Here are some snippets from Tales of Power by Carlos Castaneda that I thought pertained to some things going on:

…..A warrior is in the hands of power and his only freedom is to choose an impeccable life…..

…. Genero cannot kill anyone, simply b/c he no longer has any interest in his fellow men….. Genero is a man of knowledge. The purest of them all. His actions are impeccable. He’s beyond ordinary man, beyond sorcerers….. a man of knowledge cannot possibly act towards his fellow men in injurious terms, hypothetically or otherwise.

Noone can plot against the security and well being of a man of knowledge. He sees, therefore he would take steps to avoid anything like that…….Now, if there is something that is inherently injurious to him, and his seeing cannot reach it, then that is his fate……

So you see a man of knowledge is in control w/o controlling anything.

Thanks for the recommended read. I am enjoying it. Definitely explains some mysteries in a way I can grasp. I read it in bits, then let it sink in. Nick picked it up and is reading too. We’ll have to fight over it, I guess. I didn’t pick up his earlier works yet, but plan to .

Wannabeluminousbeing sharon

-- Anonymous, December 20, 2001

Answers

Sharon, so glad to see you posting again. I missed you!

Yeah, I really enjoyed the Casteneda books. I think I read most of them at least once.

One of the things that really stuck out in my mind was Don Juans counsel to Carlos to let death be his counselor or something like that. I puzzled on that for quite a while until I got it (I think).

When I see a tradition thats been around for thousands of years I think to my self that there must be something to it or it would have gone the way that lies usually do. One of the characteristics of truth is that it reflects reality and thats why it endures the test of time.

In my not so humble opinion spiritual LIFE and physical LIFE are not at all incompatible. In fact I think they're cut of the same cloth but simply address different components of the totality of living.

So when Don Juan sez "let death be your counselor" I think hes saying do the wise thing as impeccably as you can and you'll survive, wise in this case is that which is life affirmative.

To me it fits in quite nicely with the various admonitions in the bible and other scriptures that promise eternal life of the spirit and incidentally a longer and more fulfilling physical life---thus love becomes the ultimate survival ethic.

Recall also Don Juan talks about wrestling with the ally. The ally, IMO, is unnecessary or foolish fears.

The sorcerers way is to marshall or stalk power and that comes by overcoming fears and transmuting the energy into an expanded consciousness.

-- Anonymous, December 21, 2001

Some comments more pertinant to your post.

"…..A warrior is in the hands of power and his only freedom is to choose an impeccable life….."

I'm thinking this refers to commitment, thus when the warrior is in the hands of power he/she has committed themself to the path and when that happens the "guides" come into the picture. The "guides" can be harsh, exacting, and demanding taskmasters, requiring our utmost effort. If you don't do that you feel like shit, leaving only the choice of impeccability and its only in impecability that you'll experience freedom.

"…. Genero cannot kill anyone, simply b/c he no longer has any interest in his fellow men….. Genero is a man of knowledge. The purest of them all. His actions are impeccable. He’s beyond ordinary man, beyond sorcerers….. a man of knowledge cannot possibly act towards his fellow men in injurious terms, hypothetically or otherwise."

Impeccability can be equated to purity---purity of intent, clarity of mind, resolve in motivation etc.----all of which lend power to the actions of a warrior. There are many parallels of the Yaqui way to the "way" of other spiritual disciplines.

"Noone can plot against the security and well being of a man of knowledge. He sees, therefore he would take steps to avoid anything like that…….Now, if there is something that is inherently injurious to him, and his seeing cannot reach it, then that is his fate……"

That kinda reminds me of a story I read in the Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda. His Guru, a householder, leaves his house one day. He "sees" someone enter the house thru a window but the person becomes quickly dissuaded from any more "evil" action and leaves harmlessly.

"So you see a man of knowledge is in control w/o controlling anything."

I think that refers to the extreme self control of the warrior/man of knowledge. That self control radiates around the warrior (the aura) and influences everything in the warriors life.

"Thanks for the recommended read. I am enjoying it. Definitely explains some mysteries in a way I can grasp. I read it in bits, then let it sink in. Nick picked it up and is reading too. We’ll have to fight over it, I guess. I didn’t pick up his earlier works yet, but plan to"

Its a fascinating subject and I see many, many parallels between the teachings of Don Juan and the eastern paths. Whats so very cool about this stuff is when I'd read something, maybe in tibetan Buddhism, that I didn't understand, then I'd read something in Don Juan and the whole thing seemed to click. Other times it might have been something out of the bible I didn't understand and Buddhist teachings made the bible more clear.

Another book I'd recommend is Shambala by a tibetan monk whose name I don't recall at the moment. Shambala refers to the warriors way.

As an aside Don Juan is a naugal. In the late 19th century they were refered to as naugalists. I read some speculation that naugal is a variation of the sanskrit word naga which means serpent and refers to the wise ones.

-- Anonymous, December 21, 2001

Thanks John.I understand what you say.I've been taking the time to think and read. I'll talk to you some more, down the road. O.K?

-- Anonymous, December 23, 2001

Shambala was written by my teacher. Chogyum Trungpa Rinpoche. It is a wonderful book and would be a good one for anyone who has an interest sparked by the Castaneda writings.

-- Anonymous, December 23, 2001

Sharon: A little PS

You asked about ""So you see a man of knowledge is in control w/o controlling anything."

I responded: "I think that refers to the extreme self control of the warrior/man of knowledge. That self control radiates around the warrior (the aura) and influences everything in the warriors life."

This leads to "luminosity" in this way IMO.

Think of the the wasted energy we expend in things like worry, anxiety, fearfulness, etc. All these things take us from the here and now and we are no longer fully present at those times. When we are not fully present we are not fully conscious. We are not aware of our environment nor are we engaged in our lives in an impeccable manner. We are indulging in the words of Don Juan. Our energy is not focused. It is diffuse, used up on imaginings that are not constructive or genuinely helpful to us in our lives.

A warrior seeks to become AWARE! and the indulgences are impediments on that path.

The diffuse energy can be likened to air. Air, left to its own devices will merely assume atmospheric pressure. The less pressure the fewer air molecules within a given space. Air also contains latent heat. If you pressurize the air, the latent heat will become more concentrated as the volume of air is reduced within the pressure vessel. Pressurization combined with removal of the heat will result in a phase change, from a gas to a liquid.

I believe a similar thing happens on the way to luminosity. Life energy, chi, prajna, or whatever you might relate to is electromagnetic in nature. This is the same energy that's expended in worry and all those other toxic indulgences mentioned earlier.

A warrior controls these energies and utilizes them to increase awareness and enhace consciousness. The "mere" act of becoming aware of the worry and other things mentioned begins the gathering of power. Stopping the internal (infernal) dialog rooted in the worrying etc. and willing the concentration to focus on the here and now when its recognized as such is another major gathering of power. When brought under control this energy will manifest itself as a subtle glow in our astral body but ultimately, after long practice, will become something like a plasma, energetically speaking. This is the "aura" and "halo" said to be seen around holy men. Taken to its natural extreme it becomes something like liquid light. A plasma manifests itself as light, among other things, thus leading to luminosity.

I'm pretty sure it can be described by quantum machanics.

Thats my take on it.

-- Anonymous, December 24, 2001

john, couldn't help but put my two cents worth in, even though it was not requested...:>) Perhaps the "ally", which every warrior has to ultimately wrestle, would be our concept of "self". Without a "self" to protect there would be no fears or separation from the "source". Trungpa Rinpoche calls the idea of "self and separation" the cosmic joke of the human reality. I think Castaneda was getting to that in his later works. I actually read my last Castaneda book while I was at seminar and it was certainly a journey!!! Until you two had brought them up, I had forgotten that part his books played in my "journey".

-- Anonymous, December 24, 2001

Diane: Yep, I agree. The self, as opposed to the SELF, is the false self or ego, made up of foolish fears that are rooted in ignorance. Practically every trial of Carlos required him to control fear thru a variety of means. If I understand the Casteneda material correctly it offers a way to use this energy constructively. I see it as almost an alchemical process, transmuting lead(fear) into gold(love or life).

I remember reading that the mahayana Buddhists do that as well but they don't use the same language.

-- Anonymous, December 24, 2001

Hi,there,John. I’m dropping in briefly to talk. Yeah, I think the old wisdom has something going for it, too, to have survived so long . But a lot has been lost, too.

And on reading complementary material from different perspectives, I read “Shamanic Wisdomkeepers”, which covers the tradition from around the world. So many cultures coming to similar conclusions about the nature of reality, life, and death. That is startling …….but wisdom is wisdom, truth is truth.

So how do scientists explain these similarities?

And it really makes you wonder how people can read the same things, and still believe their way is THE way. God is not a big man or woman in the sky but a Being of Love.

Ah well, there are no mistakes, only lessons :o)

One shaman of Mayan training is described as a force of nature, really more in love with nature than man. Oh my, can I understand that!

He said “Shamanism is of no use to the modern world. It is subversive of it. It’s getting people back to their roots”. All I can say to that is “Amen”. You just cannot spend time in front of a monitor yaking about this ( oops, that’s what we are doing!) You have to get outside and immerse yourself in a natural world. I’ve spent too much time in man’s world this year, not nearly enough in nature’s. I’ve been out of balance. So I’ve been walking a lot lately, going to my places that are special to me, and contemplating. That’s one of the reasons I’m not on the computer much anymore.

On different sources helping with clarification, I know what you mean. Some words will speak to you and some just won’t. I read a book abt menopause explained in a shamanic way, and it was exactly my life over the last year! It was the first thing I’d read on the subject that made total sense to me. Someone else would read it and probably think it horse hocky.

Oh John, on death as a teacher, if you haven’t, will you read “A Case for Heaven” by Molly Chapman? It’s about common threads in near death experiences. I liked it.

One of the things said of the way that the medical profession treats these experiences is that “it’s time for the spiritual path to be walked by those who wear practical shoes.” The experiences offer comfort for the dying (and those left behind). Validate that.

Well, I’ll read what you wrote since my last visit, and we’ll talk some more. Thanks for the company. I’m up to the tonal and the naugal in Tales of Power. Still blows me away.

-- Anonymous, December 31, 2001