The Taoism Reader by Thomas Cleary

Author:Thomas Cleary
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Sayings of Ancestor Lü

INTRODUCTION

Lü Yen (Lü Yan), commonly known in folklore as Lü Tung-pin (Lü Dongbin), is also called Lü Tsu (Lü Zu), or “Ancestor Lü,” in recognition of his place in Taoist history as a progenitor of the school of Complete Reality. In Taoist tradition he is believed to have lived in the T’ang dynasty (618–905 C.E.). Some sources place his birth as early as the year 646, but other materials suggest much later dates. He is one of the greatest figures of folk Taoism and esoteric Taoism alike, and an enormous body of literature is attributed to his spiritual inspiration. His own work, along with later writings ascribed to him, is particularly noteworthy for its integration of Confucianism and Buddhism with classical, religious, and alchemical Taoism.

Almost all of the writings and sayings attributed to Lü Yen are evidently products of mediums and other workers in the T’ien-hsien-p’a, or Sect of the Celestial Immortals, an offshoot of the Southern school of Complete Reality Taoism tracing its ancestry back through Lord Lü to the ancient Taoist schools of the Han and Chou dynasties. The present anthology contains works from both what would seem to be the original body of the writings of Ancestor Lü, who founded the Complete Reality school, and what are later developments in the literature of the Celestial Immortals Sect.

The sayings and writings translated in the present section are taken from the larger body of work deriving from the later activity of Lü’s followers and the mediums of the Celestial Immortals Sect. They are particularly useful for the elegant simplicity with which they introduce the broad range of traditional teachings to which they are heir in a manner that makes the principles accessible to the lay person without sacrificing inner meaning.

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