THE PRIMORDIAL BREATH, Volumes I AND II

A translation of 16 different treatises on Embryonic Breathing, from the Chinese Taoist Canon, the Tao Tsang

 

Text Box:  Blue whales live one hundred years and more. Seals, dolphins and the giant turtle enjoy significantly longer life spans when compared to land-living animals of same size. What these sea animals have in common is their capacity of controlling the frequency of breathing for extended periods of time. The Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzu states that, "the epitome of virtue is to acquire immortality (Ma Wang Tui Excavation, Version A, Chapter 42.)"  A large part of the 200,000 plus pages of the ancient (500 BC to 1200 AD) Chinese Taoist Canon, the Tao Tsang, deals with life prolonging breathing methods, the so called "Embryonic" or "Primordial Breathing" techniques.

The body's breathing function has always been regarded, in the most ancient esoteric teachings, as the very handle to be used to get hold of, or obtain the control of, one's mind and body.

Translated for the first time from Chinese, here are the most intelligible and comprehensive books on breathing control of the Taoist doctrine, including: a unique commentary revealing the Tao Te Ching as imparting actually arcane breathing practices, and, also translated here first, the Yellow Court Canon, a very little known writing attributed to Lao Tzu. The reader will find fascinating, detailed, objective instructions, written centuries and centuries ago, from personal experience, on how breathing is to be trained and refined, on the six different types of exhalations, that ancient Chinese believed, could cure different ailments and on the secret Taoist calisthenics or physical exercises that might prolong life.

A translation of 16 different treatises on Embryonic Breathing, from the Chinese Taoist Canon, by Jane Huang in collaboration with Michael Wurmbrand.

 

THE PRIMORDIAL BREATH, Volume I, $22.50,

1987 by Original Books, Inc., hardback, 8 ½" x 5 ½",

170 pages, 1 lb., ISBN # 0-944558-00-3.


THE PRIMORDIAL BREATH, Volume II, $36.50

1990 by Original Books, Inc., hardback, 8 ½" x 5 ½",

288 pages, 2 lb., ISBN # 0-944558-01-1. 

 

Readers wrote:
"This is a splendid piece of translation of difficult materials"

"Congratulations on completing this noble piece of work!"

"I have been looking for something like this, but have had no luck."

 

Quote from The Primordial Breath, Vol. I:

 

"What the bodily form depends on is breath (ch'i) and what breath relies upon is form. When the breath is perfect, the form is perfect (too). If breath is exhausted, then form dies. Therefore, the scholar who nourishes (his) life refines the form and nourishes (his) breath, so as to nurture his life. No one has form without breath. Consequently, breath and form must be accomplished together. Isn't this evident?

"I have been admiring the highest way (TAO) and have been seeking the secret methods in every possible manner. For over thirty years, I have been practicing breathing and upholding the original true nature. I was not satisfied with what I had heard and seen.

"During the years of TA-LI (766-780 A.D.), I met WANG KUNG of the LO-FOU mountain. He came back from the northern mountains. Riding tall and leaning against his whip, he looked at me. I wondered about that unusual person. I induced him to talk. As I expected, he was a superior adept of the way (TAO). Being moved by my utmost sincerity, he taught me a couple of important breathing methods for body management.

"Such kindness is boundless. It is beyond the description of any language. It is said that the important methods of the way (TAO) are not in books. Instead, they are passed down as oral secret methods. The methods of ingesting the breath such as those described in ERH-CHING (the two rays), WU-YA (the five shoots) and LIU-WU (the six wu) deal with the outer breath, which is rigid and hard. It should not be ingested by those who attend to internal nourishing. As for the proper inner breath, it is called the Embryonic Breath. Since it is naturally inside, you do not have to seek outside for it. If you do not have a good teacher's secret oral method, you will work long and hard, yet in vain.

"What I have recorded here is the essence (taught by) my teacher along with (my) extended explanations."

Sung-Shan T'ai Wu Hsien-Sheng Ch'i Ching: "A Book on Breath by the Master Great Nothing of Sung-Shan:" (Tao Tsang, Vol. xxx, p. 856; Harvard Yenching 569; Wieger 817)

 

 

 

 

 

Text Box: THE PRIMORDIAL BREATH vol. I
Table of Contents:
TWO TRANSLATIONS OF THE CHU DYNASTY (500 BC)  JADE CARVING,  SHOWN AS THE COVER PICTURE;  PREFACE; SUNG-SHAN T'AI WU HSIEN-SHENG CH'l CHING,                                               
   A Book on Breath by the Master Great Nothing of Sung-Shan;
T�AI HSI CHING CHU,  The Embryonic Breath Canon, with 
   a  Commentary by Huan Chen Hsien Sheng;
T'AI HSI MI YAO KO CH�EH, The Secret Songs about 
   the Embryonic Breath Secret;
T'AI CH'ING FU CH�I K�OU CH�EH,  The Extremely Pure Secret  
   Oral Tradition of Breath Ingestion (Attributed to Kuo Chang;)
T'AI CH'ING T'IAO CH'I CHING, The Book on the Extremely  
   Pure Harmonizing of The Breath (attributed to Ko Hsien Kung;)
CHEN CH'I HUAN Y�AN MING, The Carved (Text) on 
   the Recovery of the Genuine Breath, with a Commentary 
   by Ch'iang Ming Tzu;  
CHI KO HS�AN LAO TZU CHIE CHIE, An Edited Text of Ko  
   Hs�an's Commentary to Selections out of Lao Tzu's (Tao Te Ching) 
   by Yen Ling Feng; GLOSSARY;  BIBLIOGRAPHY.

 

Text Box: THE PRIMORDIAL BREATH vol. II
Table of Contents:
TWO ADDITIONAL TRANSLATIONS OF THE CHU DYNASTY (500 BC) JADE CARVING PICTURE ON COVER; PREFACE;                           
SELECTED CHAPTERS FROM CHIH YEN TSUNG, The  
     General Collection of the Most Profound Sayings;
TAO YIN SHIH, Ways of Physical Exercise to Guide the Breath 
     Energy, Lao Tzu's Method of Massage;
LING CHIEN TZU YIN TAO TZU WU CHI, Master Magic  
     Sword's Record of Exercise between Tzu and Wu;
SHE SHENG TSUAN LU, A Collection of Methods to Nourish 
     Life;
CHUANG CHOU CH'I CH�EH CHIEH,   
  Explanation of the Secret of Chuang Tzu's Breathing Method;
TAO SHU , The Pivot of TAO 
CH'I FA YAO MIAO CHIH CH�EH, The Utmost Secret of 
  the Essential Wonder of the Methods of Breathing;
T'AI SHANG HUANG T'ING WAI CHING Y� CHING, The 
  Supreme Superior's Jade Canon on the External View of 
  the Yellow Court Canon;
T'AI SHANG HUANG T'ING NEI CHING Y� CHING, The 
  Supreme Superior's Jade Canon on the Internal View of 
  the Yellow Court Canon; GLOSSARY;  BIBLIOGRAPHY.

 

 

 


 

ONEIROCRITICA

or

THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

of Artemidorus Daldianus

 (An English translation of the 2nd Century AD Greek Classic by Robert J. White.)

Oneirocritica is the most comprehensive, the most sought after and the most quoted book on dream interpretation, to have been written from antiquity to present times. This is more than an elaborate dream dictionary. Artemidorus, a 2nd Century AD "professional" dream-interpreter, tried to impart to his son, and thus to anyone reading this book today, the basic principles he followed, to reveal the dreamer's psyche and future.

 

All human cultures have entertained the common belief that dream images, like words in a language foreign to us, have hidden meanings trying to convey the secrets of our personality or of our future.   We are fortunate to have Professor White's superb, first time, complete translation into English of this unique work on dream interpretation, coming to us from an early "professional" of this ancient art. Moreover the translation has been enriched by Professor White's in depth commentary on the text and on the vast Greek and Roman culture of Artemidorus' time.

 

Artemidorus writes: "I have not relied upon conjectures here, nor have I constructed a system of probabilities. My writing is based on personal experience. I myself have observed, in each occasion, how these dreams have come true."  The extensively revised index pages of this second edition are designed to be of help to curious readers trying to make sense of their own dreams. Also, dream subjects or symbols, of which Artemidorus wrote, have been highlighted in bold-face by the publisher.

 

THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS, Oneirocritica by Artemidorus, translation and commentary by Robert J. White, revised and enlarged 2nd Edition, $36.50, 1990 by Original Books, Inc., hardback, 9" x 6", 344 pages, 2.5lb.,

ISBN  0-944558-03-8.

 

Brief excerpt from Oneirocritica of Artemidorus Daldianus Book I:

 

"31. Tooth dreams are open to many different interpretations and have been handled successfully by very few of the modern dream interpreters. Aristander of Telmessus has given us the greatest number of valid explanations. They are as follows: The upper teeth represent the more important and excellent members of the dreamer's household; the lower, those who are less important. For we must interpret the mouth as a house and the teeth as the inhabitants of a house......


"39. The right side signifies the men; the left side, the women, except for those rare cases in which a brothel-keeper, for example lodges only women or a farmer houses only men. For, in these cases, the right side signifies the older men and women; the left side, the younger. Furthermore, the so-called incisor teeth or front teeth signify the young; the canine teeth, the middle-aged; the molars [which some men call (in Greek) gomphioi or grinders], old people. Therefore the type of person he is to lose is indicated by the type of tooth he loses.

"But since the teeth signify possessions as well as people, we must regard the grinders as representing treasures; the canine teeth, as objects of no great value; the incisors, as household objects. And so it is quite reasonable that some of the teeth, when they fall out, signify the loss of these possessions.

"40. The teeth, moreover, also signify the functions of life. Of these, the molars indicate those that are mysterious and ineffable; the canines, those that are not known to many; the incisors, the most obvious and those achieved through speech and voice. And so, when these teeth fall out, impediments to the functions that correspond to them will follow.

"Let us now indicate the distinctions. If a debtor dreams that any of his teeth fall out, regardless of their type, it signifies that he will pay off his debt."

 



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