One reason for this is that Western versions of Eastern mental exercises
active during the sixty years that have elapsed since the original publication
of The Secret of the Golden Flower have been informed in part by Jungian
interpretations of Eastern practices.
Among the problems that Westerners have traditionally faced in working
with Eastern meditation practices is the fear that mind-stilling exercises will
prevent them from thinking thoughts that they need to think. This is also a
concern in the East, where there are many warnings in meditation lore to
avoid excessive stilling.
There are two main objects to stopping thought in Buddhist tradition.
One is to open up space to clarify thought by distinguishing compulsive
habitual thought from deliberate logical thought. The other is to clear room
for the conscious operation of nonconceptual insight. Practitioners are
carefully warned to avoid becoming intoxicated by the peaceful tranquility
of thought cessation; as the Chan proverb goes, "stagnant water cannot
contain the coils of a dragon."
The golden flower practice can stop thought temporarily, but it does not
warp reason. It enables one to think deliberately rather than compulsively.
This use of mind opens a wider space for thought, with the ability to think
and observe thought with detached clarity,
so that one can put down useless thoughts and take up useful thoughts by
means of independent discernment and will. The speed of its direct
