The Great Stillness: The Water Method of Taoist Meditation Series, Vol. 2 Paperback – August 13, 2001

A must have if your serious about perfecting or starting meditation

Have Volume 1 of this book and wanted to continue with this next volume. I am learning every day and read avidly. This seems to be a wonderful book.

if i would not have been to one of his seminars i really couldn`t give a valuable feedback of this nowhere else found (as far my knowledge of the western literature and teachers goes) material about the main method of taoist meditation (in the water tradition). for sure mr. frantzis tackles on the most difficult subject to write about : meditation. if you have no practical experience in this field at all, dont try to confuse yourself with "hard-to-belief" stories, how some readers mentioned. its a living tradition and thats why this book can only serve you as companion or introduction to the "A, B, C" of these meditation practices. you have to find a real teacher if you are serious about the subject. and thats what mr. frantzis is.

Really liking the series. More info online and on blogs. I'm a beginner so don't want to say more. Practice! ...only way to learn... I know that's not enough info - was able to find a good teacher trained by BKF.

I really enjoyed his first volume of the Water Meditation Series, fiding it practical, well-written, and entertaining. So I looked forward to reading Vol. 2.I was disappointed. Whereas Vol. 1 was focused essentially on breathing and mediation, and gave nice descriptions, as well as step-by-step exercises to better master and understand this form of meditation, Vol.2 was scattered. Frantzis, is an eloquent writer, so I was never bored or confused, and his stories/analogies are always amusing, albeit sometimes difficult to completely believe.However his treatment of Ba Gua Circle Walking is far too basic. Follow these footsteps and breath like in Vol. 1 is essentially what it comes down to. At least Vol. 1 really got into what Frantzis viewed as appropriate steps in the Water Meditation process-- starting from the very basic, and getting to the somewhat advanced. In Vol.2, Frantzis covers a broad range of topics superficially.I agree that including sexual techniques was a bit misplaced. Chia, at least, has the sense to write separate volumes when distinguishing between martial meditative and sexual qigong approaches. How to improve your sexual sensitivity by fingering tofu--? Come on, Kumar!Vol.2 also began expounding somewhat on the esoteric, that is difficult to confirm. Reliable friends of mine have attended Kumar's seminars-- he basically asks how many attendees are qigong instructors, then trashes and humiliates them in front of everyone else. Not very classy. According to my friends, he never proves his own abilities, either, merely plays mindgames. My friends agree that Kumar has some skill and knowledge, but his arrogance shows up in his books, and this trait apparently manifests profoundly at least at the two seminars I've heard about.This book is more in this vein. He claims a lot of things, and tells a lot of stories and makes a lot of anecdotes about wonderful spiritual achievements, but these things are so "advanced" that I cannot confirm them, and wonder if I ever will. I do think I've experienced some of the more esoteric things Frantzis talks about in Vol. 1, so you never know... This may be a book I re-read in a few years and see if I get anything more out of it.

It is nice to see more books promoting the benefits of meditation, and it would be nice for one, after reading this book, to decide to sit down, relax and meditate. Having said that, I do find the author having confused himself in many areas, the followings are just two examples:1. Walking meditation of I-Ching: The author is a practitioner of Chinese internal martial art, and "walking" is an important legitimate training method. However, no master (sifu) will call this training method meditation, because it is NOT. Moreover, the author only described the mechanics of walking a circle without indicating where and how the trainee should focus his attention on (thus making his exercise mere walking rather than mind-body exercise). To better learn genuine walking training method, one can refer to books by Master Lam Kam Chuen (I-style) or Mantak Chia's tai-chi book.I-Ching, the book of Change, is an old Chinese oracle book. The importance of which is that it presented a profound philosophic way of comprehending life itself when it gives its various advice. It is therefore a great book to understand Chinese culture and mentality (both Taoism and Confucianism consider it their own Classic, interested readers can also refer to Carl Jung's famous "Foreword to the I-Ching" available in his "Psychology and the East"). In short, the author's walking "meditation" of I-Ching has nothing to do with this great book.2. Microcosmic orbit and sexual meditation: In Taoist meditative practice, microcosmic orbit circulation is only the very first step, and can be easily learned and it is nothing mythical (one can refer to Mantak Chia's book or just browse the web to see various people present their own variations of the microcosmic circulation technique, for free). In classical Taoist meditation (interested readers can refer to the classic "Taoist Yoga" translated by Charles Luk), a meditator does use microcosmic orbit circulation to sublime sexual energy for the purpose of health and deeper meditation (higher level of spiritual practice). "Using Tofu to develop hand sensitivity" can certainly work for some people for sexual purpose, but that definitely has nothing to do with Taoist sexual sublimation practice (and also has nothing to do with Mantak Chia's more esoteric version of using sexual intercourse to generate sexual energy and to sublime (move) it up for high-spiritual practice, classical Taoist yoga practitioners [which actually mean most Taoist yoga practitioners in the EAST] will however likely to frown at Chia, and label him cultish and conducive to generating bad publicity to pure/religious Taoist yoga practice!) .

Great book. Very extensive information on Taoist meditation and Tai chi. The author answered questions I've been looking the answer for for years.Ordered it using an abroad delivery address and that took two weeks longer for the post to deliver than expected but other than that, it's all right.

a great book to work on