Translation:To read Carlos Castaneda/7
IV. TALES OF POWER
First English edition 1974
1974 Carlos Castaneda
This is, perhaps, one of the most important books, it contains beauty beyond the literary, in which the ancient Toltecs teachers philosophy is felt, sharply, with profound perennial proposals of universal value, that reach the essence of the human.
From our point of view, one of the most important elements that the Castaneda work provides the Western culture, is to see "the other", the indigenous, from another perspective. As heirs of an ancient wisdom that allows, under rigorous techniques, not only perceiving the world and reality in different ways, but fundamentally, solving the third ontological approach to being. In fact, the "where will I go" after this life or the pursuit of spiritual existence transcendence. The Toltecs with the Toltecáyotl, developed over thousands of years an answer, and now, Castaneda presents it through the teaching of one of the many knowledge lineages that have survived, not only the European conquest, but basically, the civilization collapse that suffered the Anahuac[1], more than five centuries before the arrival of the Spaniards.
The wisdom emanating from the Toltecáyotl achieves a subtle clarity, but revealing in this work. The literary beauty and dramatic force contained in "Tales of power" makes the reader participate along with the apprentice, almost existentially, a growing exaltation feeling up to exploding his rationality in the jump from a cliff by Castaneda.
As it has already been noted, the work Castaneda can be divided into two parts: what he writes while physically receiving the Don Juan teachings and what is written since his absence, and performed from "memories" and experiences with colleagues from his "litter" of witches, where Castaneda took the nagual place.
At the end of this book, Don Juan and Don Genaro say goodbye to Castaneda. They have fulfilled their mission and cycle; they leave this world and also those who must continue with the tradition and lineage. Don Juan tells Castaneda that will again become road dust and that perhaps in the future will again come into his eyes.
This book may be the vertex where all teaching converge. In the first part, from "The don Juan teachings" all the way to "Tales of power", the book has a structural unity that gradually adds knowledge until it reaches the "great Castaneda leap". All teachings gravitate, in a higher percentage in the "right side", "tonal", "reason", first ring of power or everyday world.
The second part, from "The second ring of power" up to "Silent knowledge", is based on the teachings Castaneda received during the same period, but in the left hand side, nagual, will, other reality or increased consciousness.
These later works: "the second ring of power, the gift of the Eagle, the internal fire, silent knowledge and the reverie art", were written at a time in which Don Juan was no longer "physically" in this world. Castaneda has to "remember", through reverie,[2] all the left side teachings, along with his "litter" of witches. These works were composed of Castaneda experiences with his group and “left side memories” to, finally "harmonically assembling" all the teachings into a single unit.
Hence, in "Tales of power" is where the right side and left side teachings converge. The Castaneda books reader will have to "suffer" the author confusions in this process; will feel that this book, which "does not touches bottom", many things are left without explanation, but through the reading of the remaining books, especially numbers 7 and 8, is where these doubts are clarified.
We will try to comment each chapter of this book, and despite being so large, we will seek to touch on what we consider essential, under the notion that this work in no way can replace the book itself, but it intends to be an introduction to reading the author's extensive and complex work. "Tales of power" is divided into three parts and 14 chapters. The first part is called "A witness of acts of power", the second "the tonal and the nagual" and the third "The witches explanation".
FIRST PART
A WITNESS OF ACTS OF POWER
AN APPOINTMENT WITH KNOWLEDGE
Don Juan establishes that, what matters in apprentices, is that they are impeccable, while recognizing that the discipline and sensitivity help a lot.
The confidence of a warrior is not the same as that of a common man. Common men to walk "tied" to the world and "hooked" to his fellow men, looks for certainty in the eyes of who looks at him act and believes that this is self-confidence. The warrior instead, which is a disciplined human being and serves a very clear purpose, seeks impeccability in his actions and feelings, and he calls that humility, while common men are hooked to people and "gropes" the world; the warrior only depends on himself. Confidence means knowing things with total certainty; humility means being impeccable in his own acts, thoughts and feelings, because all that we are and what we do depends on our personal power.
Don Juan tells Castaneda that human beings are a feeling, taking notice, having consciousness, content in the body. In this book Castaneda speaks of REVERIE, and as an attempt to explain it, will do a parenthesis. Within the strange practices that Don Juan taught Castaneda is controlling and directing his dreams. To reach this requires a certain domain of the everyday world; the warrior path allows —based on a scrupulous discipline to break the routines of life, the not doing and the power walk— achieving that control. The technique consists in trying to dream a preset theme; when it is achieved, during sleep search for the hands and dream that they rise to eye level. This is not only controlling the dreams, but also intervening voluntarily in the dream.
the ancient Toltec after their first failure, while reviewing their practices, could observe the effect their energy suffered when they dreamed was very similar, although of lesser magnitude, to what they experienced when they took plants of power. They called this effect "moving the joint point". Thus, a warrior, with a great effort based in changing their behavior in the everyday world, could convert ordinary dreams in "REVERIE"; the aim was to bring about a "frequency" change in their energy, but without the high costs or risks that represented the ingestion of plants of power.
Don Juan says that all human beings, even if not developed, have two natural tendencies: either they are stalkers or reverie, depending on their energy configuration or temperament.
The ancient Toltecs, while developing these trends within Toltequity, speak of Jaguars warriors (stalkers) and Eagles warriors (reverie).
Don Juan taught many techniques, almost all of them aimed at changing the ideas we have of the world and of ourselves, with which energy is saved; this effort should gradually progress, very disciplined, but without tensions or obsessions, without fear of losing or ambition to win.
According to Don Juan, a warrior takes his fate, whatever it may be, with the utmost humility. Not as complaining basis, but as the basis for waging his battles and accepting challenges. The warrior humility is not like the beggar humility. The warrior does not bow before anyone, but at the same time does not let anybody bow before him. The beggar at the slightest excuse bows before those who believe are superior to him, but at the same time demands that others, who he believe are inferior, to bow before him. The warrior humility depends on his impeccability, which is not being hooked to his peers.
Don Juan and Don Genaro, through a moth and in the middle of the desert, open an inconceivable world for the Castaneda stalked mind. The teachings of his teacher and benefactor, literally will grind the apprentice reason.
"—Why did me you make me take so many times these plants of power? —I asked.
He laughed and whispered, in a very soft voice:
—Because you are an idiot...
—What matters is that a warrior is impeccable...
—I'm going to tell you something that perhaps is the greatest wisdom one can give —he said—. Let’s see what you can do with it.”
"Do you know that at this very moment you are surrounded by eternity? And do you know that you can use this eternity, if you want to?...
—Previously you did not have this knowledge —said, smiling—. Now it's yours. I have given it to you, and yet it does not matter, because you do not have enough personal power to use my revelation.
But if you had, only my words would be the medium for you to grasp your entire totality and take the part that commands, these boundaries that contain it.
He came to my side and touched my chest with his fingers; it was a very slight tap.
We are luminous beings —he said, wagging his head rhythmically—. And the only thing that matters for a luminous being is personal power...
To achieve success in any enterprise one must go very slowly, with great effort, but withut tension or obsessions...
A warrior takes his fate, whatever that is, and accept it with the utmost humility. It is accepted with humility as it is, not as complaining basis, but as a basis for his struggle and challenge...
I only know the warrior humility, and that will never let me be anyone's master...
All our fellow human beings are evil witches. And as you mingle with them, you're also an evil sorcerer. Think a moment. Can you deviate from the path set out for you? No. Your ideas and your actions are fixed forever on their terms. This is slavery. I, on the other hand, brought you freedom. Freedom is very expensive, but the price is not impossible...
A warrior must be calm and poise, and must never to lose his stirrups..." C.C.
THE DREAMER AND REVERIE
One of the warrior objectives is to fight against his reason, but at the same time calm his mind. Warriors do not get their victories breaking rocks with the head; a warrior, just goes around them and avoids wear out and being accessible to the world.
A warrior must develop the feeling that he does not need anything; a warrior does not need to help or being understood, because he knows that the real experience is being a human being and alive, and to become aware of the immeasurable and wonderful possibilities he has. One of the everyday warrior tasks is cultivate and maintaining the sense of "realizing", so he never "lets his guard down".
Don Juan and Don Genaro teach Castaneda, the energy potential that a knowledge being can have, provided, he can develop the ability to produce "a double" by saving energy and using the reverie technique.
The potential a luminous being has through energy management would seem incredible, but are completely real. Common man know very little of these energy skills and even less is likely to use them.
"He added that the only way to counteract the devastating impact of the witches world is to make fun of it...
A warrior acts as if never anything happened, because he doesn't believe in anything, but accepts everything as it stands. Accepts without accepting and discards without discarding. Never feels as if he knew nor feels as if nothing had happened. He acts as if he had control, although he is trembling from fear. Acting this way dissipates obsession...
You must cultivate the feeling that a warrior does not need anything. You say you need help. Help for what? You have everything you need for the extravagant journey that is your life. I have tried to teach you that the true experience is to be a man, and what matters is to be alive; life is the little ride we are now taking. Life in itself is sufficient and explains itself, and it is complete.
"A warrior understands this and lives accordingly; therefore, one can say without bragging, that the experience of experiences is being a warrior."...
A warrior is always ready. Being a warrior is not the simple matter of just wanting to be one. It is more a never-ending struggle that will continue until the last moment of our lives. Nobody is born a warrior, just like no one is born being a reasonable being. We turn ourselves into one or the other...
—A warrior dies fighting —don Juan said—-. His death must strive to take him. A warrior does not surrender not even to death." C.C.
THE SECRET OF LUMINOUS BEINGS
According to Don Juan, suspending the internal dialogue (stopping our ideas of how is the world and how we are) is the key of "witchcraft".
From our birth we have been told that the world is a series of ideas and that we, in turn, through a mammoth reasoning effort, have developed an idea ourselves, that is fed all the time, spending most of our energy. Human beings we are not "really" material (solids), we are composed of atoms, and atoms are energy charges! Thus, scientifically speaking, men and the world are composed of energy charges.
The first "witchcraft" of common men is turning the world of energy charges, into a world of solid objects and this is achieved through a great reason effort by a huge energy consumption. This great work is called "being reasonable" and takes about 20 years to achieve. When we are born we do not have control of the world of reason and, over time, with the help of our teachers, we achieve it.
This "first witchcraft" was called by the Toltec "the first power ring". However, human beings, in addition to energy charges are receivers and, at the same time, power generators, which is the truly transcendental. Therefore, human beings are luminous beings, bits of the Sun with another "ring of power" that we never use. The other ring has to do with what Don Juan called "will", and that second ring is used by Toltequity to reach "total freedom".
Don Juan always fooled Castaneda making him believe that the most important thing was the left side (nagual, the "other reality"), but the right side as important (tonal, ordinary world) as the left side of knowledge. They are both complementary and irreplaceable. Even the most impeccable nagual needs the tonal base in order to act.
One of the easier trap to fall, in the Toltequity knowledge, is to assume that the challenge lies in "strange worlds", in messianic concepts, in an esoteric world or forests or deserts. Nothing father from the truth.
Toltequity or "witchcraft" establishes the impeccability of our acts and feelings in the real world and everyday life. There cannot be real progress on the knowledge path if one does not have command of himself and the everyday world.
"—He touched my head and said that it was "the reason" and "speech" center." The tip of my sternum was the "feeling" center. The area below the navel was the "will". "Dreaming" was on the right side, against my ribs. "Seeing " in the left...
-I say that we are all beings without beginning or end, endless and luminous...
—We are receivers. We realize; we are not objects; we are not solid. We have no limits. The world of objects and sound is a way of making our way through earth more convenient. It is only a description created to help us. We, or rather our reason, forgets that a description is only a description and thus we trap our totality in a vicious circle from in we rarely come out alive...
"We, the luminous beings are born with two rings of power, but we only use one to create the world. This ring, gets hooked right after we are born, it is reason, and its partner speech. Between the two they plot and maintain the world.
"So, in essence, the world your reason wants to support is the world created by a description and its dogmatic and inviolable rules, that reason learn to accept and defend.
"The luminous beings secret is that they have another ring of power that is never used, will The witch trick is the same trick common men use. Both have a description: one, the common man sustains it with his reason; the other, the witch sustains with his will. Both descriptions have their rules and rules are perceived, but the witch advantage is that his will covers more than reason..." C.C.
TONAL AND NAGUAL
Before entering this chapter of the book we wish to comment some issues about the terms tonal and nagual. It has been our intention to find connections between the concepts that Castaneda describes about the knowledge that Don Juan called "toltequity", and he states are very remote "Toltec" practices. This is also noted in some history and anthropology academic texts.
This knowledge form —that could not be called "philosophy" because knowledge is not learned through reason— is, we believe, the conducting wire or "philosophical" cultural matrix of the Anahuac. But it is prudent to note that the coincidences between this knowledge and some academic studies, is richer in the traditions, customs, practices and oral legacy of indigenous peoples, that without a rational processes, follow many of the Toltequity techniques naturally, through "customs", as they have done for hundreds of years.
Currently it is immensely more difficult to live as indigenous, than to live as a beggar or underemployed in the misery belts of the cities. That internal strength shown by indigenous peoples over the past 500 years of oppression, we believe it has been possible, largely because it was fueled by the "non-rational" knowledge underlying their traditions and customs, in their culture.
This same knowledge is also manifested, one way or another, in the variety of popular cultures that make up the current face of our country. The concepts of tonal and nagual aren't strange to any Mexican. There are many Nahuatl words we use daily in our urban Spanish. For example, Tonatiuh is the Sun; Tonatzin is our beloved mother or the Virgin of Guadalupe. Alfredo Lopez Austin, in the book “Human body and ideology, ancient Nahua conceptions”, page 223 notes: "... The noun TONALLI, derived from the verb TONA "radiate" ("make heat or Sun", according to Molina), has the following main meanings: 1. irradiation; 2 solar heat; 3 summer; 4 day; 5. Day symbol; 6. fate of the person by the day of birth; 7. "the soul and spirit" (Molina: Totonal); 8. something that is destined or property of a determined person (Molina: tetónal)."
And on page 418, Lopez Austin, while discussing nagualismo descriptions, returns to a text by Fray Bernardino de Sahagún: "The nahual is the sage, holder of speeches, owner of the deposit, superhuman, respected, grave, serious, not mocked, not surpassed. The good nahualli is depositary, there is something in its interior, guardian, observer. He observes, conserves, helps; hurts no one."
Returning to the Castaneda book, Don Juan uses the term tonal to speak of the known world —right side— or reason, and the term nagual, with two meanings, one that refers to the left side —"the other reality", of perception, the tonal counterpart— and another that refers to the name given to the man of knowledge, the leader of a warrior group named "nagual", as Don Juan was for his group, or Elias and Castaneda himself.
For Don Juan the tonal is born with man and dies with him; the nagual is the other part of the human being always there, before, during and after. The tonal is the world devised with reason; the nagual is the world of power, where the only thing man can do is "testify".
Castaneda receives knowledge through the "sweep" or tonal island clean up techniques, because the way of the Warrior is nothing but training to save energy by reducing personal importance, and be able to enter the nagual world. Don Juan tells Castaneda that a warrior cannot live groaning and complaining, because his life is a never-ending challenge, and there is no way for challenges to be beautiful or ugly, good or bad. Challenges are simply that, challenges. There lies the difference between common men and warriors. While for the first the world is full of blessings or curses, for the latter is an endless challenge, where their impeccability and their "controlled folly" is tested.
"—Only as warrior can one stand the knowledge path —he said—. A warrior cannot complain or regret anything. His life is an endless challenge, and there is no way that challenges are good or bad. Challenges are simply challenges...
—The basic difference between a common man and a warrior is a that warrior takes everything as a challenge —he continued—, while an ordinary man takes everything as a blessing or a curse...
Then he asked me for details on how I had carried out the recommendations from don Genaro and him gave me about my everyday world and my relationships with people...
When a warrior is forced to believe, he does it because so he chooses, as an expression his innermost predilection... A warrior does not believe; "a warrior must believe."...
"So, if it were not because we are aware of the presence of our death, there would not be power, nor mystery."...
Having to believe that the world is mysterious and unfathomable was the intimate warrior predilection expression. Without it, the warrior had nothing..." C.C.
THE TONAL ISLAND
Don Juan says that all human beings have two separate entities forming a unit, the tonal and the nagual. The tonal is what "builds" the world of objects and ideas in which we live; there is a tonal for every one of us and a tonal for time, also for each epoch. The tonal is everything we are and imagine and is composed by a world description. The tonal makes "the rules" by which the world is perceived or "built" in a figurative sense. The tonal is a rational agreement used to transform an energy world, into a world of objects.
The nagual is the part of ourselves and the world that we will never know and much less through reason. The nagual is the part where the "power" resides, the unnamable. The Toltequity divides the world into three parts: what is known, what is unknown but is knowable and what we will never know (the nagual, power itself).
Lopez Austin, on page 176 of Human body and ideology, says: "This suggests that, as the use of right hand was linked to everyday activities, especially those requiring dexterity, the left was more closely linked to the world of the supernatural"."
-"We are all a bunch of idiots when we enter the witchcraft world, and entering this world does not guarantee, in any way, that we will change. Some of us will remain idiots until the end...
In other words, the tonal makes up the rules by which the world is captured. So in a figured sense , the tonal constructs the world...
—The nagual is the part of ourselves that we never deal with.
—What did you say?
—The nagual is a part of us for which there is no description: no words, no names, no sensations or knowledge..." C.C.
THE TONAL DAY
Don Juan explains Castaneda that human beings in their life use a small portion of their totality; however, when they die, they do it with their totality; then asks: why not live with totality if we shall succumb with it?
Many Castaneda readers have sought a false door of the nagual through drug convenience or "snob" frivolity; of "searching the path" in the unknown. Don Juan is clear and repetitive in that the first thing an apprentice must work on is "sweeping his tonal island". One cannot enter the nagual unless there is certain control on the everyday world and his self. The warrior path involves great discipline, sobriety, containment, and humility. So people who take this teaching as a way of evading reality, more so if using drugs, generally end up more "unbalanced" than when they started.
The tonal is very delicate, and common men use their full ability in hurting and warping their tonal. The tonal easily deteriorates; vices, comfort and abuses are elements used to accomplish this task.
There are strong and weak tonals. Each person has a tonal and it can be in excellent condition, or damaged. The apprentice, through the warrior path, can strengthen and make his tonal resilient, which can be achieved through scrupulous compliance with the techniques that enable energy saving (tonal comes from Tonalli, in Nahuatl language used by Toltecs, means energy).
Don Juan, when talking about the Indians, said they were "the unfortunate of our times"; that their fall started since the westerners arrival, whom were devoted to destroying not only their tonal, but also destroyed the tonal of their time. Life became hell, but paradoxically the conquest and colonial rigor "benefited" those Indians who were beings of knowledge, because them, upon seeing their tonal destroyed, took refuge in the nagual, and westerners could never enter there; moreover, they never knew it existed.
Also in this chapter, Don Juan tells Castaneda, at a time when he is in danger by an encounter with the power, write, because "taking field notes" is the only "witchcraft" he possesses at that knowledge level.
Don Juan says that the tonal must be cared for; that a struggle within the tonal is the most stupid that can happen to a man, and unfortunately, is what we are always doing.
The warrior path is harmony and balance; between the nagual and the tonal, both sustain themselves, neither is more nor less important than the other.
A strong and free tonal is flexible and fluid, can let the nagual "operate"; as a tonal strengthens, clings less to his ideas and events and the nagual can operate easier. Because the nagual can only be attested with the body; the tonal only can be seen with reason.
Don Juan said that the tonal must be convinced with reasons and the nagual with actions.
"The idea is that at the time of death the other member of the real pair; the nagual, begins to operate fully, feel, memories and perceptions saved in our calves, thighs, our back, shoulders and neck, begin to expand and disintegrate. As the endless beads of a broken collar, they spread out without the unifying force of life...
If we are going to die with our own totality, why not, then, live with that totality?...
I wanted to show you with my suit that a warrior treats his tonal in very special way. I made you see that my suit was tailor made, and that everything I wear today fits me perfectly. It is not vanity I wanted to show, but my warrior spirit, my warrior tonal.
"Those two old ladies gave you today your first tonal view. Life can as ruthless to you as it is with them, if you are careless with your tonal…" C.C.
REDUCING THE TONAL
Throughout his books, Castaneda tells a series of experiences he had with his teacher. Most amazing is that when grouping together these experiences, especially those relating Don Juan everyday life, we realize that Don Juan was in the tonal world, an ordinary human being. Who had a home and a job. Yes, Don Juan, the great nahual worked as anyone. On his tonal island, he was scrupulously impeccable. Nobody who saw Don Juan could believe he was a man of knowledge and in these tasks, this is one of the great Toltec teachings, be unnoticed in a crowd.
In this part of the books, Don Juan gives a lesson on the tonal and his world. He teaches him to be responsible for his acts, especially those while visiting him. Common humans are not usually responsible for most of our actions, because we act with "autopilot" and not realize what we do.
Teaches him that the personal tonal must be cared for and the tonal world is to be used. Toltecáyotl teaches a correct way of living. This form is achieved through "equilibrium" of the opposite and complementary pair that conforms the tonal world and that the Toltec knew by the Ometeótl principle, "the divine duality". Tonal and nagual are an opposing and complementary pair. So "equilibrium" is achieved through "measure". Without measure knowledge there is no possibility of achieving balance. This is the reason why, the Anahuac high studies school was called by the Toltecs, Calmécac, which in Nahuatl means "House of the measure".
The tonal world is everything we have and cannot be evaded. There is the battle field. The struggle to "polish the spirit" the Toltec metaphorically called, "The Florid Battle" and the weapons were "flower and song", understood as beauty and wisdom.
—"A basic warrior rule —he said— is making decisions with such care that nothing of what can happen as a result of them can surprise him, much less reduce his power. Being a warrior means being humble and alert...
—Let's say that a basic rule for you must be that, when you come to see me, come prepared to die —he said—. If you come prepared to die, there will be no falls, unpleasant surprises, nor unnecessary actions. All will gently fall in place, because you are not expecting anything...
A warrior never leaves the tonal island. He uses it.
He pointed around with a quick gesture, and then touched my notebook.
—This is your world. You cannot give it up. It is useless to get angry and disillusioned with ourselves. This simply and plainly prove that our tonal is wrapped in an internal battle; a battle within the tonal is one of the stupidest struggles that can occur. The adjusted life of a warrior is designed to end this struggle. From the beginning I have taught you to avoid fatigue and wear. Now there is no longer the war you had inside, because the warrior path is harmony: harmony between actions and decisions, at first, and then harmony between tonal and nagual..." C.C.
THE NAGUAL HOUR
Humans are obsessed with adjusting the world with the tonal rules. The tonal is the basis of what we are as men in this world of ideas and "solid" objects. The tonal, through what is called the "first ring of power", devises "the world" with reason. The tonal should be a "guard" to protect this vital part of us; however, the guard turns into such a jealous and exaggerated "guardian" in his task that blocks the other complementing part of us: the nagual.
The tonal spends all the energy we have on "the tonal island", there we accumulate many vanities and unnecessary objects. The effort to sustain the "ideas" of how is the world, how we are and how should others be, plus sustaining our compulsive need to "have" consumes all the energy we have. In order to "attest" the nagual requires having enough energy available, and this energy is obtained by "cleaning our tonal island".
The nagual and tonal world conform the human ambiance; that we cannot touch or recognize the first does not mean it does not exist. There are many ancient religions in the world that speak to us, with other words and other signs, of the nagual world and this is because it is an ancient and universal humanity knowledge. Knowledge that in the last 500 years has been denied by the western world due to its limited and arrogant seudo—rational scientific thinking.
The tonal and the nagual a pair of complementing opposites and this way of understanding the world has deep roots in the Anahuac civilization and in almost all ancient civilizations. The rational and the irrational are two facets that make up the totality of the human being; neither is more or less important than the other; on the contrary, they complement. For this reason, perhaps, modern man product of western culture have a slight dissatisfaction feeling originated by the fact of not being complete.
In the Toltecáyotl or Toltequity, the teacher and benefactor prepare the apprentice selected by the power, after a long training period with techniques to "cleanse the tonal island", to get him "out" of the tonal island and glimpse at the immeasurable and frightening nagual presence. In fact, all humans at the time of death, when the tonal island bubble breaks, are ravaged by the nagual uncontrollable force. Totality enters and melts us in its immensity.
For occidentals the irrational is something that must be surpassed and exterminated, as superiority is conceived from reason (men are rational animals). However, other civilizations in the world have developed "irrational" knowledge ways or not arising from reason. Toltequity is one of them.
As an interesting point, in this chapter, Don Juan tells Castaneda that when a man has learned to save energy, the power sends him a "teacher" to turn him into an apprentice, and when the apprentice manages to save more energy, the power sends him a "benefactor" to make him Toltec, nagual or "witch". Hence we believe that a Toltequity "reader" has enough work to just try to start the techniques that Castaneda mentions in "Journey to Ixtlán" to begin reducing his personal significance.
"The eyes may be windows to contemplate boredom or glimpse that infinity...
When you're in the tonal world, you should be an impeccable tonal; there is no time for irrational garbage. But when you are in the nagual world, you should also be impeccable; there is no time for rational shit...
"Nothing else I can tell you, except to follow all Genaro movements, without exhausting yourself. Now you are testing whether your tonal is full of trivialities. If your island has too many unnecessary objects, you will not be able to meet the nagual."
—What would happen to me?
—You could die. Nobody can survive a voluntary meeting with the nagual, without a long preparation. Takes years preparing the tonal for such a meeting. As a general rule, if a common man one day meets face to face with the nagual, the impression is so great that would kill him. The warrior preparation goal then is not to teach him spells or witchcraft, but to prepare his tonal so that he does not to fall on his nose. A most difficult enterprise. The Warrior should be taught to be impeccable and to be completely empty before he can even conceive attesting the nagual..." C.C.
THE NAGUAL WHISPER
As it was noted, the tonal is the basis of everything we are and we perceive as human beings. The common man must possess a "unity" in the tonal island. Without the consistency given by this unit, people can lose their "mind". Rationality of human being balance their world; it is the tonal instrument. For ordinary people it is enough to live with "half" of their potential; they settle for it because that world is regularly safe and comfortable. But human beings who wants to live with their self-totality, must enter the dangerous and comprehensive Toltequity or "witchcraft" path. Breaking the tonal unity, its coherence and rationality, if not carefully done, can put humans in serious danger.
The tonal is very fragile and does not allow to lose "control" of reality. Even so, Toltequity proposes, as a path, to open and reduce the tonal island, but without hurting it or destroying it. To make the tonal "flexible and tolerant" we must free it from all the "energy trash " that we have been collecting for life and we have been saving in the island, up to the rim and thus we consume all the energy we have.
A warrior understands that he has very little time on Earth and that he can die any time; therefore he knows he must clean his island through energy savings to be able to enter the other part of himself, the nagual.
The warrior above all seeks achieving totality; he knows there is only time for impeccability; all else exhausts his power, impeccability renews it permanently. Impeccability comprises making everything we do the best way possible; in other words, the constant and systematic energy saving, constant saving that accumulates and lies the "personal power".
"You should worry about the nagual only in certain moments —he said—. The rest of the time, you and I are like any other people in this world...
—I have never forbid you to talk —he said—. We can talk about the nagual all you wish, provided you do not try to explain it. If you remember correctly, I said that the nagual is only to be witnessed. So we can talk about what we witnessed and how we witnessed. But you want to deal with the explanation of how is all that possible, and that is an abomination. You want to explain the nagual with the tonal. This is stupid, especially in your case, because you can no longer hide you in your ignorance. You know very well that we make sense talking only because we stay within certain boundaries, and these borders do not apply to the nagual...
The aim of a witch is to endure; in other words, he does not run unnecessary risks, that is why spend years sweeping his island as long as he can until, sort of, he escapes from it...
—An immortal being has all the time in the world for doubts, uncertainty and fears. A warrior, instead, cannot cling to significance made under the tonal orders, the warrior knows with certainty that totality of himself only has a little time on this earth
—A warrior cannot feel helpless —he said—. Confused nor frightened under any circumstances. For a warrior, there is only time for his impeccability; everything else exhausts his power, impeccability renews it...
—Impeccability is doing the best you can in what you do...
The key to all these impeccability issues is the sense of having or not having time. As a general rule, when you feel and act as an immortal being who has all the time in the world, you are not impeccable; at the time you should look around and then you will realize that your sense of time is an idiocy. "There are no survivors on this earth!..." C.C.
THE WINGS OF PERCEPTION
Don Juan said that, apart from discipline, what could help the knowledge path is sensitivity. Generally in the tonal and reason world there are sudden "flashes" of another kind of reality perception; as Don Juan would say: "nagual whispers". To let the nagual whispers guide we must stop our internal dialogue and open the perception wings.
"If you saw what is in my house, you would realize that I know too much to be a common man, but if I saw me with the nagual, you would realize I do not know enough...
—There is no future! —he exclaimed—, sharply. The future is nothing but a manner of speaking. For a witch there is only here and now..." Don Juan.
THE WITCHES EXPLANATION
THREE NAGUAL WITNESSES
Every apprentice has a Toltequity teacher of our times. But at a learning time, when the apprentice has saved energy through changing his lifestyle in the everyday world, due to energy savings. The apprentice will find his benefactor, who will introduce him to the wonderful and frightening nagual world.
The first thing a benefactor is making the apprentice "witnessing" the nagual. Thus in his book, Castaneda tells us how Don Genaro makes a "demonstration" on a cliff for Pablito, Nestor and Castaneda, about the nagual world through his body. The objective is the apprentice to verify "with his eyes and senses", that what he learned to call world, "is not so real and is not so there". That the “world” is just a "description" which allows us to socialize with it, and that the world actually is only an infinite number of energy charges and the human being, in that world is just another energy charge.
"It was not a man as I usually see them. Rather it was a ball of white fire, covered by something like light fibers. I shook my head; the double image dissipated, and however the vision of don Juan and don Genaro persisted as luminous beings. I saw two strange elongated objects, made of light. They looked like white, iridescent balloons with fibers and the fibers had their own light.
The two luminous beings shook; saw their fibers tremble, and then disappeared as an exhalation. A long filament pulled them, a spider thread that seemed to emerge from the top of the cliff. The feeling I had was a long beam of light, or a bright line, had come down from the rock to raise them. I saw the sequence with eyes and the body..." C.C.
THE STRATEGY OF A WITCH
Castaneda tells Don Juan about the extraordinary events of the previous day. Don Juan explains the apprentice that he at last "opened his perception wings" and witnessed the nagual. This was possible, since Castaneda was complying with the teachings, by which the teacher seeks to help the apprentice "sweep" and regroup the tonal island, so the benefactor can influence the luminous sphere from outside in the nagual area.
Upon reaching this point, the teacher has to explain what will be "the witches explanation".
—“The years of hard training are only a preparation for the devastating warrior encounter with... He paused again, looked at me with shrinking the eyes, and fumbled his tongue.
—...with what is out there, beyond this point —he said—.
I asked him to explain his ominous phrases.
—The witches explanation, which does not seem an explanation at all, is mortal —said—. Seems harmless and charming, but as soon as the warrior opens to it, it discharges a blow that nobody can stop...
—I will begin by telling you that a teacher never looks for apprentices and no one can apply for the teachings...
The first teacher’s act is to introduce the idea that the world we believe to see is only a vision, a description of the world. Every effort of the teacher goes to prove this point to the apprentice. But to accept it seems to be one of the most difficult things to do; we are complacently trapped in our unique vision of the world, which compels us to feel and act as if we knew everything there is to know about the world. From his first act the teacher intends to stop this vision. Witches call this stopping internal dialogue, and are convinced that this is the most important technique an apprentice can learn.
"To stop this vision of the world that one has had from the cradle, it is not enough that one simply has the desire, or makes a resolution...
—Erasing the personal history and reverie should be only be an aid —he said—. What an apprentice needs to shore up is sobriety and strength. This is why a teacher talks about the warrior path, or living as a warrior. This is the glue that sticks all the parts of the witches world. The teacher must forge and develop it gradually. There is no possibility of resisting the knowledge path without strength and serenity...
—The teacher must teach the apprentice another responsibility, yet more subtle: the possibility of acting without believing, without expecting a reward, acting just for acting..." C.C.
For the westernized Mexicans to accept, not the validity of the knowledge path, as Don Juan puts it, but the existence of some value in indigenous cultures, becomes a reckless challenge. "Mexicans" during the last 500 years have learned, first from foreigners and later from "Creoles", to belittle and deny our roots and our culture. For "Mexicans" the indigenous peoples represent the last place in the social scale. Indigenous peoples have always been a nuisance for "advancement and a stain on modernity" of foreigners and Creoles.
The only cultural heritage recognized by "creoles" and "Mexicans" is the "AESTHETIC" value of the material vestiges left by the remote indigenous cultures of the past. Even so, the spiritual value and possession of a knowledge form, not based on reason has lived underground, not only in groups of men and women of knowledge, but in the collective subconscious of the peoples that make up our ethnic and popular cultures. The work of Castaneda has had greater echo in other countries, which free of these prejudices, they have taken the teachings of Don Juan with greater respect and interest.
Anthropology is what has denied the most any value in the Castaneda work, primarily because it is a colonizer science which seeks to know and explain "the others" from an implicit superiority point of view. The Castaneda work is not anthropological or literary, but reveals another knowledge form, developed by the ancient peoples of the Anahuac.
There are people who think that all this is quackery or the product of the mind of a talented and creative writer, or is assumed as a matter of Messianic or justification to use hallucinogens. We believe that it is the survival of ancient knowledge, which was part of the structure of the ancient Mexico knowledge and that has secretively survived through the oral culture, obviously with many changes required to overcome these 500 years of persecution.
The Castaneda work is an act of "Toltec witchcraft" (Toltec wisdom). Don Juan by designs of the power, used Castaneda to let reason know, the knowledge of our ancestors, where "witchcraft" converts oral tradition into written culture: "witchcraft" faces reason through books. As a result, truly "reasonable" men see these books more seriously and respectfully.
Don Juan says that a Toltec knowledge teacher is never looking for apprentices and nobody may request the teachings, since there are few people willing to take this knowledge seriously; and of the few who take it seriously, even fewer are willing to strive and discipline; of them, even less manage to save enough energy to take advantage of their acts.
Therefore, the "witches" explanation is one of the important points in the apprentice path. The explanation is not something that can or should be understood; it is, something that has to be lived, intimately and deeply, with the entire body. To enter this explanation we will say that for the Toltec world consists of energy charges; as a result, every human being is an energy charge, a luminous egg composed of a multiplicity of luminous fibers; this "egg" has two parts: one called tonal call and another nagual, and all the energy available to man is used in sustaining the world —both, of objects and concepts— through his reason.
The tonal has a permanent relationship with the energy charges surrounding him; he sort of turns them into objects and to do so uses all the energy he has; Don Juan also calls this "the first power ring". The apprentice must regroup the elements of the tonal island, for which he will need to change the view of the world he had from birth; to achieve this he needs to "stop the internal dialogue", for example stop using energy in sustaining the world of "objects and concepts" that adjust to our reason.
—What do you mean by clean up and rearrange the tonal island? —I asked—.
—I mean the total change of which I have spoken from the first day we met —said—. I have told you countless times that you needed a drastic change if you wanted to succeed in the knowledge path. This change is not a change of mood, attitude, or what one expects in life; this change implies the transformation of the tonal island. You have accomplished that task. C.C.
To achieve this, Don Juan taught Castaneda two techniques or activities: erasing personal history and "reverie". However, points out that these two techniques are noting but support, because what an apprentice needs is sobriety and inner strength that are implicit in the warrior path.
To help erase personal history, the apprentice is taught three other support techniques, these are: losing personal importance, take responsibility and use death as an adviser. And, for "reverie" there are other three support techniques: breaking life routines, the power walk and the "not do".
When applying these techniques impeccably in everyday life, the tonal island regroups when clean, the apprentice will learn how to save energy and this will give him a strange power which Don Juan called "will" and its located in the lower part of the navel. The will is the strength or the means by which the warrior can act in the nagual. Don Juan says that witches, when using the will, expand their vision of the world, use a resource that has always been there, but we never learn to use.
Witches explanation says that men live in a bubble, that we were put there the moment of our birth, which was then open, but that gradually closed down. That bubble is the perception and we live inside our entire life and all we find in its walls is a reflection of ourselves; this reflection is "our world vision". This vision description, when we were kids, was given to us by our family and human beings surrounding us, so our entire attention is trapped in it and that description, since adolescence, we transform into "our own vision of the world".
The task of a teacher is to prepare the apprentice to rearrange that vision, which is the tonal island. When the apprentice achieves this point, the benefactor intervenes —another witch— to help the apprentice from the outside the bubble or tonal island. The teacher works with the tonal and the benefactor with the nagual. This delicate maneuver opens the perception bubble and allows the luminous being obtain a glimpse of his totality. When the bubble opens and men perceives his totality, will never again be the same and everything will be different.
"the teacher must teach the apprentice another possibility, yet more subtle: the possibility of acting without believing, without expecting reward; acting just for acting...
What an apprentice needs to shore up is sobriety and strength...
The warrior considers death a more treatable counselor, who can also become the witness all we do, just as self-compassion or anger...
I meant that one can only reach oneself totality when one fully understands that the world is just a vision...
Said that not wanting anything was the best achievement of a warrior..." C.C.
When the warrior becomes aware that he is a luminous being is when he realizes that he is an energy charge, but that he also has a weak "membrane" that separates him from all other energy, membrane that is composed of the tonal island and his vision of the world. But he also knows that he can open the membrane to join all the other energy with his own conscience and later, upon returning, being able to say that he "understood" the witches explanation.
"—He is losing personal importance —said—. That is why he looks younger...
In the life of a warrior there is only one thing, a single issue which in reality is not determined: how far can one go in the knowledge and power path...
Impeccability is really the only act which is free and, therefore, the true measure of a warrior spirit..." C.C.
THE PERCEPTION BUBBLE
The perception bubble is in the tonal and it is there where all our feelings are structured; location of our "unified organization" of the millions of atoms which have the will to shape our unity. When we are born the "cluster" is formed and disintegrates and returns to the place of origin when we die. What witches do when entering the nagual is very similar to death, except that the "cluster" does not disintegrate but expands without losing its union.
Witches through Toltequity, can enter the nagual from a point they call "the will", which allows them to expand their cluster and let it organize and reorganize in all possible ways, and return from the nagual to the tonal island (This is what Castaneda manages when he leaps from a mountain, and concluding his learning of the tonal side). That is the moment in which a warrior becomes a man of knowledge, given that he has achieved impeccability on the tonal island, and humbly seeks total freedom in the nagual.
"And your perception deployed its wings when something in you realized your true nature. You are a cluster."
"This is the witches explanation. The nagual is the unpronounceable. All the feelings and all beings, and all the one-self’s that are possible float in him forever, as boats, calm and constant. Then the glue of life glues some of them...
When life glue sticks to those feelings a being is created, a being that loses the sense of his true nature and blinds with the brightness and the clamor from the area where the beings are: the tonal. The tonal is where the unified organization exists. A being enters the tonal once life force has joined the needed feelings. Once I told you that the tonal begins at birth and ends at death; I said it because I know that, as soon as the life-force leaves the body, all these isolated pieces or that form the cluster disintegrate and return to the site of origin: the nagual. What a warrior does when traveling into the unknown resembles death, except that his cluster of isolated feelings does not disintegrates, but it expands a little without losing the union. In death, however, they all sink deep down and move on their own, as if they never had been a unity...
The witches explanation says that each of us has a center from which we can witness the nagual: the will. Thus, a warrior can venture into the nagual and allow the cluster to organize and reorganize in all possible forms...
I have called this cluster the perception bubble. I have also said that it is sealed, tightly closed, and that it never opens until the moment we die. However, you can open it. Obviously the witches have learned the secret, and although not all reach self-totality, they know the possibility of reaching it..." C.C.
THE WARRIORS PREDILECTION
This is one of the most intense and emotional moments, and where the first part of the education ends. Carlos Castaneda will have to enter the nagual and to do so, he and his companions are at an imposing and wonderful site, full of strength and power. It is a hill that the Toltec worked shaping it into a pyramid; this place is located east of the towns where the other apprentices lived and which are divided by a deep ravine; trying to reach the top of the Hill is almost like climbing a wall. The Hill has a Zapotec name that relates to internal fire and is located in the Juarez Sierra of Oaxaca.
It is one of the decisive parts in the Toltec knowledge path. The apprentice will pass alone, for the first time to the nagual world and here says goodbye to his teacher and benefactor; the apprentice will follow the path, and will do it without their valuable company; will have to only rely on knowledge "saved" on his left side and therefore will have to “remember” all he earned on the part of the "increased" consciousness and "assemble" all knowledge into a single unit.
Don Juan warns Castaneda that he will have to enter the nagual with the force of his personal power and two things can happen at the encounter: that never returns, or he return to accomplish a task assigned by the power. Once the task is accomplished, regardless of its outcome, will achieve control of his totality.
Don Juan tells him a story to illustrate how he should live while expecting the fulfillment of his task and tells him that for such waiting and task the only thing the warrior has is his humility, his impeccability and sobriety. That he should direct all his personal power to efficiently accomplish the power designated task. Only having that internal strength, the warrior can defeat the "shooters of the unknown".
In this task the warrior cannot avoid pain because he is a human being, but what he can avoid is surrender to it. For this task is alone, this is our real condition. But to die alone, is dying in desolation, says Don Juan. A warrior who enters the unknown maintains a sense of humility, impeccability and efficiency that strengthen and prepares his spirit.
Don Juan advises Castaneda that, when he returns to his task, loves earth because it is a living being that feels and understands, and that it will teach him what freedom is. Don Juan says that without such a love to the being (earth) that hosts us, provides food and everything we need, the path solitude becomes desolation. Loving this be splendid and wonderful being that earth is, the warrior can give freedom, joy and abandon to his spirit against any mishap in his task fulfillment.
Don Juan bids farewell to Castaneda before he jumps from a platform of the "great pyramid". Below is a huge and profound void; in the distance, the Ixtlán mountains. Castaneda will test his learning and must have the strength and courage to jump into the abyss knowing that instead of crashing and die, he could expand his cluster and enter the nagual world. Before Castaneda runs and jump into the void, Don Juan tells him that he will return be dust on the road and that maybe someday will again enter his eyes.
"There are many ways to say goodbye —continued—. Perhaps the best is holding a special joy memory...
—You have already learned that a warrior temper is to be humble and efficient —said don Genaro, and his voice made me jump—. You have already learned to act without expecting nor asking anything in return...
—A warrior recognizes his pain but does not surrender to it —said don Juan—. So the feeling of a warrior entering the unknown is not sorrow; on the contrary, he is happy because he feels humble before his fortune, confident of his spirit impeccability, and above all, fully aware of his efficiency. The warrior joy is accepting his fate, and having accurately figured what to expect...
—A warrior life in no way can be cold, lonely and without feelings —he said—, because it is based on affection, his piety, his dedication to whom he loves. And whom, might you ask, is that beloved? I will show right now...
—Genaro’s love is the world —said—. Right now he is embracing this huge land, but being so small, he can only swim in it. But earth knows that Genaro loves her and therefore she looks after him. This is why Genaro life is full to the brim and his status, wherever he is, will always be abundance. Genaro walks the paths of his beloved, and wherever he is, he is complete.
—Don Juan squatted in front of us. Gently caressed the ground.
—This is the warriors predilection —he said—. This land, this world. For a warrior there can be no greater love...
—Only if one loves this land with uncompromising passion can one get rid of sadness —said don Juan—. A warrior is always happy because his love is immutable and his beloved, the land, embraces him and gives him inconceivable things. Sadness belongs only to those who hate the being that hosts them.
—Don Juan again caressed the ground tenderly.
—This beautiful being, fully alive and understands every feeling, gave me affection, cured my pain, and finally, when I finally understood all my love for her, taught me what freedom is...
You have reached the witches explanation, but it does not really matter that you know it. You are lonelier than ever, because without a constant love for the being that hosts you, solitude is desolation.
Only loving this be splendid being may turn the spirit of a warrior free; and freedom is joy, efficiency, and abandon against any destiny onslaught. This is the last lesson. It is always left for the last moment, for the moment of supreme desolation in which a man faces his death and his loneliness. Only then it makes sense..." C.C.
- ↑ Approximately in the year 850 CE., from Zacatecas to Nicaragua, the knowledge centers, today called archaeological sites, were completely destroyed, its ruins covered and the people who inhabited them literally disappeared. It is thus far not known, why they did it, how did they do it and where did they go. Quetzalcoatl left the Anahuac promising he would return in year “Uno caña”, it was 1519 CE.
- ↑ To hold at will the position of the "joining point" that moves during dreams. Having control over dreams and use it while awake. A Toltec technique to generate knowledge.