Some people struggle with this book. The reason? It's not an intellectual read. You have to practice the method to understand it. At the same time, you have to master each technique, one at a time. Only when you master Technique A, can you move on to Technique B. It's like a treasure hunt; you can only get to Point B after you reach Point A. This frustrates some people. But that doesn't deter from the underlying value of the method, or its truth, that it does contain the secret of life

I spent two years breaking it down. Sure , I became frustrated. Sure, I doubted, but in the end I understood that this method was part of the Buddha's practice. If He'd learned and mastered these principles and passed them on to us, there must have been a reason: that, with effort, we, too, could master the science of Deciphering the Golden Flower One Secret at a Time.

I have been reading The Secret of the Golden Flower and the I Ching for many years. Never understood exactly how the meditation was supposed to work. I felt there must be a connection between the two books. Both are Chinese. Both are Taoist/Buddhist in orientation. I prefer the Wilhelm. It's much more descriptive than Cleary. The Cleary seems like a bunch of verses. There's no link between any of them.

As for Wilhelm, I was attracted to the poetry in the Wilhelm version, but wanted to know if there was something behind all the pretty phrases. Well, I came across a book by JJ Semple: Deciphering the Golden Flower One Secret at a Time. It walked me through the whole process, from the time the author first read the book to the moment he finally understands and applies the backward flowing method, which seems to trigger a kundalini awakening. There's a lot of great anecdotes on living with kundalini (eating, sleeping, sex life, and work) and how kundalini remakes the brain.

He even works the I Ching into his story and shows how it helped guide him at crucial moments. The Secret of the Golden Flower came through for him. Now I have a chance to absorb it. Thank you, JJ Semple, your book is great! Very easy to follow, too.

This book interprets Tao in the words and mind of western culture with amazing clarity !
Its the best I have read with out losing the reader with concepts and subject matter that is difficult to comprehend with out it being explained poorly which other books written about Tao have a habit of doing .
I personally think that other authors have used the saying Tao is unexplainable with words as a way to justify there crappy interpretations and writings then again that could be said about every religion on the planet ! but I wont say that at risk of offending some religious nut as even Jesus didn't get away with that with out coping nine inch nails.

I'm just starting meditation. My teacher recommended this

book, but I didn't pay attention to the author. The first

part was really hard to understand. Then I came to a

section that gave a really clear description of a meditation

technique. Later in the week, when seeing my teacher, I

happened to have the book out. He said I had the wrong

edition! I should get the one by Thomas Cleary.



Read the Afterward in Thomas Cleary's edition and you will

see why this one has so many errors in its translation.



The first part of the book was much easier to understand,

and it turns out that the meditation technique was a yogic

exercise that is not in the Chinese text (but that was not

clear from the formatting of the text).



I'm giving this book a low rating. But you might as well

get both books anyway, just to see the huge differences.

I'm just starting meditation. My teacher recommended this
book, but I didn't pay attention to the author. The first
part was really hard to understand. Then I came to a
section that gave a really clear description of a meditation
technique. Later in the week, when seeing my teacher, I
happened to have the book out. He said I had the wrong
edition! I should get the one by Thomas Cleary.

Read the Afterward in Thomas Cleary's edition and you will
see why this one has so many errors in its translation.

The first part of the book was much easier to understand,
and it turns out that the meditation technique was a yogic
exercise that is not in the Chinese text (but that was not
clear from the formatting of the text).

I'm giving this book a low rating. But you might as well
get both books anyway, just to see the huge differences.

I'm just starting meditation. My teacher recommended this
book, but I didn't pay attention to the author. The first
part was really hard to understand. Then I came to a
section that gave a really clear description of a meditation
technique. Later in the week, when seeing my teacher, I
happened to have the book out. He said I had the wrong
edition! I should get the one by Thomas Cleary.

Read the Afterward in Thomas Cleary's edition and you will
see why this one has so many errors in its translation.

The first part of the book was much easier to understand,
and it turns out that the meditation technique was a yogic
exercise that is not in the Chinese text (but that was not
clear from the formatting of the text).

I'm giving this book a low rating. But you might as well
get both books anyway, just to see the huge differences.

I got this book based on my Buddhist teacher's advice to do so. I found it hard to follow and unintelligible in spots. However, it could be my own understanding of it also. This kind of book is similar to other esoteric teachings like the Rosicrucian handbook.

It really is for advanced readers and thinkers. I suppose that leaves me out. So, if you are into esoteric teachings with a twist, then by all means get this book. However, I warn you that it might seem like gibberish to the uneducated and unenlightened (like myself).

Peace....

The translation of the book is more than worth the price. With the commentary and explanation of the terms it exceeds the price paid. The subject matter and the commentary by Jung makes it pricless. I am familiar with many meditation styles and i must say this is a gem. I would recommend that before this work is done one has trained several years in the magical arts, the worker should at least be over thirty and has a family.Also a working knowledge of chi kung or tai chi should be had. Otherwise the treasure gained will not be as grand or the work never begun properly.

A very interesting and meaningful book to say the least. And like Jung, gratitude must be given Richard Wilhelm for his insight in the East and translation of the text.

A manual written symbolically for the practice of meditation, where thoughts are reduced to the square inch between the eyes, the eye lids half closed, eyes centered near the tip of the nose, the heart rate next to nothing in quietude, controlled breath of a circular motion that becomes quiet. The "white light" so spoken in Buddhist terms and various states of consciousness are related. However, this is far more than a mere meditation manual, but symbols which convey non-intellectual ideas, that is, non-Western rationalism, and yet significant and advanced in both it's teaching and applications.

Ultimately for myself, it is Jung's commentary that my Western mind needed to interpret the text itself and the subsequent interpretations. I am moved in profundity on Jung's analysis that man's consciousness advances non-rationally, but psychically. Where the advancement cannot be spoken or written of in intellectual terms but rather can be done so in symbols. In this, Jung expounds on the idea that symbols convey advanced images that relate to the psyche and can never be proved intellectually or rationally. This is where images, as in Mandalas, come in. Images and symbols speak what words cannot. They are of a higher conscious level awareness, a psychical advancement. None of this is rationally or mathematically equated, none, nor can it be languistically conveyed. Humans can only point, using symbols and images, they can not expound, explain and reason on such.

Jung's acknowledges the law of opposites and how the Chinese contain a higher culture or mind than the West, one that can contain contradictions or opposites without one-sided fundamentalism. And this is no doubt far ahead of most Western thinking in terms of black and white thinking, or what Jung calls barbarism. This reminds me of Walt Whitman's self poem of containing all contradictions and Keats "negative capabilities" and Shakespeare's comments on having all thoughts together without becoming irritable over such, and that including the beat poet, Allen Ginsberg, who spoke of the same.

In Jung's memorial words dedicated to Richard Wilhelm, he relates to his thoughts on Synchronistic principle, which confirm his validity on the practices of Chinese wisdom found in I-Ching and Astrology, both sciences based not on Newtonian, or causality principles but rather through a remarkable phenomena of the unconscious, psychic parallelisms based which cannot be related to each other causally. The Tao will never be created with words and concepts, a teaching that is absent from the history of philosophy since the time of the pre-socratic, Heraclitus, and only reappears as a faint echo in Lebinitz.

The English translation is of a German translation of sections of ancient Chinese texts that earlier existed as an oral tradition. The terminology of the book is let us say obscure to a Western reader and I found Jungs commentary difficult even though Jung explicitly treats the texts as psychological rather than metaphysical.

Jung says in an Appendix tribute to Wilhelm that Wilhelm made a greater impact on him than any other man. In his commentary Jung also says that one of the reasons he was so impressed by "The Secret" is that the symbolism is the same as that Jung encountered in his clinical practice ie both originate, he argues, in the structure of the collective unconscious.

The good news is that if you can struggle through the strange wording and references of the Chinese texts, there are real signs of wisdom throughout the texts. For example at one point in "The Secret" it is said that man creates his body through his thoughts. Again on several occasions it is clear that the text is assuming that man survives death, and that after death there are alternative possible scenarios including re-incarnation (many many times) and movement to non-physical realms.

"The Secret" talks about meditation techniques including control of breathing to achieve altered states. I did not find those sections persuasive, perhaps because they were too brief for my taste.

The "Secret of the Golden Flower" is the best book i have ever read. I have read hundreds of nonfiction books searching for hidden knowledge - none of them (with an exception of Sri Swami Sivananda's Yogic Texts) speek so clearly and openly of the divine secret which has eluded mankind for so long. I cannot posibly put into words the extreme importance of the contents of this book. The ancient Taoist translations are priceless. Read it and then read it again. I have read the two Chinese texts, with Wilhelms excellent translations, over ten times - and haven't even glanced and Jung's commentary. For the spiritual aspirant contemplating the deep secrets of the alchemical sciences, ancient Egyptian, Indian, and Biblical texts - look no further - this book is worth it's weight in "gold."

This book is absolutely worth reading, from cover to cover, including all of the commentaries and introductions and what have you. The text itself is, of course, incredible, with a surprising clarity that is rare among aged religious and philosophical texts, especially those pertaining to meditative practice, and Richard Wilhelm's somewhat outdated translation doesn't inhibit it much. Carl Jung's commentary is equally worth reading, and could easily stand as a book of its own. It also thankfully puts this book at arm's length from watery New Age "spirituality." Get this book and don't skip anything.

If what you seek is a meditation method that will develop in you the basis for illumination [ the Spiritual Child as described in the book ], you will find that by following the methods prescribed therein, in 90 to 100 days you will have it. The book tells it like it is, if only you can read it without intellectual wrangling..... i succeeded in 90 days exactly following the intructions.