The Secret of the Golden Flower is a Chinese Taoist book on neidan (inner alchemy) meditation, which also mixes Buddhist teachings with some Confucian thoughts. It was written by means of the spirit-writing (fuji) technique, through two groups, in 1688 and 1692. After the publication of the translation by Richard Wilhelm, with commentary by Carl Gustav Jung, it became modernly popularized among Westerners as a Chinese “religious classic”, and is read in psychological circles for analytical and transpersonal psychology considerations of Taoist meditations, although it receives little attention in the East. 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. The practice involves meditative exercises on the spiritual soul (hun) and the primordial spirit. In contrast to the material soul (po), the spirit soul resides in the heavenly heart-mind (xin) and is the Yang qi obtained from the cosmos. It is described as a house where “the light” is the master, being the stage for the “turning the light around”. The procedure consists in refining the material soul and interrupting conceptual thought (of the world of the senses) through this meditation; thus, the true nature of the primordial spirit would be revealed. Practitioners should be aware of states such as “submersion in darkness” (cessation of conceptual thinking).
First Appearance The Secret of the Golden Flower (1688)
First Publisher ○
Appearance List Literature: The Secret of the Golden Flower (1688), The Secret Of The Golden Flower: A Chinese Book Of Life, Translated and Explained by Richard Wilhelm with a Foreword and Commentary by C. G. Jung (1931), “Chinese Secret of the Golden Flower” in Fate magazine (Nov 1958).
Description The Secret of the Golden Flower is a Chinese Taoist book on neidan (inner alchemy) meditation, which also mixes Buddhist teachings with some Confucian thoughts. It was written by means of the spirit-writing (fuji) technique, through two groups, in 1688 and 1692. After the publication of the translation by Richard Wilhelm, with commentary by Carl Gustav Jung, it became modernly popularized among Westerners as a Chinese “religious classic”, and is read in psychological circles for analytical and transpersonal psychology considerations of Taoist meditations, although it receives little attention in the East. 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. The practice involves meditative exercises on the spiritual soul (hun) and the primordial spirit. In contrast to the material soul (po), the spirit soul resides in the heavenly heart-mind (xin) and is the Yang qi obtained from the cosmos. It is described as a house where “the light” is the master, being the stage for the “turning the light around”. The procedure consists in refining the material soul and interrupting conceptual thought (of the world of the senses) through this meditation; thus, the true nature of the primordial spirit would be revealed. Practitioners should be aware of states such as “submersion in darkness” (cessation of conceptual thinking).
