Livia Kohn has taught Daoism to college students for over 15 years, and she just edited the Daoism Handbook (which you can buy for a whopping $245!). She's one of the world's experts on Daoism, and for the first time she's put together an extraordinarily readable introduction to one of the world's most fascinating and least understood religions.

Unlike many books on Daoism this book covers the whole history from ancient wisdom traditions, through medieval religious communities, to contemporary spiritual practices such as Qigong and Falun gong. Nowhere else are you going to get as comprehensive, and as readable an introduction.

It's not just dry history because the author makes connections to broader issues in Chinese culture and also to issues in comparative religions such as mysticism, modernity, identity and community. It's a great book and great value too.

Having personally studied Taoism under an orthodox Taoist priest in China, I found this book an excellent comprehensive summary of virtually every aspect of Taoism. Of all the English-language scholarly works on Taoism I've read, Livia Kohn's Daoism Handbook provides the best overall treatment. I highly recommend it to all academic students, researchers, and serious practitioners of Taoism.

This book is excellent for anyone with a serious interest in Chinese religions. It traces the development of Chinese mystical thought and practice from the earliest mystical and philosophical writings up through the Tang dynasty. In addition to its appeal to the scholarly community, anyone who has read and enjoyed some of the works of Chinese mysticism will find that this book provides a background in which to better understand what they have already read as well as exposing them to works they are not yet familiar with. All in all an excellent read.

Ten scholars working with original ancient Chinese and Japanese texts discuss body-mind dynamics, longevity techniques, visualization, and qigong. The essays are authoritative, readable, and filled with direct quotations from medical, taoist, and Buddhist texts. There are several illustrations from the texts themselves. Ideas of longevity and immortality, qi and how it relates to the mind and body, as well as techniques and formulas, are discussed in detail. Qigong is particularly well covered with essays ranging from the ancient descriptions of exercises to discussions of modern practice in China. This book offers English readers a rare opportunity to see how these very topical ideas were understood in the earliest eras of Chinese thought from which they came.

This book provides a wide range of Taoist material, ranging through philosophy, salvational religion, mysicism of a variety of kinds, etc. It gives a reader an excellent exposure to a variety of types of literature that have been produced in the Taoist traditon. Like most such anthology/sourcebooks it suffers a little bit from a lack of analysis and background information. This lack makes some of the materials presented difficult to understand for readers who lack a solid background in Taoism as a religion (i.e. not merely the Tao Te Ching). Still, by reveaing in a very direct manner the breadth and depth of the Taoist tradition, the book does fulfill its purpose. At all events, anyone interested in Taoism will find it interesting to read the selections.

In her acknowledgements to "The Taoist Experience," Livia Kohn nods to Stephen Beyer's seminal (and recently reproduced and expanded) work on Buddhism, "The Buddhist Experience." She laments the fact that there was no analogous collection for Taoism, and, with admirable scholarly pluck, details how she proceeded to make one. The result is "The Taoist Experience," a collection of 60 primary texts with commentary, detailing the cosmology and practice of Taoism in a way never seen before in the West.

To refer to Taoism as a religion is misleading; it is a cosmology, certainly, but the Way is more of a view of the world rather than a specific tradition with detailed belief-systems. That isn't to say that Taoism isn't as varied and complex as other religious traditions, but it isn't looked upon in the same way. There's a Chinese saying that a person is a Confucian in their public life, a Taoist in their private life, and a Buddhist at the time of death. This sums up the worldview that many Asian Taoists hold, and one that tends to confound both Western students and missionaries: it would be wrong to refer to one's self as a "Taoist," because it would leave out very important parts of their beliefs. For this reason, monotheistic religions have had a very hard time finding converts among the Taoist peoples, because they tend to amalgamate beliefs into a whole rather than accepting one set of rules and rejecting all others.

This diversity is what "TTE" celebrates. It does not sugar-coat Taoism, and presents an even, historically-minded view of the development of Taoist thought from the legendary founder Lao Tzu through modern interpretations. Furthermore, it paints a picture of Taoism in practice, and the way this unique cosmology blends with Confucian and Buddhist thought in varying degrees through the East.

For those interested in looking at Taoism from a scholarly perspective, "TTE" is an imperative, necessary tool. There are no other books like this available, and there don't have to be: "TTE" is the be-all, end-all tool for Taoist scholarship. It's plainly-translated enough for the non-student to get a great deal from it as well. Highly recommended.

Final Grade: A

Taoism is not an empty canvas waiting for non-religious Westerners to paint their personal mixture of Zen Buddhism, Alchemy, Individualism, FeelGood and Chaos theories. You cannot even begin to embrace the philosophical side while discarding the fundamental, religious insights and treasures. And you cannot pick up the fundamentals of Taoism during an Aikido class.
Livia Kohn has bravely set out to provide interested lay readers with the first representative textbook of religious Taoism. She has indeed salvaged some very beautiful and enlightening gemstones of the rich traditions in the Taoist Canon.
Kohn briefly outlines and introduces the major concepts, doctrines, precepts and practices of religious Taoism. The anthology is organised to follow the path toward the Tao. It points at the Way as it outlines the wholeness of Taoist tradition in the words of immortal masters.
If there is only place to secretly hide three precious books in your pillow, The Taoist Experience should be one of them.