ABSTRACT
whenever the narrowly delimited, but intensely clear, individual consciousness meets the immense expansion of the collective unconscious, there is danger because the latter has a definitely disintegrating effect on consciousness. Indeed, according to the exposition of the Hui Ming Ching, this effect belongs to the peculiar phenomena of Chinese yoga practice. It is said there1: Every separate thought takes shape and becomes visible in colour and form. The total spiritual power unfolds its traces. . . .2 One of the illustrations accompanying the book shows a sage sunk in contemplation, his head surrounded by tongues of fire, out of which five human figures emerge; these five split up again into twenty-five smaller figures. This would be a schizophrenic process if it were to become a permanent state. Therefore the instructions, as though warning the adept, say: The shapes formed by the spirit-fire are only empty colours and forms. /The light of human nature [hsing] shines back on the primordial, the true.’
