The Secret of the Golden Flower: A Chinese Book of Life

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Master Lu-tsu said, That which exists through itself is called the Way (Tao). Tao has neither name nor shape. It is the one essence [also translated ‘human nature’], the one primal spirit. Essence and life cannot be seen. They are contained in the light of heaven. The light of heaven cannot be seen. It is contained in the two eyes. To-day I will be your guide and will first reveal to you the secret of the Golden Flower of the great One, and starting from that, I will explain the rest in detail. That which remains as a substratum when no feelings are being expressed, but which lingers, so to speak, in a transcendental super-consciousness condition, is essence (hsing).

In his memoirs, Carl Jung said that he was always interested in Eastern philosophy. In 1920, he began his thorough research on the I Ching, overlooking the ancient wisdom’s figurative language and Eastern traditions. It was exactly in those years when he met Richard Wilhelm, a well-known sinologist, theologian, and German missionary. Richard Wilhelm specialized mainly in translating Chinese texts to German. We have to see that the spirit must lean on science as its guide in the world of reality, and that science must turn to the spirit for the meaning of life." - Richard Wilhelm This dissonance or split mirrors and symbolises a more profoundly troubling paradox. One that lies at the heart of our being and psyche: the paradox of being born and yet knowing that one day you will die. [8] I am not too sure whether I have understood the secret (if it can be understood at all) but I feel like I have definitely taken away some of its appeal. This sounds all very poetic, so what is this book all about?

In Memories, Dreams, Reflections Jung states that “light on the nature of alchemy began to come to me only after I had read the text of the Golden Flower.” The anima was thought of as especially linked with the bodily processes; at death it sinks to the earth and decays. Wilhelm the German sinologist and theologian spent twenty-five years in China making an in-depth study of Oriental culture. He translated the text (as well as the I Ching) and being a personal friend of Carl Gustav Jung [4], asked him to write a psychological commentary to be included in the published versions in German and English. The character ming really signifies a royal command then, destiny, fate, the fate allotted to a man, so too, the duration of life, the measure of vitality at one’s disposal, and thus it comes about that ming (life) is closely related to Eros. I first came upon the meditation technique known as The Secret of the Golden Flower in my research of Carl Jung and his theories on alchemy. Jung wrote the initial commentary to the German translation published in 1931. The translation was dense, and the commentary was theoretical. I set about trying to put its terms into a methodology I personally could try and practice.

The first such illustration represents the first one hundred days, or "gathering the light". The second one represents an emergence of meditative consciousness. The third stage represents a meditative awareness that exists even in mundane, daily life. Stage four represents a higher meditative perception, where all conditions are recognized. Then, varied conditions are portrayed as separately perceived, yet each separate perception is part of a whole of awareness. [12] [1] Translations [ edit ] If you allow it, tending the alchemical furnace with careful attention and love this tension will grow inside you (this is circulating the light through the microcosmic orbit) until it reaches a point where it (you) feel as though you can take it no more and are ready to burst. The Secret of the Golden Flower is a Chinese spiritual text written by an anonymous author and later translated by Richard Wilhelm. The book provides a commentary by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung on the spiritual and psychological teachings of the text.In the first section of this text, for example, Wilhelm translates zhixu zhiling zhi shen, which means a spirit (i.e. mind) that is completely open and completely effective, as "God of Utmost Emptiness and Life." Based on this sort of translation, Jung thought that the Chinese had no idea that they were discussing psychological phenomena. He then tried to repsychologize the terminology, but since he did not quite understand it to begin with he could not but wind up with a distortion in the end. And here was Jung suggesting that this whole process could and possibly should be understood psychologically and symbolically! God damn-it that was irritating!

This is the secret, this tension between have and want is not an affliction, a curse, nor should it be the cause of frustration (although it so often is). Rather it is this very divide that propels you into the future, a much brighter and bigger future than the one you imagine, if only you allow it to. From this tension or paradox, the golden light is created. This is a precious commodity; one might say it is our very life force. Typically, it is spent in pursuit of the want or what the Buddhists call the ten thousand things. Pioneering modern translator Thomas Cleary also points out the problems with Wilhelm’s Golden Flower, both with the authenticity of the source document, as well as with basic Chinese grammar and the descriptions of processes. He concludes that Wilhelm’s watershed translation is unreliable, but he does it with understanding and respect. Above all, he credits Wilhelm with selecting the text in the first placefrom among the superabundance of Chinese spiritual texts unknown to the West. Who knows when this amazing spiritual masterpiece wouldotherwisehave emerged in the world? Cleary writes that he would not have translated it anew save for the fact that it already existed and was known. He appreciates the need to adapt a foreign spiritual teaching to another culture, but insists that process cannot include insufficient knowledge of Chinese and, more importantly, cannot misrepresent the processes described as something altogether different. Cleary took particular issue with Wilhelm’s term “circulating the light,” when it should read“turning the light around.” Cleary criticized the validity of Wilhelm's translation, characterizing it as incomplete and inaccurate: [19] The Secret of the Golden Flowercan be called a spirit-based method of enlightenment. Although it is intended to be free from all defining cultural or religious jargon and motivations, the text nevertheless relies on “twilight language,” a term that refers to language expressly designed to evoke and induce higher consciousness, and further to help the practitioner identify the characteristics of the mental states in which they find themselves. In addition to using language that describes the indescribable, the text also includes many contradictions. “The mysterious pass is in the upper chamber of the mind,” pairs with “You will never find the mysterious pass in the upper chamber of the mind!” These instructions force the individual to make experiential observations for themselves and to forgo reliance on rational instructions. Finding or not finding the mysterious pass are finally Chuang Tzu and his butterfly.Secret of the Golden Flower is an ancient Chinese book from an esoteric religious sect. In “Memories, Dreams, Reflections” Jung wrote this about it: “I devoured the manuscript at once, for the text gave me undreamed-of confirmation of my ideas about the mandala and the circumambulation of the center. That was the first event which broke through my isolation. I became aware of an affinity; I could establish ties with something and someone.” Lü Yán, also known as Lü Dongbin (796 CE-1016 CE) was a Tang Dynasty Chinese scholar and poet who has been elevated to the status of an immortal in the Chinese cultural sphere, worshipped especially by the Taoists. Lü is one of the most widely known of the group of deities known as the Eight Immortals and considered by some to be the de facto leader. [2] The legendary Taoist Master taught the Golden Elixir of Life in the ninth century CE – this alchemical formula is amongst the most intriguing and mysterious texts in the whole of Eastern Mysticism. Lü Yán himself attributes it to Kuan Yin-his who may also have been the original inspiration for the Tao Te Ching the bible of Taoism.

Although Jung credited The Secret of the Golden Flower with having clarified his own work on the unconscious, he maintained serious reservations about the practice taught in the book. What Jung did not know was that the text he was reading in fact was a garbled translation of a truncated version of a corrupted recension of the original work. This wasn’t exactly the first time I heard the name Carl Gustav Jung, but it was the first meaningful impression he made on me. Not a good impression I must say. I was downright angry with him and his arrogance at “psychologising” this profound mystical text! However, both yin and yang are only active in the realm of phenomena, and have their common origin in an undivided unity, yang as the active principle appearing to condition, and yin as the passive principle seeming to be derived or conditioned. The meditation technique is supplemented by descriptions of affirmations of progress in the course of a daily practice, suggesting stages that could be reached and phenomenon that may be observed such as a feeling of lightness, like floating upward or slight levitation. Such benefits are ascribed to improved internal energy associated with breath energy circulation, improvements that alleviate previously existing impediments. Several drawings portray imagery relevant to the personal evolution of a meditation practitioner, images that may be somewhat confusing in terms of pure rational analysis. "Only after one hundred days of consistent work, only then is the light genuine; only then can one begin to work with the spirit-fire." [16] [ full citation needed] [1]The first part of this review is my deficient summary of the book. The second part a short review of the experience of the read. The individual man possesses it. but it extends far beyond the limits of the individual. Life (ming) is also super-individual in that man must simply accept a destiny which does not come from his conscious will. There is possibly some hyperbole in the statement. I trained in various styles of martial arts with a strong focus on the development and circulation of chi or “Qi” – traditional Chinese culture, is believed to be a vital force forming part of any living entity. Qi translates as “air” and figuratively as “material energy”, “life force”, or “energy flow”. Qi is the central underlying principle in Chinese traditional medicine and in Chinese martial arts – for a period of about fifteen years. So, training time in total was no doubt was well into the thousands of hours. However, the specific mediation, the circumambulation of the Golden Light through the microcosmic orbit, I learnt only from Dr Williams and focussed practice time was more modestly in the hundreds, rather than thousands, of hours. We have to start by asking ourselves who we are. We’ll probably see our face after asking that question. However, our thoughts define what we are, not our body. Our thoughts talk too much, tell us lies, and make us believe things that aren’t true. This is why the best thing is to quiet them down. Illustration from a printed edition of The Secret of the Golden Flower accompanying the teachings about distinguishing between primordial spirit and conscious spirit, and further, reversing the inner light. Image from Core of Culture