8. The "energy of the primal real unity" stands for the living flux of the
perpetual cycles of natural evolution, wherein all beings and all things live
in the lives of one another. The Book of Balance and Harmony, an ancient
text of the Complete Reality school antedating the golden flower
dispensation by over four hundred years, expresses the idea of the primal
unity in these terms: "All beings are basically one form and one energy.
Form and energy are basically one spirit. Spirit is basically utter openness.
The Tao is basically ultimate nonbeing. Change is therein." The
combination of water and fire in the medium of earth thus refers to
experiential realization of the unity of being from a transcendental point of
view that is changeless itself yet accommodates all change.
9. Wilhelm used the terms Eros, Logos, and intuition in an attempt to
convey the Chinese ideas to a Western audience,
1.
but the assignments he made are largely subjective and arbitrary from
the point of view of Chinese Taoist tradition. Part of the problem seems
to be that as a Christian he understood the Chinese word "spirit" to be
associated with either the divine or the supernatural.
In the first section of this text, for example, Wilhelm translates zhixu
zhiling zhi shen, which means a spirit (i.e., mind) that is completely open
and completely effective, as "God of Utmost Emptiness and Life" Based
on this sort of translation, Jung thought that the Chinese had no idea that
