“The primal spirit loves stillness and the conscious spirit loves movement.”
-The Secret of the Golden Flower, Richard Wilhelm translation
The practices of stillness and movement support an inward connection to depth as well as an outward expansion of consciousness. Although they appear as opposites, stillness and movement compliment one another and together help to create cohesion in our inner and outer lives. When we commit to practices of stillness and movement, we connect with two essential forces in nature. In doing so we develop a fuller understanding of our own nature and experience, while broadening the perimeters of how we see and interact with the world.
It is common knowledge that movement is vitally important, not only for physical health but also for psychological health. It is also becoming increasingly evident that stillness is necessary in supporting physical and psychological health. A growing body of research demonstrates that stillness oriented practices (like meditation, mindfulness, and guided visualization) decreases anxiety, lowers blood pressure, creates a reduction in the stress hormone cortisol, and improves cognitive functioning. Stillness, as it’s being explored in this context, is different than a mere absence of physical movement that characterizes activities such as watching TV, scrolling the internet, and reading. Rather, stillness is a practice that requires both a reduction in physical activity and focused, nonjudgemental attention to the present moment.
The Secret of the Golden Flower is a Taoist text that describes specific meditation techniques and the ways these practices induce internal changes to generate a higher level of awareness. The text serves as a helpful resource in contemplative practices and provides a unique perspective on the nature of reality and the Self. Drawing from the quote above we’ll investigate the dynamics between the primal/conscious spirit, stillness/movement, and the perspectives these offer relating to human psychology and the nature of experience.
Primal Spirit & Conscious spirit
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It is an impossible task to try and define or capture precisely what the primal spirit is because, ultimately, it is ineffable. However, it is a worthy endeavor to foster our curiosity of it and maybe even catch a hint of it. The actual word primal means something essential or fundamental and relates to an earlier stage in evolutionary development. The Latin origin of the word primal is primus, meaning first. Thus, the word primal is directing us toward something that relates to that which is first, or in other words, to the very origin of things. The primal spirit is therefore old and foundational; it’s like the ground from which the flower or tree emerges or the electrical current from which light is produced. The thing or essence behind or underneath the manifest world. The primal spirit isn’t exactly a “thing”, however, as it can’t be seen, held, or quantified. Nevertheless, it’s existence is intimated through all that is; including any “thing” that our senses perceive as well as the “things” our senses cannot perceive. Another way to conceptualize the primal spirit is to imagine looking through a window at a tree whose leaves are blowing slightly in the gentlest of breezes. Being inside you are unable to feel the breeze and it is such a gentle breeze that you are unable to hear it. Thus, only your visual perception is capable of informing you that a breeze is moving the leaves of the tree. There is no direct evidence of the breeze itself, after all you cannot hear, feel, or see the breeze. Only in observing the leaves of the tree are you able to surmise that there must be a breeze. Like Kant’s notion of the noumena, the primal spirit is incomprehensible yet appears to exist underneath the phenomenal world, which is accessible through our senses. It is the invisible breeze animating the manifest world and only hinted at through the effect it exerts on the things our senses can detect.
Whereas the primal spirit is ultimately unknowable, the conscious spirit refers to everything that is above the threshold of awareness and is therefore knowable. The conscious spirit is phenomena discernible through our senses and knowledge. It has an upward-like quality, as opposed to the primal spirit which possesses a downward-like nature. If the primal spirit is the breeze, the conscious spirit is the moving leaves. In short, the conscious spirit is the manifest while the primal spirit is the unmanifest.
primal spirit & stillness
The Secret of the Golden Flower states that the primal spirit loves stillness. This seems to describe a certain quality of the primal spirit and also the way one might access it, even if it is ineffable. When we are in a state of attentive and focused stillness we begin to notice more subtle phenomena occurring within us and around us. We notice our posture and how it may change in small ways over the course of minutes. We notice how our breath is moving through the body. We also become aware of the activity of our thoughts - what types of thoughts, the frequency of thoughts as they arise and dissipate, and the ambrosial moments between thoughts. In addition, stillness affords us an enhanced ability to become aware of activity happening outside of us that we might ordinarily miss. Through stillness then, we gain access to life manifesting in all sorts of ways that usually pass unnoticed. If awareness of manifest phenomena occurring internally and externally increases through stillness, it’s conceivable that stillness holds the potential to bring us into contact with Kant’s noumena and the unknowable essence underlying all that is. If the primal spirit loves stillness, it is stillness that then allows us a glimpse of this ethereal realm.
conscious spirit & movement
The Secret of the Golden Flower also states that the conscious spirit loves movement. This makes sense insofar that the observable universe is filled with movement, from the tiniest particles to the largest galaxies. We’ve come to understand that even solid structures that appear immobile are composed of atoms moving all around and going about their lives living out their little atom natures. Movement is nature in its manifest form, even in things that appear still. As the conscious spirit loves movement, through movement we might gain an appreciation for this side of nature. Our own awareness may grow and expand through a practice of movement be it walking, running, bicycling, or swimming.
Stillness & Movement
We’ve looked at two qualities of nature identified in the Taoist alchemical text, The Secret of the Golden Flower: the primal spirit and the conscious spirit; as well as their corresponding expressions in stillness and movement. When we engage stillness and movement we get closer to the essence of the primal spirit and the conscious spirit, enhancing our knowledge of nature and its two fundamental forces. Likewise, integrating a practice of stillness and movement into our lives helps us get closer to our own unique and essential nature. We discover things about our mind-body that may have remained outside our awareness. In movement, we strengthen the body and discern its characteristics through motion. We feel the heart beating faster and harder, the lungs expanding and contracting with greater power and effort, and the muscles working together to generate the necessary movement of whatever activity we are engaged in. Furthermore, through movement we may also find a place of inner stillness where distractions and thought-activity falls away. Stillness helps us to understand the mind-body through a different perspective than movement. The practice of stillness hones our awareness and helps us to discern movement as it materializes internally in the form of thoughts and somatic signals and externally in phenomena as it emerges around us. With consistent and sustained practice, stillness enables us to access subtler levels of being and opens a path into an internal frontier that stretches endlessly underneath the threshold of activity and motion. In stillness, we sip from an unseen wellspring that results in an improved mood and cognitive functioning, greater emotional regulation, and any number of insights that would otherwise remain unknown. Movement expands, stillness deepens, and through integrating both we participate in a process of increasing cohesion within ourselves and outside.