The Secret of the Golden Flower: Chinese Alchemy

The Secret of the Golden Flower

Chinese Alchemy

 

by Nataša Pantović Nuit

 

 The ancient science of alchemy still influences the contemporary spiritual theories, and stays shaping the spiritual philosophies of our time. 

The whirlpool of its magic at one point became madness for the alchemists who tried to decipher its secret language of symbols and signs, and for the ones who managed to just bath in the beauty of its images, it stayed full of blessings.  The desire to knock on the door that promises eternal life and eternal youth returns through centuries to haunt the alchemists with their quest to know the lapis philosophorum, the philosopher's stone - the legendary alchemical substance capable of turning base metals into gold.

 

 

 

Chinese Alchemy, Secret of Golden Flower - Merge of Male and Female Energy

 

 

It is the merge of male and female that fascinates us so much, it is the White Queen and the Black King that unite to give a birth to a child that is perfect and immortal.  It is Taoist Yin and Yang that when circling in perfect harmony create balance and harmony within a Human Being, on Earth and in Universe.

It is Male that is our Collective Consciousness, that is Sun, Reason, Science, Law & Order.

It is Feminine that is symbolised by Moon, or Earth, that is the Ocean of our Collective Sub-Conscious, it is our Dream Consciousness, our shadow existence, trance, dragon and the snake, siren and medusa, that is Life that creates and destroys itself.

Chinese Alchemy Symbols, The Mind as an unusual son of Chaos

 

Mind is symbolised by Mercury, and when Master of its Destiny, his spirit is a hermaphrodite that stands on both: the Sun and the Moon.

Extracts from the Secret of the Golden Flower

In an attempt to further understand this symbolism within our lives we came across an ancient Chinese Alchemy text: The Secret Of The Golden Flower, Tai Yi Jin Hua Zong Zhi 太乙金華宗旨, a Chinese Taoist text about meditation, translated by Walter Picca in 1964.  The following are some extracts from this holy scripture.


It is said that Lao Tzu became one of the Eight Immortals using the methods within this book. The ideas have been traced back to Persia and Zarathustra and the Egyptian Hermetic tradition.

'Master Lao-Tsu said: That which exists through itself is called the Way (Tao). Tao has neither name nor shape.  It is the one essence [Hsing], the one primal spirit. Essence and life cannot be seen...

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...'

About Gold from the Secret of the Golden Flower

 

'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.'

About Duality from the Secret Of The Golden Flower

 

'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.'

About Consciousness from the Secret Of The Golden Flower

 

 

'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 (Mind*). 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.'

About Anima and Animus from the Secret Of The Golden Flower

Chinese Symbol for Heart and Mind is the same

The core Chinese concept is Xin that means both Heart and Mind.  This insightful fact shines a wonderful light on any Chinese ancient text and philosophy.  The Mind that represents ideas, cognition, and reason, and Heart that represents desires, and emotions, are coming from the same centre and are directed by the same forces.  The Xin guides both beliefs and desires. It is the Heart, rather than the brain that is responsible for the belief systems.  The Heart is the centre of emotions and desires, or tranquillity and calmness, but also of intellect and understanding.

'Understanding and clarity, knowing and enlightenment, and all motion (of the spirit), are likewise this Light; therefore it is not just something outside the body. The Light-flower of Heaven and earth fills all thousand spaces.'

 

About Light from the Secret Of The Golden Flower

 

 

'The heart / mind* cannot be influenced directly. Therefore the breathing power is used as a handle...

While sitting, one must, therefore, always keep the heart (mind) quiet and the power concentrated. How can the heart (mind) be made quiet? By breathing. The heart (mind) alone must be conscious of the flowing in and out of the breath; it must not be heard with the ears. If it is not heard, then the breathing is light; if light, it is pure. If it can be heard, then the breathing power is heavy; if heavy, then it is troubled; if it is troubled, then laziness and absent-mindedness develop and one wants to sleep...'

About Breathing Exercises from the Secret Of The Golden Flower

'If, when there is quiet, the spirit has continuously and uninterruptedly a sense of great gaiety as if intoxicated or freshly bathed, it is a sign that the Light principle in the whole body is harmonious; then the Golden Flower begins to bud. When, furthermore, all openings are quiet, and the silver moon stands in the middle of Heaven, and one has the feeling that the great earth is a world of light and brilliancy, that is a sign that the body of the heart (mind) opens itself to clarity. It is a sign that the Golden Flower is opening...'

About Meditation from the Secret Of The Golden Flower

'The most important thing in the Great Meaning is the four words: non-action in action. Non-action prevents a person from becoming entangled in form and image (substantiality). Action in non-action prevents a person from sinking into numbing emptiness and a dead nothingness...'

About non-action in action from the Secret Of The Golden Flower

'As soon as these two substances meet each other, they unite inseparably, and unceasing life begins; it comes and goes, and rises and falls of itself, in the house of primordial power. One is aware of effulgence and infinity. The whole body feels lighter and would like to fly. This is the state of which it is said: Clouds fill the thousand mountains. Gradually it (life) goes here and there quite quietly; it rises and falls imperceptibly. The pulse stands still and breathing stops. This is the moment of true creative unity, the state of which it is said: The moon gathers up the ten thousand waters. In the midst of this darkness, the Heavenly Heart suddenly begins a movement. This is the return of the one Light, the time when the child comes to life.'

About Merge of Yin and Yang from the Secret Of The Golden Flower

Alchemy of Love Secrets of Meditation Video

From Art of Enlightenment @ http://www.artof4elements.com/entry/79/the-secret-of-the-golden-flower

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Taoist Dreams: The Action of Inaction

Taoist Dreams: The Action of Inaction

by Jules Elbeshausen

Wu wei is an interesting Chinese phrase…

It has a tenuous connection back to Libertarianism and ‘Laissez faire, Laissez passer’ which is a type of economic environment in which all transactions between private parties are unencumbered, unhindered by government regulation or restrictions, an attitude of ‘Let it be’.

In Taoism it literally means non-action, non-doing or action of non-action.

In the Tao te Ching, the venerable Lao Tzu explains that beings (or phenomena) that are wholly in harmony with the Tao behave in a completely natural, uncontrived way. The goal for the human being is, according to Lao Tzu the attainment of this purely natural way of behaving, as when the planets revolve around the sun.


The planets effortlessly do this revolving without any sort of control, force, or attempt to resolve themselves, instead engaging in effortless (as in Wu wei) and spontaneous movement.

This is the kind of wisdom so admired by traditional Chinese scholars, and it is a concept which echoes throughout Chinese society and culture in general, for example with the fine art of Feng Shui, which is also about the economy of action and harmony of substance and their interplay.

There is a third great Chinese teacher contemporaneous with the other two ancient philosophers, Confucius and Lao Tzu,

i.e Sun Tzu the author of “The Art of War”

“Subjugating the enemy’s army without fighting is the true pinnacle of excellence.”

~ Sun Tzu

The concept of non-action as being a form of action is found in all three authors, although this is perhaps not so surprising as they all lived approximately in or around the 6th Century B.C.

First it can be heard in the poetic wisdom of the I-Ching commonly attributed to Confucius. For example the advice is often to temper haste with patience, or non-action. Suggesting it is far better to not act, to wait and maintain the principle of Wu wei, rather than risk acting immodestly or inappropriately.

Secondly it is evident throughout Lao Tzu’s work ;

“One should be flexible as a blade of grass and not stiff and rigid like a stick…when the winds come will the stick not break? Whereas the supple blade of grass bends and then returns to its original position”.

“The living are soft and yielding;
the dead are rigid and stiff.
Living plants are flexible and tender;
the dead are brittle and dry.
Those who are stiff and rigid
are the disciple of death.
Those who are soft and yielding
are the disciples of life.
The rigid and stiff will be broken.
The soft and yielding will overcome.”

- Lao Tzu

Finally it can be heard echoing through the “Art of War”, when for example Sun Tzu suggests that you use your own opponent’s army and it’s strengths against itself in a defensive tactic to defeat the enemy by drawing him out, using their own strengths against themselves in clever, chess-like strategies where the object for your army is to do as little as possible i.e non-action or Wu wei and instead to let your enemy defeat itself in a long, slow battle of attrition.

This concept of Wu wei is to my mind an example of the inherent wisdom and intellectual integrity of the Eastern attitude versus the philosophically bankrupt West which of course is guided solely by the requirement for growth and profit.

In terms of the ramifications for our future, and in terms of the core beliefs that are shared by both The Zeitgeist Movement and The Venus Project, it is clear that the Taoist or Eastern emphasis on balance and harmony with nature is entirely compatible with our own rejection of Western priorities and Western values as being pathological and ultimately genocidal.
 
Tidal, Wave, Wind & Solar for example are types of energy generation which appear to make far more sense and they are Eastern in their orientation, as they obviously go with, rather than against the flow of nature.

The West, with it’s foolish bravura, it’s immature arrogance and impetuosity, at least when compared with the far more deliberate, ancient and unhurried movements of the Chinese dragon, the West’s laughable hubris and it’s sense of entitlement to invade or trash wherever it likes on this planet looks quite adolescent and juvenile against the seemingly more mature, measured and orderly slow pace of the East, and I believe that the concept of Wu wei may have a hand to play in this.

This is an opinion which others may easily dispute and which for me requires deeper scrutiny  in order to clarify and bring to the surface any glaring contradictions.

In the Western World, it is entirely dependent on the type of Economic system that we live under as to how we view our world, and it is that same Economic system which shapes and dictates our collective behavior.

Money has a lot to answer for.

Nature has no part to play.

It has no voice in the process, nor are its needs considered.

It is merely a calculation, an entry on a negative balance sheet of costs.

In other words the design comes first, then we work out how to solve our particular engineering or environmental problems by overcoming nature, by subduing it and too little consideration is given to working in harmony with rather than against the forces of nature.

Our priorities appear to be mistaken…

For example in the West, we just cut a swathe through a forest because in our view,, our priority is to minimize cost and overheads, that is the name of the game. Whereas the Eastern view begins with the belief that our priority should be to come to terms with nature first, to strike a harmonious balance with the requirements of Gaia first….

A short track road is a good thing, and the shorter the road, the less it costs, and we build it by just cutting a corridor through nature.

The Eastern, Taoist view would be to find the natural breaks, the pathways or even to go around if necessary to maintain the harmonic forces.

The examples of Western thoughtlessness in design, arrogance or just plain ignorance on a colossal scale are everywhere to be seen in architecture which for most of my life has been a source of simultaneous pleasure, and displeasure when I view the illogical irrationality of our building principles.

Fortunately architecture is finally coming of Age!

The examples of contrary, blind Industrial planning and design are literally endless as our Western system is not based on logic, or the natural order of life on Gaia and must have driven Buckminster-Fuller crazy…



The Eastern view is a huge contrast, it is a view which I hasten to add is unfortunately fading fast thanks to the heady rush of Capitalism which has now infected China as well.

In the traditional, old Eastern view which, as I suggest, can be found in common to all three sages i.e Lao Tzu, Confucius and in Sun Tzu, the main emphasis is to find a way to literally ;

‘Go with the flow’…

To align yourself with the organic harmonies, the deep, intrinsic patterns of nature, and by doing this, ‘non-action’ which is itself a type of action, will in many cases be the only type of action required.

Here in the materialistic, cheap and vulgar, glittery West, unfortunately going with the flow would have an entirely different connotation… As the only flow which Western participants were ever interested in, the only flow which their conditioned minds could even see, was the rising flow of profits to the shareholders, those champions…those bastions of the 1%.

Feature Image
Tree on Street by by annamae22
TOPIO 3 2 by Humanrobo CC BY-SA 3.0

From Social Rebirth @ http://socialrebirth.org/taoist-dreams-the-action-of-inaction/

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