"Continuing the interview that Dr. Graciela Corvalan Argentina managed to do to Carlos Castaneda. In it there are some vital aspects of the path taken by the writer from his apprenticeship in the way of knowledge through famous Toltec Don Juan Matus. The magical aspect of life appears fully in the daily activities of Castañeda, transformed into a "man of power", though it appears as simple cook in a restaurant road ... "
Phenomenology, however, has a single value for Castaneda methodology. Husserl never not transcend the theoretical level and, consequently, did not touch the man in your life everyday. For Castaneda, Western man, European man, the most that has come is the politician. This politician would be the epitome of our civilization.
"Don Juan, - said their education, is opening the door for another man much more interesting: a man who already live in a world or magical universe. "Meditating
on that of "political man" came to mind a book of Edward Spranger called " Lifestyles", which states that the life of a politician "is crisscrossed by power relations and rivalry." The politician is the man whose power domain controls both the concrete reality of the world and the beings who inhabit it. The world of Don Juan, however, is a magical world populated by entities and forces.
- "The beauty of Don Juan Castaneda said, is that although the world of every day he seems to be crazy (crazy! Crazy!), No one is able to perceive. The world, Don Juan offers a front which is necessarily temporary ... one hour a month sixty years. Nobody could get sloppy! Don Juan in this world is perfect because he always knew he's here is just a moment and that what comes after ... Well ... A beauty! Don Juan and Don Genaro intensely loved beauty. "
perception and conception that Don Juan has of reality and time are undoubtedly very different from ours. While the daily level of Don Juan is always impeccable, this is not prevents to know that "this side" is definitely all passengers.
Castaneda went on to describe a universe polarized into two extremes: the right and the left side. The right side correspond to the tonal and the left side the nagual .
In "Tales of Power " Don Juan Castaneda explains at length about these two halves of the "bubble of perception." He said that the teacher's task is to clean neatly part of the bubble , then rearrange "everything" on the other side.
- "The teacher is responsible for this merciless apprentice hammers until your whole world view is one half of the bubble . The other half, which has been cleaned, it can then be claimed by some that sorcerers will call. "
Explaining all this is very difficult because at this level are totally words inadequate. Indeed, the left side of the universe "implies the absence of words," and can not think without words. Here there are only actions. "In that other world," said Castaneda, the body acts. "
"The body, to understand, does not need words."
In the magical universe so to speak, of Don Juan, there are certain entities called "allies" or "fleeting shadows." These, you can capture a number of times. For such deposits has searched a lot of explanations but, according to Castaneda, there is no doubt that these phenomena depend mainly on the human anatomy. What is important is come to understand that there is a range of explanations that can account for these "fleeting shadows." I asked, then, that knowing about the body of the speaker in his books.
"Is that for you the whole body is a body of knowledge?" I asked.
Meditating on these words of Castaneda, I thought the parallel with Tantric Yoga and the various centers or chakras that the officiating is awakening through certain rituals. In the book " The tight circle" of Miguel Serrano reads the chakras are centers of consciousness. "
In the same book, Karl Jung referred to a conversation Serrano he had with a chief of the Pueblo Indians called Ochwián Biano ( Mountain Lake ).
"I explained his impression of white, ever so restless, always looking for something aspire to something ... According Ochwián Biano, whites were crazy, because claimed think with your head, and only fools do well . This statement by the Indian Chief gave me great surprise and asked him how he thought. He said that with the heart. "
The road warrior's knowledge is long and requires total dedication. They all have a specific goal and a very pure incentive. - "What's the point?" "I insist.
seems that the aim is to knowingly pass across the left side of the universe.
- "Try to be as close as possible to ensure eagle and slip out without her devouring us. The goal is to get out," he said on tiptoe on the left side of eagle. I do not know if you know, "he continued looking for ways to lighten the image, which is an entity called the Toltec Eagle . The visionary sees it as a vast blackness that extends to infinity, is a vast blackness that a lightning flashes. That's why they call it the eagle : it has black wings and back, and his chest is bright. The eye of this entity is not a human eye. The eagle has no mercy. Everything that is alive is represented in the Eagle . This entity contains all the beauty that man is capable of creating as well as all the brutality that is not the human being itself. What is truly human in Eagle is immensely small compared to the rest. The eagle is too much mass, bulk, darkness ... what little face is distinctive of human beings. The eagle attracts all living force that is ready to disappear because it feeds on that energy. The eagle is like a huge magnet that picks up all these beams of light that are the lifeblood of what we are dying. "
While saying this, your hands and fingers as the hammer head imitating an eagle pecking at the space with an insatiable appetite.
- "I just tell them what Don Juan and the others say. They're all witches! - He cried. All are wrapped in a metaphor that is incomprehensible to me. What is the master of man? What we claim? "He asked.
We listened carefully and we stopped talking because he had entered a field which no longer fit the questions.
- "The owner of us can not be a man," he said.
seems that the owner Toltecs call the "mold of man."
- "All things-plants, animals and humans, have a mold." Mold of man is the same for all human beings. My mold and his "continued explaining," is the same, but in each appears and acts differently depending on the development of the person. "
Since Castaneda's words, we interpret that the "human mold" is what brings us together, which unifies the life force. The human form, however, is that which prevents us from seeing the mold. It seems that while not losing the human form we are only able to see the reflections of the way in everything we perceive. In this human form we do not see but feel in our body. That "form" is what makes us who we are and we are unable to change .
In " The second ring of power " la Gorda Castaneda instructs him about the "human mold" and "human form." In this book, the "mold" is described as a light body and remember that Don Juan Castaneda, described it as "the source and origin of man." La Gorda, Don Juan remembers thinking that he was told that "if we have enough personal power we can glimpse the mold though we are not sorcerers, and when this happens we say that we have seen God. He said if we call God, it would be successful because the mold is God. "Several times that afternoon we got on the topic of" human form "and" mold "of man. Surrounding the subject from different angles, there is increasing became more evident that "the way" human is the hard shell of the personal.
- "This human form - he said, is like a towel that covers one from the armpits to the feet. After that towel is a lighted candle is consumed to off. When the candle goes out is because one has died. Then comes the eagle and devours him. Castaneda continued seers are those beings capable of seeing the human being as a luminous egg. Within this sphere of light is the candle. If the seer sees the wing's little one, however strong the person seems, means it is already finished. "
Castaneda had told us before the Toltecs never die because being Toltec means losing the human form. Only that moment I understood: If the Toltec lost human form, there is nothing that the eagle to devour. We had no doubt either that the owner concepts of man and man mold and Eagle image referred to the same entity or closely related.
Several hours later, sitting at a hamburger in a cafe Westwood Boulevard and other street whose name I forget, Castaneda told us his experience in losing the human form. " He said his experience was not as strong as the Gorda, who had symptoms similar to those of a heart attack.
- "In my case, Castaneda said there was a simple phenomenon of hyperventilation. In that moment I felt a great pressure, a flow of energy came through the head, through his chest and stomach and followed by the legs until they disappear left foot. That was it. To make sure I went to the doctor but not me found nothing. I only suggested that breathing in a paper bag to reduce the amount of oxygen and hyperventilation to counter the phenomenon. "
(In" The Second Ring of Power ", the Gorda regards Castaneda that when she lost" human form began to see an eye always in front of it. This eye was with her all the time and almost ended up going mad. Little by little he got used to the eye one day it became part of it. "One day, when become a truly free form, shall not see that eye, the eye will be one with me ...")
the beginning of our conversation, Castaneda said something about "Toltec Teaching." According to Toltec
somehow have to return or pay the eagle his due. Castaneda has already told us that the owner of man is the eagle and that eagle is all the nobility and beauty as well as all the horror and ferocity that is all that is. Why eagle is the owner of man?
- "The eagle is the master of man because it feeds the flame of life, vital energy that emerges from all that is."
And, once again making the gesture with hands resembling the beak of an eagle head, ran his beak the space arm while saying:
- "So! So! devours everything!. The only way to escape the greed of the eagle, is out on tiptoe and holding my breath ... When you're ready for last flight, he makes an offering to the eagle, a gift-Castaneda stressed that it is almost like giving yourself. It gives the equivalent of an eagle. This offering they call it the personal summary . Don Juan said that death begins with this summary staff. Only then, ie, when death is undeniable and inescapable, the action begins. "
- "¿En qué consiste, cómo se hace la recapitulación personal?" -quisimos saber nosotros.
- "En primer lugar hay que hacer una lista de todas las personas que uno ha conocido a lo largo de la vida -respondió-; una lista de todos aquellos que de una u otra manera nos han forzado a poner el ego -ese centro del orgullo personal que más tarde mostraría como un monstruo de 3.000 cabezas-, sobre la mesa."
"Tenemos que traer de vuelta a todos los que han colaborado pare que entrásemos en ese juego de "me quieren o no me quieren". Juego que no es otra cosa que un vivir volcados sobre nosotros mismos..."
"¡Lamiéndonos nuestras lastimaduras! La recapitulación must be total, "he continued, going from Z to A, backwards. It starts now and goes into early childhood, until two or three years and even earlier if possible. From birth, everything is being recorded in our body. The summary is and requires a large memory training. But how does this wrap? Gone are carefully bringing the images and they are going against a setting, then with a nod from right to left, blowing each of the images as if barriésemos of our vision ... The breath is magic. "He added. To recap the also ran out all the tricks, games and deceptions. It seems that in the end we know all our tricks and no way to put the ego on the table without once we realize that with that aim.
- "With the` one personal summary stripped of everything. Then. It is only the task, the task in all its simplicity, purity and rawness. The wrap is possible for all men but you have to have a will inflexible. If one hesitates or falters, is lost because the eagle devours him. In this area no doubt has a place. I'm not sure how to explain this, but in the performance and dedication to the task has to be compulsory without really be because the Toltec is a free man. The task asks for all of both, however, is free. Do you understand? If this is difficult to understand is because, at bottom, is a paradox. But this wrap-added Castaneda changing his tone and posture, you have to put sauce. The property of Don Juan and his "cronies" is that they are lightweight. Don Juan I cured my weighing. He is not solemn, nothing formal. "
(The first book," The Teachings of Don Juan ", he says," The thing to learn is how to get to the crack between worlds and how to enter another world ... There is a place where the two worlds are mounted one above the other. The crack is there. It opens and closes like a door in the wind. To get there, a man must exercise his will. Should I say, develop an indomitable desire, a total dedication. But it must do so without the help of no power and no man ...")
Within the seriousness of the task that they all perform there is always room for humor. To illustrate in a concrete way how Don Juan taught, Castaneda told us a very interesting episode. looks like he smoked a lot, and that Don Juan decided to cure him.
- "smoked like three packs per day. One after another! Do not let them off. You see that now I do not have pockets, "he said pointing to his shirt that, indeed, lacking them. I removed the pockets at the time to take the body a chance to feel something on the left side, and that this something will remind the habit. By eliminating the pocket also eliminated physical habit of bringing the hand towards the pocket. Don Juan had once told me we were going to spend a few days in the mountains of Chihuahua. I remember specifically told me not forget to bring me my cigarettes. He recommended, also, to bring supplies to about two packs a day and no more. Then I bought boxes of cigarettes, but instead of 20 I packed about 40. I did some divine packages I covered with foil to protect my load of animals and rain. Well equipped and with a backpack, I went to Don Juan through the hills. I walked there lighting cigarette after cigarette, and trying to catch my breath! Don Juan has a tremendous effect, I waited patiently while smoking and watching me shake me by the mountains. Now I would not have the patience he had with me! We come finally to a fairly high plateau surrounded by cliffs and steep slopes. Don Juan there invited me to try again or go down. For a long time I tried on one side and another until I finally had to abandon the attempt. No would be able to. We thus, for several days, until one morning I wake up and the first thing I do is find my cigarettes. Where are my divine packages? I search and search and not find them. When Don Juan is awake, you know what happens to me. I explain what happens and say, "Do not worry. Probably a coyote came and took them away, but can not be far behind. Here! Look! There are traces of coyote!" We spent the whole day tracing the footsteps of the coyote in search of the packages. After much searching, Don Juan kept insisting that I should not worry because just then I said to myself, behind the hill, there is a village. There you can buy all cigarettes you want. Again we went searching and searching ... It is clear that the people were looking now. Where is the village? No sign of him. As we looked at, when Don Juan sat down on the floor and getting the old man, good old man, started complaining: "This time I'm lost ... I'm old ... I can not more ..." While this saying, clutched her head and did great fuss. "
Castaneda made us the whole story imitating Don Juan in his gestures and tone of voice. It was a sight to see. Later, Castaneda himself would tell us that Don Juan used referring to their acting skills.
- "With so much walking, I followed Castaneda who had spent 10 or 12 days, and I were craving me! This is how I removed the urge to smoke. If we spent as the demons running through the hills! When it came back, imagine that Don Juan knew exactly how to do it. We went straight to the people. The difference was that then, I had no need to buy cigarettes. In this episode, "he said, have passed as nostalgic 15 years. "
"The line of not-doing," he said precisely the opposite of routine or routines which are used to. "
"habits such as cigarette for example, are the ones we have tied up in chains ... In the sense of not-doing, however, all avenues are possible. "Castaneda gave us to understand that Don Juan knew very well at all, were known in their habits and weaknesses. It was like one at a time was holding. Don Juan and Don Genaro, "these two buddies," according to Castaneda, were able to make everyone the right move and thus make them fall into the path of knowledge.
was silent for a while, I finally broke to ask about Doña Soledad. I told her she had impressed me as a grotesque figure, as a witch, really.
- "Doña Soledad is India," he said. The story of his transformation is amazing. "
" He put this desire in its transformation in the end he succeeded. In this effort he developed his will to such an extent that as a result also developed personal pride too. "
" is precisely why I do not think she can go on tiptoe through the left side of eagle. Anyway, it's great what he was able to do with herself! Not if you remember who she was ... She was the "Manuelita" the "mommy" Pablito, always washing, ironing and washing ..., offering comidita to each other. "To mean that, in Castaneda mimicked gestures and movements to a very poor little old lady.
- "You have to see it now," he went on. Doña Soledad strong young woman, now have to fear! The Wrap Doña Soledad took him seven years of his life. He got into a hole, and there out. It was stuck until the end of it. In seven years did more than that. Although I can not pass by the eagle-Castaneda said with admiration, "never again be the poor thing before." After a pause
Castaneda recalled that Don Juan and Don Genaro were no longer with them.
- "Now everything is different," said Castaneda nostalgic. Don Juan and Don Genaro not. The Toltec Woman is with us. She asks tasks. La Gorda and I do homework together. Others also have duties to perform, different tasks in different places also. According to Don Juan, women are more talented than men. Women are more susceptible. In life, moreover, they are spending less and less tired than men. That is why Don Juan has left me now in the hands of a woman. "
" I was left in the hands of the other side of the unit man-woman. "
" Moreover, I was left hands of women: the sisters and Gorda. She now teaches not have a name. She is simply the Toltec Woman.
(Several months later, the Gorda (Maria Elena) phoned me to convey a message of Carlos Castaneda. In that conversation, I told the lady called Dona Florinda Toltec, and that it was a person very elegant, vivacious and restless. Mrs. Tolteca must be 50 years.)
- "Mrs. Tolteca is now teaching me. She is responsible for everything. All the others, and I are nothing Gorda ". We wanted to know if she knew I was going to meet us and their other plans.
- "Mrs. Tolteca knows everything. She sent me to Los Angeles to talk with you "he replied, addressing me. She knows about my projects and I'm going to New York.
We also wanted to know how she was. "Is that young? Is it old? "We asked.
-" Mrs. Tolteca is a very strong woman. Your muscles move in a peculiar way. He is old, but one of those old women who look like this by dint of makeup. "
was difficult to explain how she was. In their attempt, Castaneda sought a reference point and reminded us the movie" Giant .
- " remind you-we wonder-working film that James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor? E. There Taylor makes mature woman but in reality she was very young. The same impression on me because the Toltec Woman: An old face with makeup on a corpse still young. I would also say she is old. Do you know you the "National Enquirer ? "Continued loosely. A friend of mine is responsible for keep it to myself here in Los Angeles, and every time I've read them. That's all I read here ... Just at that newspaper ( recently ) saw some pictures of Elizabeth Taylor. Now that is really old! ".
This comment somehow summarized his opinion regarding the immense production news that characterizes our era. This comment also holds a trial on the value of all of Western culture. Everything is at the level of " National Enquirer." Nothing
Castaneda said that evening was casual. The various pieces of information that he provided were aimed at creating a certain impression on us. This intention was nothing equivocal Castaneda, on the contrary their interest was to convey the essential truth of the teaching they are involved.
continue talking about Mrs. Castaneda Toltec and told us that she will soon.
- "She told us that in its place will come two ladies. Tolteca She is very strict. Their demands are terrible! However, if the woman is fierce Toltec maybe the two that come to be much worse. It might not go yet! You can not stop loving can not prevent the body complains and track the severity of the company ... However, there is no way to alter the destination. That grabbed me, then! "
(By telephone, the Gorda also insisted that Ms. Tolteca was very" brave "and that while she loves more than Castaneda not hurt that he loved a little more. "We go with the whole body bruised from beatings he gives us," he said.)
"I have more freedom than to be impeccable because only if I change my destiny impeccable, that is, I'll tiptoe through the left side of the eagle. "
" If I am not perfect, do not change my destiny and the eagle devours me. The Nagual Juan Matus is a free man. He is free to fulfill his destiny. Do I understand you? I do not know if they understand what I mean, "said worried. -" Of course I understand! He replied with vehemence. Both the latter as in many other things you have mentioned so far we are very similar to what we feel and live every day. "
-" Don Juan is a free man, "he continued. He seeks freedom, her spirit seeks. Don Juan is the basic bias-free, the perceptual bias that prevents us from seeing reality. "
The important thing that we had been talking about is the ability to disrupt the cycle of routines. Don Juan made him do many exercises to make them aware their routines. Among them is the "walk in darkness" and the "march to power."
How to break this cycle of routines? How to break this perception arch that unites the ordinary view of reality? That ordinary vision that our routines help to establish is precisely what Castaneda called the attention of the tonal "or" the first ring of the attention. "
-" Breaking the arc perceptual no easy task, can take years. The difficulty with me - said with a laugh that I am very stubborn. A I was doing bad things. This is why, in my case, Don Juan had to use drugs ... and that's how I was ... With the liver in the ditch! In the line of not-doing is done to disrupt the routines and become aware, "said Castaneda.
Saying this he got up and started walking back as we remembered a technique that Don Juan had taught him: that of walking backward the help of a mirror. Castaneda continued to be facilitated by referring to the task devised a metal ( like a ring like a crown that is held head ) in which he had fixed the mirror. That way he could practice the exercise and have free hands. Other examples of techniques of non-doing would be to put the belt on backwards and wear shoes
changed. All these techniques are designed to make one aware of what is being done each time. "Disrupting routines he said, is how we give the body new sensations. The body knows ...". Next
Castaneda told us some of the games that young Toltec practice for hours. "Games are not doing," he said. Games where there are no rules but they are created as is played. "
appears that the absence of fixed rules, the players' behavior is not predictable and therefore all must be very careful." One of these games, "he continued," is to give false signals to the adversary. It is a game of pulling and pulling. "
He said to pull in that game are 3 people and it takes two poles and a rope. With the rope tied to one player and it hangs of the posts. The other two players must pull the ends of the rope and try to deceive giving false signals. Everyone must be very careful that when you pull, the other will too and the person that hangs not skewed .
techniques and games to develop non-care. You can say that they are exercises in concentration as it requires those who practice to be fully aware of what they do. Castaneda said that senescence would have been locked in the perfect circle of the routines.
- "One way to teach the Toltec Woman is put ourselves in situations. I think it's the best way because we find ourselves in situations that we are nothing. The other way is the self-esteem, personal pride. For this last road we are turned into detectives, always attentive to all that we can move on and offend. "Detectives? Yes!"
"We had looking for evidence of whether we want or do not like us. So focused on our ego will do anything to strengthen it. "
" According to the woman Tolteca, it is best to start by considering that no one wants. "Castaneda told us that Don Juan, personal pride resembles a monster 3,000 head.
- "One Abbe destroyed and other heads but always rise ... Is that one has all the tricks! He exclaimed. With the tricks we seem to believe that we are self deceiving someone. "
I remembered, then, the image of hunting down weaknesses" such as rabbits are collected from a trap, "which appears in his book." Yes, "he replied, must be constantly on the lookout. "Changing position, Castaneda began to ask the history of the last three years.
- "One of the main tasks was to cook in those cafeterias routes. La Gorda accompanied me this year as a waitress. More than a year there as we walked by Joe Cordoba and his wife! My full name was José Luis Córdoba , to serve, "he said bowing. But all I knew as Joe Cordova."
Castaneda told us the name or place of the city in which they lived. They may have been in several sites. It appears that he came first, the Gorda and Mrs. Toltec, who accompanied them for a while. The first was to find housing and work Joe Cordova, his Mrs and her mother. "That's how we present ourselves," said Castaneda, otherwise people would not have understood. "
For a long time looking for work, until at last they found him in a coffee shop map. "In this type of institution begins very early in the morning. At five have to be already working." Castaneda told us, laughing, that in those places first thing they ask you is: "Do you know how to make eggs?" What could that be to make eggs? It appears that he took some time to realize what they wanted to tell you, until finally it was discovered that the various ways of preparing eggs for breakfast. In restaurants or cafes for truckers, this "making eggs" is very important.
a year were working well. "Now you know" make eggs, "he said laughing, all that you want!". La Gorda also worked hard. It was so good waitress who ended up taking care of all the girls. After a year, when Mrs. Tolteca told them "that's enough, that ended with that task," the cafe owner did not want to let go. "The truth is that there work very hard. Much! From morning to night."
During that year had a significant meeting. This is the story of a girl named Terry, who came to the cafeteria where they were, asking for a job as a waitress. By then, Joe Cordova had won the confidence of the owner of the premises and was in charge of hiring and monitor all staff. As Terry said, she was looking to Carlos Castaneda. How could she know they were there? Castaneda did not know.
She told Castaneda, when Terry was not a good waitress. Over the months, however, changed, became clean and careful. "La Gorda gave much advice to Terry. We care a lot ... I never imagined with whom she spent all that time."
These last years have passed times of severe hardship during which they were abused and insulted. More than once he was going to say who he was, but ... "Who would have believed me," said In addition, she is the one that decides Toltec. " "That year, he went there were times when we were reduced to a minimum: we slept on the floor and ate a single thing."
Hearing this, we wanted to explain to us how to eat with. Castaneda told us that the Toltecs eat only one type of food at a time, but they do more often. "The Toltecs eat all day" - said casually.
(In this statement Castaneda can see the desire to break the image people have of the wizard or witch-beings with special powers who do not have the same needs of other mortals. Saying that "eat all day," Castaneda joined the rest of men.)
According to Castaneda, the mixture of food, for example, eating meat with potatoes and vegetables, is very unhealthy.
- "This mixture is very new in the life of mankind - he said."
"Eating only one food helps digestion and is better for the body."
"Once Don Juan accused me that I always felt bad. I defended you imagine! But then I realized he was right and I learned. Now I feel good, strong and healthy. "sleep mode also they have is different from most of us. It is important to realize that you can sleep in many ways. According to Castaneda, we have been taught to bed and waking up at a certain time because that is what society wants of us. "Thus, for example," said Castaneda, parents lie to children to get rid of them. "We all laughed because something reason was that.
"I sleep all day and all night," he continued, "but if I add the hours and minutes I did not sleep that reach more than five hours a day. "Sleeping in this way requires, by the person, the ability to go straight to sleep.
Sources:
Vico N. Graciela Corvalan
Magazine "esoteric" No. 2
0 comments:
Post a Comment