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.
Author Biography:
JJ Semple has worked as a film editor for NBC with TV producers Stuart Schulberg and Ted Yates, and he edited "Assassin," an independent feature film, for Rod Bradley's Streetlight Productions. In the 1970s and 80s he lived in France, where he directed his own training school, Arazon, a company that prepared managers for negotiation and problem solving. After attending a French business school, he established a subsidiary of UNILOG, a leading French software company, in the US. He returned to Paris to work for Apple Computer Europe, designing multimedia programs. He also taught a multimedia course at the American University in Paris. It was during this period that he began writing feature screenplays. His screenplay, "Everyone Wants to Make Movies" (co-written with Mark Richardson) won the Telluride award in 1997, and their screenplay "Little Dan" won first place at the Telluride Independent Film Festival in 2000. Semple's formal education includes studying English Literature at the University of Pennsylvania and George Washington University, and a master's degree in marketing from Hauts Etudes de Commerce in Paris. His personal education involves yogic practices and spiritual exploration, inspired by a wide variety of teachers, writers and philosophers, including Gopi Krishna, Milarepa, and Lao Tse. However, his worldly accomplishments pale beside his thirty years of investigating workable methods for activating the Kundalini. JJ Semple is one of the foremost authorities on the activation and application of Kundalini. Deciphering the Golden Flower One Secret at a Time, a companion piece to The Secret of the Golden Flower, is his first nonfiction work. It describes how he was able to unlock the sacred book's secret meditation techniques, allowing him to activate Kundalini in a benign, permanent, scientifically controlled fashion. His new book entitled, The Backward-Flowing Method: The Secret of Life and Death outlines the cosmology for perfecting life on earth as well as preparing for the inevitable--death and takes a fresh look at The Tibetan Book of the Dead. It includes a chapter on Addiction and proposes a revolutionary means of fighting it.
