A textbook for Taoist Studies

If a person wanted to purchase a single book which would serve as a kind of textbook for Taoist studies, I would recommend Livia Kohn's The Taoist Experience: An Anthology (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993), paperback, 404 pages. 

The Amazon page for this book is here, and an extensive Google Books sampling of the text may be found here. Livia Kohn is one of the most prolific and reliable scholars writing on Taoism today, and provides a broad range of texts and comments which help the reader gain some understanding of the scope and variety of the content of the 2,500 year Taoist tradition. A brief listing of the chapters here will give some idea of the material covered in the book. Since this is an anthology, there are a number of important texts, and excerpts of texts provided.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part One: The Tao

Chapter One. The Tao

Chapter Two. Creation

Chapter Three. The Teaching

Part Two: Long Life

Chapter Four. Discipline

Chapter Five. Physical Practices

Chapter Six. The Cosmic Body

Part Three: Eternal Vision

Chapter Seven. The One

Chapter Eight. Insight Practice

Chapter Nine. Ecstatic Excursions

Part Four: Immortality

Chapter Ten. Immortal Personality

Chapter Eleven. Ascension

Chapter Twelve. Immortal Life

List of Chinese Texts Translated

Bibliography