經學 · · Texts and practice
Study
the sources.
Practice changes how we read. Reading changes what we notice in practice. Internally Still keeps the two in conversation.
A working library
Classical texts, translation, historical context and practical notes — used to deepen direct experience rather than replace it.
Where we read
The study side draws on early Daoist texts, later religious and contemplative literature, martial classics, and material preserved within living traditions. Study is not a separate track from practice: a text is read to find out what it is asking the body to do.
Neiye 內業 Dàodé jīng / Tao Te Ching 道德經 Zhuāngzǐ 莊子 Handbooks for Daoist Practice 修道手冊 Yǎngshēng 養生 Quiet sitting 靜坐 Nèidān 內丹 T'ai Chi classics Lohan practice
The touchstone text
The Neiye 內業, "Inward Training", is the earliest Daoist manual of the heart-mind and the root of the clarity-and-stillness practice this community draws on. Two of its lines anchor the whole site: the one about alignment preceding stillness, and the one about sweeping the dwelling clean. Both are rendered here in plain English from the classical original rather than taken from any modern translation.
Translation as practice
Ongoing work on Mǐn Yīdé 閔一得 and the Gu Shuyinlou Cangshu 古書隱樓藏書 — his Longmen anthology — forms part of the wider project. The intention is not simply to produce English words, but to understand how technical language, historical context and lived practice illuminate one another. A term that will not translate cleanly is usually pointing at something the practice has not yet reached.
Alongside it, a complete bilingual translation of Grandmaster Chen Qiming's Secrets of Longevity Revealed — his own account of the internal work of the Eighteen Lohan Palm — which underpins how the Lohan curriculum is taught here.
Other work in progress includes the Yinshizi 因是子 quiet-sitting method of Jiang Weiqiao, and material from Liu Yiming 劉一明.
Critical without becoming dismissive
Traditional material often includes claims that are difficult to verify historically or scientifically. We try to keep four things apart: what is tradition, what is documented history, what is direct experience, and what remains uncertain. Lineage accounts are reported as lineage accounts.
“We don't know” is a valid conclusion. So is “this is what the tradition says.” The two should not be confused.
Resource library. Translations and study notes are made available to the community as they are finished. Ask for access.