Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing

A follow-up toThe Tao of the Huainan Masters, this philosophical work contains more extracts from theThe Masters of Huainan. Originally written more than 2,000 years ago,The Masters of Huainanis a detailed, peacetime elaboration upon the works of classic Tao writers Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu on such issues as government, culture, and civilization. Providing guidance on how individual development, the natural environment, and social dynamics are interconnected, the excerpts focus on the importance of harmony and peace between individuals and the universe and present readers with a guide to self-enhancement that leads to peace of mind and harmony with society and nature.

In 2010, the editors of this volume completed the first unabridged English-language translation of the Huainanzi, opening exciting new pathways in the study of philosophy, Asian studies, political science, and Asian literature. This abridgement contains essential selections from each of the Huainanzi's twenty-one chapters and adds a new introduction and chapter descriptions. The text represents a remarkable synthesis of Daoist classics, such as the Laozi and the Zhuangzi; books associated with the Confucian tradition, such as the Changes, the Odes, and the Documents; and a range of other foundational philosophical and literary works, from the Mozi to the Hanfeizi. The abridgement preserves the Huainanzi's special rhetorical features, such as its parallel prose, verse, and unique compositional techniques. The Essential Huainanzi continues to increase awareness of this brilliant work and change our understanding of early Chinese history.

For every would-be leader, this acclaimed Taoist classic offers timeless insights for building a better world The Taoist sages of ancient China have long been lauded for their transformative teachings on the art of harmonious living, community organization, and cultivating the common good. Along with Sun Tzu’s Art of War, the Huainanzi, here brought to life in English by preeminent translator Thomas Cleary, represents an essential window into this long and cherished tradition. Yet, whereas the Art of War focuses on cunning strategy to quickly resolve conflict, the Huainanzi speaks to the organization of healthy societies, the management of complex group dynamics, and how to promote the highest ideals of harmony, freedom, adaptability, and sustainability in our world. With incisive teachings on the challenges and opportunities of leadership at all levels—from small-scale organizational management to political statecraft—its time-tested wisdom lights the way for any endeavor in business, management, politics, government, and everyday life.

The Ways of Wisdom answers the demand for a new kind of theology appropriate for a postsecular, global civilization, showing how to engage questions of meaning and value across as well as within traditions. Arguing that humanity is the desire to be God, The Ways of Wisdom analyzes the diverse ways in which humanity has pursued this aim, and argues for a synthesis that draws on the great spiritual traditions of the Axial Age as well as on the humanistic secular commitment to innerworldly civilizational progress and social justice. At the same time, it rejects both the technocratic god-building that it argues is the hegemonic ideal of the Saeculum in which we live and the radical immanentism that imagined that we could create a collective political subject that would make us the masters of our own destiny, proposing instead what it calls Sanctuary, a way of life centered on seeking wisdom, doing justice, and ripening Being.

The subtle arts of management and leadership have been developed over thousands of years by the Chinese. The Book of Leadership and Strategy represents the Taoist culmination of this long tradition and is one of the most prestigious works of ancient Chinese thought. Collected here are insightful teachings on the challenges of leadership on all levels, from organizational management to political statecraft. The translator, Thomas Cleary, has chosen and arranged these teachings to emphasize the most valuable lessons of Taoist wisdom for modern Western readers. Like Cleary's best-selling translation of The Art of War by Sun Tzu, this work will serve as an enlightening guide for people in business, politics, and government.