Tom Bisio

this book only devotes ~20p to sleeping meditation, and the second half of those pages r a summary of the first half

the rest of the book attempts to cover taoist cosmology, general philosophy, and the whole apparatus of internal alchemy. i appreciate tom bisio's inclusion of original illustrations and original text w indicated translation, but he doesnt rly make use of their presence--he never gives a sustained iconographic or linguistic analysis.

his ambitious coverage of material is laudable, but ultimately comes off as confused, as the book keep telling the reader that it merely covers sleeping meditation, then goes on to discuss everything! the poor organization makes it a confusing and bewildering read.

imo when writing on taoism, organization of the material is key. this book is atrociously organized, poorly thought thru, and is misleads the reader as to its content and intentions at every turn

to top it all off, taoist sleeping meditation may as well b called "lying meditation". by this i mean that, unlike yoga nidra or tibetan dream yoga, this book does not treat the state of sleep any differently than the waking state. it seems taoism has little to offer in the way of analyzing ones approach to sleep… (mehr)