The Secret of the Golden Flower

1. NATURAL CONSCIOUSNESS

The natural principles that govern life have been called The Way (Tao); even though names, labels and conceptual thinking are inadequate to properly describe it. The full depth and scope of these principles and their function, ultimately, lies beyond human comprehension. Yet, with those limitations appreciated, it can be said that The Way was, and is, there before anything else; before the Cosmos or life in it ever unfolded. It is the unseen source of all consciousness and energy, and thereby all things are essentially related to one another. This is a primordial, natural energy that also carries basic consciousness along with it, and so it also became referred to as The Mind of Tao. It represents an innate awareness in all life forms that informs them of how their lives are naturally meant to be lived at any given moment. The Tao (Way) is not only the basis of all creation, but it is also that which informs it, at all scales of existence, from the subatomic to the infinite vastness of outer space.

In ancient times those who understood these matters communicated the knowledge verbally. They formed the basis of the original school of thought of Taoist philosophy. These oral teaching were instrumental in the founding of the Complete Reality School of Taoism. That movement became quite popular, yet even as the number of its students swelled the accuracy of its transmission of the much older oral tradition deteriorated. That deterioration has never been completely repaired. At the present time the teachings remain damaged and confused. When teachings become doctrines or academic concerns this kind of erosion tends to occur. Fortunately, there have been those willing and able to convey a genuine understanding outside of the corrupted institutions and doctrines.

Attempts by the individual to escape society’s unfortunate condition ultimately are not the answer. Though problems may seem to come from outside of oneself, the most effective means to deal with them lay almost entirely within oneself (within a person’s own psychology: in dealing with habitual behaviors, attitudes and beliefs). A person needs to learn how to preserve their personal integrity and remain steadfast in the face of troubling conditions. A person needs to learn how they can refine their own character so that they will be able to resist being degraded by troubling influences. Only with that kind of strength of character will a person have the resilience, insights and experiences that enable people to unravel all the delusions that obscure reality; delusions created in one’s own mind as well as those foisted upon them by others. If you think that isolating yourself from society’s troubling influences solves the problem, or can yield genuine self-development, then you are very likely deluding yourself.

The message of The Golden Flower is one of personal liberation. Its “secret,” or, in other words, method, works directly with the awareness of natural, primordial energy and consciousness– with The Mind of Tao– without getting caught up in secondary or misleading concerns. It is not a method that makes claims of being able to provide mystical transcendence or sudden penetration to enlightenment. It is a very practical, down-to-earth procedure.

The “yoga” or union implied in the title refers to living in harmony with the natural principles that govern life. The secret to living in harmony with these principles lies in making an effort to achieve a state that appears effortless. The “effort” needed is the application of training techniques that enable a person to respond naturalistically to any circumstance they may encounter without pretense or egotism. It is said to be “effortless” because it doesn’t rely on forcing issues or solutions. Instead, by learning how to detect their early warning signs, often intuitively, problems are avoided before they ever have the chance to fully arise or become intransigent. Mind and body are cleansed of habits that cloud perception, inhibit sensitivity and unwittingly impose destructive attitudes and behaviors. The study of human nature and psychology are central to this process. Please do not confuse this “psychology” with commonly held assumptions regarding the nature of human beings, or how their health is to be maintained. This is not a matter of following commonly accepted theories, beliefs, or religious dogma, but rather of learning to discern the true nature of things for oneself.

The image of a golden flower is meant to suggest a fertile thing that glows with a beautiful feeling of life. The light this flower radiates symbolizes consciousness. Though people often tend to think of consciousness just as “thinking” or “analyzing” or “conceptualizing,” this kind of consciousness also intuitively feels the nature of things. Part of the problem addressed in the Golden Flower Method (and Taoist philosophy in general) is that as children people are taught to believe that their intellectual capacities, like conceptual thinking, planning and analysis, are far superior to their feelings or intuition. As a result, after years of such conditioning, their ability to instinctively discern things does indeed then become increasingly dysfunctional. It’s destructive to teach people to believe that their minds are somehow “higher” and their bodies are somehow “lower.” Such indoctrination creates an imaginary, but nonetheless very troublesome, divide between mind and body, as well as between intelligence and intuitive awareness. The consciousness that the Golden Flower speaks to is one that unites, or reunites, mind and body as one. Intelligence and instinct (intuition or feeling sensitivity) are naturally meant to function together in a complementary way. Divided up, it is impossible for a person to completely appreciate their life’s full range of experience or maintain health.

People are taught to regard their intellects as their only valid way of knowing. Likewise, people are taught to believe that their instincts are unreliable; primitive, animalistic qualities that need to be suppressed. Having been subjected to such conditioning, a person becomes divided, unbalanced and conflicted. Psychological and even physical health issues result from this kind of conditioning. Remedying this predicament requires a systematic effort to identify, deconstruct and reject beliefs that have no natural basis in the human psyche. This is what was called turning the light around; it basically refers to a counter-conditioning technique. The “light,” that is, consciousness, is “turned around” by becoming more aware of unfortunate habits of thought and behavior, so that they can then be discarded. Then mind and body naturally return to a healthier state of being wherein the energy of life can once again flow unimpeded.

[ This same “turning the light around” metaphor has, historically, been interpreted as a psychosomatic exercise called the Waterwheel or Microcosmic Orbit. This exercise forms the theoretical centerpiece of numerous schools of chi kung (yogic energy techniques). The “Waterwheel” involves visualizing the physical movement of energy (chi) in a continuous circuit up the spine and then down the front of the body in conjunction with specialized breathwork. Physical and “spiritual” benefits are thought to derive from the diligent practice of this technique. However, the school of thought the authors of this Golden Flower treatise hail from considered this practice to be a gross misunderstanding; deeming it to be of very dubious utility, at least when used without the psychological components outlined in this text. ]

Under the influence of misguided conditioning and the erroneous mental constructs that result, it’s hard for a person to distinguish that which ultimately tends to cause harm from that which enlivens and leads to health and happiness; to know the difference between what is truly natural in life from that which is arbitrary, contrived or human vanity. The mind gets to be a muddle of confusing signals and emotions. As a person begins to identify and strip away erroneous mental constructs, confusion dissipates. If a person continues diligently enough, eventually they can find peace and stability, and lost abilities naturally return.

In ancient times this procedure was also called The Great Elixir or The Gold Pill. It wasn’t some sort of magical remedy, as many foolishly believed. It was none other than this down-to-earth, counter-conditioning procedure. There is no secret other than this method of restoring people’s natural consciousness by systematically stripping away the troublesome habits and misguided beliefs that have been instilled in them, due to human vanity, by misinformed authority figures.