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

Richard Wilhelm

Sep 2022 · Echo Point+ORM

Ebook

149

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About this ebook

An ancient Chinese text, passed on for centuries, in which Taoist mystics reveal the path to true enlightenment.

The first written version of The Secret of the Golden Flower was believed to have originated with Lü Dongbin, a legendary scholar, poet, and spiritual master. Lü Dongbin was the founder of the School of the Golden Elixir of Life during the Tang dynasty. In the text, symbols for light represented awareness, which is normally directed outward toward externals. The method of redirecting one's consciousness inward towards the self through a straightforward form of silent meditation and breathing was known as "turning the light around." Through this process of channeling energy beyond the limits of the discriminating intellect, one's psyche—indeed one's very fundamental being—can gradually open and bloom. This leads to a pure awakening of the mind and spirit. The result can be metaphorically pictured as a bright "golden flower" mandala, representing the rewarding end goal of a personal alchemy of inner transformation.
This edition includes insightful philosophical commentary by psychologist Carl Jung that helps explain the metaphysical aspects of the text, providing valuable insights for Westerners. For many generations, The Secret of the Golden Flower has been an invaluable tool and guide for personal and spiritual growth.
Like a practical workbook for achieving enlightenment, this clearly written meditation manual explores foundational techniques to help you experience elevated states of consciousness; repeated listening will serve as an incomparable source of insight and inspiration.

An ancient Chinese text, passed on for centuries, in which Taoist mystics reveal the path to true enlightenment. The first written version of The Secret of the Golden Flower was believed to have originated with Lü Dongbin, a legendary scholar, poet, and spiritual master. Lü Dongbin was the found...

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About the author

Carl Gustav Jung was born in Switzerland on July 26, 1875. He originally set out to study archaeology, but switched to medicine and began practicing psychiatry in Basel after receiving his degree from the University of Basel in 1902. He became one of the most famous of modern psychologists and psychiatrists. Jung first met Sigmund Freud in 1907 when he became his foremost associate and disciple. The break came with the publication of Jung's Psychology of the Unconscious (1912), which did not follow Freud's theories of the libido and the unconscious. Jung eventually rejected Freud's system of psychoanalysis for his own "analytic psychology." This emphasizes present conflicts rather than those from childhood; it also takes into account the conflict arising from what Jung called the "collective unconscious"---evolutionary and cultural factors determining individual development. Jung invented the association word test and contributed the word complex to psychology, and first described the "introvert" and "extrovert" types. His interest in the human psyche, past and present, led him to study mythology, alchemy, oriental religions and philosophies, and traditional peoples. Later he became interested in parapsychology and the occult. He thought that unidentified flying objects (UFOs) might be a psychological projection of modern people's anxieties. He wrote several books including Studies in Word Association, Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies, and Psychology and Alchemy. He died on June 6, 1961 after a short illness.

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