A Lamp unto Yourself

For “spiritual explorers” ready to travel beyond Western bounds, a beginner’s guide to Asian spiritual traditions spanning regions, cultures, and history

Asian spiritual practices, from yoga and tai chi to qigong and mindfulness meditations, permeate our culture. But these practices are often casually used in the West, and sometimes little understood. As informative as it is inviting, A Lamp unto Yourself introduces “spiritual explorers” of all experience levels to embodied Eastern spiritual practices.

Employing decades of personal and professional experience with Asian spiritualities, C. Pierce Salguero explains the origins of key Asian spiritual practices. He grounds them in their historical and philosophical contexts and provides information on how the reader can begin and deepen their personal practices. Salguero also discusses the focus of the path (heart, body, or perception) and describes what one might experience as they develop their practice. In A Lamp unto Yourself, readers will learn more about such traditions as

• mindfulness meditation, insight meditation, and loving-kindness meditation
• yogas, tai chi, and qigong
• Taoism and Advaita
• mantras, chakras, and tantra

Those looking to begin practicing for the first time or to simply expand their ever-growing spiritual tool kits will feel empowered to explore Eastern spirituality with knowledge and autonomy. With Salguero as their guide, readers can confidently embark on their journeys to becoming, as Buddha would encourage, a lamp unto themselves.Preface

CHAPTER 1
Preparing for the Journey

CHAPTER 2
Surveying the Terrain

CHAPTER 3
Core Practices for Health and Wholeness

CHAPTER 4
Exploring Nondual Perception

CHAPTER 5
Exploring the Heart

CHAPTER 6
Exploring the Energy Body

CHAPTER 7
Putting It All Together

CHAPTER 8
Thinking Critically About Asian Spirituality

Postscript
Acknowledgments“This the perfect introduction for understanding what Asian-inspired spiritual practices might offer you and what their philosophical underpinnings are, and for helping you get started. And Salguero is just the right guide: knowledgeable, companionable, and aware that, like just about everything in life, one size does not fit all.”
—Dr. Zubin Damania, creator of The ZDoggMD Show and founder of Turntable HealthDr. C. Pierce Salguero is a historian of Buddhism and Asian medicine, and a long-time practitioner of several different forms of Asian spirituality. He has a PhD in the history of medicine from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine (2010) and teaches Asian history, medicine, and religion at Penn State University’s Abington College, near Philadelphia. He is the author of many books on Buddhism and Asian medicine, including Buddhish: A Guide to the 20 Most Important Buddhist Ideas for the Curious and Skeptical. When he’s not working on a manuscript or teaching a class, you might find him traveling the world with his wife and kids, making huge batches of homemade Sichuan chili sauce or out on his back porch meditating on a cup of Tippy Yunnan.