu-wei, non-action within action).

Could te be both an innate state and a process? If so, the te process of restraint contributes to the te state of inner power. Te both enables and is enabled by the journey of being on course, Tao. From this perspective, te is both the state of ‘inner power’ that arises from the process of self-control and the process of self-control that gives rise to the state of inner power/charisma."