07-26-2006, 12:00 AM
I hear that!
We oldsters had the library for company and not much else.
As for seeing the underlying truth of things I'm at a crossroad where I see everything as folly, yet there are remnants of me that so want things to have more meaning than they do. And my second attention is becoming so pervasive at any given moment that I find myself unable to really get serious about anything. On the plus side it's a great stress reducer and I've done some clearcutting on the deadwood in my life ...mostly leech-type people who I used to call 'friends', but also old habits and concerns that used to demand my attention like no other...
But now I'm left with a melancholy that DJ said is common to sorcerers. All the things I used to attach importance to have changed. And I realize now that there are so few things that really matter that the excitement factor in this world of endless folly is really narrowed down for me..maybe I was an adrenaline addict...I don't know. But the only things that matter to me anymore are my kids souls and the souls of the precious few people who I've met who have also tapped into the underlying meaning of things. It always brings me back to those lines in Journey of Ixtlan:
Quote:"Everyone Genaro finds on his way to Ixtlan is only an ephemeral being," don Juan explained. "Take you, for instance. You are a phantom. Your feelings and your eagerness are those of people. That's why he says that he encoutners only phantom travelers on his journey to Ixtlan."
I suddenly realized that don Genaro's journey was a metaphor.
"Your journey to Ixtlan is not real then", I said.
"It is real!"don Genaro interjected. "the travelers are not real."
He pointed to don Juan with a nod of his head and said emphatically, "This is the only one who is real. The world is real only when I am with this one."
Don Juan smiled.
It's not that people who are embroiled in folly aren't real...they are real bubbles of awareness. It's just that in order to take them seriously, a warrior has to relate to their eagerness to bleed out their energy in endless concern about the mirage that is folly. Once you notice that a mirage is a mirage, you no longer seek to drink at the well of sand. And when you see people all around you drinking sand and calling it water, you begin to see their madness...and your old madness that you've realized as folly. To hang around crazy people who are fixated to a kaliedescope of endless madness, is madness itself. So as a warrior who sees, you are left with a choice: the company of the insane, or the company of the sane. And since there are so few people who actually get it, loneliness becomes a warrior's unavoidable lot.And now: back to your regularly scheduled (de)programming...
We oldsters had the library for company and not much else.
As for seeing the underlying truth of things I'm at a crossroad where I see everything as folly, yet there are remnants of me that so want things to have more meaning than they do. And my second attention is becoming so pervasive at any given moment that I find myself unable to really get serious about anything. On the plus side it's a great stress reducer and I've done some clearcutting on the deadwood in my life ...mostly leech-type people who I used to call 'friends', but also old habits and concerns that used to demand my attention like no other...
But now I'm left with a melancholy that DJ said is common to sorcerers. All the things I used to attach importance to have changed. And I realize now that there are so few things that really matter that the excitement factor in this world of endless folly is really narrowed down for me..maybe I was an adrenaline addict...I don't know. But the only things that matter to me anymore are my kids souls and the souls of the precious few people who I've met who have also tapped into the underlying meaning of things. It always brings me back to those lines in Journey of Ixtlan:
Quote:"Everyone Genaro finds on his way to Ixtlan is only an ephemeral being," don Juan explained. "Take you, for instance. You are a phantom. Your feelings and your eagerness are those of people. That's why he says that he encoutners only phantom travelers on his journey to Ixtlan."
I suddenly realized that don Genaro's journey was a metaphor.
"Your journey to Ixtlan is not real then", I said.
"It is real!"don Genaro interjected. "the travelers are not real."
He pointed to don Juan with a nod of his head and said emphatically, "This is the only one who is real. The world is real only when I am with this one."
Don Juan smiled.
It's not that people who are embroiled in folly aren't real...they are real bubbles of awareness. It's just that in order to take them seriously, a warrior has to relate to their eagerness to bleed out their energy in endless concern about the mirage that is folly. Once you notice that a mirage is a mirage, you no longer seek to drink at the well of sand. And when you see people all around you drinking sand and calling it water, you begin to see their madness...and your old madness that you've realized as folly. To hang around crazy people who are fixated to a kaliedescope of endless madness, is madness itself. So as a warrior who sees, you are left with a choice: the company of the insane, or the company of the sane. And since there are so few people who actually get it, loneliness becomes a warrior's unavoidable lot.And now: back to your regularly scheduled (de)programming...