Commercial Fishing Boats For Sale

depth dialogue with Carlos Castaneda - I

Since the publication of "The Teachings of Don Juan", in the early seventies, Carlos Castaneda became a real myth. Much has been written about the existence of Don Juan, and considered every detail both the texts and the personal life of Castaneda, who, in turn, took care of that little is known of his identity was never found in public and kept his whereabouts. In writing his first book was a graduate student at UCLA (USA), attended regularly. In fact, one of his books, "Tales of Power", was his doctoral thesis. The teachings of Don Juan is found in the traditions of the indigenous people of Mexico and the American Southwest. And either way, the truth is that the text of Castaneda are entertaining and teaching that transmit is understandable, but often adorned with allegories and apocryphal stories. All of them have enjoyed widespread popularity with a broad spectrum of readers, and have been on the bestseller lists.

He emphasized that this conversation was published in a magazine in South America. Graciela says: "I interviewed in Los Angeles. It was very interesting, which I shared with three friends who accompanied me. Carlos Castaneda told us, with frankness and simplicity, their latest experiences. In my opinion, in the interview we were shown without masks or poses. This discussion clarifies and puts at some of the episodes referred to in his latest book, "The Eagle's Gift." I think the story of "Joe Cordova and his wife" appearance is not popularized by Carlos Castaneda and his group, which I think would be the summary or last step of the way or knowledge: the "touch down" and "being a nothing ". I ask you a few lines to let you know that the work is published in Mutantia . He had a lot of interest that was unveiled in a publication in English. I'm sure glad that enormously. "
For several months he had written ( two cards to be more precise ) when Carlos Castaneda called. His call took me completely by surprise. Castaneda spoke at length, without I asked him offered to give me information.
Castaneda was keen to meet and talk to me. He tried to make me understand that the task was doing was of great importance. "I am neither a guru nor a charlatan," he insisted doing reference to some critics and journalists. Castaneda is a researcher he was interested in talking about the ongoing work in Mexico and epistemological work. He said the European man can not conceive that there is someone who thinks there is no other description of reality than yours.
Being in Los Angeles, Carlos Castaneda called. Not finding him, left his post and the instructions on the time and meeting place: "Exit the Freeway in this street and turn right on this one. Go then four traffic lights. There is left Church of the Immaculate, turn right and you will find the campus of UCLA. Enter the "parking the" . As it is Sunday there will be anyone and you can enter without problems. Generally there are few people over the weekend. Then at 4 pm: next to the checkpoint. "
That night and next morning I worked feverishly in my notes. He had slept little but I was not tired. At one o'clock in the afternoon, my friends and I went toward the campus of UCLA. We had just over two hours away.
Castaneda Following the instructions, we arrived without difficulty at the gated entrance of the 'parking lot' of UCLA. There were still about 15 minutes to 4 pm .
At four o'clock, I looked up and saw them coming toward the car, my friend next to a dark lord and somewhat shorter than she. Castaneda was wearing a blue jacket open-necked pale cream color. I got off the car and joined them. After conventional greetings, I asked if I would use a tape recorder. In the car we had a case. "No, better not," he replied with a gesture of his shoulders, but we walked to the car to collect the notes, notebooks and books.
Loaded with books and papers, we are guided by Castaneda. He knew the way well. "That way," he said, pointing with his hand there are the prettiest bank. " Castaneda
From the beginning set the tone of the conversation and the issues that we would try. I also realized that it would not need all those questions so laboriously had prepared in advance. As I had anticipated phone, he wanted to talk about the work they were doing and the importance of their research.
The conversation was conducted in English, a language that is fluent and a great sense of humor. Castaneda is a master at the art of conversation. We talked for seven hours. Time passed without his enthusiasm and attention wane. All that afternoon
Castaneda tried to keep the conversation at a level that was not intellectual. Although undoubtedly read a lot and know the different currents of thought, at any time drew comparisons with other traditions of the past or present. "Education Toltec transmitted to us through material images that precisely because of that, they impede the interpretation is speculative. Thus Castaneda was not only completely loyal to their teachers but also the path it has chosen, he would not contaminate their teaching anything outside it. Shortly find
wanted to know the reasons for our interest in knowing. He already knew my potential projected book review and interview. Professionalism beyond all stress the importance of his books, that had so influenced us and many people. We had a deep interest in knowing the source of that teaching.
meantime, we already reached the banks and the shadow of the trees we sit.

- "Don Juan to me gave me everything," he began. When I met him he had no other interest in anthropology, but from that encounter changed. And this happened to me me not trade it for anything! "
Don Juan was present there with us. Every time I mentioned Castaneda recalled or perceived his emotion. Don Juan told us it was a totality of intensity can be fine all in every now. "Visitors all at all times is your first, your rule," he said. The Don Juan is so can not be explained and is rarely understood, "simply."

In " The second ring of power," Castaneda recalls a special feature of Don Juan and Don Genaro, from which all others lack: "None of us is willing to lend to other undivided attention, the way that Don Juan and Don Genaro did. " These words indicate that "be all" in every moment, to this presence that is Don Juan. Many times Castaneda has to refer to it as having "a gesture" that act totally free and be free.

" The second ring of power " had left me full of questions. The book interested me, especially after its second reading, but I had heard unfavorable comments. I myself had some doubts. He said that he believed "Journey to Ixtlan " was the one I had liked without knowing why. Castaneda listened and answered my words with a gesture that seemed to say: "And I, what I have to do with the taste of them all?" I was talking, looking for reasons and explanations. "Perhaps this preference is because in" Journey to Ixtlan "is perceived much love," I said. Castaneda frowned. The word love did not like. It is possible that the term has connotations for him romantic love , sentimentality or weakness . Trying to explain, I insisted that the last scene of "Journey to Ixtlan " is fraught with intensity. There Castaneda nodded. Yes, with the latter would agree. "Intensity, yes," he said, that's the word. "

insisting on the same book, I told him that some scenes I had been definitely grotesque. I was not justified. Castaneda agreed with me.
- "Yes, the behavior of these women is monstrous and grotesque, but that view was I needed to take action," he said. Castaneda needed the shock.
- "No enemy we are nothing," he continued. Being adversary is inherent in human way. Life is war, is fighting. Peace is an anomaly. " Referring to pacifism
called it a monstrosity because, he said, men "are beings of achievements and struggles."
Unable to restrain said he could not accept that qualify pacifism monstrosity.
- "And Gandhi, how do you see Gandhi, for example?"

- "Gandhi?" He said Gandhi is not a pacifist. Gandhi is one of the most formidable fighters who ever lived. And what a fighter! "

Castaneda realized then that gives special value to words. The pacifism to which he had referred could only be the pacifism of the weak, those who have no guts to be and do something else, that of one who does nothing because there is no energy goals in life in short, this self-indulgent and hedonistic pacifism.
With a sweeping gesture that would include an entire society and without values, will and energy, said:
- "All drugs ... Yes, hedonists! Castaneda
not say these concepts, and we'll ask. I understood that part of the warrior asceticism was released the human form but the unusual comments Castaneda had filled me with confusion. Gradually, however, I realized that that be "beings of achievements and struggles is a first level of the relationship. This is the raw material from which party. Don Juan in the books, always refers to the tonal good of a person. That learning begins and goes to another level. - "Can not go to the other side without losing the human way," said Castaneda.

Insisting on other aspects of his book that I had been clear, I asked about holes that fit people for the simple fact that he played.
- "Yes," said Castaneda. There are differences between people who have had children and those without. To tiptoe in front of the eagle is to be whole. A person with holes does not pass. "
The metaphor of the eagle explain to us later. For the moment passed almost unnoticed as the focus of our attention was on another topic.
- "How do you explain the attitude of Doña Soledad Pablito well as the Gorda with his daughters?" I asked earnestly. That's taking away the children that edge that we take them at birth was largely inconceivable to me. Castaneda
agreed that it is not yet well systematized that. He insisted, however, the differences between people who have played and those without.
- "Don Genaro is crazy!, Crazy! Don Juan, however, is a seriously crazy. Don Juan is slow but gets away. In the end, the two arrive ... I, like Don Juan I have holes, is say, I have to move on. The Genaros, however, have another model. Genaros, for example, have a special edge we do not. They are more nervous and running quickly ... They are very light, nothing stop them. Those who like the Gorda and I have had children, we have other characteristics that compensate for the loss. It is more sedate and although the road is long and arduous, also arrives. In general, those who have children know how to care for others. It does not mean that people without children do not know, but it's different ... In general one does not know what he does, it is unaware of the shares and then pay. I did not know what I did! He exclaimed, referring to his own personal life. At birth, my father and my mother removed them all, "he said. They were all bruised! To them I had to return that edge that had been removed. Now I have to regain the edge I lost. "
it seems that the holes to be closed has to do with biological atavism. We wanted to know if having holes is something irreparable.

- "No," he replied. You may be cured. Nothing in life is irrevocable. It is always possible to return what is not ours and recover what belongs to you. "

This idea of \u200b\u200brecovery is consistent with everything a "learning path" way in which not enough to know or to practice one or more technical but requires individual and profound transformation of self. It would be a whole system of life consistent with concrete and precise.

After a silence I asked if " The Second Ring of Power " had been published in English. According to a English publisher Castaneda was all right, but I was not sure if the book had come out or not. ( He was not very happy with the distribution of their books by the publisher of the first, "Fondo de Cultura Economica, Mexico " ).
"English translations were made by Juan Tovar, a friend of mine." Juan Tovar used the notes in English that it had provided Castaneda, notes that some critics have questioned.
The Portuguese translation seems to be very beautiful. "Yes," said Castaneda. This translation is based on the translation into French. It is very well done. "
the beginning of our conversation, Castaneda said something about" Toltec Teaching. "Also in" The Second Ring of Power "reiteration" Toltec "and" be a Toltec ".
-" What does being a Toltec ? "we asked.
According to Castaneda, Toltec word unit is a very broad meaning. It is said of someone who is a Toltec the same way you can say it is a Democrat or a philosopher. As he uses this word has nothing to do with its anthropological meaning.
( From the anthropological point of view, the palabraTolteca refers to a culture of central and southern India in Mexico which was already extinct at the time of the conquest and colonization of America. )

- "Toltec is one who knows the mysteries of stalking and sleep."

All are Toltecs. This is a small group that has kept alive a tradition of more than 3-000 years before JC
As I was working in the mystical thought and was particularly interested in establish the source and the origin of the different traditions, insisted:
- "Do you think then that the Toltec tradition offers an education that would own in America?"
Castaneda argued that it is possible that the people of America had brought some of Asia across the Bering Strait, but so many thousands of years of all that for now there are only theories.
In "Tales of Power " Don Juan speaking to Castaneda witches of "those men of knowledge" that the conquest and colonization of the white man could not destroy it nor knew of its existence and noted all incomprehensible in their world.
- "Who Toltec up the nation? Do they work together? Where do they do? "Castaneda
all our questions answered. He is now in charge of a group of young people living in the area of \u200b\u200bChiapas, southern Mexico. They all moved to the area because the lady who now will taught was located there.

"So ... Did you again? "" I felt compelled to ask, remembering the last conversation between Castaneda and the sisters at the end of " The Second Ring of Power .
-" Again you soon, as the Gorda asked him? "
- "No, I did not soon, but I came back I answered, laughing. I returned to carry out a task to which I can not quit. "
The group consists of about 14 members. While the core is 8 or 9 people, all are indispensable for the task being performed. If everyone is perfect enough, you can help a greater number of beings,

"Eight is a magic number," he said at some point. He also insisted that the Toltec not only saved but goes to the core. The others remain and are essential to continue and keep the tradition alive. It is not necessary that the group is large, but each of which is involved in the task is definitely necessary for the whole.

- "La Gorda and I are responsible for the close. Well, really I am responsible but she helps me closely in this task," said Castaneda.
We spoke after the group members knew from their 1ibros. He told us that Don Juan was Indian Yaqui, Sonora. Pablito, however, was Indian Mixteco, and Nestor was Mazatec ( of Mazatlan, Sinaloa province ). Benigno was Zotsil ( Sotzil ). He stressed several times that Josephine was not India but was Mexican and that one of his grandparents was of French origin. La Gorda, as Nestor and Don Genaro was Mazateca. "When I met the woman Gorda was a huge, heavy and all beaten by life None of those who met today can imagine that now is the same as before." ;
We wanted to know what language it was communicating with everybody in the group, and what was the language generally used between them. I reminded him that his books contain references to some Indian languages.
- "We communicate in English because the language we all speak. Moreover, neither Joseph nor Mrs. Tolteca are Indian. I just speak a language little india. Phrases, such as greetings and some other expression. I know I can hold a conversation. "Taking a break yours
asked if the task they are doing is open to all men or if it is something for the few.
As our questions sought to discover the relevance of the "Teaching Tolteca" and the value of the group's experience for the rest of humanity, Castaneda explained that each group member has specific tasks to perform, whether in the area of \u200b\u200bYucatan, in other areas Mexico or elsewhere.
- "Performing tasks, one discovers a lot of things that are directly applicable to concrete situations of daily life. Learn a lot by doing chores. The Genaros, for example, have a band with that cover all parts of the border. You can imagine that they see and are in contact with many people. Always have the potential to transmit knowledge. Always help. It will help with a word, with a little hint ... Each one, faithfully fulfilling its task, it does.

All people can learn. Everyone has the opportunity to live as warriors. Any person can undertake the task of the warrior. The only requirement is a desire to do so with an unshakeable desire, that is, one must be steadfast in the desire to be free.

The road is not easy. We constantly look for excuses and try to escape. It is possible for the mind I do that, but the body feels all ... The body learns quickly and easily. The Toltec can not spend energy on nonsense, "he continued. I was one of those people who can not be without friends ... Neither the film could go alone! "

Don Juan at one point told him to drop everything and, in particular, separated from all those friends with whom I had nothing in common. long resisted the idea until it was finally wrapping.
- "Once, returning to Los Angeles, got off the car a block before coming home and telephoned. Of course that day, like everyone, my house was full of people, I attended one of my friends whom I asked to prepare a bag with some things and brought me to where I was. I also told him that the other things, books, records, etc.: They could be divided between them. Of course my friends did not believe me and took all things on loan, "said Castaneda.
This act of getting rid of the library is like cutting discs with all the past, a world of ideas and emotions.
- "My friends thought I was crazy and waited to return to my madness. I did not see as in twelve years ... Yes, for about twelve years, "he said.
After those twelve years, Castaneda was able to meet with them again. He looked first at one of his friends who brought him into contact with others. plan after an outing in which they were together for dinner . That day I had a great time. ate a lot and his friends got drunk.
- "to meet them after all these years was my way of thanking the friendship that I had provided earlier. Now everyone is older. Have families, wives, children ...

was necessary, however, I thank them. Only then could I finish with them once and close a stage in my life. "

may Castaneda's friends do not understand and can share anything of what he is doing, but the fact that he wanted and could thank it was very nice. Castaneda was not angry with they did not intend anything from them. He thanked them sincerely for your friendship and in so doing, broke inside of all that happened.

speak then of love, "the much-vaunted love." He told us several anecdotes of his Italian grandfather, "always so amorous, and his father" as Bohemia. "Oh! L'amore! L'amore! "." Repeated several times. All comments tended to destroy the ideas commonly have about love.
- "It took me a lot to learn, he continued. I was also very amorous ... A Don Juan, struggled to make myself understood to be cut with certain relationships. The way it was finally cut to the next. I invited her to dinner and we are in a restaurant. During dinner I ever went wrong. There was a big fight and she screamed and cursed. Finally I asked him if he had money. I said yes. I took to say he had to go to the car find my wallet or something. I got up and never returned. Before leaving I wanted to make sure I had enough money to take a taxi and go home. Since then I have not seen since. I'm not going to believe you, but the Toltec very ascetic, "he said.
No doubt his word I said that this idea did not follow from" The second ring.
- "On the contrary, "I emphasized. I think in his book many scenes and attitudes are confusing.
- "How do you think I would say that clearly? "I answered. He could not say that relations between them were pure because not just anybody would have believed me but nobody would understand me. "

After listening to Castaneda, we are convinced that The Toltec sex is a huge expenditure of energy you need for any job. We then understand your insistence on totally ascetic relations between the members of the group.

- "From the point of view of the world, leads the group life and their relations is totally unacceptable and outrageous. What would I tell them not credible. It took me a long time but I could understand finally prove. "
Castaneda had told us earlier that when a person loses a reproduced edge special. It seems that this edge is a force that the children taken from parents simply by birth. This gap that the person is left is to be filled or recovered. We need to regain the strength that has been lost. We also gave to understand that long-term sexual relationship of a couple ends for wear. In an emerging relationship differences that make these are being gradually rejecting certain characteristics of one or the other. Consequently, for the reproduction of the other party chooses what one likes, but there is no guarantee that what you choose is necessarily better. "From the standpoint of reproduction," he said, it is best at randum . " Castaneda strove to better explain these concepts, but again had to admit they are issues he it is not yet clear.

Castaneda came

describing a group whose demands for the common people, were extreme. We were very interested in knowing where it led that effort.
- "What is the sole objective of Toltec ?" We wanted to know the meaning of all that Castaneda was saying.
- "What is the objective that you sought?" -Insist bringing the question to a personal level.
- "The goal is to get out of the living world, get away with all one's but with nothing more than what one is. The point is not to take anything or leave anything. Don Juan was left enterito - alive! the world. Don Juan does not die because the Toltec not die ".
( In" The Second Ring of Power ", the Gorda Castaneda instructs him about the dichotomy of" nagual-tonal. " The domain of the second attention "is only achieved after the Warriors swept clean the surface of the table ... this second focus attention makes the two form a unit and this unit is the totality of oneself." The same book, Castaneda tells Gorda: "When witches learn to" dream ", her two attention and tie, then there is no need to push out the center ... Sorcerers not die ... Not that we do not die. We are nothing, we Badulaques (fools) are neither here nor there. They, in turn, have their attention so closely that may never die. )
According to Castaneda, the idea that we are free is an illusion and an absurdity. He strove to make us understand that common sense deceives us because ordinary perception tells us only part of the truth.
- "Ordinary perception does not tell the whole truth. There must be something more than just time on earth, that only eat and reproduce," he said vehemently. And with a gesture interpreted as referring to no sense of everything and the immense tedium of everyday life in his boredom, he asked: - "What is all this around us?"
Common sense would be that we have reached agreement after a long educational process that requires us ordinary perception as the only truth.

- "Indeed, the art of the witch," he said is to bring the learner to discover and destroy the perceptual bias. "

According to Castaneda, Edmund Husserl is the first in the West to conceive the possibility of "suspending the trial." The phenomenological method does not deny but simply "put in brackets" those elements that underpin our perception ordinary.
Castaneda believes that phenomenology offers the theoretical and methodological framework more useful to understand the teaching of Don Juan. For phenomenology the act of knowledge depends on the intention and not the perception. Always perception varies according to a story that is, depending on the subject with knowledge acquired and immersed in a particular tradition. The most important rule of the phenomenological method is that of "to the things themselves."
- "The task that Don Juan made me, he insisted, was gradually breaking perceptual bias up to the total breakdown." Phenomenology
suspended the trial and limited the description of the pure intentional.
- "So, for example, the object house I built. The phenomenological relation is minimal. The intent is what transforms the reference into something concrete and singular."

Sources:

"substantive dialogue with Carlos Castaneda"
in PDF (1980-1981)

Graciela N. Vico Corvalán

Magazine "esoteric" No. 1