Written Upon Awakening to Reality: A Translation of Zhang Boduan's Guide to Internal Alchemy (A Taoist Read)

By Richard Bertschinger

The main idea behind this eleventh-century poem by Zhang Boduan, doyen of the Southern School of Taoist internal alchemy, is self-realisation. He wants to awaken us to our self-nature, 'life's precious jewel'. To this end, he uses the trigrams of the Yijing (I Ching), the imagery of dragon and tiger, lead and mercury, etc. It is something uncomplicated, near at hand, who we really are, to be grasped...as it were, in a Zen Buddhist 'satori'! Zhang was also a devout Buddhist, who advocated the enrolment of women on 'the Way'. An enlightened fellow! The passing seasons, the solstices, the behaviour of animals, the waning and waxing moon, stars, and planets, this is Stone-age science preserved as Taoist wisdom. Richard has worked from the original Chinese commentaries, a portion of which are included.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1540722902
• ISBN13: 9781540722904
• Release Date: December 2016
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 174 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.4" x 6.0"