Secret of the Golden Flower
Course 1:
The Secret of the Golden Flower is a late Ming Dynasty internal alchemy book of unknown authorship which Daoists claim was ghost written by Lu Dongbin.
Many people believe the text is especially focused on the cultivation of Xing, or the innate nature of the mind, but it also includes valuable information about developing the energetic physiology of the body.
In this three month course you will learn the entire text in its original form and I will lead you to the essential meaning of the text so you can use it in meditation practice.
The Secret of the Golden Flower is by far the most famous internal alchemy text in the occident, but few people understand it.
Some of my students have been asking me to teach it for a few years now and I always put it off because I wanted to give myself time to give the text a complete treatment. I feel that now my comprehension of internal alchemy texts and level of practice is good enough to teach this one so let's spend the late spring and early summer studying the most famous internal alchemy document among us Westerners.
In this course you will learn the following chapters:
- 1: The Heavenly Heart,
- 2: Perceptual Spirit and Original Spirit,
- 3: Return the Light and Guard the Center,
- 4: Return the Light and Adjust the Breath,
- 5: Errors of Returning the Light,
- 6: Verification of the Experience of Returning the Light,
- 7: Living Method of Returning the Light,
- 8: Free and Wandering Formula,
- 9: Hundred Day Foundation,
- 10: Nature Light, Perception Light,
- 11: Kan and Li Copulation,
- 12: Heavenly Orbit,
- 13: Song to Encourage the World,
The course will run for three months and each week we will read one chapter with full commentary about the subtle aspects of the terms used as well as how they are used in Neidan practice.
This course is good for beginners and intermediate practitioners who want to better understand practice and advanced students who have always wanted to get a proper introduction to this famous book.