Liu also affirms the subtlety of the center, and the delicacy of the mental
posture of focus on the center, to which he denies any physical location as
suggested by Wilhelm's version of the Golden Flower text. Liu says: "It has
no location, no fixed position. Look for it and you cannot see it, listen for it
and you cannot hear it. Try to grasp it and you cannot find it…. It is not
easy for people to see this center, and hot easy for them to know it. It cannot
be consciously sought, it cannot be mindlessly kept. If you seek it
consciously, you fall into forms; if you keep it mindlessly, you enter into
empty silence. Neither of these is the central way."
In I Ching Mandalas Liu specifically repudiates interpretations in terms
of yogic exercises such as that described in
Wilhelm's text, emphasizing the dangers inherent in such practices:
"Students everywhere are ignorant of just what this center is. Some say it
is the center of the body, some say it is the center of the top of the head,
some say it is the region of the heart, some say it is the center of the
forehead, some say it is the throat, some say it is in the middle of the
space between the kidneys and genitals. Vainly hoping for eternal life,
they cling to points in this ephemeral body and call that keeping to the
center and embracing the one. Not only will they not live eternally, they
will even hasten death."
16. This passage is seriously misconstrued in Wilhelm's version. When the
text says, "Hereafter, whenever thoughts arise, you don't need to sit still
