Customer Reviews

The Essence of Tao

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Pamela Ball has put together a book meant to be an introduction to Taoism. She tries to simplify Taoism then gradually lead the reader to some of the more complicated and demanding practices of Taoism. This is not something I am convinced that she achieved.

The book does succeed in giving one moments for pause. It is less a book that you would read and feel that you've learned something from than it is something to go back to and wonder about. This may be a great compliment to the author because this is a quality that is shared by the Chinese Taoist texts, especially the Tao Te Ching.

As an introduction to Taoism, it will likely serve to confuse those who have no familiarity with Taoism and seem lacking to those that do. She seems to have tried to include too much information in too little space or was trying to take up space with too little information. She includes several diagrams to illustrate the flow of energy but when it comes to describing how to take a Chi Gung Stance, she relies entirely on written description. Trying to reproduce a physical act that you have never seen is very difficult if all you have to work with is a written description.

The variety of information makes the book seem more like a sample packet than a coherant introduction. It might be worth a read for someone looking for something to help them along their study of Taoism, but by itself has very little to offer.