Decoding the DAO: Nine Lessons in Daoist Meditation: A Complete and Comprehensive Guide to Daoist Meditation

I have had this book for a couple of years and have read through the material once and now revisiting it.It is with this continued appreciation of this book that I write this review. I have practiced Zen and Daoism for 25 years and it has not been until recently that a lot more quality translations of Daoist material is being made available to the English speaking population for which I am eternally grateful. I study with a Daoist teacher in a tradition different from Tom. However, I will say that Tom's knowledge is spot on and he has a really good talent of making things simple without removing the crucial components. You can tell that Tom's study of this subject is wide. There are obvious influences from the teachings of the Yellow Court as well as teachings of Liu Yiming and the teachings of the Dragon Gate lineage among others. Tom's background in Chinese Medicine and Martial Arts contribute a great deal to his understanding of this material. Could you get everything you need from this one book? Perhaps, but that would depend on your background in these materials. It is not a beginners book, but could peak the interest of a beginner and the practices provided are certainly something a beginner could learn easily as well as support the practice of advanced practitioners. Having an understanding of the works of Chang Po-tuan, the Yi Jing as it relates to internal alchemy e.g., the Cantong Qi would be helpful. A great companion book to Tom's book would be the books Taoist Internal Alchemy and Foundations of Internal Alchemy by Fabrizio Pregadio. Refining the Elixir by Stuart Alve Olson is also a great text to have in reference to this work.Tom does a great job of helping you build a foundation and then at the end of the primary text, he provides Li Ching Yun's Golden Fluid method or the seated 8 Brocades. His technique is a bit different than that found in the work of Stuart Alve Olson's Liqingyun' Longevity methods, but a very close practice to what Tom provides in this work. I would also get LiQingyun's Eight Brocades DVD by Stuart Alve Olson to help you really practice this method. It is a great daily practice to really harness working with Jing, Qi, and Shen.The last part of Tom's book helps to crack the code of so many Daoist texts by using very lucid descriptions. There is really very few stones unturned in this area. In fact, since I have been practicing this stuff for a while, I started reading the book at Part II where all these terms are well described, then went back and read the first part to pick up little nuggets of practice and knowledge that Tom shares.A book that is similar to this one in its presentation is Damo Mitchell's White Moon on the Mountain Peak and parts of his Daoist Neigong. However, no disrespect to Damo's books as his teachings are very good, but I think this book by Tom is just so much more accessible and taken step by step can get you on your way to very serious internal cultivation.

A découvrir

Agree with previous reviewer - this book is mostly about nei gong techniques, and there are better references on nei gong out there (see any of Damo Mitchell's books). Nothing new or insightful on the Dao. Also, I did not appreciate the many spelling and grammatical errors throughout the book. Very amateurish production and not worth the money.

Very interesting and complete descrition of inner tradizion of alchemic trasmutation of our body and soul into the immortal one

I am worldless. Only want to say Tom Bisio has grasp the tail of the elusive Tao leaving the door open to look for more......is endless.