Six Explanatory Propositions: From The Eagle’s Gift, By Carlos Castaneda

[Apech]

https://www.jasoncain.net/blogs/sep

 

 

Quote

 

1) What we perceive as the world are the Eagle's emanations.

Don Juan explained to me that the world we perceive does not have a transcendental existence. Since we are familiarized with it we believe that what we perceive is a world of objects which exist such as we perceive them, when in reality there is not a world of objects, but, rather, a universe of Eagle's emanations.

These emanations represent the only immutable reality. It is a reality that encompasses all that is, perceivable and unperceivable, knowable and unknowable.

Seers who see the Eagle's emanations call them commands because of their urging force. All living creatures are urged to use the emanations, and they use them without getting to know what they are. Ordinary men interpret them as reality. And seers who see the emanations interpret them as the rule.

In spite that seers see the emanations, they don't have a way of knowing what it is they are seeing. Instead of entangling themselves with useless conjectures, seers occupy themselves in the functional speculation of how the Eagle's commands can be interpreted. Don Juan sustained that to intuit a reality which transcends the world we perceive stays at the level of conjecture; it is not enough for a warrior to conjecture that the Eagle's commands are instantly perceived by all creatures that live on Earth, and that none of them perceives them in the same way. Warriors must try to behold the flow of emanations and "see" the way in which man and other living beings use it to build their perceptual world.

When I proposed to use the word "description" instead of Eagle’s emanations, Don Juan said that he was not making a metaphor. He said that the word "description" connotes a human agreement, and that what we perceive stems from a command in which human agreements do not count.

 

 

2) Attention is what makes us perceive the Eagle's emanations as the action of skimming.

Don Juan used to say that perception is a physical faculty that living creatures groom; the final result of this grooming is known, among seers, as "attention". Don Juan described attention as the action of hooking and channeling perception. He said that this action is our most singular feat, which covers all the spectrum of human alternatives and possibilities. Don Juan established a precise distinction between alternatives and possibilities. Human alternatives are those that we are enabled to choose as persons who function within the social environment. Our landscape of this dominion is quite limited. Human possibilities are those that we are capable of achieving as luminous beings.

Don Juan revealed to me a classificatory scheme of three types of attention, emphasizing that calling them "types" was erroneous. In fact, they are three levels of knowledge: first, second and third attention; each one of them an independent dominion, complete in itself.

For a warrior that is in the initial stages of his learning, the first attention is the most important of the three. Don Juan said that his explanatory propositions were attempts to bring into first frame the way in which the first attention works, which is something that passes completely unnoticed by us. He considered that is was imperative for warriors to understand the nature of the first attention if they were going to venture into the other two.

He explained to me that the first attention has been taught how to move instantly through a whole spectrum of the Eagle's emanations, without emphasizing at all that fact, in order to reach "perceptual units" which all of us have learned that are perceivable. Seers call this feat "skimming", because it implies the capability of suppressing those emanations which are superfluous and selecting which of them must be emphasized.

Don Juan explained this process taking as an example the mountain that we were seeing at that moment. He stressed that my first attention, at the moment of seeing the mountain, had skimmed an infinite number of emanations to obtain a miracle of perception; a skimming that all human beings know because each one of them has attained it by himself.

Seers contend that everything the first attention suppresses to obtain a skimming, cannot be recovered anymore by the first attention under any condition. Once we learn to perceive in terms of skimming’s, our senses stop registering the superfluous emanations. To elucidate this point he gave me the example of the skimming: "human body". He said that our first attention is totally unconscious of the emanations that compose the external luminous shield of the physical body. Our oval cocoon is not subjected to perception; those emanations have been rejected which would make it perceivable in benefit of those which allow the first attention to perceive the physical body such as we know it.

Therefore, the perceptual goal that children must achieve as they grow up consists in learning to isolate the appropriate emanations to be able to channel their chaotic perception and transform it into the first attention; in doing so, they learn how to build skimming’s. All grown up human beings who surround children teach them how to skim. Sooner or later, children learn to control their first attention in order to perceive skimming’s in terms which are alike to those of their teachers.

Don Juan never ceased to be amazed at the capability of human beings to bring order into the chaos of perception. He contended that all of us, by his/her own merits, is a magisterial magician and that our magic consists in rendering reality to the skimming that our first attention has learned how to build. The fact that we perceive in terms of skimming is the Eagle's command, but to perceive the commands as objects is our power, our magical gift. Our fallacy, on the other hand, is that we always end up being one-sided when forgetting that skimming’s are only real in terms that we perceive them as real, due to the power that we have to do it. Don Juan called this an error in judgment, which destroys the richness of our mysterious origins.

 

 

3) The skimming’s are made sense of by the first ring of power.

Don Juan used to say that the first ring of power is the force that stems from the Eagle's emanations to affect exclusively our first attention. He explained that it has been represented as a "ring " because of its dynamism, of its uninterrupted movement. It has been called ring "of power" due to, first, its compulsive character, and, second, because of its unique ability to stop its works, to change them or reverse their direction.

The compulsive character is better shown in the fact that it doesn't only urge the first attention to build and perpetuate skimming’s, but it also demands a consensus from all the participants. Each one of us is demanded a complete agreement upon the faithful reproduction of skimming’s, since conformity to the first ring of power must be total.

It is precisely this conformity which gives us the certainty that skimming’s are objects which exist as such, independent from our perception. Besides, the compulsiveness of the first ring of power does not cease after the initial agreement, but it demands that we continuously renovate the agreement. Our whole life we must operate as if, for example, each one of our skimming’s was perceptually the first one for each human being, in spite of languages and cultures. Don Juan granted that even if all this is too serious to be taken jokingly, the urging character of the first ring of power is so intense that forces us to believe that if the "mountain" could have an awareness of its own, it would consider itself as the skimming that we have learned how to build.

The most valuable feature that the first ring of power bears to a warrior is the singular capability of interrupting its flux of energy, or to totally suspend it. Don Juan said that this is a latent capability which exists within us all as a backup unit. In our narrow world of skimming’s, there is no need to use it. Since we are so efficiently buttressed and shielded by the net of the first attention, we do not realize, not even vaguely, that we have hidden resources. However, if another alternative to follow would present itself to us, such as is the warrior's option to use the second attention, the latent capability of the first ring of power could start to function and could be used with spectacular results.

Don Juan underlined that the biggest feat of sorcerers is the process of activating this latent capability; he called it blocking the intent of the first ring of power. He explained to me that the Eagle's emanations, which have already been isolated by the first attention in order to build the everyday world, exert an unbending pressure upon the first attention. For this pressure to stop its activity, the intent must be displaced. Seers call this an obstruction or an interruption of the first ring of power.

 

 

4) Intent is the force that moves the first ring of power.

Don Juan explained to me that intent doesn't refer to have an intention, or to want one thing or the other, but rather has to do with an imponderable force that makes us behave in ways which could be described as intentions, wishing, volition, etc. Don Juan didn't bring it forth as a condition of being, stemming from oneself, such as is a habit produced by socialization, or a biological reaction, but rather brought it forth as a private, intimate force that we possess and use individually as a key that makes the first ring of power move in acceptable ways. Intent is what directs our first attention in order for it to focus on the Eagle's emanations within a certain frame. And intent is also what commands the first ring of power to obstruct or interrupt its flux of energy.

Don Juan suggested me to conceive intent as an invisible force which exists in the universe, without receiving itself, but still affecting everything: force that creates and sustains skimming’s.

He asserted that skimming’s must be incessantly recreated to be imbued with continuity. In order to recreate them each time with the freshness that they need to build a living world, we must intend them each time we build them. For instance, we must intend the "mountain" along with all its complexities for the skimming to be fully materialized. Don Juan said that, for a spectator, who behaves exclusively based upon the first attention without the intervention of intent, the "mountain" would appear as an entirely different skimming. It could appear as the skimming "geometric form" or "amorphous spot of color". For the skimming mountain to be completed, the spectator must intend it, whether it is unconsciously through the urging force of the first ring of power, or premeditatedly, through the warrior's training.

Don Juan pointed to me the three ways in which intent comes to us. The most predominating one is known by seers as "the intent of the first ring of power". This is a blind intent which comes to us by chance. It is as if we were in its way, or as if intent was in ours. Inevitably we find ourselves trapped in its net without having the least control of what is happening to us.

The second way is when intent comes to us by its own. This requires a considerable amount of purpose, a sense of determination on our part. Only in our capability as warriors we can put ourselves voluntarily in the way of intent; we summon it, so to speak. Don Juan explained to me that his insistence in being an impeccable warrior was nothing more than an effort to let intent know that he is putting himself in its way.

Don Juan used to say that warriors call this phenomenon "power”. Thus when they speak of having personal power, they are referring to the intent that comes to them voluntarily. The outcome, he used to say to me, can be described as the facility to find new solutions, or the facility to affect people or events. It is as if other possibilities, previously unknown by the warrior, suddenly become apparent. In this way, an impeccable warrior never plans anything ahead, but his actions are so decisive that it seems as if the warrior had calculated beforehand each facet of his activity.

The third way in which we find intent is the most rare and complex of the three; it occurs when intent allows us to harmonize with it. Don Juan described this state as the real moment of power: the culmination of a lifetime effort in search of impeccability. Only supreme warriors obtain it, and as long as they are in such state, intent lets itself be handled by them at will. It is as if intent had fused in those warriors, and in doing so it transforms them into a pure force, without preconceptions. Seers call this state the "intent of the second ring of power", or "will".

 

 

5) The first ring of power can be stopped by a functional blocking of the capability of building skimming’s.

Don Juan used to say that the function of the not-doings is to create an obstruction in the usual focus of out first attention. The not-doings are, in this sense, maneuvers destined to prepare the first attention for the functional blocking of the first ring of power, or, in other words, for the interruption of intent.

Don Juan explained to me that this functional blocking, which is the only method to systematically use the latent capability of the first ring of power, represents a temporal interruption that the benefactor creates in the disciple's capability for building skimming’s. It is a premeditated and powerful artificial intrusion into the first attention, in order to push it beyond the appearances which the known skimming’s present to us; this intrusion is accomplished by interrupting the intent of the first ring of power.

Don Juan used to say that in order to achieve this interruption, the benefactor treats intent as what it really is, a flux, a current of energy that can eventually be stopped or reoriented. An interruption of this nature, however, implies a commotion of such magnitude that can force the first ring of power to stop fully; a situation which is impossible to conceive under our normal life conditions. It is unthinkable to us that we can un-walk the steps we took when we consolidated our perception, but it is feasible that under the impact of this interruption we could place ourselves in a perceptual position very similar to the one of our beginnings, when the Eagle's commands were emanations which we still had not imbued with significance.

Don Juan used to say that any procedure the benefactor could use to create this interruption must be intimately linked with his personal power. Therefore, a benefactor doesn't use any process to handle intent, but rather moves it and makes it available to the apprentice trough his personal power.

In my case, Don Juan achieved the functional blocking of the first ring of power through a complex process, which combined three methods: the ingestion of hallucinogenic plants, manipulation of the body and maneuvering with intent itself.

In the beginning Don Juan relied strongly upon the ingestion of hallucinogenic plants, apparently due to the persistence of my rational side. The effect was tremendous, and yet retarded the sought for interruption. The fact that the plants were hallucinogenic offered my reason the perfect justification to congregate all of its available resources to continue exerting control. I was convinced that I could logically explain anything that I was experiencing, along with the inconceivable feats that Don Juan and Don Genaro used to do to create the interruptions, as perceptual distortions caused by the ingestion of hallucinogenic plants.

Don Juan used to say that the most remarkable effect of hallucinogenic plants was something that every time I ingested them I interpreted as the peculiar feeling that everything around me oozed a surprising richness. There were colors, forms, details that I had never beheld before. Don Juan used this increment in my ability to perceive, and, through a series of commands and comments used to force me to enter a state of nervous restlessness. Afterwards he manipulated my body and made me shift from one side of awareness to the other, until I had created phantasmagorical visions or absolutely real scenes with tridimensional creatures that could not possibly exist in this world.

Don Juan explained to me that once the direct relation between intent and the skimming’s we are constructing is broken, it cannot ever be repaired. From that moment on we acquire the ability to catch a current of what he described as "phantom intent", or the intent of the skimming’s which are not present at the moment or place of the interruption, this is to say, an intent put at our disposal through some aspect of memory.

Don Juan asserted that with the interruption of the intent of the first ring of power we become receptive and moldable; a nagual can then introduce the intent of the second ring of power. Don Juan was convinced that children of a certain age find themselves in a similar situation of receptivity; being deprived of intent, they are ready to be imprinted with any intent which is available to the teachers who surround them.

After my period of continuos ingestion of hallucinogenic plants, Don Juan totally discontinued its use. However, he obtained new and more dramatic interruptions in myself manipulating my body and making me shift states of awareness, combining all this with maneuvers with intent itself. Through a combination of mesmerizing instructions and adequate comments, Don Juan created a current of “phantom intent" and I was lead to experience common skimming’s as something unimaginable. He conceptualized all this as "glancing into the immensity of the Eagle".

Don Juan masterfully lead me through countless interruptions of intent until he was convinced, as a seer, that my body showed the effects of the functional blocking of the first ring of power. He said that he could see a unusual activity around the area of the shoulder blades. He described it as a little hole that had formed exactly as if the luminosity was a muscular layer contracted by a nerve.

To me, the effect of the functional blocking of the first ring of power was that it managed to erase the certainty which I had all my life that what my senses reported was "real". Quietly I entered a state of inner silence. Don Juan used to say that what gives warriors that extreme uncertainty that his benefactor had experienced at the end of his life, that resignation to failure that he himself was living, is the fact that one glance into the immensity of the Eagle leaves one without hope. Hope is the result of our familiarity with skimming’s and the idea that we control them. In such moments only the warrior's life can help us to persevere in our efforts to discover that which the Eagle has concealed from us, but without hope that we can get to understand what we discover.

 

 

6) The second attention.

Don Juan explained to me that the examination of the second attention must begin with the realization that the force of the first ring of power, which boxes us in, is a physical, concrete edge. Seers have described it as a wall of fog, a barrier that can be systematically brought to our awareness by means of the blocking of the first ring of power; and then can be perforated by means of the warrior's training.

After perforating this wall of fog, one enters a broad intermediate state. The task of the warriors then consists in going through it until they reach the next divisory line, which must be perforated in order to enter what it is properly the other self or the second attention.

Don Juan used to say that the two divisory lines are perfectly recognizable. When warriors perforate the wall of fog they feel that their bodies are squeezed, or they feel an intense shaking in the cavity of their bodies, generally to the right of the stomach or through the middle part, from right to left. When warriors perforate the second line, they feel an acute crack on the upper part of the body, something like the sound of a dry bough that is broken in two.

The two lines that box in both attentions, and individually seal them, are known to seers as the parallel lines. These seal both attentions by means of the fact that they extend into infinity, without ever allowing the crossing unless they are perforated.

Between both lines there exists an area of specific awareness that seers call limbo, or the world between the parallel lines. It is a real space between two huge orders of the Eagle's emanations; emanations which are within the human possibilities of awareness. One is the level which creates the self of everyday life, and the other is the level which creates the other self. Since the limbo is a transitional zone, there both fields of emanations extend one upon the other. The fraction of the level which is known to us, that extends into that area, hooks a portion of the first ring of power; and the capability of the first ring of power to build skimming’s makes us perceive a series of skimming’s in the limbo which are almost as those of everyday life, except that they appear grotesque, uncanny and contorted. In this manner the limbo has specific features that do not change arbitrarily each time that one goes into it. There exist in it physical features which resemble the skimming’s of everyday life.

Don Juan sustained that the feeling of heaviness experienced in the limbo is due to the growing burden that has been placed on the first attention. In the area located right behind the wall of fog, we can still behave as we do normally; it is as if we were in a grotesque but recognizable world. As we penetrate further into it, beyond the wall of fog, it becomes progressively difficult to recognize the features or to behave in terms of the known self.

He explained to me that it was possible to make that instead of the wall of fog anything else appeared, but that seers have opted for accentuating that which consumes less energy: to visualize the wall of fog does not demand any effort.

What exists beyond the second divisory line is known by seers as the second attention, or the other self, or the parallel world; and the action of going through both edges is known as "crossing the parallel lines".

Don Juan thought that I could assimilate this concept more firmly if he described each dominion of awareness as a specific perceptual predisposition. He told me that in the territory of everyday awareness we are inescapably entangled into the specific perceptual predisposition of the first attention.

From the moment in which the first ring of power begins to build skimming’s, the way of building them becomes our normal perceptual predisposition. Breaking the unifying force of the first attention implies to break the first divisory line. The normal perceptual predisposition passes then into the intermediate area which is between the parallel lines. One keeps building almost normal skimming’s for some time. But as one approaches what seers call the second divisory line, the perceptual predisposition of the first attention begins to recede, it loses strength. Don Juan used to say that this transition is marked by a sudden incapability of remembering or understanding what one is doing.

When one gets closer to the second divisory line, the second attention begins to act on the warriors who undertake the voyage. If they are inexperienced, their awareness is emptied, it goes blank. Don Juan held that this occurs because they are approaching a spectrum of the Eagle's emanations which has not yet a systematized perceptual predisposition. My experiences with la Gorda and the nagual woman beyond the wall of fog were an example of this incapability. I traveled as far as the other self, but I couldn't account on what we had done for the simple reason that my second attention was still unformulated and it did not give me the opportunity of formulating all I had perceived.

Don Juan explained to me that one begins to activate the second ring of power by forcing the second attention to wake from its slumber. The functional blocking of the first ring of power achieves this. Then, the task of the teacher consists in recreating the condition which started the first ring of power, the condition of being saturated with intent. The first ring of power is put in motion by the force of the intent given by those who teach how to skim. As my teacher he was giving me, then, a new intent which would create a new perceptual environment.

Don Juan said that it takes a lifetime of unceasing discipline, which seers call unbending intent, to prepare the second ring of power to be able to build skimming’s which belong to another level of the Eagle's emanations. To dominate the perceptual predisposition of the parallel self is a feat of peerless value which few warriors achieve. Silvio Manuel was one of those few.

Don Juan warned me that one must not attempt to deliberately dominate it. If this happens, it must be through a natural process which unfolds itself without much effort from our part. He explained to me that the reason for this indifference lies on the practical consideration that when it is dominated it simply becomes very difficult to break, since the goal that warriors actively pursuit is to break both perceptual predispositions to enter the final freedom of the third attention.

And if you want to delve deeper into the works of Carlos Castaneda. Then I also have a number of podcasts and blogs on my web site that explore this and similar ideas, simply follow the Link in the description.

All right. So this podcast was The Six Explanatory Propositions, which were included in the Spanish language version of the Eagle's Gift by Carlos Castaneda, but were never published in the English versions of the book and I hope that this reading supports your in your understanding of Toltec sorcery practices, and if you have any questions.

 

 

 

[Apech]

Yeah , yeah I know - fraud, hoax etc.  but I keep coming back to these books and I always learn something amazing.

 

 

[silent thunder]

Appreciate the share. 

 

I've not encountered or pursued much of these teachings, though when encountered, they stir resonance within awareness.

[manitou]

On 8/31/2023 at 2:36 PM, Apech said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aah, apech!  Thank you for posting this!  It is wonderful!  I think you and I both have a history with Mr. Castaneda, he certainly put my feet on a path.

 

Wisdom is wisdom.  It seems to me that Wei Wu Wei is none other than what he describes as "phantom intent".  This is a point where there has been a type of soul surrender, to get into the second attention, and to receive the benefits of wu wei.  No longer is the seeker as affected by the events of everyday life; he is living more with the 'skimmings', which are very helpful abbreviations of a dynamic.  Seers (I include myself here) can identify 'skimmings'; I refer to the process as triangulating, because one just picks up a few threads of the skimmings (abbreviated dynamics) and see the problem/condition/malady.

 

Skimming is not the same as jumping to conclusions.  Rather, it's allowing the dynamics to rise to the top on their own; to see why it is that a person is 'manifesting' a particular situation or condition.  It's not by using the head to figure anything out.  It's standing back and waiting to 'see' what's there.  A huge difference.

 

I think that to 'intend the mountain' is to be able to break down the components and see things as they are, with no emotion or preferences.  Once one gets into the 'intending the mountain' frame of reference, it does immediately stop the flow of the outside world chaos, as Castaneda mentions.  I see this as wu-wei, only after the intent is determined, the default answer is to 'do nothing' to change dynamics, let them play out of their own accord.  One must of course respond to things coming right at you, but for the duration of the situation you are not the 'actor'. Everyone else is.  You're the watcher.

 

He makes slight reference to time being pliable, which is how healing can be done on something that happened way in the past.  Past, present, future are all illusions.  It's always Now.  When the seer gets into the mindset of Now, this is how old dynamics are tweaked.

 

Again, thanks for posting that, Apech!

 

 I

[silent thunder]

I'm really drawn by the phrasing here and the presentation of skimmings.  Also the seer and describing the preconscious field as the universe of Eagle's emanations.  Particularly appreciate the use of the word emanations and the sense of commands or urgings so foundational they usually lie beneath notice.  The sense of urging or comanding also potently resonates with my sense of the conditioning that underlies our sense of personality and seemingly determines behavior outside the realm of local, conscious 'choice'.

 

It ties in intently with my repeated experience (often with considerable discomfort) the seeming illusory nature of my experience of making choices as a sepeate self within a context of a field of reality from which "i", am distinct.  Similar stirrings for me to what Wittgenstein aludes to when he states, "The aspects of things that are most important for us are hidden because of their simplicity and familiarity. (One is unable to notice something because it is always before one’s eyes.) The real foundations of his enquiry do not strike a man at all”  This oscillation of seer through skimmings as it relates to Eagle's emanations.

 

It's piquing for me deeply familiar and resonant insights gleaned via explorations in Druidism, Sufism, Idealism, Vedanta and Chen in a fresh way.  Something in the wording here is illuminating, or pinging an aspect of awareness not usually stirred and I'm deeply grateful for the timing of this sharing.

 

It's bringing to focus what is revealing as perhaps the central and most abiding aspect of my path of cultivation regardless of lineage or school, which continually pulses around the experience of the process by which my sense of a seperate self arises from that which underlies it. 

 

And almost universally for me, this repeatedly arises within the medium of the experience of making a choice.  That 'moment by moment' persistent experience of an abiding self which endures as some sort of distinct object within a wider contextual world of other seperate distinct objects (skimming) which lends to the false sense of seperation of identity from true nature (Eagle's emanation).

 

It also potently highlights for me all those moments of realization when local awareness returns to a sense of self from 'the void' after a period of awareness completely devoid of identity.  Something that I first became aware of after some time of engaging in formal cultivation, but has since revealed to be a daily repeating process that has occured beneath my threshhold of awareness my entire life.

 

I often use the term Raw Beingness to represent that void experience of no self and what seems here to be presented as Eagle's emanations.  It's effectively highlighting the process of enagaging with the oscillation between sense of self and raw beingness.  Raw beingness which is clearly aware but in which there is no sense of individuality, no rising or falling away, no personality, emotion, distinction, or objects but which is always underlying any individual sense of awareness. 

 

I also appreciate the description of the seer as representing local awareness capable of engaging or recognizing the ephemeral threshhold or oscillation between the foundational field (universe of Eagle's emanations) and the skimming (perception) that is interpreted as reality.  

 

What humans normally refer to as the experience of a self 'making a choice', for me is the central pivot about which my practical daily cultivation always inevitably gravitates.  All techniques eventually distill into the exploration of this transitional boundary that seemingly abides between my experience of self and reality distinct from it, my notion of identity as silent thunder and the abiding raw beingness that underlies all potential experience in form or local mind.

 

This has stirred something deep that's been lurking for a long while.

Not sure if the rambling has meaning for others, but I can tell based on past similar stirrings, this will continue to reverberate in my field for some time to great impact.

 

Deep appreciation Apech and manitou!

 

[Apech]

@silent thunder

 

The Castaneda books were for a long time for me a source of great inspiration.  I have reread certain of them many time’s especially the Eagles Gift and the Art of Dreaming.  Although Castaneda’s life seems to have ended badly with some strange cultic behavior - the ideas in the books spark in me a real understanding of the way and he cannot possibly have just made it all up.  This is why I return to them periodically to refresh my understanding - and each time I get something quite profound.

 

I am current rereading the Eagles Gift and while some of the story is a bit crazy - again it is hitting the spot.   I’m really glad that you have enjoyed what I posted and I hope we can have more Don Juan conversations on here.

[silent thunder]

I've only ever encountered snippets of Casta from other's sharings like yours.  I expect I'll be heading to a second hand book store for Eagles Gift soon.  Really potent.

[manitou]

13 hours ago, silent thunder said:

I've only ever encountered snippets of Casta from other's sharings like yours.  I expect I'll be heading to a second hand book store for Eagles Gift soon.  Really potent.

 

 

The whole series is a trip.  You'd love the characters.

 

 

 

18 hours ago, silent thunder said:

What humans normally refer to as the experience of a self 'making a choice', for me is the central pivot about which my practical daily cultivation always inevitably gravitates.  All techniques eventually distill into the exploration of this transitional boundary that seemingly abides between my experience of self and reality distinct from it, my notion of identity as silent thunder and the abiding raw beingness that underlies all potential experience in form or local mind.

 

 

 

How much less I 'make a choice' these days.  More often than not, it comes at me, I handle it.

 

I love what you say about experience of self vs. the raw beingness that underlies all potential experience.  To experience the raw beingness, I've found that periodically going through the exercise of knowing that the other person in the room also has the very same feelings is helpful.  The sense of a warm void inside me (and strangely enough, it's always 'okay', despite indications to the opposite) is the same sense of a warm void that you feel inside you.  The warm void inside is all the same everywhere!  That's the shared raw beingness that is us!  That's where the default emotion is love, but our conditioning hides it.  But we all have it.  Peeling the onion exposes it.

 

Apech, I know exactly what you're talking about on the series 'talking' to you at different levels.  I've noticed the very same thing in the series, and I've supposed that's because my 'eyes' are in a different position every time I re-read one of his books.  Same with the DDJ and other great tomes.  You see something different each time, as you're ready to see.

[silent thunder]

1 hour ago, manitou said:

but our conditioning hides it.  But we all have it.  Peeling the onion exposes it.

I got into my truck the other morning after intense rains and marked the layer of thick dust completely occluding my ability to see through the windshield in the bright sunlit morning. 

 

While wiping the glass clear, it occured to me how like this occluded window, is my own conditioned sense of self as it filters what is into what it experiences of that.

 

 

[Apech]

I am already given to the power that rules my fate,

And I cling to nothing, so I will have nothing to defend.

I have no thoughts, so I will see.

I fear nothing, so I will remember myself.

Detached and at ease,

I will dart past the Eagle to be free.

 

 

[Apech]

 

The precepts of the art of stalking:

 

1. everyting that surrounds us is an unfathomable mystery.

 

2. we must try to unravel these mysteries without hoping to accomplish this.

 

3. a warrior takes his rightful place among mysteries and regards himself as one.

 

 

The principles of stalking:

 

1. choose your battleground.

 

2. discard everything that is unecessary.

 

3. be willing and ready to make your last stand here and now.

 

4. relax, abandon yourself, fear nothing.

 

5. faced with odds that cannot be dealt with, retreat for a moment.

 

6. compress time, even an instant counts.

 

 

 

[doc benway]

On 9/2/2023 at 2:25 PM, manitou said:

I think you and I both have a history with Mr. Castaneda, he certainly put my feet on a path.

 

Mine as well

[manitou]

On 9/4/2023 at 10:51 AM, Apech said:

3. be willing and ready to make your last stand here and now.

 

 

 

 

How I wish we had politicians that understood this.  To actually find one that knows that he will probably not be elected again, but stands unwavering nonetheless.

[manitou]

On 9/3/2023 at 11:03 AM, Apech said:

I am already given to the power that rules my fate,

And I cling to nothing, so I will have nothing to defend.

I have no thoughts, so I will see.

I fear nothing, so I will remember myself.

Detached and at ease,

I will dart past the Eagle to be free.

 

 

 

 

From Castaneda, again?  What a powerful paragraph.

 

"the power that rules my fate"..... I can only understand this from the POV of time actually being non-linear.  i.e. 'the situation has already happened' (even if it's not happened 'yet').  This takes the drama out of anything.

 

"I cling to nothing" - opinions are a thing of the past.  Make no assumptions.  Not vested in any particular outcome.

 

"I have no thoughts, so I will see"....This is where meditation for years pays off.  We gain control of the monkey mind, we have a modicum of control over the spinning of our thoughts.  The ability to stay in a state of 'not thinking' does enable one to see everything, with unassuming eyes.

 

"I fear nothing, so I will remember myself"....If one can finally get to the place where there are no fears left over, one can "re-member" themselves.  To stand fully in our spot, to enjoy the sun on our faces.  To take our place in society and to know that we are fully deserving of that which comes our way.  I think re-member in this sense, almost means 're-make'.  Maybe someone else sees it differently?

 

"Detached and at ease"....when we know who we really are, that we are indeed gods walking the earth, what is there to fear?  I Am the I Am.  My feeling is that 'not-doing' is how to get along best from day to day.  Things that would have expended emotional energy previously, no longer elicit a response.  Because it's all good.

 

"I will dart past the Eagle to be free"....The very best part, the point of the whole practice.  The seeming conditions in life are just that....'seeming' conditions.  To get to the point where conditions don't phase us any more, to 'know' who we really are, to realize that nobody's up there judging us.  This is a big deal, IMO.  The realization is that there is no right and wrong.  Just is-ness.

[manitou]

 

 

 

 

On 9/10/2023 at 12:10 PM, manitou said:

 

 

From Castaneda, again?  What a powerful paragraph.

 

"the power that rules my fate"..... I can only understand this from the POV of time actually being non-linear.  i.e. 'the situation has already happened' (even if it's not happened 'yet').  This takes the drama out of anything.

 

"I cling to nothing" - opinions are a thing of the past.  Make no assumptions.  Not vested in any particular outcome.

 

"I have no thoughts, so I will see"....This is where meditation for years pays off.  We gain control of the monkey mind, we have a modicum of control over the spinning of our thoughts.  The ability to stay in a state of 'not thinking' does enable one to see everything, with unassuming eyes.

 

"I fear nothing, so I will remember myself"....If one can finally get to the place where there are no fears left over, one can "re-member" themselves.  To stand fully in our spot, to enjoy the sun on our faces.  To take our place in society and to know that we are fully deserving of that which comes our way.  I think re-member in this sense, almost means 're-make'.  Maybe someone else sees it differently?

 

"Detached and at ease"....when we know who we really are, that we are indeed gods walking the earth, what is there to fear?  I Am the I Am.  My feeling is that 'not-doing' is how to get along best from day to day.  Things that would have expended emotional energy previously, no longer elicit a response.  Because it's all good.

 

"I will dart past the Eagle to be free"....The very best part, the point of the whole practice.  The seeming conditions in life are just that....'seeming' conditions.  To get to the point where conditions don't phase us any more, to 'know' who we really are, to realize that nobody's up there judging us.  This is a big deal, IMO.  The realization is that there is no right and wrong.  Just is-ness.

 

 

Didn't mean to quote myself.  My computer skills are legendary.

 

" I will dart past the Eagle to be free".  I saw the name of Maya Angelo pop up somewhere yesterday.  What instantly went through my mind was "I know why the caged bird sings"

 

I never put it together before, but YESSS!  I know why it sings! It sings because it needs nothing other than himself to be contented.  He knows he wouldn't, couldn't, be any more joyful than he is while expressing his happiness. He doesn't need to fly anywhere. He's got everything he needs!

 

I saw a movie many years ago, where a passing American soldier had a conversation with a captured soldier, inside a razorwire Nazi containment area. The captured man in the enclosure was an enlightened one.  He was able to transcend his circumstances, marvel at a beautiful sunset from within the razor wire.  He had even found a way to look at his condition and captors with love.  I'd love to know what movie that was...

[old3bob]

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Edited October 20, 2023 by old3bob

[manitou]

52 minutes ago, old3bob said:

the books are all co-opting of  some real teachings and real people by a freaking fake and sick Carlos Castaneda and his cult!!  See "Sorcerers Apprentice" for a first hand expose by his lover and disciple Amy Wallace...or keep being taken in.

 

 

Hi OldBob,

There's plenty spirituality in them little books.  If you read them and didn't see it, you probably weren't ready at that time.  I've read Sorcerers too.  It doesn't minimize the spiritual dynamics in the books.  She's pointing out that Carlos isn't a perfect human being.  I don't think Krishnamurti was a fabulous human being either, but he sure said some stuff.

  Castaneda was a big part of my path, but just part.  I later discovered the DDJ and found all of you to learn from.  What a wonderful journey this has been!  But no path is a worthless one if it brings you to enlightenment.  The bridge that bridges the gap between head knowledge and experiential knowledge - that's the hard one to find.  Before finding it, humility must be found within.

[silent thunder]

Some folks feel the rain... others just get wet.

Find a new hobby bob?

[Nungali]

2 hours ago, old3bob said:

the books are all co-opting of  some real teachings and real people by a freaking fake and sick Carlos Castaneda and his cult!!  See "Sorcerers Apprentice" for a first hand expose by his lover and disciple Amy Wallace...or keep being taken in.

 

Next , you will be dissing  Lobsang Rampa !  

 

 

Spoiler

 

  

 

 

 

[blue eyed snake]

I read those as a teenager, found them in my mothers bookcase. It was a struggle to read as I  was still struggling with English. Parts  of the text resonated so deep, it was the first time I read about experiencing beyond the usual range and that made me feel less lonely. Some weeks ago I've cleaned out one of my bookcases and chucked out some books, not these though.

Rereading one always finds deeper understanding. 

Thank you @Apech for posting.

[old3bob]

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Edited October 20, 2023 by old3bob

[old3bob]

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Edited October 20, 2023 by old3bob

[old3bob]

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Edited October 20, 2023 by old3bob

[manitou]

All paths go to the same place.  It just doesn't matter, and I don't think the metaphysical commonality of all paths can be found...no, experienced, until the dogma of all religious varieties are discarded.

[silent thunder]

8 hours ago, old3bob said:

Btw, I did get something out of those books but didn't swallow everything hook, line and sinker

Well done bob... you've just participated in a conversation for a brief moment, rather than project your fear onto others and assume you know what they derived from the book or what is possible to derive from the source that is Castaneda.

 

8 hours ago, old3bob said:

instead being a new ager who swallows anything in print and can't understand why others don't.

And then you are back to assuming and projecting your assumption and fear onto the world about you and others.

 

Not that it matters a whit... but I'd be far more intrigued to know what you derived from the books instead of your projected fears and anger about the man behind these insights. 

 

No need to fear for us bob, we're all experienced seekers, quite capable of engaging without "being a new ager who swallows anything in print".  We don't need saving bub.  We're just having a conversation and exploring a topic. 

 

Of course, if you need to vent... c'est la vie.  But expect some push back, cuz that shit is low hanging fruit in my world and my tolerance for it is nill lately.