Meditation Techniques of The Buddhist and Taoist Masters

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Esoteric practices in the quest for divinity generally remain a secret to the world-kept cloistered away for only the most ascetic practitioners. Now Daniel Odier, having immersed himself in the life and spiritual practices of Buddhist and Taoist monasteries throughout India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Japan, reveals teachings passed on by the sages who are living expressions of their traditions.

Looking beyond doctrine, dogma, and philosophical treatises that ignore direct experiences of the practice, Odier provides a path to the heart of the religious experience that can be discovered through meditation. Beginning with the simple and fundamental steps necessary to prepare for meditation, Odier guides the reader through the specifics of the mental disciplines and visualizations that Buddhist and Taoist masters have used for ages. To devote oneself to meditation, in the sense understood by Buddhists and Taoists, is to realize that every fiber of our being converges with all creation. Meditation Techniques of the Buddhist and Taoist Masters is a valuable guide to all who are in search of that realization.

Daniel odier founded the Tantra/Chan Center in Paris and has taught courses on Eastern spiritual traditions at scvcral American universities. He is the author of several works of nonfiction, includ-ing Tantric Quest and Desire: The Tantric Path to Awakening. Under the name of Dclacorta, he is the author of a series of mystery novels, one of which-Diva-was made into an award-winning film. He lives in Paris.

In limiting this work to the contemplative techniques of Buddhism and Taoism, I intend to go directly to the essential and leave aside everything that does not have a direct relationship with the Way that leads to Nirvana and to the Tao.

Most books dedicated to Buddhism single out a particular school. They then expose the doctrines in detail, often stopping before treating the essential: the different techniques of meditation.

In the course of my many trips to the Orient, in the monasteries of each school, I strove to understand and to live what the books rarely describe in detail for the good reason that Orientalists often prefer philosophical studies to direct experience.

In order to restore the essence of this experience, I have chosen to treat this subject with the greatest scrutiny and clarity possible, while at the same time preserving the integrity of my research.

The whole interest of a direct physical experience is that it allows the setting aside of books and teachings in order to encounter men or sages who are the realization of a complete doctrine and whose presence is irreplaceable. This alone can open a mind burdened with knowledge to the realization of the void.

To meet a master, a man who says everything by his simple presence, is to open oneself to an intense and profound upheaval that passes like a tidal wave over all the ideas that one might make of a doctrine.

**Contents and Sample Pages**