Translation:To read Carlos Castaneda/13
X. THE ACTIVE SIDE OF INFINITY.
First English edition, 1999
Carlos Castaneda completed the task of transmitting Toltec wisdom as it was taught by his teacher and benefactor. Don Juan and Don Genaro already are dust on the road. Castaneda jumped from a mountain turned pyramid in the Oaxaca Sierra Norte. He jumped into the depth of the second attention and fully entered, by the same token, to infinity.
Thus far he wrote the four first books on techniques for "sweeping the tonal island" or right side and continued with the next four, which in human time, wrote in a second stage, but the teaching was given in the first period, in the area of enhanced consciousness, so he had to "remember" the knowledge with his litter peers, the lessons for the left side and be able to "assemble it" into a continuous whole.
In the ninth book begins a new stage, perhaps, the new lineage cycle of a "modern nagual". At this stage he does not have his teacher nor benefactor. In addition, they let him know that their lineage had no experience dealing with crowds. Don Juan lets him know that there are other lineages and each one is different and they do not know each other, but Don Juan, has a unique feature that makes it even more different from others.
The presence of a nagual from the first Toltec cycle, which perhaps has been alive for a millennia and is called "the tenant". This shadowy figure has given this lineage naguales, knowledge and very special techniques, in exchange for energy to remain alive.
Castaneda faces the challenge of disseminating this ancient knowledge called Toltecáyotl by the Academy and Toltequity or witchcraft by practitioners, among ordinary people. The following books will lose the "level", not only in the literary aspect, but in the works didactic discourse. The author, mentions that at times his teacher almost dictated to him, so he wrote certain conversations that Don Juan considered very important.
We might suppose, at the risk of error, that the following Castaneda texts enters Toltecáyotl knowledge, but no longer from a "programmatic structure". Many of his claims and stories have a very personal character, especially the last book, "The wheel of time". And perhaps the most innovative is the eleventh book "Magical passes", where he delivers "written" techniques to practice "Tensegrity", which will later disseminate these practices through courses and videos, some of which are in Internet:
http://mx.youtube.com/watch?v=lauKs7tbtV8&feature=related
INTRODUCTION
The introduction is very clear, as it indicates that the book is a collection of the most memorable events of his life, which prepare the nagual to enter on the infinity active side. These events relate to the experiences of Don Juan teachings that lasted thirteen years. These stories are important because they affect the human being and not because they are " Carlos Castaneda stories". This is the sense of the work. While reading the stories, the lessons gather further depth, perhaps because Castaneda makes us see the "abstract Center of these power stories".
He notes that the highest Toltec aspiration, as that of all ancient wise people, was facing the "final journey" that all human beings have to take at the end of life. Toltecáyotl as Zoroastrianism, Hinduism or Buddhism, are intended to provide an opportunity for "truly ambitious" human beings, seeking to transcend the material existence plain and after death, retain consciousness and individual purpose. The greatest achievement of a conscious human being.
Don Juan affirms that all human beings have "two minds". The first is the inner voice, completely ours, and that gives us "order, purpose and simplicity". The second, external, always transmits "conflict, doubt, despair, self-assertion".
Don Juan again discusses the "intent" and defines it as a force that exists in the universe. The Toltec, Don Juan says, called the intent to walk the warrior path and always achieve what they intended. But makes a very important annotation, states that the intent is called to perform acts that have to do with the spirit, with the abstract.
The intent is that force which exists in the universe, but that is not available for worldly purposes or grotesque actions born of ordinary life. It is not available to the ego, ignorance, or human stupidity.
The central story is of an old prostitute who performs "her show in front of mirrors". It is a sad story where the mirrors suddenly trap, fleetingly, images of the reader, in this grotesque live in nothingness, of nothing and for nothing. Senseless figures before the life mirror.
"Don Juan considered that collecting their lives memorable events, for shamans was a preparation for entering the specific region they called the active infinity side...
—I simply see it as a sad story, don Juan, but that is all —I declared.
—True, it is a sad story, just like your other stories —Don Juan answered—, but what makes it different and memorable is that it affects each of us as human beings, not just you, as in your other stories. Don't you see? As Madame Ludmila, each of us, young or old, one way or another, does figures before a mirror. Consider what you know of the people. Think of any human being on this earth, and will know without a doubt, that no matter who he is, or what they think of themselves, or what they do, the result of their actions is always the same: foolish figures before a mirror" C.C.
A TREMOR IN THE AIR – A POWER TRIP
Castaneda tells the story of how he met Don Juan in a bus station in Nogales, United States, on the border with Mexico. It is a power story, which teaches us that the intent guide the steps which the spirit makes us take to find our destiny.
Castaneda tells how a friend invites him to a journey through the desert. The author was doubting between doing field research or urban anthropology. Bill was a research anthropologist who, feeling near his death, wants to say goodbye to his indigenous informants and the desert, who saw him live his best times. Castaneda does not understand the journey being made and at the last moment, when Bill takes him to the bus station, his friend points Don Juan and tells him that he is a Psychotropic plants expert, but warns him that it is very difficult elder to address.
When Castaneda goes to Don Juan, he lets him talk while watching him. In this brief encounter, while Castaneda is bluffing about his alleged knowledge that wishes to exchange with Don Juan, he traps him with a deep gaze which shakes his foundation and end up "hooked" by the nagual. Don Juan invites him to visit and quickly takes his bus, disappearing from the scene.
When his friend asks, what did he talk about with Don Juan, Castaneda cannot explain, because he knows that Don Juan "did something with his stare", but invited him to visit, although left no address. Bill gets upset by professional jealousy, because he could never address Don Juan, told him that perhaps in Yuma he could be found. Castaneda instead of returning to Los Angeles goes to Yuma searching for Don Juan.
"Without paying attention to my defeat feelings, I took the trip with him. We visited every place where there were Indians in Arizona, and New Mexico. One of the final results of this trip was that I discovered that my anthropologist friend possessed two defined facets. He explained that his views as a professional anthropologist were very moderate and consistent with anthropological thinking of the time, but personally, his anthropological field work had presented experiences of great wealth that he never spoke. These experiences were not congruent with the anthropological thought of the time because these were event impossible to catalogue..." C.C.
THE INTENT OF THE INFINITE
Castaneda tells how he went searching for Don Juan at the Yaqui region and finds Don Juan home in a community near Potam, north of Guaymas in Sonora State, northwestern Mexico. There he found two Yaqui characters that are the focus of this story. One was Jorge Campos and the other Lucas Coronado, one was a cheap crook, "a ruthless mercenary, shameless, and crude" and the other a "super-sensible artist, tormented, weak and vulnerable", two extremes of Castaneda personality before he met Don Juan.
These characters will take him to Don Juan and the story, Don Juan demonstrated to Castaneda the two led him "to the infinite threshold". Castaneda had to use all his personal power to "find" his teacher. Don Juan was waiting for this power demonstration to confirm what he "saw" in Castaneda at the bus station.
Don Juan tells Castaneda that in particular the fraudster Jorge Campos, means a lot to him. Somehow, this Castaneda facet had been enunciated against him, especially from the Academy and anthropologists. Many people claims that Castaneda is a fraud and a fake, and he repeatedly pointed out in his books, interviews and conferences that his work is an honest "autobiography", of what happened when he came in contact, and entered Toltec wisdom.
The two men who led Castaneda to Don Juan, died. But the end of Lucas Coronado story is moving. He is dying and does not accept help from Don Juan nor Castaneda, because he thinks his salvation is in the medicine announced on the radio, as very effective for all illnesses. Don Juan tells Castaneda that humanity is just like Lucas Coronado, "do not want to know anything. Only hears what they want to hear".
Somehow, the same thing happens with Castaneda books, many people "understand", what they want to understand from the reading. And uses the Don Juan teachings, as means and an excuse to enhance their ego and arrogantly use people.
"—Jorge Campos and Lucas Coronado are the two ends of an axis —said—. That axis is you: at one end, a ruthless mercenary, shameless, and crude who only cares for himself; horrific but indestructible. At the other extreme, a super sensitive artist, tormented, weak and vulnerable. This should have been the map of your life, if it were not for the emergence of another possibility, which is opened when you crossed the infinite threshold. You looked for me and found me; and then you crossed the threshold. The infinite intent told me to look for someone like you. I found you, also crossing the threshold..." C.C.
WHO WAS REALLY JUAN MATUS?
Castaneda tells of "the abstract center of power stories" of his encounter with Don Juan. The people involved, as well as the "casual" facts which occurred for their encounter at the bus station, plus what Castaneda calls the "interruption" he had when Don Juan looked at him and produced a very special physical sensation, that obsessed him to later search for him.
"—Without you knowing —he continued—, I started you in a traditional search. You were the man I was looking for. My search ended when I found you, and yours when you now found me..." C.C.
Here Castaneda makes a physical description of Don Juan, says that when he met him in the early 1960s, Don Juan was eighty years old, but that his son looked much older than him. Castaneda described Don Juan as a muscular and decisive man. He walked quickly, but did not have a fine walk. His gait was firm and light. He noted that the image was of an elderly man who was strong and moved as an athletic youth who radiated vitality and purpose.
Castaneda wrote that Don Juan had an almost round face, without being fat. Don Juan eyes were what called the most attention. Dark eyes, such as obsidian flashes sparkled with a very special light. His stomach and back were flat and always seemed "well planted in the ground". Despite his age his knees and arms did not tremble and measured about a meter sixty.
He usually wore a khaki shirt and trousers, wore huaraches and straw hat. During the thirteen years he interacted as a Toltecáyotl apprentice, he was always amazed of the physical capacity, both for walking long distances, climb mountains, and performing abrupt quick movements requiring elasticity, strength and amazing coordination, impossible to see in an old man over ninety years old.
The sense of humor and sobriety, as well as refined treatment of Don Juan, had captivated Castaneda. The perfect use and knowledge of the Spanish language is something that Castaneda comments on several occasions throughout the work and recognizes it enabled him to "understand" abstract and very complex concepts that, in itself, are very difficult to talk about.
But perhaps what surprised Castaneda the most, to the point of truly terrify him, is when on one occasion "found him" in Mexico City, impeccably dressed in a three-piece tailor made suit, and manners that made him look as gentry "noble gentleman". Or in Guaymas when he saw him acting as an old man, senile and incoherent, on the edge of a circulatory collapse.
Don Juan is described by Castaneda as "a traveler-warrior", complete, accurate and perfect, that never underestimates or overestimates nothing. Always in balance, without climbing to heaven or down to hell. Without anger and resentment, without personal importance and with a controlled destiny flowing light, unattached and patient. Empty of worldly feelings and attitudes, his emptiness reflected the "infinity".
There were two extraordinary things about Don Juan personality. One was that he could go unnoticed in a crowd. Unlimited freedom from being unknown and the impeccable stalking art, would be Don Juan credentials. The other is that Don Juan as all apprentices had a job. Indeed, Don Juan despite being an extraordinary nagual, "in the everyday world worked" as any mortal. Castaneda said that it was very common for him to say that he had to do some business, and Castaneda believed that it was a euphemism, but the truth is that the nagual sold medicinal plants, and distributed them in several places of the country.
What shows that, for nagual world domination, first of all, is required to have a full control of the tonal world. The daily world is the base and livelihood of who we are as people, and that world, to enter Toltequity, must be completely balanced. As said Don Juan, "a warrior cannot be starving to death in his filthy home".
At one time, the writer, met Castaneda in failed book presentation in the Fondo de Cultura Económica bookstore, which at the time was at University Avenue and Parroquia street in Colonia del Valle, Mexico City. After a long wait for Castaneda next to a microphone, where he would talk with a crowded venue.
Castaneda appeared for brief moments. His appearance was that of a mature man, over fifty year old, curly hair, straight and wide nose, small eyes, slightly pockmarked, medium height almost small, extremely strong, but not muscular, with small hands and a shrill voice. Castaneda’s aspect, with a light and shiny suit, with a vast briefcase, could be a medical representative rather than a nagual. With that disguise, nobody could recognize him.
"—Being a shaman —Don Juan continued— does not mean practicing spells or attempting to affect people, or be possessed by demons. Being a shaman means reaching a consciousness level that gives access to unthinkable things. The term 'witchcraft' is not capable of expressing what shamans do, nor the term "shamanism". The shaman actions exclusively exist in the abstract realm, the impersonal. Shamans fight to achieve a goal that has nothing to do with the common man search. Shamans aspire to reach the infinite, and be conscious of it...
He replied that both our steps were guided by the infinite, and that circumstances that seemed to be random were essentially guided by the active side of infinity. He called it intent.
—What got us together —he continued—, was the infinite intent. It is impossible to determine what is this infinite intent, however it is there, as palpable as you and me. Shamans say is an air tremor. The shamans advantage is in knowing that there is an air tremor and nod to it, nothing else. for shamans there is no brooding, questions, speculations. They know all they have is the possibility of joining the infinite intent, and they do..." C.C.
THE END OF AN ERA
THE DEEP CONCERNS OF EVERYDAY LIFE
Castaneda relates how is known world became "disturbed", as he got involved in the Don Juan teachings. Comfort and the inconsequential began to suffocate him. This led him to change city and university, but the grotesque of this world watched as he moved away or how his everyday life worked loose. He began to see himself reflected in the emptiness of his friends. And as Don Juan explained to him what he, apparently does not understand.
Not just a shaman teachings can change a person's life. Readers of the Castaneda work that inflexibly try and using all their will power. With the greatest discipline and responsibility apply in their everyday life the techniques that Castaneda explain in "Journey to Ixtlán" to "clean the tonal island" will definitely change the life of the scrupulous practitioner. In short, the simple energy saving, power the individual and takes him out of laziness and existential banality.
"—Your world ends —he said—. It is the end of an era for you. Do you think the world you have known all your life is going to peacefully leave you, just like that? No! It is going to struggle under you and strike you with its tail..." C.C.
THE VISIT THAT CANNOT BEAR
Castaneda tells us that the city of Los Angeles has always been his home. He is not exactly sure where he was born, and is really unimportant. The modern nagual managed to end his personal history and that is what matters. But the few data points that he was born in Brazil, but as a teenager went to live in California, United States
This short story tells of how difficult it is to get out of the world where people are locked. Tells the story of a friend who insistently wanted to flee los Angeles and go live in New York, and that it was always impossible. And tells how he also wanted to do it and failed to an unbalanced psychologist and an anthropologist teacher that results in a fiasco. Castaneda neither can take the easy door out of his own cage.
"Avidly sought don Juan company. I left everything pending in Los Angeles to make the trip to Sonora. I told him of the strange humor I had when I was with my friends. Crying of remorse, I told him that I had begun judging them.
—Do not go crazy over anything —don Juan said calmly—. You know that an entire era of your life is ending, but the era does not end until the King dies.
—What do you mean by that, don Juan?
—You are the King and you are exactly like your friends. This is the truth that is shaking you in your pants. One thing you can do is accept things as they are, that of course you cannot do. The other, is to says: “I am not like that, I am not”, and repeat that you are not like that. But I promise that the time will come when you realize that you are like that..." C.C.
THE UNAVOIDABLE APPOINTMENT
In this story, Don Juan tells Castaneda something very important, something he felt, like an omen, when he was about to encounter Castaneda at the bus station. He said that he foresaw the end, and at first he thought it was the end of his life. But later realized it was the end of his ancient lineage. A very important sign for a man of knowledge. The power sent Castaneda to him and at the same time the instrument that ended the legacy of twenty-seven naguales, which began before the Spanish conquest.
This data is relevant, because in fact, an ancient lineage ends with Don Juan and perhaps with Castaneda, a new type of lineages is born. Modernized Toltec. This could explain the current confusion surrounding the Castaneda legacy heirs. Everyone expected that Castaneda disciples are able to structure a proposal which responds to the need that the Toltec knowledge reaches a greater number of people. The truth is that death is required for re-birth.
Don Juan talks to him about death, of how the luminous egg has a part with a luminosity variation and that when it opens, death furiously enters to disintegrate and melt it at infinity. The death of his friend Bill is skillfully handled by Don Juan and makes him see that the problem is that common people think that they have all the time in the world to doubt or err. Tells him that the difference between a warrior and a common man, is that the warrior knows he does not have time and acts accordingly. Death makes him be alert.
Don Juan tells him that ancient shamans believed that there was sadness in the universe and Toltecs knew the "universal sadness dart". Don Juan tells him the great Garrick.
"»The shamans condition —don Juan continued—, is that sadness is abstract for them. Does not come from greed or need something or personal importance. It does not come from the I. It comes from the infinite. The sadness you feel for not having been grateful to your friend already tends toward that direction..." C.C.
THE RUPTURE POINT
In Toltequity teachings, there is a point in which the apprentice will have to "break" with his old being and the old world. This breakdown leads to the "inner silence", that is, “stop the internal dialogue”; in other words, stop the “common perception of the world". Then everything that surrounds them ceases to be as it has always been and the apprentice perceives the world in different ways, through his senses, not through the mind.
As with many ancient teachings, the Toltec knew that if the mind stops the description of the world around, the world changes. Therefore, the inner silence, is sought by these ancient people in different ways but with the same results, this is the thought cessation.
These techniques seek to reach the true human being nature, the Toltecs called it, "total freedom". When this point is reached, the human being stops being a slave of the mind and thoughts that make up a boring and frightening world. The human being is free of perceiving "reality" in many amazing ways, without the mind chains.
At the plaza of Hermosillo, Sonora, Don Juan asks Castaneda to leave his friends and his cozy and sweet world, if he wishes to continue the lessons. He asks his person die, not his body. Don Juan says that these are different things, because essentially the body has very little to do with the person. The body is made of energy and puts ideas others have given us.
Don Juan tells Castaneda a devastating metaphor, which has to do with a dirty and dilapidated hotel they once visited, which he buys with his pointless and boring life he is asked to change.
"—That hotel —don Juan said, pointing at it with his finger—, for me is the true life representation on this earth common persons. If you are lucky or ruthless, you get a room overlooking the street, where you can watch the endless parade of human misery. If you are not as lucky or are not as ruthless, you will have an inside room, with windows overlooking the walls of the adjacent building. Think about spending a lifetime between these two views, envying the street view if you are inside, and envying the wall seen if you are outside, tired of watching the street..." C.C.
THE COGNITION MEASURES
Castaneda writes that since the lessons beginning, Don Juan tried to introduce him to the cognitive Anahuac Toltec world. Don Juan claimed that the way the cognitive process took place between the Toltecs and the occidental was completely different.
Castaneda said that for him, during these moments, cognition was a way to communicate through a particular language. For the Toltec is different, because they perceive the world as an infinite number of energy fields that make up the universe as luminous filaments. The luminous filaments that are in the energy egg, act as an organism.
The common human being, when receiving the world that surrounds them energy stimulus transforms them into ideas. The Toltec perceive the world around them just as energy and free themselves from the slavery of the ideas descriptions. That is why common human beings live their ideas and the Toltec his acts. This is the reason why the Toltec world has no equivalent in the everyday world.
Castaneda tells Don Juan of the excellent impression he had of a professor who was an expert on the cognition phenomenon. Castaneda is captivated by Professor Lorca speech and becomes his devoted pupil. Don Juan tells him that people should not be admired from the distance, because it is the surest way to create mythological beings. Invites him to meet him as a human being and tells him that, if what he says ends up being just words, he is not worth anything.
Don Juan suggests it to go and understand that the Professor already gave everything he could give him. Don Juan says that one of highest Toltec arts is knowing when to withdraw. He said that what distinguished the Toltec from common human beings is that the first know they en-route to death and the latter behave like immortal, that they have all the time in the world to err, get angry and waste time.
The Toltecs are always in a "florid war", everything is a life or death battle, the most insignificant they do has a powerful reason as part of a strategy. And always have a powerful and wise counselor who will never lie. Death is who whispers to their ear that everything is ephemeral and do not have time.
"—We are beings on our way to death —said—. We are not immortal, but we behave as if we were. This is the flaw that knock us down as individuals and will knock us down as species someday...
»Professor Lorca is wise when he speaks —don Juan continued—, because he has the ability to use words correctly. But he is not prepared to take himself seriously as a man who is going to die. As he is immortal, he could not do so. It does not make any difference that scientists build complex machines. Machines cannot in any way help anyone face the inevitable appointment: the infinite appointment..." C.C.
GRATEFULLY
This story basis are that warriors-travelers of the infinite, leave no outstanding accounts in the affections world. Suggests that he should settle outstanding accounts he had with two women he loved which he ended badly and never saw again. He said he had to make a symbolic payment to appease infinity.
Don Juan tells Castaneda that warriors-travelers were pragmatic and were not involved in sentimentalism networks, nostalgia or melancholy. The warriors were only trained for florid battles and these are endless battles. The warrior-traveler which is about to plunge into infinity, pauses a moment to have a gesture with those people who favored him.
"—Defeat your self-pity right now —ordered me—. Defeat the idea that you are hurt, and what do you have left as irreducible residue?
What I had left as irreducible residue was the feeling that I had given my utmost gift to both. Not with the intention to renew anything, or harm anyone, including myself, but in the true spirit of the warrior traveler whose only virtue, don Juan told me, is keeping alive the memory of what has affected him; whose only one way to thank and say goodbye was through this magic act: keeping in his silence all he loved..." C.C.
BEYOND THE SYNTAX — THE USHER
In this story, Castaneda describes a very important event of his childhood at the home of his grandfather, who taught him to play billiards despite his young age. This led him to be mixed with a mobster who invited him to play at night with high stakes in his favor. At the climax of the story, the mobster asks him to lose the decisive game, because he will bet his entire fortune against him and threatens him if he will not do so. The grandfather takes Castaneda to another town and he does not have to make the decision.
However, Don Juan gives him a very detailed description of what recapitulation means from the energy point of view. Tells him that Toltecs discovered that the universe is an immeasurable energy field composed of luminous filaments.
They saw that these energy fields were made of luminous fibers currents, conformed of constant streams, perennial in the universe and one of these, related to recapitulation was called "the dark
consciousness sea" or Eagle. That universe live beings were joined to the "dark consciousness sea" at a luminous point of the energy egg which the Toltecs called "lace point".
At the luminous eggs lace point, converge and pass through millions of energy fields, integrated by those luminous filaments. When these energy fields pass through the lace point become "sensory data" which is interpreted as, "the world around us". This phenomenon was called "the conscience glow" by the Toltecs. So what we call senses, are consciousness degrees.
The Toltecs that initiated the new lineages cycle, found that "the dark consciousness" or the Eagle, at the time of death devoured the luminous egg conscience that is disintegrating. The Toltecs also noted that the Eagle hesitated a little before devouring warriors conscience who had recapitulated. Thus they deduced that the Eagle or "the dark consciousness sea", only devours "life experience consciousness, but does not touch the vital force”.
Recapitulation requires the memory of an event that moves us to deepest existential foundations, to begin getting what he calls the garbage of all the memories. This event was "the usher" by the Toltecs.
"—Shamans who came after the apocalyptic agitations I told you –he continued-, saw that at the time of death the dark consciousness sea swallowed, so to speak, the consciousness of living creatures across the lace point. Also saw that the dark consciousness sea had a moment of, say, hesitation when facing shamans that had made a recount of their lives. Unknowingly, some had made such a thorough recount that the dark consciousness sea took their life experiences consciousness; but did not touch their vital force. The shamans had discovered a gigantic truth about the universe forces: the dark consciousness sea only want our life experiences, not our vital strength..." C.C.
ENERGY INTERACTION IN THE HORIZON
Castaneda begins seeing the "recapitulation" fruits and "Infinity" comes down to give him a slight touch. Perhaps the most transcendent of the information given by Don Juan to Castaneda (seeing it externally), is what has to do with the "beyond", from the philosophical aspect. Indeed, in occidental philosophy, while trying to resolve the third ontological question, "where will I go after death", philosophies and religions have created a very complex and Baroque conceptual world, to the point, it is often difficult to understand.
The Don Juan lineage, is one of the many that exist as Toltecáyotl legacy and that has suffered important changes from information and techniques provided by the "tenant". It offers a very simple and convincing answer about what happens at death. The Don Juan lineage proposal is that, what they call "The Eagle", the immeasurable or as the old grandparents said, "the owner of the near and the next". This force only claims as "food" the consciousness of the being that dies, but not necessarily his "vital force". Recapitulation is the secret option Toltecs have, not be diluted at infinity.
“After another long silence, don Juan explained that ancient Mexico shamans believed, as he had already said, that we have two minds and that only one of them is ours. I had always understood that our minds had two parts, and that one of them was silent because the strength of the other part denied the ability to express. Beyond what don Juan said, I always took it metaphorically to perhaps explain the apparent dominance of the brain left hemisphere over the right, or something like.
—Recapitulation contains a secret option —don Juan said—. As I told you that death contains a secret option, an option that only shamans use. In the case of death, the secret option is that human beings can retain their vital force and only renounce to their consciousness, the outcome of their lives. In recapitulation, the secret option only shamans choose is enhancing their real minds..." C.C.
JOURNEYS THROUGH THE DARK CONSCIOUSNESS SEA
All the Castaneda works can be seen as an onion construction. Thin layers wrapped around the "magic of the spirit". The reader will need to read over and over again, "Tales of power", until finding their "abstract center". If the reader does not have enough "personal power", reading will be pleasant but inconsequential. But if they manage to gradually penetrate the "literary onion", will begin to remove one by one, the delicate knowledge layers and more and more, will get a deeper perception and at the same time "disturbing" of Don Juan teachings.
Through what is at first seen as "parables" and "indian tales", the reader discovers that these are perfectly clear and devastating concepts of our docile and domesticated world. The works in general, in addition to provocative is frightening. Leaves the deep reader naked of protecting ideas, hence helpless. This is why many "reason scholars", discard the work and brand it as fanciful. But the years pass and the work is still there, unshakeable.
Don Juan explains Castaneda that by virtue of "recapitulating" he has begun to have more energy. This has given him enough "inner silence", which in turn allows him to break "time continuity", which totally binds to "our world".
Throughout the work Don Juan always tells Castaneda that the "lace point" shifting is the master key to open all the Toltec knowledge gates. The "reality" is one of the many realities that surround us and that we do not perceive. Don Juan says that there are about 600.
"Reverie" is the art that allows the warrior to "change" the lace point to another reality that generally we do not perceive. This art was discovered by ancient Mexico knowledge men, when they saw that when an individual dreams, their lace point naturally moves slightly. Developing this natural ability to the point of being able to perceive real worlds in other realities. The "dream attention" is the possibility of giving specific attention or focus on a type of special consciousness over elements of a common dream.
"Throughout my apprenticeship, don Juan also had told me that shamans were divided into two groups: a group consisted of dreamers; the other of stalkers. Dreamers were those who moved the lace point with ease. Stalkers were those who could maintain the position of the new lace point with great ease. The dreamers and stalkers complemented one another and working in pairs, affecting one another with their innate proclivities.
Don Juan had assured me that displacement and fixing of the lace point could be made voluntarily by the iron hand discipline of the shamans...
In addition, don Juan explained that the witchcraft art is to manipulate the lace point and make it change positions at will on the luminous spheres that human beings are. The result of this manipulation is the change in the contact point with the dark consciousness sea, which brings us as its concomitant, a bundle of billions of different energy fields in the form of luminous filaments that converge on the lace point. The result of these new energy fields converging on the lace point, is that a consciousness different to necessary to perceive the everyday world comes into action, transforming these new energy fields in sensory data, sensory data that is interpreted and perceived as a different world because the energy fields that engender it are different from those known...
The art of the warrior—traveler is having the ability to move with the most tenuous hint, the art of nod to all infinite command. To do this, the warrior-traveler needs dexterity, strength, and above all, sobriety. These three put together, result in elegance!...
—It's amazing but it can be lived —he said—. The universe has no limits, and the possibilities that occur in the universe are really immeasurable... C.C.
THE INORGANIC CONSCIENCE
Don Juan taught Castaneda that the "The dark consciousness sea" is the perennial force that the Toltec discovered that maintains the universe. And that not only gives consciousness capability to organic beings, but also to entities without organism. That is, there are entities with consciousness but not organism and live in a world parallel to our own.
The Toltecs always managed the "divine duality" principle and at the religious level called it Ometeótl. Creative principle in which everything surrounding us is composed of a pair of complementing opposites. Hence the concept that professor Séjourné[1] called "Quincunxe" and which is present in designs, friezes and architecture.
Don Juan tells Castaneda that the Toltec discovered that the universe consists of twin forces that oppose and complement each other. So we are neighbors of a twin and complementing world, where entities exist with no bodies do have consciousness. These entities were called "inorganic beings" by the Toltecs.
For both, organic and inorganic, death is the result that their consciousness is absorbed by the "dark consciousness sea". Their individual conscience full of their experiences, which were saved throughout their life, suddenly breaks its parameters and consciousness as energy, it is absorbed by the "dark consciousness sea" to disappear in the immensity of everything and nothing.
According to Don Juan, the Toltec discovered that human beings are the only beings with consciousness, that death might be the consciousness unification, and not, as it is common, the consciousness dissolution in the "dark consciousness sea". Indeed, the human being is made up by a number of organisms and systems that make it be. The "Being" depends on wellbeing and harmony on each of them, but if he manages to "detach" from them and unite only with the consciousness energy, it reaches the indivisible unity and "essence" of the being.
When a Toltec reaches that point, his body does not decompose, it turns to energy. unfragmented energy with consciousness. Otherwise, the consciousness limits are imposed by the organism. When conscious energy is unified limits disappear. When Toltecs unify their energy become inorganic beings!, that according to Don Juan will live until the planet dies, because Earth is their womb.
For the Toltec, in that immeasurable energy universe, existed a inorganic beings class with an infinitely more acute and fast consciousness than human beings. Somehow the way they was similar to human beings, hence they could establish links and even symbiotic relationships with humans. This class of inorganic beings were called explorers and the Toltec converted them in their allies.
"Energy is the irreducible residue of everything. As far as we are concerned, seeing energy directly is the most for a human being. Perhaps there are other things beyond that, but they are beyond our reach...
Don Juan explained that that day had achieved transforming the anthropomorphic form of inorganic beings at their essence: an impersonal energy conscious of itself...
The most sober that can be done, according to the shaman, is relegating these entities to an abstract level. The less interpretations the shaman does, the better.
—From now on —he continued—, when facing the strange vision of an appearance, stay firm and look at it from an inflexible stance. If it is an inorganic being, your interpretation will fall as dead leaves. If nothing happens, it's a bullshit aberration of your mind, which anyway is not your mind..." C.C.
THE CLEAR VIEW
Don Juan state that the "warrior-traveler" required to love knowledge, no matter how it is expressed. The Toltec knew that human beings were only travelers in the "dark consciousness" and that Earth was only a stop on this trip.
In the Toltecáyotl the tlamatinimes[2] transmitted knowledge based on poetry. Hence "Flower and song" concept symbolically referred to beauty (which is balance) and wisdom (expressed in poetry) as song. The concept of this trip and the existence temporality is embodied in the following "Cantares Mexicanos" verse:
"Perhaps we really live on earth?
Not forever on Earth,
only a little here.
Even if its jade, it breaks.
Even gold, it cleaves.
And the quetzal feathers break.
Not forever on Earth,
only a little here.”
Don Juan makes Castaneda see that he must not be "hooked" with his peers. Tells him that those "surrounding you" are not to be blamed for living without a warrior purpose making mistake after mistake. It’s not their fault, they do not have the opportunity to "realize". They have no other way to face the world and life. Tells him that he is to "blame" for judging them and when doing it receives the worst of them. The challenge is to accept people as is and leave them alone.
"—Warriors travellers do not complain —don Juan continued—. They take everything given by the infinite as a challenge. A challenge is that, a challenge. It is not personal. It should not be interpreted as a curse or a blessing. A warrior-traveler or wins the challenge or the challenge ends with him. It is much more exciting to win, so win!...
—These are the ups and downs of everyday life —don Juan said—. You win and lose, and you do not know when you win and when you lose. This is the price paid for living under the self-reflex domain..." C.C.
CLAY SHADOWS
For the attentive reader, Don Juan, despite his wild proposals was a practical being and his teachings, in spite being frightening, are perceived in realistic terms and with a sobriety style.
One of the most awkward and perturbing proposals of the Don Juan teachings, which is nothing more than a knowledge line of the many the Toltec left as legacy, is in the discovery that human beings we are nothing more than food for beings possessing "a different order consciousness".
The fact that human beings are bred as farm chickens, provides a huge blow to our personal importance and existential arrogance as civilization. Everything can be accepted, except only being a small link in the large universe food chain.
So, turns out that according to Don Juan, human beings have a few predators that control us we and keep us docile and weak through giving us their minds. In other words, they make us think like them. The predator mind is contradictory, morbid, saturated with fears and concerns of being discovered.
Explains that humans produce a conscious energy layer covering the energy cocoon. This energy is our predators food and they will consume it, ensuring that a little is left so humans can produce more. It's like a permanent pruning.
The Toltecs discovered a way to avoid being eaten by predators and preserving the full energy potential for the road. A road built with discipline to the extent that these beings do not touch us. The Toltecs called this predator "the flyer", because it jumps in the air.
The Toltecs called this discipline to the ability calmly and with sobriety facing, circumstances which are beyond any "logical order" in our world. This discipline makes the consciousness layer that shines on the luminous egg surface, become tasteless and breaks these "predatory consciences" scheme, as if not devoured, allows it to grow. Don Juan said that trick the Toltec invented is "overloading the fliers mind with discipline and inner silence."
The truth is that the issue of "predatory consciences" breaks all schemes of our fragile and haughty existential arrogance. It is the most demolishing blow that our ego can receive, as humans emanating from the Judeo-Christian culture, where human beings were created at the "image and likeness of God”, who gave us the world to dominate, exploit and transform.
What the Toltec propose is to cease complying with a destiny for which our opinion was never asked. So our ancestors created our parents and them us to be food, but we have never had the opportunity to be aware of this fact and we have meekly stultified, becoming docile creatures that are bred to be food. As the chickens and pigs, that in a farm do not realize the fate of their lives.
“—The fliers are an essential part of the universe —continued—, and must be taken as what they really are: amazing, monstrous. They are the means by which the universe test us.
—We are probes created by the universe —continued, as if I was not present—, and it is because we are energy conscience possessors, we are the means by which the universe becomes self-conscious. The fliers are implacable challengers. They cannot be considered in any other way. If we succeed, the universe allows us to continue...
—The weird idea —slowly said, measuring his words effect—, is that every human being on Earth seems to have the same reactions, the same thoughts, the same feelings. They seem to respond the same way to the same stimuli. These reactions seem to be somewhat cloudy by the language they speak, but if we dig the surface, these are exactly the same reactions that beset every human being on Earth. I wish this would cause curiosity as a social scientist, of course, and you see if you can explain this homogeneity...
The predator don Juan had described was not benevolent. It was extremely heavy, vulgar, indifferent. I felt his disregard for us. Certainly had crushed us in the past, making us, as don Juan had said, weak, vulnerable and docile. I took off my wet clothes, covered with a poncho, sat on the bed and cried inconsolably, but not for me. I had my anger, my unyielding attempt to not be eaten. I cried for my peers, especially my father. I never knew, until that time, I loved him so much.
—He never had the choice —I heard myself repeat over and over, as if the words were not really mine. My poor father, the most generous being I knew, so tender, so gentle, so defenseless…" C.C.
UNDERTAKING THE DEFINITE JOURNEY
Castaneda returns to the central point of his experience as Don Juan apprentice or "warrior of the florid battle", as the Toltec called it. The leap into a chasm from the top of a mountain, worked by hand as a huge pyramid by the ancient grandparents and which today is called "cerro de las cenizas" in the highest part of the Zapotec area of the Sierra Juarez in Oaxaca (named central Mexico in the Castaneda works).
The complete Castaneda works revolves around this unprecedented event. As in the Toltec world there is no linear time. This event is the point in which converges "past, present and future". In the same way, Castaneda again speaks of this event which will determine the "remembered" knowledge that happened in his teaching during enhanced consciousness states.
Castaneda provides further information of the talks he had with Don Juan before the momentous leap. After the jump and turning into pure energy, the warrior-traveler decides whether to return to the grotesque world or melts at infinity, disappearing without any trace. If he decides to stay, he should "tighten his belt" and face "his task" with sobriety and aplomb, regardless of its outcome. Because what sustains the warrior-traveler is humility and efficiency. His character has been forged in the sobriety forge, austerity and humility. The warrior-traveler live strategically and everything he does is free of fear and ambition.
Infinity warrior-travellers, cover elegantly and generously everything they receive and thus get rid of heavy loads or debts to drag. The warrior-traveler is light and fluid, leaves no tracks and goes unnoticed in a crowd. That is his trademark.
Don Juan tells Castaneda that warrior-travelers who dare to "jump to the infinite", require much internal strength and sobriety, but he points out that those who decide to stay, also need "steel balls", to face his destiny in this reality. One and the other are immeasurable challenges.
"—We will never again be together —told me quietly—. You will no longer need my help; and I am not offering it, because if you are a worthy warrior traveler, you will spit in my face for offering. Beyond certain parameters, the only warrior traveler happiness is his solitary state. I would not like you to help me either. Once I go, I will be gone. Do not think further of me because I am not going to think of you anymore. If you are a warrior traveller worth your weight, be impeccable! Take care of your world. Honor it; watch it with your life.
He walked away from me. The moment was beyond self-pity or tears or happiness. He shook his head as if to say goodbye or as if he recognized what I felt.
—Forget the self and you shall not fear anything, no matter the consciousness level you have —told me—...
Then I saw how don Juan Matus, the nagual, led his fifteen fellow seers, his protégés, his delights, disappear one by one in the mist of the plateau to the north. I saw each of them turn into a luminous balloon and together ascend and float over the top of the mountain as ghost lights in the sky. They turned around the top of the mountain as don Juan said they would; their last view, which is only for their eyes; their last sight of this wonderful land. And then they vanished.
I knew what I had to do. I ran out of time. I started to run at full speed towards the cliff and jumped into the abyss. I felt the wind in my face for a moment, and then the most pious blackness swallowed me as a peaceful underground river..." C.C.
THE RETURN JOURNEY
Castaneda jumped into the abyss, his physical body, before crashing at the bottom of the cliff, manages that each of the millions of luminous particles comprising him and that have conscience, lit up, and consume in the inner fire, to immediately melt into the "dark consciousness sea".
The warrior-traveler has managed the rationally impossible, has broken the agreement that binds and ties humans to our sad destiny, all those that have not been able to reach that level of consciousness and energy purity. That agreement makes us docile, stupid, lazy, soft and stubborn creatures... "civilized", predators nourishment. That agreement which becomes a safe and protective jail cell. After the jump to the "dark consciousness sea", Castaneda has ceased to belong to "our world". He will be a ghost among us. Or perhaps, more accurately, Castaneda becomes "a real man", as the Toltecs said and ceases to be a ghost. Castaneda knows he is really alone.
"Yes, I had jumped into the abyss, I said to myself, and did not die because before reaching the bottom of the cliff, I allowed the dark consciousness sea swallow me. I delivered myself fearlessly and without remorse. And this dark sea provided me with what I needed to not die and end up in my Los Angeles bed..." C.C.