The pristine image of Christ through the eyes of Lao Tzu.
Not until now has the ancient wisdom of Lao Tzu been presented alongside the otherworldly revelation of Jesus Christ in a way that encompasses the full significance of both. Avoiding the common pitfalls of religious syncretism, Christ the Eternal Tao shows Lao Tzu's Tao Teh Ching as a. foreshadowing of what would be revealed by Christ, and Lao Tzu himself as a Far-Eastern prophet of the Incarnate God.
Through heretofore unpublished translations and teachings of Gi-ming Shien—perhaps the greatest Chinese philosopher to have ever come to the West—this book uncovers the esoteric core of the Tao Teh Ching. Then, through the transmission of mystics of the ancient Christian East, Lao Tzu's teaching is brought into a new dimension, exploding with new meanings. Christ, in turn, is seen in a unique light, His pure image shining in the clarity of Lao Tzu's intuitive vision.
With its unfolding of spiritual history and its practical, time-tested advice on how to unite oneself with the Incarnate Tao and acquire Uncreated Teh, this is both a philosophical source-book and a manual for one's interior life. It is a long-awaited Answer for those who, having turned away from modern Western religiosity, are drawn to the freshness, directness and simplicity of Lao Tzu, and at the same time are strangely, inexplicably drawn back to the all-compelling reality of Jesus Christ.
CONTENTS
Foreword
Introduction: lao Tzu and the ancient greeks
1. The Tao/Logos
2. Hieromonk Seraphim and Gi-ming Shien
3. Modern Syncretism vs. Ancient Apologetics
A Note on the Chinese Seals
PART I
CHRIST THE ETERNAL TAG
A Note on the Nine Enneads
A Note on the Illustrations
The First Ennead: in the beginning was the way
The Second Ennead: the coming of the way
The Third Ennead: the opening of the way
The Fourth Ennead: the emptying of the way
The Fifth Ennead: the way of quenching desire
The Sixth Ennead: the way of humility and forgiveness
The Seventh Ennead: the way of perfect love
The Ninth Ennead: following the way of truth
PART II
THE UNFOLDING REVELATION OF THE TAO IN HUMAN HISTORY
Chapter One: departure from the way
1. Pristine Simplicity
2. The Primordial Departure
3. Knowledge of God in the Earliest Historical Cultures
Chapter Two: seeking the way of return
4. Lao Tzu and Confucius
5. The Tao
6. Mysterious Teh
7. The Oneness of the Tao
8. "Nothingness"
9. The Benevolence of the Tao
10. The Mystery of "I AM"
11. The Paradox of Personhood and Selflessness
12. The Consequences of an Incomplete Understanding of God
13. The Mystery of the Triad
14. The Incomprehensibility of the Triad
15. Foreshadowings of the Triadic Mystery
16. The Expectation of the Ancient Hebrews
Chapter Three: when the way became flesh
17. Christ as "I AM"
18. The Teh of Christ
19. The Christ of Lao Tzu
20. Christ's Revelation of the Triad
21. Christ's Revelation of the God of Love
22. Christ's Law of Love
23. Christ's Revelation of the Selflessness of the Tao
PART III
UNITING ONESELF TO THE INCARNATE TAO THROUGH WATCHFULNESS AND PRAYER
Chapter One: changing the eye of the soul
1. New Possibilities
2. The Soul and the Spirit (Shih-Shen and Yuan-Stan)
3. The Spirit as Master
4. The Life of the Ego
5. Metanoia
6. Forgiveness
Chapter Two: nurturing the seed of uncreated teh
7. The Open Path to Perfect Union
8. Implements of Teh
9. The Seed of Divine Energy
10. Cultivating the Seed
11. The Created and the Uncreated
Chapter Three: watchfulness
12. Continuous Metanoia
13. Watchfulness and Metanoia
14. Watchfulness and Prayer
15- Going Within and Separating from Thoughts
16. Wrong Struggle and Right Struggle
17. Defocusing from Thoughts
18. Thoughts and Evil Spirits
19. "Deal with It Before It Happens"
20. Facing Oneself
21. Distrusting Thoughts
22. Judgmental Thoughts
23. "Take No Thought"
24. Non-Action
25. Healing through Non-Action
26. The True Source of Knowing
27. The Spirit as Light
28. The Misuse of Watchfulness
29. Hearing the Wordless Word
Chapter Four: prayer to the tag
30. Personal Communion
31. Words Are Only a Support
32. Confessing Lapses
33. "Self-forgetting" in Prayer
34. "Non-Action" in Prayer
35. The Power of Direct Appeal
36. The Jesus Prayer
37. Precautions in Doing the Jesus Prayer
38. The Wrong Use and the Right Use of the Jesus Prayer
39. The Jesus Prayer and Intrusive Thoughts
40. The Jesus Prayer as Repentance
41. No Idols
42. Levels of the Jesus Prayer
Chapter Five: laying a foundation
43. Count the Cost
44. Cutting off Distractions
45. Putting to Death the Ego
Chapter Six: the union of mind and heart
46. The Heart (Hsin)
47. Spiritual Feeling in the Heart
48. Awareness in the Heart
49. The Mind as Sentinel Over the Heart
50. The Union of Mind and Heart through Grace
51. Finding and Living from One's Center
52. Lao Tzu and Christ on the "Center"
Chapter Seven: praying from one's center
53. Persistence
54. Wordless Prayer of the Mind and Heart
55. On Natural Thoughts Which Arise During Prayer
56. Breathing During Prayer
57. Reliance on Techniques
58. Premature Descent into the Heart
59. Do Not Try to Measure Your Progress
60. At the End of Prayer Times
Chapter Eight: emptiness
61. Self-Forgetting Love
62. The Abyss of Humility
63. The Birth of the Logos
64. The Darkness of Divestiture
65. The Agony of Repentance
Chapter Nine: illumination
66. The Vision of Uncreated Light
67. Total Illumination
68. "God Became Man That Man Might Become God"
69. Re-creation of the Spirit through Christ
70. Prerequisites for Deification
71. Personal Union
72. The Progression of Eternity
Epilogue: re-creation of the spirit by teh
1. A Contemporary Account of Deification
2. What Is Uncreated Light?
3. Hesychasm
4. Fr. Benedict Ghius
5. A Childhood Experience
6. The First Experience in Prison
7. The Second Experience in Prison
8. The Gift of Light
9. The True Meaning of Salvation
Appendix One: eastern orthodoxy in china
1. The First Orthodox Mission
2. Priest Mitrofan Chang
3. The First Chinese Orthodox Martyrs
4. The Chinese Orthodox Church after 1900
5. The Church under Persecution
6. Hope for the Future
7. Toward a New Phase of Chinese Orthodoxy
Appendix Two: A letter of hieromonk seraphim rose to a spiritual seeker
Commentary on the Nine Enneads of Part I: "Christ the Eternal Tao"
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author, Calligraphers and Seal Carver
