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

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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? However, Cleary's translated version did not provide enough information about its source documentation. Jing Haifeng (1999) and J. J. Clarke (2000) excused Jung for not being a Sinologist, and for his humanitarian concerns in alleviating suffering by providing psychological insights. Clarke also did not follow Cleary in considering that the translation used by Wilhelm was problematic. [1] In Carl Jung's autobiography ( Memories, Dreams, Reflections, pp. 373–377), he wrote a section about his friend Wilhelm and said, in relevant part, "In China he had the good fortune to meet a sage of the old school whom the revolution had driven out of the interior. This sage, Lau Nai Suan, introduced him to Chinese yoga philosophy and the psychology of the I Ching. To the collaboration of these two men we owe the edition of the I Ching with its excellent commentary." Presumably, the same is true of the yoga philosophy of The Secret of the Golden Flower. Although Wilhelm's original German edition first appeared in the autumn of 1929, just months before he died (according to the Preface by Baynes), Jung indicates in his Foreword to The Secret of the Golden Flower that Wilhelm had sent him the text earlier, and also indicates that it was on Jung's initiative that the book was published. The anima was thought of as especially linked with the bodily processes; at death it sinks to the earth and decays.

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.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! Lai, Chi Tim (2016). "Revisiting the Jingming Origin of the Taiyi jinhua zongzhi: Pan Jingguan and His Spirit-Writing Community in Changzhou during the Early Qing". Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie. 25 (1): 47–75. doi: 10.3406/asie.2016.1470. Esposito, Monica (2001). "Longmen Taoism in Qing China: Doctrinal Ideal and Local Reality". Journal of Chinese Religions. 29 (1): 191–231. doi: 10.1179/073776901804774604. ISSN 0737-769X.

The Secret of the Golden Flower is a book on meditation and Chinese alchemy. Richard Wilhelm translated the classic while Carl Jung wrote the prologue. Light, symbolized by a golden flower, is a metaphor. Everything moves and comes from the center of power. Therefore, we awaken or open our consciousness towards this Light. None the less we must be cautious in the matter of derivations, because the most ancient script known in China had no sign for daemon, and so we may perhaps be dealing with primordial symbols whose derivations are lost. During this time, at a point where my training was at its zenith, I had occasion to visit an antiquarian book store in the centre of Johannesburg. The bookstore was spellbinding. Small and hidden away with towering shelves, placed too close to one another, laden with the most fascinating books. Well fascinating that is, if your interests were of a Gnostic and mystical bent. Mine were, and I spent hours going through books I had not come across before. Thus the illusion is robbed of its strength. An inner, ascending circulation of forces takes place. The Golden Flower is the light. What colour is the light? One uses the Golden Flower as a symbol. It is the true energy of the transcendent great One….” pg. 21That desire lives in all of us. It lives in you and it lives in me. What differs between us is only what it looks like and our willingness to admit it to ourselves and others. Also, it doesn’t stay the same, what it was yesterday is not necessarily what is today. You know what I’m talking about: Because the still-current Wilhelm/Jung/Baynes edition of this manual contains dangerous and misleading contaminations, a primary consideration was to make the contents of The Secret of the Golden Flower explicitly accessible to both lay and specialist audiences.

Jung’s marvelous commentary is balm for the writer’s psyche. He warns us against being enthralled to “… the secret objective of gaining power through words …” He explains how this ancient text guides one through disentanglement. Here is the context in which Jung makes his statement:In Taoism, on the other hand, the goal is to preserve in a transfigured form, the idea of the person, the “traces” left by experience. In the oldest Chinese script, it is represented by a double serpentine coil, which can also mean thunder, lightning, electrical activity. In both cases, if the ego follows the anima, the personal element retreats and there ensues an involution corresponding to the amount of “externalization.”

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] Two kings of Light, symbolizing the firmness of 'lead' and also the beginning and end of the method of turning around the light Jung's commentary provides fascinating insights into the psychological and spiritual implications of the text. He emphasizes the importance of inner work and the cultivation of the self. It would be less than honest if I were to say this is easy, or that it is open to everyone- it’s not and it isn’t. Not everyone’s fire burns that brightly, once it may have, but a thousand compromises and ten thousand rationalisations frequently dampen the flames.Both are ideas coming from an observation of the events connected with death, and therefore both contain in their written form the sign for daemon, that is, the departed one (kuei). Among European investigators, some have turned first to sexual references for an explanation, but the characters refer to phenomena in nature. 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 ]