operation golden light (principles of taiyi golden light practice)

I am happy to announce I am sharing a fresh translation of a landmark Chinese meditation text previously known in English as The Secret of the Golden Flower. The text has been popular in the post-war Western world following the endorsement of Swiss psychiatrist, Dr Carl Jung.

This book contains both Chinese and English versions of the text.

It doesn’t matter whether we are new to meditation or are experienced, this text can enrich our understanding of the value of meditation. This is a big reason I took on the challenge to re-translate it. It’s as if the text itself radiates a light of understanding. That light was sadly dimmed by the excessive input of intellectual and religious commentaries in some previous translation efforts.

For many, the text will stand alone as being enough as an introduction to the subject of meditation. For others, it may be a wonderful step on a much longer journey.

Meditation offers benefits to anyone seeking a happy and healthy life, and for those helping others who seek the same.

We definitely don’t need to know ancient Chinese language or have deep knowledge of psychiatry or human psychology or the history of religion to enjoy the benefits of meditation. Meditation, in essence, is so simple. Funnily, it has been interpreted in so many ways by so many people over such a long time that it is often perceived as more complex and demanding than it really is, and many who may have been initially interested in it see it as too inaccessible.

This is nothing new. Our text in question itself speaks of a once great tradition of meditation long ago which the original authors hoped to revive because that tradition had over generations lost its way, becoming superficial and lacking its original focus.

I practice a long form of tai chi after getting out of bed each morning. I learned this as a form of dynamic meditation where we direct our mind into the quietness inside the movement of our postures. This is a form of meditation that suits me. Not all people are prepared to learn the tai chi form. Of course, we have the flip side where we can sit quietly and feel the motion of our breath and energy inside us. So many forms of meditation are equally valid.

Even though our text does have lots of colourful detail, the main conclusion I take from it is that a regular practice of meditation for as little as fifteen minutes per day can enhance our health and wellbeing in numerous ways. And that method of meditation is simply to focus our mind on one point and return to it over and over if our mind strays. It may be the traditional focus on the tip of the nose, or it may be listening to white noise which we are not prone to analyse, or it may be watching our breath- we are free to choose our point of focus, as long as we are not over-analysing or over-thinking it. The simpler and more natural the better.

In some ways we are distracting our mind from thought patterns that have been building over time. We find a fresh starting point for the coming day, letting go of the past and feeling the newness of our present day.

So, here we are, seeking for fifteen minutes a day to do nothing, so that the rest of our day can be more productive or, better said, we find our minimum in order to know our maximum. A key phrase in our text is actionless action (无为而为, wú wéi ér wéi). Meditation bridges that great contradiction that we are doing nothing but we are doing something at the same time. This is well worth knowing.

Our modern world is obsessed with doing. It can be tiring, almost like we don’t trust in our greater nature, to the point of forcing so many processes without knowing how to harness the forces of nature. Then we have the equal and opposite reaction, the rise of groups who profess the best thing is to do nothing, the Wu Wei school of thinking, who miss out in lots of ways also. So rather than going from one extreme to another, we can find a way forward with our prescription of ‘actionless action’. While rooted in nature, this attitude leads to the flowering of great civilisation. And it is sustained by a very modest and humble practice of daily meditation which is always open source, unable to be patented. Some may be able to mystify it to monentise it in the short term, but that is only ever for a while.

Hard copies and ebook copies of Operation Golden Light are available on amazon.com.au.