BOOK AND PODCAST REVIEWS - NON-FICTION

The Principles of Taoism (2000) Paul Wildish The Principles of Taoism is an excellent and very readable basic account of Taoism in Thorsons' 'Principles of ...' series. It covers not only the basics of the belief system in both its philosophical and religious forms but gives a solid and rounded account of its history and its influence on Chinese medicine and martial arts. Personally, I find Taoism a highly amenable philosophy and approach to religion even if I cannot wholly engage with it myself. It is possibly the most humane of ancient philosophical paths but it is highly culture-specific in its general forms even if its basic philosophy can be studied with profit outside East Asia and the Chinese diaspora. It is not, however, without flaws. The most obvious one derives from what tends to happen when 'essentialist' a priori reasoning gets hold of reality and then tries to bend it to its will - this is the so-called Outer Alchemy, derived from an ove...

The Tantric Body: The Secret Tradition in Hindu Religion (2005) Gavin Flood    The Tao Te Ching: 81 Verses by Lao Tzu With Introduction and Commentary (400BC original - this edition 2006) Ralph Allan Dale Gavin Flood's The Tantric Body is a fairly dense academic text and not cheap, even if you can get it second hand, as I did, at a store like Treadwells. I am also not entirely convinced by Gavin Flood's almost obsessive thesis of the 'entextualisation' of Tantra in the body although, if accepted in perhaps a less intense form, he offers some deep insights into how the Tantric tradition relates spirit to matter. However, this is a five star text if only because of its value as corrective to the soft core 'namaste' tantric culture that has developed in the West as a form of partner guidance counselling for anxious middle class liberals who clearly have great personal difficulty either in escaping Judaeo-Christian habits of mind or in understanding the r...