THE TAO

It is characteristic of Western thought that it has no concept for Tao.  The Chinese character for this concept is made up of two elements: one suggests “head” and the other “going.”  In English this has been translated variably as “meaning,” “way,” “providence,” or even “God.”  This shows the difficulty.  “Head” can be taken to imply consciousness, and “to go” as traveling a way, thus the idea would be: to go consciously, or the conscious way. 

If we take the Tao to be a method or conscious way by which to unite what is separated [in other words yoga: to yoke or bind together], we have probably come close to the psychological content of the concept.  In any case, the separation of consciousness from natural life cannot very well be understood to mean anything but some sort of aberration or uprooting of a once naturally integrated consciousness.

THE CIRCULAR MOVEMENT AND THE CENTER

As has already been pointed out, the union of the intellectual and instinctive aspects of human consciousness is not an entirely rational thing; it is a psychological process of development that historically has expressed itself in terms of symbols.  Today the development of individual personality still presents itself in symbolical figures.  Expressed graphically these symbols often take the form of mandala. 

“Mandala” means circle, more especially a magic circle.  Their form is often that of a flower, cross or wheel.  Such circles are found in cultures all around the world: Asian, Christian, Ancient Egyptian, Native American, etc.  I have also found mandala drawings among the mentally ill, and indeed among persons who certainly did not have the least idea of these symbol’s historical or philosophical significance.

Among my patients I have come across cases of women who did not draw mandalas but who danced them instead.  In India there is a tradition of mandala dance, and the dance figures express the same meanings as the drawings [in this regard we can hardly ignore the circle-walking meditation and yoga practices found in Chinese traditions like that of Baguazhang (Eight Trigram Palms)].  My patients could offer very little as to the meanings of their mandala drawings or dances but were fascinated by them anyway, and found them in some way expressive or effective with respect to their conditions.

The “Golden Flower” symbol is a mandala employed by Chinese yogis.  It symbolically radiates a light that represents consciousness.  This “light of heaven” speaks of a natural unity of consciousness that reflects the Tao– way of harmonious living.   This Golden Flower is also an image I have often met with in the materials brought to me by my patients.  Characteristically, they are fiery-colored blossoms growing out of a field of darker color.

The beginning, in which everything is still one, and therefore appears as the highest goal, lies at the bottom of the sea in the darkness of the unconscious aspect of the human psyche. What is unconscious becomes conscious in the form of a process of life, maturation and growth.  (Hindu Kundalini yoga affords a complete analogy.)  In this way the union of consciousness and life takes place.

The mandalas we have described here come from two sources.  One source is the unconscious that spontaneously generates them as creative expressions.  The other is life, which, if lived attentively, brings an intuition of the self, the individual being.  According to the Eastern concept the mandala is not only a means of creative expression, but it also works an effect.  It has an influence over its maker.  Very ancient magical effects lie hidden in this symbol, for it derives originally from the “enclosing circle” or “sacred precinct,” the secret of which has been preserved in countless folk customs.  This sort of circle is a perimeter drawn around the center of the innermost personality in order to keep it integrated or to guard it against external influences.  Magical practices are nothing more than the projections of psychological events.  Those of these enclosing circles are applied to one’s own personality.  That is to say, by means of these concrete performances, the attention or interest is brought back to an inner, sacred domain that contains the unity of life and consciousness.  The unity once possessed has been lost, and must now be found again.

In yogic texts this kind of circular enclosure is also expressed by the idea of a “circulation”.  This is not merely motion in a circle, but means, on one hand, the marking off of the sacred precinct, and, on the other fixed concentration on its center.  All that is peripheral is subjected to that which is central.  Psychologically, this circulation would be the “turning in circles around oneself”, whereby all sides of the personality become involved.  As an ancient Chinese yogi once said, “they cause the poles of light [Yang] and darkness [Yin] to rotate.”  Thus the circular movement has the moral significance of activating and unifying all the various psychological aspects of human nature.  It is self-awareness by means of self-incubation.

NEXT: Self & that which is considered other than self

[ For a more complete version of the original text refer to The Secret of the Golden Flower, translated and explained by Richard Wilhelm, with a commentary by C.G. Jung, published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, ISBN #0-15-679980. ]