On the Secret of the Golden Flower and on ancient Chinese philosophy

[Harmonious Emptiness]

It's been a little while since I got deeper into this book (Cleary translation), and even though there is an obvious component of simplicity to it, there is also an obvious component of sitting and focusing non-focus or whatever paradoxical wei wu wei description we can call it.

 

I find a lot of descriptions of internal alchemy seem to simply describe what happens to energies internally during focused sitting meditation, rather than a desciption of what you should try to do with your will to make these things happen. I think this is one way in which Northern and Southern influences can be pointed to, and imo, Secret of the Golden Flower is more of a Northern method, however, there are certainly energetic components spoken of, no doubt. See Chapter VIII for example.

 

I don't think "turning the light around" is a method of "oh, I've got to find this light and then somehow turn it around" but more simply just putting attention into internal focus rather than the senses, and thus the mind, being focused outward as they are normally adjusted to.

 

So, personally, I would say that it's not so much to one extreme or the other, being neither a conscious manipulation of energy nor an entirely non-energetic practice.

 

 

I took a bit of a look at the Wilhelm version with the Cleary version, and the original sinograms, and I think that they are both quite close to each other and the original.

 

A quick example, the first line:

自然曰道。道無名相. 性命不可見。

Self/real/called/Dao. Dao/without/name/appearance. Xing/Ming/not/able/see.

一性而已。一元神而已

One/Xing(nature, heart)/is the end, one's self. One/primal-first/spirit/is the end, one's self.

 

Then this is put in a readable sentence for English.

 

So "Essence and Life" as usual in translations refer to Xing and Ming.

 

For a bit more understanding of what "Life/Ming/Destiny" refers to, I recommend reading again Chapter 16 of the DDJ:

 

My translation, mix of Wang Bi and MWD 1&2 versions

 

Dao De Jing, Chapter 16 (lines 1 to 9)

 

 

01 致虛極, (Wang Bi)

至虛極也 (Ma Wang Dui)

至Arrive at the ultimate of emptiness and

 

02 守靜篤。

守靜督也

Conserve a calm stillness sincerely

督 Attentively conserve calm stillness

 

 

03 萬物並作,

萬物旁作

Myriad creatures, 旁side by side, mutually arising

 

04 吾以觀復。

吾以觀亓復也

They thereby observe the return (也as well)

 

05 天物:芸芸

天物雲雲

Heavens creatures, like many clouds (scattered through the sky)

 

06 各復歸其根。

各復

各Each one 復returns back to their 根foundations

 

07 歸根曰靜,

各復歸於亓根曰靜﹦

歸 Returning to the foundation is called Peaceful Harmony

各Each return back, alas! The foundation is peaceful harmony

 

08 是謂復命;

是胃復﹦

This is called returning to 命destiny/ming

是This 胃stomach, 復return

 

09 復命曰常,

命命

Returning to destiny is called 常 the intrinsic eternal

命命Much life

 

 

You can see my Personal Practice Discussion for a bit more on Chapter 16 and Ming, if interested.

 

 

(edited to clean up Golden Flower translation)

Edited December 29, 2012 by Harmonious Emptiness

[deci belle]

allen sez:

“Heaven is impartial. It is on the side of the good.”

 

Reality has no side, no choice, no cause, no good, no bad.

 

Impartiality has no bias or inclination.

 

Heaven is nonpsychological awareness; impersonally objective, awake, open, subtle, serene.

 

If his quote is indicative of heaven's impartiality, it must also be indicative of allan's copious knowledge of it.

 

Universal Good is incompatible with convention; has no basis in a teaching or country.

 

allan's reliance of a particular usage, derivation, and translation was telling in its teaching-centricity. This is a sickness.

 

He started his shill and spray in the big old "Golden Flower" thread by stating his circulating the light approach. This term is the give-away that it is an application of energetics— which although not antithetical to the Golden Flower teaching, it is not the import of the teaching nor can it be termed an even remotely authentic application of the operation of turning the light around described in "mind-only" sections rendered in the document by evolved transmittors.

 

To insist that energetics is the point of the Golden Flower teaching is the height of slander. The breathing, Waterwheel and its derivative exercises are so common and varied in scope~ another version of this MCO trick simply isn't worth the notoriety this document has garnered. It's just the pull of Euro-centricity and its late-to-the-party psycho-celebrity perpetuated by those who may be all to willing to genuflect at the alter of its also-ran, Western Psychology.

 

The buddha admonishes us to refer everything the the self, yet allan only refers to articles, teachings, translators and an international clientele of dharma-buddies, but never once clarifies a single aspect of his practice in terms of experience.

 

Bodhidharma says that "Even if you can explain thousands of sutras and shastras, unless you see your nature, yours is the teaching of a mortal, not a buddha." allan made no indication that the over-arching objective of the Golden Flower teaching is to see your nature. This is not a limitation of the teaching, but rather someone's lack in terms of the kind of teaching one is capable of deriving through practical application, which is in the service of awakening the totality of one's being— not a teaching tradition.

 

I found his culturally-grounded expression staid and his description of application in any kind of context nonexistent.

 

If I were allan, I would post an article in our articles section and see what happens.

 

allan is web-savvy enough to have already attacked me in a way that can only be termed as a nuisance in the google-sphere, so let that speak for itself. I've always gotten to tbms by googling my user-name, then clicking on my tbms profile page link. Now that page has suddenly become a computer-freezer that wants me to "clean my computer" and the only way to get out of it is to unplug my laptop sans battery…so much for the good.❤

 

 

 

ed note: fill in another fat paragraph with run-on sentences…

Edited December 27, 2012 by deci belle

[deci belle]

haha~ ya… Thank you, rainbow!!❤ It made me a little sad— but not sorry, about allan's experience so far here.

[sree]

Universal Good is incompatible with convention; has no basis in a teaching or country.

 

Can you cite an instance of universal good?

[deci belle]

Strictly speaking, Universal Good is the "source of civilizations" as embodied by Manjushri, in the Flower Ornament Scripture.

 

It is not by virtue of certain locations— it is by timing, which is heaven; conditions, which is by earth and its fecundity; and enlightening evolution, which is by people. In other words, though cultural and biological evolution takes place in the temporal, it is not only that creation is attributable to the inconceivable; creation is itself inconceivable manifestations of the unknowable mysteries of Complete Reality bringing creativity, development, fruition and consummation in endless transformations.

 

This is in no way attributing creation to a "creator", as the conditioned realm and the inconceivable share the selfless nonorigination of aware nature— the uncreated potential selfless aware nature and the temporal mind are the same. There are no two minds. How could the conventional aspect encompass even human culture divorced from the inconceivable source of Universal Good?

 

Even so, there is that which is beyond the tao.

 

In people, Universal Good could be termed the selfless intent of the human body which has no location. It is the reality whereby origin and completion are effected. If I had said celestial design, that would have been more in terms of the workings, the breath of creation; the order of alternation of yin and yang; the knowledge of enlightening operations returning self and other to the source begetting the dichotomy of the two things and consequently one's knowledge of adapting enlightening activity according to the time, situation and local psychological conditions to effect the selfless intent of Universal Good— adapting selflessly to conditions dictated by reality spontaneously, not speculatively.

 

In terms of the political, or cultural, for that matter, there is a critical mass of infinitesimal events leading to trends, chance and struggle~ hardly anything any one element could possibly claim originality for in terms of itself, much less a political body or country.

 

Our very center of real being is just this intent. If one is aware and able, one just carries it out, and that's also Universal Good, and certainly beyond the scope of conventions pertaining to morality, perception and notions of self.

 

 

 

 

ed note: oh god~ I forgot!! (a lot) haha!!

Edited January 2, 2013 by deci belle