The Secret of the Golden Flower... phenomenon that may be observed such as a feeling of lightness, like floating upward or slight levitation... prolong the span of life, and can then apply the methods of creating an immortal body by " melting and mixing "

The lower heart moves like a strong, powerful commander who despises the Heavenly ruler because of his weakness, and has seized for himself the leadership of the affairs of state. But when the primordial castle can be fortified and defended, then it is as if a strong and wise ruler sat upon the throne. The two eyes start the Light circulating like two ministers at the right and left who support the ruler with all their might. When the ruler in the center is thus in order, all those rebellious heroes will present themselves with lances reversed ready to take orders.Master Lu Tzu said: In comparison with Heaven and earth, man is like a mayfly. But compared to the Great Meaning, Heaven and earth, too, are like a bubble and a shadow. Only the primordial spirit and the true essence overcome time and space.

The power of the seed, like Heaven and earth, is subject to mortality, but the primordial spirit is beyond the polar differences. Here is the place whence Heaven and Earth derive their being. When students understand how to grasp the primordial spirit, they overcome the polar opposites of Light and darkness and tarry no longer in the three worlds. But only he who has looked on essence in its original manifestation is able to do this.

When men are set free from the womb the primordial spirit dwells in the square inch (between the eyes), but the conscious spirit dwells below in the heart. This lower fleshly heart has the shape of a large peach: it is covered by the wings of the lungs, supported by the liver, and served by the bowels. This heart is dependent on the outside world. If a man does not eat for one day even, it feels extremely uncomfortable. If it hears something terrifying it throbs; if it hears something enraging it stops; if its is faced with death it becomes sad; if it sees something beautiful it is dazzled. But the Heavenly Heart in the head, when would it have been in the leased moved? Dost thou ask: Can the Heavenly Heart not be moved? Then I answer: How could the true thought in the square inch be moved? If it really moves, it is not well. For when ordinary men die, then it moves, but that is not good. It is best indeed if the Light has already fortified itself in a spirit body and its life force gradually penetrated the instincts and movements. But that is a secret which has not been revealed for thousands of years.

The lower heart moves like a strong, powerful commander who despises the Heavenly ruler because of his weakness, and has seized for himself the leadership of the affairs of state. But when the primordial castle can be fortified and defended, then it is as if a strong and wise ruler sat upon the throne. The two eyes start the Light circulating like two ministers at the right and left who support the ruler with all their might. When the ruler in the center is thus in order, all those rebellious heroes will present themselves with lances reversed ready to take orders.

The way to the Elixir of life recognizes as supreme magic, seed-water, spirit-fire, and thought-earth; these three. What is seed-water? It is the true, one power (eros) of former Heaven. Spirit-fire is the Light (logos). Thought-earth is the Heavenly Heart of the middle house (intuition). Spirit-fire is used for effecting, thought-earth for substance, and seed-water for the foundation. Ordinary men make their bodies through thoughts. The body is not only the 7 ft. tall outer body. In the body is the anima. The anima, having produced consciousness, adheres to it. Consciousness depends for its origin on the anima. The anima is feminine, the substance of consciousness. As long as this consciousness is not interrupted, it continues to beget from generation to generation, and the changes of form of the anima and the transformations of substance are unceasing.

But, besides this, there is the animus in which the spirit shelters. The animus lives in the daytime in the eyes; at night it houses in the liver. When living in the eyes, it sees; when housing itself in the liver, it dreams. Dreams are the wanderings of the spirit through all nine Heavens and all the nine earths. But whoever is dull and moody on waking, and chained to his bodily form, is fettered by the anima. Therefore the concentration of the animus is effected by the circulation of the Light, and in this way the spirit is protected, the anima subjected, and consciousness is annulled. The method used by the ancients for escaping from the world consisted in burning out completely the slag of darkness in order to return to the purely creative. This is nothing more than a reduction of the anima and a bringing to perfection of the animus. And the circulation of the Light is the magical means of limiting the dark powers and gaining mastery of the anima. Even if the work is not directed toward bringing back the creative, but confines itself to the magical means of the circulation, one returns to the creative, If this method is followed, plenty of seed-water will be present of itself; the spirit-fire will be ignited, and the thought-earth will solidify and crystallize. And thus can the holy fruit mature. The scarab rolls his ball and in the ball there develops life as the effect of the undivided effort of his spiritual concentration. If now and embryo can grow in manure, and shed its skin, why should not the dwelling place of our Heavenly Heart also be able to create a body if we concentrate the spirit upon it?

The one effective, true essence (logos united with life), when it descends into the house of the creative, divides into animus and anima. The animus is in the Heavenly Heart. It is of the nature of light; it is the power of lightness and purity. It is that which we have received from the great emptiness, that which has form from the very beginning. The anima partakes of the nature of darkness. It is the power of the heavy and the turbid; it is bound to the bodily, fleshly heart. The animus loves life. The anima seeks death. All sensuous pleasures and impulses to anger are effects of the anima; it is the conscious spirit which after death is nourished on blood, but which, during life, is in direst need. Darkness returns to darkness and like things attract each other. But the pupil understands how to distill the dark anima so that it transforms itself into Light.
Despite the varieties of impressions, interpretation and opinion expressed by translators, the meditation technique described by The Secret of the Golden Flower is a straightforward, silent method; the book's description of meditation has been characterized as "Zen with details". The meditation technique, set forth in poetic language, reduces to a formula of sitting, breathing, and contemplating.[citation needed] Sitting primarily relates to a straight posture. Breathing is described in detail, primarily in terms of the esoteric physiology of the path of qi (also known as chi or ki), or breath energy. The energy path associated with breathing has been described as similar to an internal wheel vertically aligned with the spine. When breathing is steady, the wheel turns forward, with breath energy rising in back and descending in front.[1] Bad breathing habits (or bad posture, or even bad thoughts) may cause the wheel not to turn, or move backward, inhibiting the circulation of essential breath energy. In contemplation, one watches thoughts as they arise and recede. 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." 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.yoga practice. The followers of this method, in contradistinction to the European " yogis " to whom these Eastern practices are only a form of sport, achieve almost without exception the central experience. Thus it can be said that, as far as the Chinese mentality is concerned, a completely assured method of attaining definite psychic experiences is commanded. (It must be noted that, as C. G. Jung very correctly points out, Chinese mentality, at least up to very recent times, has been essentially different in some fundamental respects from that of Europeans.) Besides the release from the fetters of an
illusory outer world, there are many other goals striven
for by the different sects. Those on the highest level
use this release by meditation, for the purpose of seeking
the Buddhist Nirvana, or, as for example in the present
book, they teach that by the union of the spiritual principle
in men to the correlated psychogenetic forces one can
prepare for the possibility of life after death, not only
as a shadow-being doomed to decay, but as a conscious
spirit. In addition, and often in connection with this
idea, there are schools of thought which try by means
of this meditation to exert a psyehic influence on certain
vegetative animal processes. (As Europeans we w r ould
speak here of the endocrine gland-system.) This influence
is intended to strengthen, rejuvenate, and normalize the
life-processes, so that even death will be overcome in
such a way that it fits in as a harmonious ending of life.
The spiritual principle, now fitted for an independent
continuation of life in the spirit-body, created out of its
own forces, deserts the earthly body, which remains
behind as a drying shell like that abandoned by a cicada.
The lower strata of these sects sought in this way to
acquire magic powers, the ability to banish evil spirits
and disease, and here talismans, word and written charms yoga practice. The followers of this method, in contra-
distinction to the European " yogis " to whom these
Eastern practices are only a form of sport, achieve almost
without exception the central experience. Thus it can
be said that, as far as the Chinese mentality is concerned,
a completely assured method of attaining definite psychic
experiences is commanded. (It must be noted that, as
C. G. Jung very correctly points out, Chinese mentality,
at least up to very recent times, has been essentially
different in some fundamental respects from that of
Europeans.) Besides the release from the fetters of an
illusory outer world, there are many other goals striven
for by the different sects. Those on the highest level
use this release by meditation, for the purpose of seeking
the Buddhist Nirvana, or, as for example in the present
book, they teach that by the union of the spiritual principle
in men to the correlated psychogenetic forces one can
prepare for the possibility of life after death, not only
as a shadow-being doomed to decay, but as a conscious
spirit. In addition, and often in connection with this
idea, there are schools of thought which try by means
of this meditation to exert a psyehic influence on certain
vegetative animal processes. (As Europeans we w r ould
speak here of the endocrine gland-system.) This influence
is intended to strengthen, rejuvenate, and normalize the
life-processes, so that even death will be overcome in
such a way that it fits in as a harmonious ending of life.
The spiritual principle, now fitted for an independent
continuation of life in the spirit-body, created out of its
own forces, deserts the earthly body, which remains
behind as a drying shell like that abandoned by a cicada.
The lower strata of these sects sought in this way to
acquire magic powers, the ability to banish evil spirits
and disease, and here talismans, word and written charms yoga practice. The followers of this method, in contra-
distinction to the European " yogis " to whom these
Eastern practices are only a form of sport, achieve almost
without exception the central experience. Thus it can
be said that, as far as the Chinese mentality is concerned,
a completely assured method of attaining definite psychic
experiences is commanded. (It must be noted that, as
C. G. Jung very correctly points out, Chinese mentality,
at least up to very recent times, has been essentially
different in some fundamental respects from that of
Europeans.) Besides the release from the fetters of an
illusory outer world, there are many other goals striven
for by the different sects. Those on the highest level
use this release by meditation, for the purpose of seeking
the Buddhist Nirvana, or, as for example in the present
book, they teach that by the union of the spiritual principle
in men to the correlated psychogenetic forces one can
prepare for the possibility of life after death, not only
as a shadow-being doomed to decay, but as a conscious
spirit. In addition, and often in connection with this
idea, there are schools of thought which try by means
of this meditation to exert a psyehic influence on certain
vegetative animal processes. (As Europeans we w r ould
speak here of the endocrine gland-system.) This influence
is intended to strengthen, rejuvenate, and normalize the
life-processes, so that even death will be overcome in
such a way that it fits in as a harmonious ending of life.
The spiritual principle, now fitted for an independent
continuation of life in the spirit-body, created out of its
own forces, deserts the earthly body, which remains
behind as a drying shell like that abandoned by a cicada.
The lower strata of these sects sought in this way to
acquire magic powers, the ability to banish evil spirits
and disease, and here talismans, word and written charms play their part. Sometimes this sort of thing results in
mass-psyehoses which then find expression in religious
or political unrest, as, for example, the Boxer movement.
Recently, the unmistakable syncretist tendency of
Taoism is shown in the fact that within its institutions
members of all of the five world-religions (Confucianism,
Taoism, Buddhism, Mohammedanism, and Christianity —
even Judaism comes in occasionally for special mention)
are included without having to break away from their
respective religious communities. Master Lii Tzu said : That which exists through itself is called Meaning (Tao). Meaning has neither name nor force. It is the one essence, the one primordial spirit.
Essence and life cannot be seen. It is 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.
The Great One is the term given to that which has
nothing above it. The secret of the magic of life consists
in using action in order to achieve non-action. One must
not wish to leave out the steps between and penetrate
directlv. The maxim handed down to us is to take in
hand the work on the essence. In doing this it is important,
not to follow the wrong road.

The Golden Flower is the Light. What colour has
the Light ? One uses the Golden Flower as an image.
It is the true power of the transcendent Great One. The
phrase, " The lead of the water-region has but one taste,"
refers to it. In the Book of Changes it is said r : Heaven created water through the One. That is the true power of the Great One. If a man attains this One he becomes alive ; if he misses it he dies.
But even if a man lives in the power (air, prana) he does not see the power (air), just as fishes live in water but do not see the water. A man dies when he has no life-air, just as the fishes are destroyed when deprived of water. Therefore the adepts have taught the people to hold fast to the primal and to guard the One ; it is the circular course of the Light and the protection of the centre. If one guards this true power, one can prolong the span of life, and can then apply the methods of creating an immortal body by " melting and mixing ".

The work on the circulation of the Light depends
entirely on the backward-flowing movement, so that the
thoughts are gathered together (the place of Heavenly
Consciousness, the Heavenly Heart). The Heavenly
Heart lies between sun and moon (i.e. the two eyes).

The Booh of the Yellow Castle says : In the field
of the square inch of the house of the square foot, life
can be regulated. The house of the square foot is the
face. The field of the square inch in the face : what
could that be other than the Heavenly Heart ? In the
middle of the square inch dwells the splendour. In the
purple hall of the city of jade dwells the god of utmost
emptiness and life. The Confucians call it the centre
of emptiness ; the Buddhists, the terrace of life ; the
Taoists, the ancestral land, or the yellow castle, or the
dark pass, or the space of former Heaven. The Heavenly
Heart is like the dwelling place, the Light is the master.

Therefore when the Light circulates, the powers of
the whole body arrange themselves before its throne, just
as when a holy king has taken possession of the capital
and has laid down the fundamental rules of order, all
the states approach with tribute; or, just as when the
master is quiet and calm, men-servants and maids obey
his orders of their own accord, and each does his work.

Therefore you only have to make the Light circulate :
that is the deepest and most wonderful secret. The Light
is easy to move, but difficult to fix* If it is allowed to
go long enough in a circle, then it crystallizes itself : that
is the natural spirit-body. This crystallized spirit is
formed beyond the nine Heavens. It is the condition of which it is said in the Book of the Seal of the Heart :
Silently in the morning thou fiiest upward.

In carrying out this fundamental truth you need to
seek for no other methods, but must only concentrate your
thoughts on it. The book Ling Yen (2) says : By
collecting the thoughts one can fly and will be born in
Heaven. Heaven is not the wide blue sky, but the
place where the body is made in the house of the creative.
If one keeps this up for a long time, there develops quite
naturally in addition to the body, yet another spirit-body.

The Golden Flower is the Elixir of Life (Chin Tan,
literally, golden ball, golden pill). All changes of spiritual
consciousness depend upon the Heart. Here is a secret
charm, which, although it works very accurately, is yet
so fluent that it needs extreme intelligence and clarity,
and complete absorption and calm. People without
this highest degree of intelligence and understanding do
not find the way to apply the charm ; people without this
utmost capacity for concentration and calm cannot keep
fast hold of it.

This section explains the origin of the Great Meaning of the world (Too). The Heavenly Heart is the germinal root of the Great Meaning. If a man can be absolutely quiet then the Heavenly Heart will manifest itself. When the feeling springs up and flows -out in the natural course, the person is created as primordial creature. This creature abides between conception and birth in* true space. When the One note of individuation enters into birth, essence and life are divided in two. From this time on, if the utmost peace is not achieved, essence and life never see each other again.

Therefore it is said in the plan of the Great Pole : The Great
One includes within itself true power (prana), seed, spirit, animus, and anima. If the thoughts are absolutely quiet so that the Heavenly Heart can be seen, the spiritual intelligence reaches the source unaided. This essence lives indeed in true space, but the splendour of the Light dwells in the two eyes. Therefore the Master teaches the circulation of the Light so that the true essence may be reached. The true essence is the primordial spirit. The primordial spirit is precisely essence and life, and if one accepts what is real in it, it is the primordial power. And the Great Meaning is just this thing. Master Lu Tzii said : In comparison with Heaven and Earth, man is like a mayfly. But compared to the Great Meaning, Heaven and Earth, too, are like a bubble and a shadow. Only the primordial spirit and the true essence overcome time and space.
The power of the seed, like Heaven and Earth, is
subject to mortality, but the primordial spirit is beyond the polar differences. Here is the place whence Heaven
and Earth derive their being. When students under-
stand how to grasp the primordial spirit they overcome
the polar opposites of Light and Darkness and tarry
no longer in the three worlds (3). But only he who has
looked on essence in its original manifestation is able
to do thisl
When men are set free from the womb the primordial
spirit dwells in the square inch (between the eyes), but
the conscious spirit dwells below in the heart. This lower
fleshly heart has the shape of a large peach : it is covered
by the wings of the lungs, supported by the liver, and
served by the bowels. This heart is dependent on the
outside world. If a man does not eat for one day even,
it feels extremely uncomfortable. If it hears something
terrifying it throbs ; if it hears something enraging it
stops ; if it is faced with death it becomes sad ; if it sees
something beautiful it is dazzled. But the Heavenly
Heart in the head, when would it have been in the least
moved ? Dost thou ask : Can the Heavenly Heart not be
moved ? Then I answer : How could the true thought
in the square inch be moved ? If it really moves, it is
not well. For when ordinary men die, then it moves,
but that is not good. It is best indeed if the Light has .
already fortified itself in a spirit-body and its life-force
gradually penetrated the instincts and movements. But
that is a secret which has not been revealed for thousands
of years.
The lower heart moves like a strong, powerful com-
mander who despises the Heavenly ruler because of his
weakness, and has seized for himself the leadership of the
affairs of state. But when the primordial castle can be
fortified and defended, then it is as if a strong and wise
ruler sat upon the throne. The two eyes start the Light circulating like two ministers at the right and the left
who support the ruler with all their might. When the
ruler in the centre is thus in order, all those rebellious
heroes will present themselves with lances reversed ready
to take orders. The way to the Elixir of Life recognizes as supreme magic, seed-water, spirit-fire, and thought-earth : these three. What is seed- water ? It is the true, one power
(eros) of former Heaven. Spirit-fire is the Light (logos).
Thought-earth is the Heavenly Heart of the middle house
(intuition). Spirit-fire is used for effecting, thought-earth
for substance, and seed- water for the foundation. Ordinary
men make their bodies through thoughts. The body is
not only the 7 ft. tall outer body. In the body is the anima. The anima, having produced consciousness, adheres to it. Consciousness depends for its origin on the anima. The anima is feminine (yin), the substance of consciousness. As long as this consciousness is not interrupted, it continues to beget from generation to generation, and the changes of form of the anima and the transformations of substance are unceasing.
Master Lu Tzu said: Since when has the expression “circulation of the Light” been revealed? It was revealed by the “true men of the beginning of form”. When the Light is allowed to move in a circle, all the powers of Heaven and earth, of the light and the dark, are crystallized. That is what is described as seed-like, or purification of the power, or purification of the concept. When one begins to apply this magic, it is as if, in the middle of one’s being, there was a non-being. When in the course of time the work is finished, and beyond the body is another body, it is as if, in the middle of the non-being, there were a being. Only after a completed work of a hundred days will the Light be real, then only will it become spirit-fire. After a hundred days, there develops by itself in the middle of the Light, a point of the true Light-pole. Suddenly there develops a seed pearl. It is as if man and woman embraced and a conception took place. Then one must be quite still in order to await it. The circulation of the Light is the epoch of fire.

In the midst of primal becoming, the radiance of the Light is the determining thing. In the physical world it is the sun; in man the eye. The emanation and dissemination of spiritual consciousness is chiefly brought about by this power when it is directed outward (flown downward). Therefore the meaning of the Golden Flower depends wholly on the backward-flowing method.

Circulation of the Light is not only a circulation of the seed-blossom of the body, but it is, in the first place, a circulation of the true, creative, formative powers. It has to do, not with a momentary fantasy, but with the exhaustion of the circular course (soul wanderings) of all the eons. Therefore a breath-pause means a year – according to human reckoning – and a hundred years measured by the long night of the nine paths (of reincarnation).

After a person has the one tone of individualization behind them, they will be born outward according to the circumstances, and not until he is old will he turn a single time to the backward-flowing way. The force of the Light exhausts itself and trickles away. That brings the nine-fold darkness (of rebirths) into the world. In the book Leng Yen it is said: By concentrating the thoughts, one can fly; by concentrating the desires, one falls. When a pupil takes little care of his thoughts and much care of his desires, he gets into the path of depravity. Only through contemplation and quietness does true intuition arise; for that, the backward-flowing method is necessary.

In the book of the Secret Correspondences, it is said: Release is in the eye. In the Simple Questions of the Yellow Ruler, it is said: The seed-blossom of the human body must be concentrated upward in the empty space. That refers to it. Immortality is contained in this sentence and also the overcoming of the world is contained in it. That is the common goal of all religions.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_of_the_Golden_Flower

Taken on: April 11, 2024

Tags:

清代前期

清

代 more »

前

期

Carl.Jung

methods

creating

immortal

body

melting

mixing

primordial

castle

heart

move

powerful

commander

Heavenly

ruler

leadership

Light

life-force

instinct

spirit-body

polar

differences

spirit

beyond

Great

Meaning

Elixir

Life

unconscious

non-action

intelligence

essence

individuation

Golden

Flower

Seal

tribute

magic

alchemy

china

chinese

Master

Lu.Tzu

individualization

path

depravity

quietness

backward-flowing

Correspondences

seed-blossom

circular

course

soul

wandering

radiance

Light-pole

non-being

spirit-fire « less

Sets appears in: • Parisian 's Dream • Paracelsus Eckhart Goethe Steiner Jung

Stats: 16,675 views