3. The keynote of this passage is "not sticking to any image of person or
self at all" According to his own reports, Jung was fascinated by the images
that came to mind when he tried to meditate according to his own method,
which he apparently believed to be similar to that of the golden flower.
Inasmuch as this sort of preoccupation is rigorously proscribed in Taoist
meditation texts, it is no wonder at
all that Jung's work shows no indication that he really experienced
anything like the golden flower awakening.
"If you can look back again and again into the source of mind,
whatever you are doing" is rendered by Wilhelm as "When in ordinary
life one has the ability always to react to things by reflexes only," which
is not only technically incorrect but potentially dangerous. "Turning the
light around wherever you are” is translated by Wilhelm as "circulation
of the light arising out of circumstances." This small misreading of the
words is greatly misleading if it means that the practice depends on
circumstances.
4. Although the practice lacks power if it cannot be carried out in the midst
of activity, it becomes easier if a quiet rime is set aside early in the
morning to refresh and orient the mind in turning the light around. "The
realized ones in Heaven will surely come to attest to your experience"
means that higher or more refined levels of awareness become accessible
to consciousness, experientially proving the efficacy of the practice.
