Book Review - Secret of the Golden Flower

Reviewing The Secret of the Golden Flower – The Classic Chinese Book of Life, translated by Thomas Cleary

We discussed this title in Book Club looking through the lens of T’ai Chi practice. It’s fair to say that students were cautious at first, but by the end we had uncovered some real gems and allowed some of the less tangible stanzas to just be…

Letting go in practice!

What is the book?

Described beautifully by one student – this is a collection of ancient Chinese texts which explores a method of meditation - creating space for letting go, dissolving the negative mind chatter to reveal our true essence.

We come to discover our true essence – or light – in the stillness.

We move into a mode of mental freedom.

This is where our ‘meditative stillness in movement’ supports our access to a place of groundedness and quietude. We rest the mind on the breath and the breath on the mind. We connect with the ground, we slow down and become 100% present.

The T’ai Chi Monkey Steps are a symbol of dissolving the monkey thoughts which our minds are susceptible to. We move backwards, low in the legs and confidence builds from our centre, our lower dantien. This is also our centre of gravity.

At the end of the Monkey Steps, we repeat the holding the circle posture. This is important for our regeneration of energy before the bird slanting on its wing movement. It’s powerful that we next go down to the bottom of the ocean to find the Golden Needle, and we share with the world our beautiful unique talents and creativity. This is only possible after we have cleared the monkey thoughts.

The Secret of the Golden Flower is a means of gaining deeper insight and greater awareness of human potential. Hence, the connection to the Golden Needle (our creativity, talents and beauty).

Worth including here that the monkey thoughts are simply the mundane conditioning of human mentality which comes to govern the whole mind. The book reminds us that sometimes we mistake this conditioned mind for the self.

We are not the mind.

We are our true essence – which we can access when we are in stillness and quietude.

In class students are invited to ‘rest into the stillness’ as we complete our meditative walking.

T’ai Chi provides clarity & alertness

The book describes two extremes we avoid in T’ai Chi. Oblivion and distraction. Neither of these nourishes; they both sap our energies, which is the opposite of what we know T’ai Chi delivers.

In class students are reminded to not ‘zone out.’ Even though we attend T’ai Chi classes for relaxation, it is important to note that for our vitality, we are looking to sharpen our attention. Think in terms of using our peripheral vision, roughly following the dominant hand with our eyes; keeping our eyeline up; listening to our body for feedback; making our moves follow the breath and not vice versa.

Ungraspability of the mind

We enjoyed this quote on a famous of Chan Buddhist story  –

A seeker asked the founder of Chan to pacify his mind. The Chan founder said, “Bring me your mind and I will pacify it for you.”

The seeker said, “Having looked for my mind, I realize it cannot be grasped.”

The founder said, “I have pacified your mind for you.”

I often describe T’ai Chi sessions as being an opportunity for a little holiday from our daily rumination. How empowering then to know that we can exist – thrive even – in the absence of the negative constructs of our minds.

A further favourite passage students discussed in our Book Club conversation -

If people can be flexible and yielding, humble with self control, entirely free of agitation, cleared of all volatility, not angered by criticism, ignoring insult, docilely accepting all hardships, illnesses and natural disasters, utterly without anxiety or resentment when faced with danger or adversity, then people can be companions of Earth. (Awakening to the Tao – Liu I-Ming).

Practising T’ai Chi gives us balance, and provides us with a place where we can re-generate our energies to counter the pace, busyness & frenetic nature of daily life outside of practice.

Photo credit: Neelam279 at Pixabay