transcendentally outside of yin and yang" means to be aloof from the ups
and downs of ordinary life in the midst of changes in the world.
Three realms is a Buddhist term. The realms are the domains of
desire, form, and formlessness, representing the totality of
conditioned experience, from the coarsest to the most subtle.
Wilhelm, who seems to have known little about Buddhism, writes in a
note that the three realms, or "three worlds," as he translates them, are
"Heaven, earth, and hell." Jung's work on archetypes and dreams
would have benefited immensely from an accurate understanding of
the real Buddhist concept of three realms or worlds. As it was, Jung
does not seem to have been able to distinguish these realms of
experience clearly; most of his work appears to hover on the border of
the realms of form and desire; the realm of formless consciousness
seems to have been unfamiliar to him. Perhaps Wilhelm's Christian
background influenced his interpretation of this term.
3. Seeing essence and original face are both Chan Buddhist terms, here
used to refer to the Taoist experience of the primal spirit. It is evident that
Wilhelm was not familiar with even the most rudimentary lore of Chan
Buddhism.
4. This passage refers to a certain stage that is often referred to
1.
