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The Unobstructed Secret of the Golden Flower
Super translator and scholar Thomas Cleary points out that Wilhelm studied The Secret of the Golden Flower with one Chinese teacher only, and had no access to the numerous excellent commentaries on The Secret of the Golden Flower in the Chinese tradition. While he was able to convey many of the important ideas in the work, and though he wished to keep his Christianity out of his translation, the spiritual viewpoint he had lived with all his life inevitably caused confusion that obscured some of the more important aspects of The Secret of the Golden Flower. Because Jung was influenced by this Chinese alchemical classic his own theories suffered from the loss of the more sophisticated perspective Cleary reveals.
Two examples. Wilhelm’s translation gives the impression that the practice requires quiet, stillness and solitude. While that is part of the practice, Cleary’s translation emphasizes that the practice was to be firmly grounded in activities. Not only must one be able to turn the light around while engaged in living, but also one’s life should include useful work, not mere contemplation. The uninterrupted meditation of the higher soul is to be achieved while being a productive member of the community. To disappear into isolated exploration of consciousness is as dangerous as forgetting oneself completely in the heat of irrational desires.
Wilhelm also suffered from the common misunderstanding of emptiness. The consciousness of emptiness is not without contents, just as the clear mind is not without thoughts. While in higher meditation the world can blissfully melt away into light, that light is full, not empty. A better translation might be sky-like. The consciousness of the higher soul is like sky. Non-attachment flows from this. Without a bruisable ego to get in the way a mind like sky can avoid a lot of trouble. This mind like sky is the goal of martial arts masters who say that when a fighter achieves this you do not fight against him, but against the flow of the entire world.