So just how are the "Buddhist Sages" supposed to provide "Taoist wisdom"?

Last time I looked, Buddhism and Taoism were _different_ schools of thought/religions....

The proverbs in this book are insperational, and the artwork is great. A simple book filled with the teachings of Taoist sages.

This is one of my favourite ways to center after a long, nasty day. I can spend hours flipping through these pages. The excerpts from various Eastern works all have the basic Tao theme to them, even if they are not all lifted directly from the Tao Te Ching or the Ways of Chuang-Tzu, which was a gripe from another customer. The text for each day is generally brief enough that I can retain it in my head after looking at it, and this allows me to spend some time considering it without the aid of the text, or to quote or recall it at a later date when a related subject comes up. The translations are all very good - they retain the simplicity and openness that allows for personal interpretation, which I consider to be essential in any translation of Taoist thought.

I currently have eight translations of the Tao Te Ching, but when I really want to mellow out, spend some time exploring the Tao, or finding a solution to a problem I'm facing, this is the book that I grab.

My personal recommendation: Skip the first two chapters until you've had a chance to spend some time with the other sections, especially if you're new to Taoism.

Page-after-page of clumsy foreplay masquerading as massage. I got my money back.

This is a lovely book. If you are looking for complex masage techniques this is not for you. But if you want something simple yet deeply sensual that just caresses you into a sexy mood, this is perfect. Adds a spiritutal dimension to love making.

If books are food for the mind then this book is a box of candy - sweet but not nourishing. It is a small book, as tall as a paperback, but square. Forty seven of the ninety five pages have color reproductions of artwork, including 16 full-page and 6 double-page illustrations. The book attractive to look at, but light on text.

It is divided into twenty four chapters that range from 1 to 4 pages in length. With small pages, short chapters and lots of illustrations each topic is treated quickly and without depth. Yet it is fun to read. In 9 pages you can learn the differences between Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Islamic, and Jewish concepts of Heaven. Another 12 pages takes the reader through 5 chapters that compare the ancient Heavenly concepts of Asian, Celtic, Egyptian, Greek, and Primal Peoples. The authors know their topic and chose highlights well. So if you are looking for fun and a brief introduction to the topic, this is a great book.

There is a one page listing of Further Reading, but only one book is specifically about Heaven. The rest are either classic texts of major religions or books about death and dying.

On the negative side, the illustrations, though beautifully colored, often suffer a loss of detail from their small size. The full-page art is better than the postage stamp sized reproductions on some other pages. Also, although the text is good at treating all cultures equally, the majority of the art is from the Christian tradition.