Western mentality suggest avenues of study; but he does not examine the
cultic behaviors that make imitation methods ineffective. Had he done so,
Jung could have found that neither the reality nor the imitations of spiritual
practices are limited to East or West.
Furthermore, Jung does not show how his method is actually equivalent
to the golden flower practice. Apart from the fact that he was faced with a
garbled translation of a corrupt text with the last few chapters missing, Jung
was admittedly preoccupied with expounding his own theories.
Jung's concern with the problems of cultural differences led him to
believe that the golden flower practice developed from Chinese tradition, in
spite of the fact that he had evidence of its existence in Western tradition.
Jung apparently misunderstood descriptions of the exercise partly because
of Wilhelm's mistranslation and his own lack of experience.
To deal fully with Jung's treatment of the golden flower teaching would
lead us afield from the point of this work, which is to expose the original
teaching itself. The purpose of mentioning Jung here is to reopen a door of
inquiry by questioning the limits of the limitations he presumed.
Jung's ideas on the golden flower, and their significance in relation to
Western thinking about Eastern thought, are more fruitfully treated in the
context of his total work on Eastern subjects. Nevertheless, they provide a
useful counterpoint to the original tradition when highlighting
psychological practicalities of the golden flower exercise.
