Vitality, Energy, Spirit: A Taoist Sourcebook (Shambhala Dragon Editions) [Paperback]

Thomas Cleary (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0877735190 | ISBN-13: 978-0877735199 | Publication Date: July 30, 1991 | Edition: 1

The "three treasures" of human life—vitality, energy, and spirit—are envisioned in Taoist thought as the source of creativity, capability, and intelligence. This comprehensive anthology traces the teachings on these three treasures through the long history of Taoism, highlighting the quintessential works on their practical application for mental and physical well-being. Along with brief selections from the classic sources of Taoism by Lao-Tzu and Chuang-tzu, the book presents a rich selection of tales and sayings from Taoist literature, as well as a broad range of writings from the Complete Reality school, including essays and commentary from such figures as Lü Yen, Chang Po-tuan, and Liu I-ming.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Cleary has brought Buddhist, Taoist, and I Ching texts from Chinese into English with the energy of a person carrying antique furniture out of a burning house. He has translated or retranslated more sacred texts from Chinese than any other scholar this century. His books, full of ancients’ advice, speak to a large, spiritually hungry audience.”—David Schneider, San Francisco Chronicle

“Chock-full of timely advice for mental, physical, and spiritual health. . . . Here are the keys to understand and practice reality in our everyday lives, whatever our religious or philosophical inclination.”—Lightworks --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Chinese

Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: Shambhala; 1 edition (July 30, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877735190
• ISBN-13: 978-0877735199
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,356,977 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Thomas Cleary is the preeminent translator of classic Eastern texts, including The Essential Tao, The Essential Confucius, The Secret of the Golden Flower, and the bestselling The Art of War.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Conerstone reference..., October 7, 2002

By 

Yuri Kuzyk (Toronto, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vitality, Energy, Spirit: A Taoist Sourcebook (Shambhala Dragon Editions) (Paperback)

Cleary has done an excellent job of putting a number of essential Taoist texts into one volume. The book begins with some Tao Te Ching and leads straight into some translations of Ancester Lu - not everything, just the essentials.

There are numerous other texts here and, quite framkly, the book stands quite well as a new start in the tradition of the old classics. That is, there appears to be a lot of 'method' to Cleary's 'madness' of taking only sections of the texts in conjunction with the general development of the material.

This book contains enough of the classics that it is essential to anyone seriously practicing Qigong. If you have this and a couple of Eva Wong's excellent translations you probably don't need much else for your library.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful addition to any Philosopher's library..., March 30, 2000

By 

Sean Bolen (Las Cruces, New Mexico USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vitality, Energy, Spirit: A Taoist Sourcebook (Shambhala Dragon Editions) (Paperback)

This is a must have for anyone interested in Taoism. Has an excelent selection from numerous important authors from Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu sequentialy through the writing of 20th century Taoists. Superb for the beginner and indespensable to the serious collector.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A real gem, September 12, 2009

By 

C. S. Brown (Oklahoma) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Vitality, Energy, Spirit: A Taoist Sourcebook (Shambhala Dragon Editions) (Paperback)

For reading on Taoism, I say read the Tao Te Ching, then read this book. When I found Vitality, Energy, Spirit at the library, it blew me away. The book presents an excellent blend of Taoist thought and philosophy, meditation theory, folk tales, and commentary, ranging from some of the earliest known Taoist texts to writings of the twentieth century. What I love most about the book is it actually flows very well for a reference-type book, and Cleary is a master at picking out the most potent pieces from a variety of important Taoist writings. He never spends too much time on one author or text, but manages to tie each selection together so that it doesn't read as some collection of random excerpts.

In my somewhat limited experience, studying Taoism can be rather confusing as it has evolved so much over the centuries, many schools of thought seeming to directly contradict each other, and the inner alchemy stuff can get especially abstract. I would never dream of taking on reading some of the texts Cleary draws from (and I probably couldn't find some of them even if I wanted to), so it's great that so much vital Taoist information has been consolidated into one gem of a book. I read the whole thing front-to-back when I first checked it out from the library, and had to recheck it out 3 times before I finally tracked it down and ordered it through Amazon. If you're interested in Taoism at all, I highly recommend this one.