The Secret of the Golden Flower – First Talk by Tim Burkett

Introduction to the New Talk Series

The session begins with an introduction to Tim Burkett and the launch of a new seven-month talk series on The Secret of the Golden Flower.

Connections are drawn between Taoism and Zen, and between Tim’s background and the legacy of Stuart Alve Olson. The series is described as an exploration of “turning the light around,” including:

• Meditative pitfalls such as distraction and languor
• Still awareness
• Bringing awareness into daily life

Tim expresses excitement about finally teaching this text after first reading it in 1965.

Tim’s History with The Secret of the Golden Flower

Tim explains that he first read The Secret of the Golden Flower in 1965 through the translation by Richard Wilhelm and Carl Jung.

He contrasts that version with the later translation by Thomas Cleary.

The Wilhelm/Jung version emphasizes:

• Individuation
• Psychological integration
• Archetypes
• Dreams
• The shadow
• Anima and animus

Tim notes that Jung viewed the light as something realized through integrating the unconscious contents of the psyche.

The Cleary translation, however, emphasizes something more direct:

• Awareness prior to psychological content
• Primordial spirit
• Spacious awareness beyond body-mind duality

Psychological Integration vs. Primordial Awareness

Tim explains that the Taoist teaching points toward a reality prior to psychological drama.

The light is:

• Always present
• Timeless
• Empty
• Vast

He uses the metaphor of the sky and clouds:

• Psychological drama is like clouds
• Awareness itself is the sky

The point is not to reject psychological life, but to recognize the spacious context surrounding it.

He quotes the text:

“The golden flower is light. This is the true energy of the primordial undivided spirit.”

He emphasizes:

• The light is not something created
• It is not a mystical object
• It is the fundamental quality of awareness itself

The Golden Flower and the “Hundred Things”

Tim discusses how attention becomes scattered by “the hundred things”:

• Tasks
• Worries
• Online distraction
• Identity
• Social pressures

He says:

• Energy appears depleted because awareness is dispersed
• The light itself is never actually depleted

Meditation is described as:

• Gathering the scattered light
• Returning to “the pivot of no thingness”

He distinguishes:

• “No thingness” from “nothingness”

The clouds of life remain, but practitioners begin identifying with the sky rather than the clouds.

The Backward Flowing Method

The “backward flowing method” is introduced as:

• Reversing outward attention
• Returning awareness inward
• Recollecting qi

Tim explains:

• The senses reach outward
• Thoughts follow the senses
• Vitality becomes consumed

Meditation reverses this process.

He repeatedly quotes:

“The movement of the turning light depends entirely on the backward flowing method.”

He also speaks about loneliness in meditation:

• Simplifying life can feel lonely
• Pulling away from constant stimulation can feel difficult
• But through loneliness one opens into vast aloneness and spaciousness

He references the Buddha:

“Only I alone and sacred.”

This is interpreted as the sacredness of each being as an expression of spacious awareness.

The Light of the Heart

Tim explains that:

• When the heart becomes quiet, “the eye-light begins to kindle”
• When the eye-light is kindled, “the light of the heart begins to shine”

He emphasizes meditation as:

• Somatic
• Physical
• Embodied

The practice is not merely conceptual.

He uses the metaphor of:

• A swinging door = emotions and thoughts
• The hinge = stable awareness

Practice involves shifting identity from the swinging movement to the supporting hinge.

Breath, Qi, and the Dantian

Tim introduces the dantian system:

• Lower dantian
• Middle dantian
• Upper dantian

The breath acts as the bellows of the furnace.

He explains:

• Forced breathing creates imbalance
• Gentle inward turning naturally deepens breath

Key points:

• Breath should not be manipulated aggressively
• Meditation naturally regulates breath
• The process should feel loving and gentle

Breathing with Others and One-Pointed Attention

Tim describes how he works with students by breathing with them rather than instructing them technically.

He says:

• One-pointed attention is loving
• Breath becomes unified rather than dispersed

Practice instructions:

• Inhale to gather the light
• Exhale to release

Breath becomes a way of:

• Collecting awareness
• Settling energy
• Returning to center

Spirits, Taoism, and Unified Spirit

Tim discusses the transition from:

• Philosophical Taoism
  to
• Religious Taoism

He references:

• Spirits
• Ritual
• Shamanic traditions

But emphasizes:

• All manifestations arise from the same unified spirit

The point is not to become attached to spirits or experiences, but to remain rooted in spacious awareness.

The Three Dantians as Alchemical Furnaces

The dantians are described as:

• Bioenergetic furnaces
• Laboratories of internal alchemy

Lower Dantian

• Located below the navel
• Root of vitality
• Hara
• Primary furnace

Functions:

• Gathering raw life force
• Creating warmth
• Melting stagnant energy
• Establishing groundedness

Middle Dantian

• Heart center
• Chamber of transformation
• Emotional refinement
• Love and appreciation

Upper Dantian

• Hall of the Ancestors
• Spacious awareness
• Radiant consciousness
• Timeless body

Tim repeatedly emphasizes:

• The golden flower wants to bloom
• Meditation supports this natural blooming

Meditation in Daily Life

Tim shares personal examples:

• Drinking too much matcha
• Waking in the night
• Using wakefulness as meditation practice

Rather than resisting life circumstances, he practices:

• Deep breathing
• Returning to the lower dantian
• Staying with awareness

He says he knows his breath intimately after decades of meditation practice.

The Middle Dantian and Love

The middle dantian is described as:

• The furnace of appreciation and love

Love here is:

• Non-grasping
• Natural
• Emanating rather than seeking

Meditation allows:

• Emotional equilibrium
• Expanded energy
• Effortless breathing

The golden flower becomes:

• A natural outpouring of love toward all beings

The Hall of the Ancestors

The upper dantian is connected with:

• Spacious awareness
• Ancestors
• Dharmakaya
• Universal connection

Tim references Lakota teachings:

“All my relatives.”

He emphasizes:

• Everything participates in awareness
• Rocks, flowers, ancestors, and humans are all expressions of the same field

The upper dantian is ultimately:

• Everywhere
• Spaciousness itself

Spaciousness and Mental Activity

Tim discusses working with students whose minds are extremely active.

He explains:

• Even racing thoughts arise within spacious awareness
• The awareness of thought is already spaciousness

The important realization is:

• There is always space between thoughts
• That space is timeless

He references the story of Bodhidharma and “vast spaciousness with nothing holy.”

Sealing the Furnace

Tim explains that meditation involves:

• Sealing the furnace through attention
• Preventing energetic leakage

The process includes:

• Deep abdominal breathing
• Sustained focus
• Wu-wei (non-forcing)

Transformation happens naturally when conditions are stable.

He compares this to:

• Ice becoming water
• Water becoming steam

The Timeless Body and Biological Change

Meditation is described as:

• Energetic
• Biological
• Alchemical

Tim references modern biological research exploring meditation’s effects.

He returns repeatedly to:

• The pivot of no thingness
• The timeless body

He uses the metaphor:

• Individual selves are waves
• Awareness itself is the ocean

Quiet Mind and the Hundred Days Foundation

The “hundred days” teaching is explained as:

• Symbolic rather than literal
• A qualitative transformation
• A period of cultivating the soil

Practice is compared to gardening:

• Watering
• Maintaining
• Waiting patiently

The golden flower blooms through:

• Patience
• Persistence
• Regular practice

Flickering Light and Persistence

Tim discusses:

• Brief flashes of clarity
• Losing awareness
• Returning again and again

The struggle itself becomes part of the alchemical process.

Even brief moments of centeredness matter.

He quotes:

“When the light is turned around, the hundred things are imbued in radiance.”

Guided Meditation Practice

Tim leads a guided meditation involving the three dantians.

Lower Dantian Practice

Instructions include:

• Feeling the feet and body
• Relaxing shoulders and jaw
• Breathing into the lower belly
• Sinking weight downward

Themes:

• Warmth
• Grounding
• Biological battery
• Rootedness

Middle Dantian Practice

Instructions include:

• Breathing into the heart center
• Gathering energy upward
• Releasing emotional residue

Themes:

• Openness
• Softness
• Emotional space
• Heart regulation

Upper Dantian Practice

Instructions include:

• Maintaining belly grounding and heart openness
• Resting in spacious awareness
• Entering the “pivot of no thingness”

Themes:

• Vast sky-like awareness
• Spaciousness beyond thought
• Radiant clarity