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The Path of Inner Radiance

The Secret of the Golden Flower is a very ancient Taoist text which describes the practice of Inner Radiance - uniting the two aspects of your being, energy and awareness.

3 min read

Unfortunately, we live in a society that is bound to the outer world, and this limits our awareness to only the outer world. We are never taught or encouraged (at least in our outer-focused society) to seek higher awareness. That’s the path of enlightenment which until now has been the privilege of only a few, special souls.

You are a being of light, temporarily separated from your true nature. The practice of Inner Radiance can reverse this separation, uniting energy and awareness. For thousands of years Chinese Taoist masters have understood and practiced this art of Inner Radiance.

About 1,200 years ago, the great Taoist master Lu Dongbin (born Lu Yan in 796AD) shared the teachings he had learned - passed down by his masters over time. He taught these practices to his students, and the result is a short instruction manual on the practice of Inner Radiance. The book is called The Secret of the Golden Flower - no more than 30 pages when translated into English.

It's a difficult book to read because it contains metaphorical language and it's written for his direct students, who of course, are already familiar with many earlier Taoist texts - which of course, we are not. In fact, many of these older Taoist texts have not even been translated into English, and even if they have been translated - they too are loaded with difficult metaphorical language.

But if you can read beyond the mysteries and the metaphors of the text, you'll find The Secret of the Golden Flower contains fairly clear and straightforward formulas and exercises to cultivate light inside your body - to establish your physical body as a vessel (Lu Dongbin uses the word crucible) to combine energy and awareness within you to achieve a wonderfully powerful state of consciousness - Inner Radiance.

This book is extraordinary because it puts us in the room with Lu Dongbin - the elite of the elite Taoist masters, the leader of the Eight Immortals of ancient China - and we can actually hear his voice as he instructs his students in the practice.

“Today I will be your guide and will first reveal to you the secret of the Golden Flower of Light, the secret of the Great One (the Tao), and starting from that I will explain the rest in detail.”
"If you only meditate for a quarter of an hour, you can save ten thousand eons and a thousand births. But students, take heed! If for a day you do not practice, this Light streams out, who knows whither? "

These teachings were recorded at the time on thin wooden sheets pressed and bound together like a book. Over many years, Taoist monks lovingly copied the master’s teachings hundreds if not thousands of times, and several of these wooden tablets have survived to this day. So, this book is authentic and literally represents the teachings of Lu Dongbin, as if you are sitting in the room with this highest enlightened master.

In 1688 the Secret of the Golden Flower was printed on paper, and in 1920 the Chinese government authorized the printing of 1,000 copies of the Secret of the Golden Flower to be distributed to enlightened scholars who would understand the teachings, and of course some of these copies were preserved in libraries and universities throughout China.

This book is a treasure of the highest order, a direct pipeline to the practice of developing Inner Radiance, or enlightenment.

NOTE: Taoism generally doesn’t use the word enlightenment. Instead, they talk about achieving a state of Inner Radiance, by manufacturing within your own body a golden elixir of life to cultivate light inside your body – to combine energy and awareness within you to create a powerful, radiant flow of energy through your body. A blissful, powerful state of immortality.

According to Lu Dongbin, the practice of "reversing the light" and "turning the light around" and "looking back" is the most important part of the practice – in fact the essential part of the practice.

"You need seek for no other methods but must only concentrate your thoughts on turning the light around."

And what makes this book, The Secret of the Golden Flower special is that you don't have to go up on a mountain for five years, or seclude yourself in a monastery. This work is for ordinary people with ordinary lives.

“You must not give up your ordinary occupation in doing this work. If you manage your everyday affairs with accurate mindfulness, then the light is not overcome by things, so repeat this formless turning around of the light time and again. If you can look back again and again into the source of awareness… then this is ‘turning the light around’ wherever you are. This is the finest practice.”

And...

"Whenever you are engaged in work or dealing with people, just use this “looking back” technique, and there will be no interruption. If you practice in this way for two or three months, the realized ones in heaven will surely come to attest to your experience.”

While anyone can do this practice, it does require a coach or a teacher to work through the sequence with you, and so I'll be working with a small group of students who want to explore and practice this Path of Inner Radiance - beginning with the basics, a 10-minute meditation on the technique of circulating the light.

You can request to join this free study group here: alangordon.us

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