10-25-2011, 12:01 AM
"Self-importance
is our greatest enemy. Think about it. What weakens us is feeling
offended by the deeds and misdeeds of our fellow men. Our
self-importance requires that we spend most of our lives offended by
someone.
"The new seers recommended that every effort should be
made to eradicate self-importance from the lives of warriors. I have
followed that recommendation, and much of my endeavors with you has been
geared to show you that without self-importance we are invulnerable."
...He
said that seers, old and new, are divided into two categories. The
first one is made up of those who are willing to exercise self-restraint
and can channel their activities toward pragmatic goals which would
benefit other seers and man in general. The other category consists of
those who don't care about self-re-straint or about any pragmatic goals.
It is the consensus among seers that the latter have failed to resolve
the problem of self-importance.
"Self-importance is not something
simple and naive," he explained. "On the one hand, it is the core of
everything that is good in us; and on the other hand, the core of
everything that is rotten. To get rid of the self-importance that is
rotten requires a masterpiece of strategy. Seers through the ages have
given the highest praise to those who have accomplished it."
I
complained that the idea of eradicating self-importance, although very
appealing to me at times, was really incomprehensible. I told him that I
found his directives for getting rid of it so vague I could not follow
them.
"I've said to you many times," he said, "that in order to
follow the path of knowledge, one has to be very imaginative. You see,
in the path of knowledge nothing is as clear as we'd like it to be."
"Warriors
fight self-importance as a matter of strategy, not principle," he
replied. "Your mistake is to understand what I say in terms of
morality."
"I see you as a highly moral man, don Juan," I insisted.
"You've noticed my impeccability, that's all," he said.
"Impeccability, as well as getting rid of self-importance, is too vague a concept to be of any value to me," I remarked.
Don Juan choked with laughter, and I challenged him to explain impeccability.
"Impeccability
is nothing else but the proper use of energy," he said. "My statements
have no inkling of morality. I've saved energy and that makes me
impeccable. To understand this, you have to save enough energy
yourself."
We were quiet for a long time. I wanted to think about what he had said. Suddenly, he started talking again.
"Warriors
take strategic inventories," he said. "They list everything they do.
Then they decide which of those things can be changed in order to allow
themselves a respite in terms of expending their energy."
MY COMMENT:
As
I read The Fire From Within I am realizing that everything don Juan
stated which I cannot personally verify I judge by the standards of how
interesting it is, not by whether or not it is true. As with all
mythologies, I feel the stories that carry the important lessons must be
interesting. That is more important than for the stories to be true. I
find the stories about the ancient Toltec seers to be very interesting.
Is it true? I don't know, but I do know it is interesting and the
narratives that lead to the importantly true knowledge that don Juan
shares are interesting, compelling and very well written.
These
lessons about self-importance are tremendously important to those who
truly want to better themselves. It stands to reason that they mean
nothing to those who care nothing about bettering themselves; and that
pretty much sums up the ways of the CC skeptics. They care nothing about
bettering themselves. They are always trying to find fault. It is the
fault finders in life that make life a miserable experience. They are
always looking for things to complain about. I consider such people to
be losers and only fools consistently associate with losers.
I am
determined to MAKE the best of don Juan's teachings, and those of
others, work to better my life. While you losers continue to nit pick I
will continue to become stronger and to advance. We'll see who has the
last laugh.
As far as laughter is concerned, one of the MAIN THINGS that still inspires me about don Juan was his ability to laugh at things that would make me frustrated. I've done my best to emulate don Juan in this and have had tremendous success! I am now much, much better at laughing at things that used to frustrate me and I also have greater control over my self-importance. Interesting to see the correlation between the two. It is logical to conclude that the less self-importance one has the easier it becomes to laugh at the frustrations and ironies of life.
I've also validated the don Juan concept of saving energy through impeccable thoughts, words, actions and reactions to life. Living an un-impeccable life is like continually driving through life in a car with tires that have slow leaks. It's difficult to get anywhere when your tires are continually going flat because they have slow leaks. You always have to expend extra energy refilling them. Life, at its best, is not this way. The true warrior does his best to fix all the slow leaks in his life through increasingly impeccable living. The more energy a warrior saves the more he can do and the Universe respects a warrior who truly respects himself.
The sloppy-minded, self-important weaklings who are always finding fault should never expect any great things from the Sentient Universe. Don Juan was indeed correct in that the Universe is Sentient, Conscious and Aware. I never remember him directly stating this, but it was always implied. That is why he lived his life directed by agreements from the world and by omens. These are the continual reminders that the Universe is indeed Sentient, Conscious and Aware.
is our greatest enemy. Think about it. What weakens us is feeling
offended by the deeds and misdeeds of our fellow men. Our
self-importance requires that we spend most of our lives offended by
someone.
"The new seers recommended that every effort should be
made to eradicate self-importance from the lives of warriors. I have
followed that recommendation, and much of my endeavors with you has been
geared to show you that without self-importance we are invulnerable."
...He
said that seers, old and new, are divided into two categories. The
first one is made up of those who are willing to exercise self-restraint
and can channel their activities toward pragmatic goals which would
benefit other seers and man in general. The other category consists of
those who don't care about self-re-straint or about any pragmatic goals.
It is the consensus among seers that the latter have failed to resolve
the problem of self-importance.
"Self-importance is not something
simple and naive," he explained. "On the one hand, it is the core of
everything that is good in us; and on the other hand, the core of
everything that is rotten. To get rid of the self-importance that is
rotten requires a masterpiece of strategy. Seers through the ages have
given the highest praise to those who have accomplished it."
I
complained that the idea of eradicating self-importance, although very
appealing to me at times, was really incomprehensible. I told him that I
found his directives for getting rid of it so vague I could not follow
them.
"I've said to you many times," he said, "that in order to
follow the path of knowledge, one has to be very imaginative. You see,
in the path of knowledge nothing is as clear as we'd like it to be."
"Warriors
fight self-importance as a matter of strategy, not principle," he
replied. "Your mistake is to understand what I say in terms of
morality."
"I see you as a highly moral man, don Juan," I insisted.
"You've noticed my impeccability, that's all," he said.
"Impeccability, as well as getting rid of self-importance, is too vague a concept to be of any value to me," I remarked.
Don Juan choked with laughter, and I challenged him to explain impeccability.
"Impeccability
is nothing else but the proper use of energy," he said. "My statements
have no inkling of morality. I've saved energy and that makes me
impeccable. To understand this, you have to save enough energy
yourself."
We were quiet for a long time. I wanted to think about what he had said. Suddenly, he started talking again.
"Warriors
take strategic inventories," he said. "They list everything they do.
Then they decide which of those things can be changed in order to allow
themselves a respite in terms of expending their energy."
MY COMMENT:
As
I read The Fire From Within I am realizing that everything don Juan
stated which I cannot personally verify I judge by the standards of how
interesting it is, not by whether or not it is true. As with all
mythologies, I feel the stories that carry the important lessons must be
interesting. That is more important than for the stories to be true. I
find the stories about the ancient Toltec seers to be very interesting.
Is it true? I don't know, but I do know it is interesting and the
narratives that lead to the importantly true knowledge that don Juan
shares are interesting, compelling and very well written.
These
lessons about self-importance are tremendously important to those who
truly want to better themselves. It stands to reason that they mean
nothing to those who care nothing about bettering themselves; and that
pretty much sums up the ways of the CC skeptics. They care nothing about
bettering themselves. They are always trying to find fault. It is the
fault finders in life that make life a miserable experience. They are
always looking for things to complain about. I consider such people to
be losers and only fools consistently associate with losers.
I am
determined to MAKE the best of don Juan's teachings, and those of
others, work to better my life. While you losers continue to nit pick I
will continue to become stronger and to advance. We'll see who has the
last laugh.
As far as laughter is concerned, one of the MAIN THINGS that still inspires me about don Juan was his ability to laugh at things that would make me frustrated. I've done my best to emulate don Juan in this and have had tremendous success! I am now much, much better at laughing at things that used to frustrate me and I also have greater control over my self-importance. Interesting to see the correlation between the two. It is logical to conclude that the less self-importance one has the easier it becomes to laugh at the frustrations and ironies of life.
I've also validated the don Juan concept of saving energy through impeccable thoughts, words, actions and reactions to life. Living an un-impeccable life is like continually driving through life in a car with tires that have slow leaks. It's difficult to get anywhere when your tires are continually going flat because they have slow leaks. You always have to expend extra energy refilling them. Life, at its best, is not this way. The true warrior does his best to fix all the slow leaks in his life through increasingly impeccable living. The more energy a warrior saves the more he can do and the Universe respects a warrior who truly respects himself.
The sloppy-minded, self-important weaklings who are always finding fault should never expect any great things from the Sentient Universe. Don Juan was indeed correct in that the Universe is Sentient, Conscious and Aware. I never remember him directly stating this, but it was always implied. That is why he lived his life directed by agreements from the world and by omens. These are the continual reminders that the Universe is indeed Sentient, Conscious and Aware.