Page:Para leer a Carlos Castaneda.djvu/154

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EPILOGUE

Mexico is a country with an ancient culture of which, to date, little research has been done of its knowledge matrix (philosophy) and has much has been publicized. So, ancient Mexico seems to be only made of archaeological areas, museums and boring books, and "tourist posters".

Mexico needs to find its philosophical past, (Toltecáyotl) an element which propels this knowledge wealth about men, the world and life that continuously operated for several thousand years and that in the past 500 has been denied and silenced. Because it will be with the essence of that knowledge that we will build the 21st century Mexico.

Dr. Guillermo Bonfil Batalla in his book Profound Mexico, a denied civilization, says (p. 31): "What matters is to highlight the fact that the millenary men presence in present Mexican territory produced a civilization."

Dr. Miguel León Portilla in his book Toltecáyotl, aspects of the Nahuatl culture, within the comparative threshold "development of cultures with independent origins, noted that in the year 8000 BCE agriculture started in Egypt and Mesopotamia; Subsequently, in 7000 BCC agriculture started in India, China and the Anahuac.

So, how is it possible to assume that while Egypt, Mesopotamia, India and China managed to create over thousands of years, philosophers, teachers and religions which persist to date, Mexico does not have a philosophy or line of knowledge that expresses what we have been, we are and aspire to be?

It is important to note that The don Juan teachings is an experiential practice before a reason spell, and that many indigenous and peasant peoples currently maintain incorporated into their daily life, its traditions and customs, many of the Don Juan recommended practices.

"Being" indigenous over the last 500 years has required an immense inner strength capable of supporting the genocide, the systematic dispossession and exploitation. Currently living as indigenous, marginalized in the mountains, is more difficult than to survive under employed in the cities. The indigenous people and peasants strength and wisdom has much to do with their traditional practices and these, in turn, with the Toltequity or Toltecáyotl precepts, which are elements of an ancient past that in no way has been lost and , yes, on the other hand, lives in the skin of some indigenous and peasant groups or that also lies underground in the popular and urban cultures manifestations of contemporary Mexico.

In relation to this philosophical-cultural matrix, Bonfil Batalla tells us in the cited work (p. 32): "It is s not then, a simple added, more or less abundant, of isolated cultural traits, but of a Life General Plan that gives importance and respect to the acts of man, which somehow places him in relation to the universe nature, which gives coherence to its purposes and values, which allows to change constantly according to the story authors, without undermining the profound meaning of their civilization, but updating it. It is like a larger frame, more stable, more permanent, although by no means immutable, in which diverse cultures fit and several stories become understandable. This is nothing less: a civilization

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