For the first time ever, a book dares to reveal the secrets of the worlds most influential meditation method, a series of techniques originally compiled in the 9th. Century masterpiece of Chinese alchemy, The Secret of the Golden Flower. The author, JJ Semple shares his many years of first-hand practice with the sacred books meditation system. One-by-one, he reveals the techniques behind the books secrets, providing clear instructions on how to use them. Not even Richard Wilhelm, the translator, or Carl Gustav Jung, the famous psychologist, who wrote the original commentary to The Secret of the Golden Flower, were able to plumb the depths of this method. This book is an extraordinary statement about the inevitability of karma and the obstacles one must overcome in the quest for self-realization.
The first book to examine and extract the workable teachings from the The Secret of the Golden Flower. Forget dogma and belief systems… This is DIY meditation method, especially for those individuals tempted to brave the solitary path. It’s only limits are your ability to envision and strive for a new YOU. Since the publication of Deciphering the Golden Flower One Secret at a Time (ASIN: B001A9TN7Q) in 2008 (DGF), readers have asked for an in-depth guidebook on using The Secret of the Golden Flower (SGF) to awaken kundalini in a manner, and with results, similar to those described in JJ Semple's DGF. The Secret of the Golden Flower: A Kundalini Meditation Method is that book, a much anticipated interpretive guide to the SGF as well as a sequel to his DGF autobiographical kundalini memoir. Kundalini is the formative, biological life force energy in your body. Most people don't realize that kundalini resides within them; they are simply unaware of its actuality and its potential. Which means, of course, that it may never "re-activate" either spontaneously or otherwise, not unless you learn how to induce a Kundalini awakening through meditation practice. Even then, the outcome is never certain. There's a quantum or karmic aspect to the process. Wilhelm, Cleary, and Jung translated the book and commented on its teachings, but not one of them ever practiced the method. This book compares their translations and commentaries with JJ Semple's empirical practice of the method, using his ultimate success in awakening kundalini as the arbiter of its suitability as a method — in essence, the author identifies where the written word deviates from actual practice. He extracts the workable teachings from the esoteric text of the SGF and shapes them into a practical modern method. By cross-referencing both the Cleary and the Wilhelm versions, the author details each version's contribution to the kundalini awakening process. A chapter comparing Golden Flower Meditation (GFM) to the Microcosmic Orbit (MCO) is also included. Says JJ Semple, “Did I take every word and every passage in the Wilhelm version literally? No more than I take every word or passage in the Bible, or in Cleary’s translation, literally. I realized that a successful practice depended on problem solving and detective work, that searching for literal meaning was a waste of time. Success would be found in doing, not in fantasizing.” In fact, the SGF has two objectives. One, it's a manual for kundalini meditation, even though the term "kundalini" never appears in the text. Put aside what you may have been told or read about the SGF and accept this as fact — one borne out by centuries of realized practitioners who practiced the method, a fact vetted by contemporaries such as Gopi Krishna. Two, it's an explanation of ontology, which the dictionary defines as: “the branch of metaphysics dealing with the nature of being.” Neither objective is readily understood without practicing the method. Sure, it’s possible to approach the text as an academic challenge, but the best way to reconcile the two objectives is by practicing the method, which, if you are patient, allows you to “grok” the ontological elements as you move forward. The two are not separated in the text; they’re mingled together, which, as you might imagine, makes understanding problematic. Says JJ Semple, “Although the ontological portions obscured the practical aspects to some degree, I decided to forge ahead. Ultimately, once the meditation took its course, once the light started to circulate, I was catapulted out of the limiting duality of the physical world into the metaphysical actuality of ‘the great One...which has nothing above it.’" In short, he learned that enlightenment comes with practice.
In The Syndetic Paradigm, Robert Aziz argues that the Jungian Paradigm is a deeply flawed theoretical model that falls short of its promise. Aziz offers in its stead what he calls the Syndetic Paradigm. In contrast to the Jungian Paradigm, the Syndetic Paradigm takes the critical theoretical step of moving from a closed-system model of a self-regulatory psyche to an open-system model of a psyche in a self-organizing totality. The Syndetic Paradigm, in this regard, holds that all of life is bound together in a highly complex whole through an ongoing process of spontaneous self-organization. The new theoretical model that emerges in Aziz's work, while taking up the fundamental concerns of its Freudian and Jungian predecessors with psychology, ethics, spirituality, sexuality, politics, and culture, conducts us to an experience of meaning that altogether exceeds their respective bounds.
Semple reveals the techniques behind "The Secret of the Golden Flower"--an extraordinary statement about the inevitability of karma and the obstacles one must overcome in the quest for self-realization.
Little understood in the West, Tai Chi is a complete spiritual, meditational, and healing program which takes the person from the ordinary world, through the psychic, to the spiritual and beyond. It is so perfect that it even contains safe-guards to protect the person along their spiritual journey. If there was ever a spiritual discipline given to Humankind - it is Tai Chi. This book, Tai Chi The Spiritual Way, is unique in that it explains in plain English the spiritual, healing, and meditational aspects of Tai Chi. It is therefore an ideal book for those people new to Tai Chi, and those who have had more experience. Tai Chi is a form of moving meditation, healing exercise, and spiritual discipline, and this book therefore also appeals to a wide range of New Age and Alternative Therapy enquirers.
Religion and the Philosophy of Life considers how religion as the source of civilization transforms the fundamental bio-sociology of humans through language and the somatic exploration of religious ritual and prayer. Gavin Flood offers an integrative account of the nature of the human, based on what contemporary scientists tell us, especially evolutionary science and social neuroscience, as well as through the history of civilizations. Part one contemplates fundamental questions and assumptions: what the current state of knowledge is concerning life itself; what the philosophical issues are in that understanding; and how we can explain religion as the driving force of civilizations in the context of human development within an evolutionary perspective. It also addresses the question of the emergence of religion and presents a related study of sacrifice as fundamental to religions' views about life and its transformation. Part two offers a reading of religions in three civilizational blocks--India, China, and Europe/the Middle East--particularly as they came to formation in the medieval period. It traces the history of how these civilizations have thematised the idea of life itself. Part three then takes up the idea of a life force in part three and traces the theme of the philosophy of life through to modern times. On the one hand, the book presents a narrative account of life itself through the history of civilizations, and on the other presents an explanation of that narrative in terms of life.
Higher consciousness and sexual sublimation (diverting sexual energy to the brain) are inextricably linked in most of the world’s meditation methods. So where does seminal retention fit in? Seminal retention techniques can be used by male practitioners who want to continue sexual relations without the deleterious effects linked to ejaculating. While best meditation practices dictate renouncing ejaculation and sexual relations, seminal retention techniques do provide a compromise for males not able or not willing to give up sex. In the East, people have always known about the connection between higher consciousness and what goes on below the waist. Seminal Retention and Higher Consciousness: The Sexology of Kundalini explores this connection, and its sexological implications. First, there’s a limited amount of semen in the male body. Neither you, nor I, can change this; it’s a biological fact. Second, although you can’t replenish what’s been lost, you can conserve what’s left. Today, it’s understandable that young, vital individuals working on kundalini activation techniques want to maintain a normal sex life. Formerly, the only way to avoid the deleterious physiological effects linked to ejaculation was to avoid sex altogether after activating kundalini. That is not acceptable to this generation: The sex drive is too powerful to simply put it on the back burner in favor of abstinence or abstention. Today’s seekers want instant gratification, free license to ejaculate at will, at the same time, they pursue higher consciousness. Fortunately, there is a way to reconcile the two, a series of seminal retention techniques I discovered after activating kundalini. But before revealing these secret techniques, let’s examine some of the effects various authorities on kundalini had to deal with. First, Gopi Krishna writing in 1977: “At the present time, we can say, that perhaps twice a week to once in two weeks would be a safe measure for indulgence in the sexual act. This is of absolute importance for those who would like to awaken the Serpent Power. “On one occasion, after months of abstention, I prematurely had a contact with my wife. The next moment, because the energy did not come up to feed the brain, I seemed to sink into a pit of horror and terror, so much so that I thought that if nothing happened to save me from this terrible situation, I would die. “People realize these mistakes when they are sixty or seventy years old. There have been many cases in which men of advanced age have repented the folly of their youth.” Second, before I mastered retention techniques, I discovered first hand how much the brain needs the elixir and I wrote about it in Deciphering the Golden Flower One Secret at a Time: “My head is imploding and the elixir is being summoned to my brain for life support. I curl up in a fetal position. To no avail, my nerves are like an electrical fire searing the very conduits that enclose them and there isn’t enough elixir to cool them. Certainly, if I try to lead a normal sex life, I’ll simply exhaust my resources. I can feel the elixir waning and, as Gopi Krishna put it, ‘a tongue of golden flame searching my stomach for food.’” I learned the hard way, but you don’t have to. Not if you take the time to master the techniques discussed in this book. Yes, I suffered bouts of physical pain, like the ones described above, that led me to seek and ultimately find techniques that not only allowed me to continue sexual relations, but also allowed me and my partners to experiment with new pleasures. In ancient times, sex relations and higher consciousness were a no-no. Today, seekers want both. And they can have them…within reason. The biology hasn’t changed; Kundalini still needs the energy. But, if you can control the energy as it surges up the spine into the brain and not allow it to flow out, you can navigate the tricky waters between sublimation and ejaculation.
First Published in 1999. This ancient Chinese manual of spiritual alchemy was brought to the West in translation by missionary and theologian Richard Wilhelm who is assisted in this book by Carl Jung. Averse to the blind aping of oriental ways, Jung suggests that Eastern treasures are best used to enrich our understanding of the work we have to do on ourselves and our culture.
